The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1882-06-22
SUGGESTIONS FOR INDECENT MAIDEN
LADIES.

lAUAENs
lam an INDECENT maiden lady myself.
1t is therefore natural that I should
know the pecularities of this class and the
problems of life presented to such minds.
Why not suggest to others some of the
answers to these problems which have
occurred to me in my own bewilder-
ment?
eff had my life to live over again,
I'd live it awful differenter," remarked
my pet Irish housemaid the other day.
And indeed if most of us knew at twenty
that fifty would find us still maiden
ladies', and still INDECENT, we should, 10
doubt, proceed very differently.
But at twenty there are so many pos.
sibilities that it would be almost wrong
to narrow our lives, as we should if we
were sure of the future that awaits us.
At twenty, woman who is good for any
thing is often so ''glad to be alive" that
she is also almost ''glad to earn liv-
ing" if that is the reasonable thing for
her to do. She loves to be independent,
sine wants to help the whole world, and
she wants untold money. She likes
heavy silk better than alpaca. and seal
ska mittens better than worsted ones.
But without entering at all into the
Women's Rights question, we are justi-
fed in saying that she will not be able to
earn very much, try as she may, and if
she is sensible, she probably will not
trouble herself much about silk or seal
skin, though in q moment of strong
temptation she may buy six.hutton
gloves with money which might have
been put into the bank.
But when she has economical to the
utmost in dress, she still needs money.
She wants concerts and lectures, and
books and pictures, private German
lessons,a piano, trip to the information
al exhibition, one little delightful vaca-
ton with the Tourjee tourists in Europe.
She must have these things, not for
pleasure alone, though she dearly likes
that, but for education; she wants the
fullest life, she is on fire to use all her
faculties.
But she cheerfully economies in all
these things, and still there is a struggle
to make the ends meet. Shall her fathers
house be mortgaged when she can help
him about the grocer's bill? Shall her
mother be overworked when she can
to college? And what shame that Fan
ny's wonderful voice should not be cul.
tivsted! Here economy ceases to be q
virtue.
1 do not know . woman who earns her
living who lives beyond her means, but
neither have ever known one who laid
aside any money before she was thirty
With all their poor little economies
their salaries are too small for that
From twenty to twenty such
women fiuctuste between black despair
and glorious happiness. Happiness pre-
walls, on the whole, because they have
boundless hope. But the years go BY
and one possibility after another disap
pears. The fairy prince does not com,
to carry OF the captive maiden; the SOM
abe vas 70 sing, and thereby move tn
world, is still unsung; the picture sh'
was to paint 10 painted only in her burn
ing brain. And the beauty has fades
and the prince will never know th
princess; the voice is too cracked ever {,
sing the song. and dull daily cares hsv
driven the picture out of the mind.
This is the despairing moment whe
women marry for home, or consent :
be supported by rich relatives who d
not want them, or when they learn ths
they must economic in deadly earnes'
But Why economics? Who Of us even b
eternal vigilance can lay aside enoug
70 live upon before old age overtakes u
A hundred dollars is large sum
spare from our salaries, but how man
years We should have to save hundre
dollars before the income Of our savin(
would approximate 10 our present sma
earningBl Let NJ eas, drink, and
merry. How much bettsr 10 eoonomis
life ard slBsne1A ~ living frss a
happy Hls thaa 10 haGgjs Over > h
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