The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-12-05
WIDOWS.
What WfdOwhOOd Does for WO-
mem-The WOman1y Widow
The MASCULINE Widow.

If marriage tests the character of the
woman, widowhood, says an English
writer, defines it still more completely.
Que has thought of venturing to remon-
strate with ones friend in his lifetime on
the rumors of misunderstanding be-
tween himself and his wife. The wife
has appeared all that is charming, and
the rumors, therefore, have been all that
is unintelligible. But when the hus-
band has departed and the widow re-
mains, the incomprehensible becomes
the comprehensive. The self-asserting
mien, The tricks of uncharitable insinua-
ton and malignant mischief-making,
which were imperceptible to the friend of
the family in the wife, are only too ap
parent In the widow. One understands
it all now, and when the forIorn relict
speaks of her departed husband as a
saint and martyr, one is disposed to
think that the latter, at least, he must
assuredly have been. There are few
broad and easily recognizable types of
the class of widows. The womanly
widow is an exaggeration of all that is
sweet and tender and helpless in woman
uOOu luO LudbCutAnC VI oil Gnbb 10 Sell
sufficient and aggressive in manhood.
The womanly widow is not unlike the
ordinary governess, who, when addressed
in conversation, invariably appears for a
moment as if she was about to burst into
tears. But the gathering dew drops van
ish before the sunshine of the pleasing,
trustful smile the natty little cap sits
to perfection on the brown, wavy hair
and, in the course of twenty min
utes, you are in possession of all
that concerns the past or future of
your fair interlocutrix. She has obtain
ed your views on every variety of sub
iect, from that of the stock in which
you would advise her to invest some of
her small fortune to that of an ecoDomi-
cal German country town, in which, for
time, she may conceal herself; or of
good private school, to which she can
send her eldest boy. You feel that,
throughout this little consultation, the
lady is fgurately leaning on your
shoulder; she talks about her heart-strings
being wrung, and she at once conveys
to you the impression that she is a natu-
raj ivy plant. She does not know what
it is to be alone, or to make exertions on
II
ing, smiling, plump, picturesque heI99 liz.
ness in black Grape and white lawn, with
prettiest little hands and = s. neatest,
most daintily shod little fee > the world,
her tiny embroidered MOI S1r scented
with the odors waited 1r$1 Paradise,
and suggesting altogether study of the
luxury of woes on a reduced scale. But
because she is helpless, she is not necssa-
rily artless; and grateful as she is for
your advice, it would not be surprising
if she were to read the money article
carefully, or to stIeak seriously to her
brother, before She makes the particular
investment which you have advised.
Of the masculine widow it may gener-
ally be said that it is her mission to pre-
sent bereavement In its least attractive
form, grief in a form so grim that it re-
pels the sympathy which was in store
for it, and narrowness of worldly cir
cumstances III the shape which is of all
others, austere and unpoetical. Clad
in the garb of woe, despising any of the
prettiness of costume which are permitted
to the deepest grief, she enters your
house, a veritable Ishmael in black
petticoals. She has now to make
her own way in the world, no one to
trust to except herself, and she intends
to leave no chance unturned. If
you had expected to see signing, grief
oppressed, supplicating creature, you are
mistaken. This is no weak widow who
insists on seeing you whenever she has a
question to ask or suit to make; it is
rather a sort of female highwayman, who
marches into your private sanctum, and
calls upon you to stand aud deliver, or
who so establishes herself in your house
hold that she gradually begins to acquire
vested interest in its rights, and
voice which will not be silenced in its
management. There is no insolence-
and indeed there is sometimes no ex-
travagance-iike that of poverty, and
when the combination of strong minded
widoWhood and impecuniosity is met
with, one has not, to say the least of it,
soil uncongenial to the growth of SEN
sitive plants Manageable daughters
are also known to inspire widows with
something of the same audacity as the
mere defencelessness of their position
The soft. yielding, languid mother,
whose drawing room is in the month of
June bower of roses, and who is her
ck<-A w O1.iOSs u mart 44OAabA
is possessed of skill and perseverance,
an amount of patience and a capacity for
work which are absolutely astounding
when there is daughter to be got off
Herein, it may be thought. there is moth
ing peculiar to the maternity of woman
hood, and indeed, what is chiefly or only
noticeable is the candor displayed in the
vicarious hunt after an eligible husband.
But all is permitted to the mother who
lives solely for her daughter. The vir-
tue of self-sacri6ce is its own reward, and
perhaps wid0whood has never SO many
consultations to offer as when to the vague
crown of martyrdom, which a generally
received idea that .smy poor, dear hus-
hand' was on the whole rather q brute
constitutes, is added q WelLselected
band of cavaliers, who may make love
to the daughter or fiirt with the mother
according to their own knightly will.
The best way to keep out wicked
thoughts is always TO be employed in
some good ones. Let your thoughts be