The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1875-04-28
Old WatsI~.

association in London the other night
demonstrates that they are not. In com
mencing her lecture, Mrs. Grey remarke,
! that an honorable member in q speech Il
! Parliament, called old maids ''socia
failures. \ reverend gentleman VIII.
took the chair IN meeting for promotin.
/ the higher education Of women. i'm speak
ing OF the half million of women who ar,
IN excess of that number or men in thi.
country, and can therefore not be paired
sal women We're by that half million su-
perhuouS. In one Of Miss Austin.
charming novels, Emma, being told that
she will be an "old maid, says, Never
mind, Harriet; | shall not be a poor old
maid. The unmarried lady of good for
tune Is single woman, and only the poor
one Is an old maid There Is another
definition, that OF 81. Paul "The un-
married woman careth for the things OF
/ the Lord that she may be holy in body
and in spirit; bat she that is married
careth for the things of the world, how
she may please her husband As to the
difficult question OF age. Ills Majesty
Is Is OH a. people Ia general, was said
by a cautious attendant of Louis NV.
Others would answer with a character in
Racine's Plaideurs, and estimate sixty as
the prime of life. Mr.. Buckle said a
woman reached her prime between thirty.
five and forty, for, though her beauty
had then lost the charm OF youth, ii had
acquired that of expression.
We might content ourselves with Law
ing down the rule that as soon as youth
ful manners and youthful amusements
become ridiculous, the woman who affects
them is an old maid. TO consider the
definitions in their order, in what sense
is the old maid social failure She has
failed OF matrlmony. 1t is understood in
young ladies schools thatitisa young lady's
duty to get well married. Ii she succeeds,
she takes, for three months nj least, the
first place in every society. If she fail
it is rae Uictis. Mrs. Oliphant describes
a woman whose youth is gone, and who
is still obliged to think of marrying rs IL
provision, and who goes into society as
laborous trade and yet cannot stoop low |
enough, who looks with envy at the wild /
Ow clothed in the dignity OF great sor-
row. To old maids OF this class the stig- |
ma does not apply. They have failed. |
Passing to the ",uperAuou," theory, it
involves the uselessness Of 500 900 hui
man beings, 500, 600 pairs of human
hands, 5OO, 900 human minds and hearts
One recollects the massacre Of st Ursule
and II, 900 virgins at Cologne, and asks
oneself whether their murderers were
mbued with some such theory Of the inu
.ilily Of single women.
The same disregard for female exis-
.ence, except rs it ministers to male uses,
ay at the root Of the ancient practice of
In Scinde, when a female
,hild was born to one of the Princes it
vas brought to him in Durbar, and if he
hid not approve of it, it was put under
he cushion upon which he sat, and ex-
by the gentle pressure Of his
,arternal weight. But were unmarried
woman superhuous In our own country
llone they gave us in literature, Miss {
Austin, Miss Edgeworth, Joanna Baltic,
Harriet Martineau, Frances Power Cobbe
Vas Elizabeth Barrett supertluous TIL
he became Mrs Browning? In science,
vas Miss Herschell supcrfluous, whose /
abors were invaluable to her father and
rother Was the devoted sister of the
'oet Wadsworth supcrfluous? In phi
could they count as too many
florence Nightingale, Lady Burdett !
QUITS, Mary Carpenter, Octayia Hill, ]
nd the great sistelnood of nurses of
very denomination, under every garb. !
'ould we spare Miss Davies and Miss Buss J
4 education. q
As to the third view, that expressed by I
Iiss Austen's heroine, no wonder if W.. q
len who, when their home was broken u
p by death, first learnt the worth OF +
loney, because soured by cares and dis
ppointment, and were not all like Miss h
ates, described by the same writer, who, Il
Rough tiresome, chatterlng, Irrelevant {
lcoherent, with little sense and no beau !
r, single and poor, ''was very much to b
lie taste OF everybody" Yes, she won j
lie world by loving -heartedness, boate +
is not more than moral goodness, it is !
le goodness which difiuses itself outward n
and sociallv--b bounty. La boHte est Z
coq,tetterje des relies fentme5, and a
srhaps it is the want Of it that makes a
d bachelors less amiable and less useful, n
lthout being more ornamental than old =
aids No doubt marriage was the ?
CHEST form of life both for men and wo- J.
en-, but there are old maids from choice, a
no, with a genius for friendship, have u
ever experienced love, and of these she =
peated the words Of the apostle. Though =
sacrament, marriage came to be looked %
in its lower aspect as "A concession to ol
imam frailty, instead Of, as the highest u
rm of companionshIp. oI
The type Of womanhood was taken, &c
It from the women who followed their ia
aster to the foot Of the cross but from "
We, tempted by the serpent, and in her b
IN tempting the man TO forbidden ~
nit; and in medieval pictufes the ser u
mt is represented with the face OF Il /
autiful woman. Professionalism had .
habiiitated marriage, but not woman ;
the same degree, and she was now =
lked upon az inferior and ministering y
man, and not as an equal being, with NJ
ual rights Of free development. The u
inquest Of higher position in public d
timation must be made by our single u
)meD, who, not being bound like mar
ID women, to care for the things which ~
ease their husbands, may claim the u
,ht to devote themselves to the things 81
the Lord, the cultivation of whatever Il
Guilty He has given them in perfection. Sc
ley need not be social opportunities /; pl
ID many of them are, indeed ,necessaries,
though often, ike other necessaries fe
life, thanklessly used till their loss az
aches us their value true followers as p'
ey are Of Him who came not to be 2
Mustered unto, but to minister -
-%s -~-,~-- &c
The Elections This Year. al