The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1879-07-03
Old Maids.

| Ny uODOOY OF gOOO-Dreedlng, or with
any self-respect, the words have, never
theless, come to stand as a reproachful
title for a large class of women who
shrink from all reproach-a class
to whom the whole of humanity
are under indebte dness as faithful elder
sisters and devoted aunts and self-for-
getful drudges, as nurses, as servants, as
watchers with the sick, as those who
lay out the dead, as comforters of the
afflicted; for the number is very small
who have not been served by them in
one capacity or another, without money
and without price.
How few families are there without
the maiden aunt among them, that epit-
ONE of unselfishness, of uncomplaiuing
effort, finding all her life in waiting on
a parcel of dear tyrants, taking a moth
er's place, and perhaps at last receiving
not even small share of a mothers
love! And of how much is the family
deprived that does not possess that in
valuable article! Mothers are sick,
mothers are full of cares, mothers are
away with fathers, mothers are keeping
up the family dignity; but the maiden
aunt is at hand to run to with
the last rent, which she
will hurry to mend and hide for
the culprit lest penalty be his; she is
there to beg the sly turnover and GIN
ger-snap of; to find the desired string
to urge allowance of the coveted holi-
day; to put down her work and help
solve the distracting problem; to praise
in good report to others, as mothers are
ashamed to praise their own; to teach
the "piece'' which is 10 be spoken be-
fore the assembled school, and to hear
it recited first; to help, to encourage,
to shield; to be up in the morning and
see the urchins off to school, and up in
the evening to darn the little trousers
and ''thumb-off " the well worn mittens.
Or, later, she is still there to sink into
the shadow, to become shadow herself
without murmuring, as the younger
lady, the niece, usurps the place long
held; to admire her; TO dress her with
the finery no longer used; to receive
and keep her secrets; to live youth over
again in her; to feel elation in her low
ers as if they were personal possessions; !;
to share in every triumph, to side in
every quarrel; to make the path smooth
as may be for the venturesome young
feet-the path that, after all, she herself
has not found so smooth.
And if these women, thus reproach-
ed by opprobrious appellations, are in-
valuable as aunts, are they not equally
invaluable as sisters? What wife is
there who, after the first year or two of
solitary incumbency, will willingly dis
pense with her sisters society if she can
compass the keeping of her in the
house? Companion, con6dante, coun-
selor-in such capacity she is as
precious as in that of the more material
help she gives in nursing children, and
dusting parlors, and cutting clothes,
and making sweetmeats, and allowing
the married sister a liberty otherwise
unattainable. And if married sisters
value her fitly, how much do parents
owe to her who, unmarried and at
home, takes all the burden of life from
their shoulders-s shopping, marketing,
house cares; who reads aloud, who en-
tertains company, brings in the news,
keeps the hearth cheerful with pets; on
whom fall all the troubles left to her
share by the married, who have, very
possibly, gone to troubles of their own !;
who is up and down in the night; who
nurses feebleness and closes the eyes of
death.
Perhaps to those of US who, although
not hard of heart, yet, owing to circum-
stances that have shaped our ways as
much as to any thing else, only live in
self and its indulgences, this life of
self-forgetfulness seems very sad. But,
to those that live ii, it usually seems to
wear a brighter view. In fact, no.
where are happier faces seen than
those of the majority of these maiden
women. Generally, if they have plen-
ty of smaller, they are shielded from
the greater cares, and spending their
lives for others, they have the perpetual
qualification of seeing themselves in
dispensable. Whether or not love and
gratitude, in the measure their useful
ness demands, by-and-by fail them, they
have them in plenty for time, and
their expectations are so small that
it takes but little to make them happy.
Few of these single women desire
marriage; most of them have had the
opportunity, all of them have preferred
their condition to union with one not
after their own minds, and some of
them are shrouded in the great grief of
widowed brides. Perhaps these good
women gossip, as it is alleged, but so
do the married, perhaps, as the years
pass, some OF them grow Grabbed, but
so again do some of the married; per-
haps their lives revolve in q small or.
bit, but who shall say in ultimate re-
suits what is small and what is large 2
If they walk humbly and deal justly,
who is any better than they?
And since the very instance of the gen.
eral reproach of the title, in its cruel use,
implies that happiness and all that is
desirable and blest can be found in mar
riage, does it not seem that terms OF
pity rather than of reproach should be
given those who are denied the happy,
cared-for life of marriage, and who,
while sharing in all its cares, share in
but few of its comforts and honors p
Harper's Bazaar.
SPEAK of q mans marble brow and
he will glow with conscious pride, but
| allude to his wooden head and he is