The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1874-06-12
UNMARRIED LADIES.
A Talk with and About them-A vi
tai Topic.
ny MARY A. e. WAGER.

the society in which she moves usu-
ally takes her "to do" about it, as il
the chief end, object and aim of a
woman is to get married, and that II
she fails to do so there can be but
two reasons why she does not, one
being that she has had no opportu-
nifty, and the other that she has been
disappointed in love"--a lover hav-
ing died or having married some
body else.
! Every observing and intelligent
person knows that the number Of
women who remain unmarried from
lack of an softer" is comparatively
few. Indeed, unless his observation
| has been more extended than mine,
he knows Of none. Thousands Of
women are unmarried to-day because
they are not willing to accept such
men for husbands as other women
we're quite willing to, and did, accept
neither are the majority summarized
women, living single, tombstones to
| dead lovers or living married ones.
| A few live unmarried from choice
and would not marry for "any con-
sideration." These are mostly pro-
| fessional women, whose ambition to
excel in their chosen vocation is para
mount all other possibilities. Some
remain single from pure selfichness,
others because of dread of what mat
rimony comprehends, and others from
a variety Of reasons. But while
many remain unmarried, hundreds
marry from fashionable .Gigbt--not
that they desire from their hearts so
to do, but because they lack IN 40
manly strength and in high moral
courage, and because they fancy that
marriage will cut the knot of their
troubles, which usually consist of
worry about the future, what they
will do, what will become Of them,
and what will they become if they
don't marry.
have faith in men; | believe in
marriage; but if there is an indi-
vidual on the earth that | especially
honor, it is that man or woman whose
soul is SO welded to honor, truth,
purity, to sweet, blessed dream Of
marriage, that the promise Of any
reality short ofthat, Of what marriage
ought to be, has no temptation what
ever for them.
Women have forever been slaves
more to custom than to 9sman's tyr.
amy" Men aid and abet in per-
petuating this slavery. Fathers rest
easier on their death beds if their
daughters are all married. There is
such responsibility lifted off the
father, or brother, or the nearest pro-
tecting kin, when the daughter or
sister is finally married, transferred
to the personal property Of another
man. So the state Of society has
been such for many years Il am glad
to record that it has greatly improved
in the last few) that girl choosing
to remain unmarried beyond % years
Of age, has been q martyr to the most
i'll ,mannered, as well as vexing cate
chism, viz why don't you get
mawied ~ "You'Il be ap old maid
before you know it, what then 90---
II hope you don't intend to allow
yourself to be an old maid You're
too good looking for that - And If
the girl has allowed herself to be
come an old maid, some grandfather
thinks it "a great PITY Foolish and
thoughtless as such talk is, it has
nevertheless power that sends moro
women into weJlock than love, in
| its best sense, draws in.
In the first place it is just as res
pectable to be maid as to be wife.
II is vastly more respectable to be a
happy maid than a mis- married wife.
AS The bachelor said, at is much
better to be laughed at because you
| are not married, than to be unable to
laugh because you are" Two days
reading of the current newspapers
will convince the most skeptical that
ITO be married is not alwrys to be
happy by a great ways. Divorces
| speak language that cannot be
gainsayed. And the number Of peo-
pie who ought 10 be divorced, be-
cause man joined those together
whom God from the beginning to
the end Of eternity, never meant to
put together, but put them ''asunder"
| as is the East from the West, isover-
whelmingly large.
It is q terrible mistake for any
body to make, to think that no wo-
mans life is "success" outside the
pale Of wife-hood. 1t is not what q
woman is to one individual, but
what she is to society, or the world,
that constitutes her largest and best
value, her true success.
There is but one thing that should
ever put q wedding ring on wo-
mans finger, and that Is love.
Never marry man, my sister,
because be Is "nice," or because he
is 90 good, so moral, so high-toned,
such q good christian, and all the
other desirable things that are COM
monty supposed to make man Iowa
bic, aud which is accounted $50
strange if q woman don't love him I;
don't marry q man because he viii
/ 0;va vou ;ndenendanea from vour