The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-07-05
A POOR OLD WOMAN.
Bob whsel., in pe,ro., Free Press

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 have gone up and down on ,he earth a good deal and have noted the profes- sional beggar in the osd world and the new, and sometimes f.ater myself that if there is anything which distinguishes the professional dead-beat from the de- serving mendicant can detect 1t as soon as anybody. But when poor old wo- man applies to me, my boas,ed powers of discrimination leave me, and if she does no, ge, anything ii is because 1 have nothing.
 A poor old woman in a calico gown, the remnant of shawl, a faded bonnet and pair of old shoes, the heels of which scrape the pavement as she shuffies for ward toto the grave, always breaks me up. l feel like astonishing her with $ bill and never asking how she will spend 1T.
 When man comes begging, Can generally refuse him with good grace. Il always looks 10 me as if man could help it. If he IS in that condition 1t is not because he could not have avoided 1t. He could have made ,he world re- spect him fl he had been determined to do so. But i; does not seem so of poor old woman. She IS creature of c.rcum- stances. She was born A girl because she had 10 voice n the matter, and her sex has been 10 her disadvantage all her life. On her undehned convicuon of this has grown up the demand for wha, is called woman's rights A mother atfec- ton Is stronger for baby boy than for a baby glrl- l. seems to be law of sex that II should be SO. AS he grows up there IS hope iha: a son may have enough individuality abou, him to do honor to the family name, bu, i, is not looked for in girl. If there IS any pinch ing to be done in order that anybody may shine, l, is done in the interests of the boy. If the girl has any natural endos- men,s of beauty and grace she is expected 10 make the most of them, as d matter of course. They are her capital, and if she does no. use it Iudiciously she will not receive as much sympathy .s the boy who makes poor investment. If she is plain, as Tn majority of cases she is, the world will hardly know she is in it, A homely dog has his enthusiastic admir- CTS, bu; homely woman never elicits more than qualified word of praise for her good heart or her common sense The bes; she can hope for must needs come through subserviency to somebody, and in that the poor old woman" seems to have been disappointed.
 There are a few men who live lives of real anxiety, but the great mass of men are either under salary or confident of their ability to make their way in the world. But the wives and mothers carry the world on their shoulders. They must not only be their own keepers in matters of health and virtue, bu; they have been made in large measure respon ,ible for tha, of their husbands and soas If woman cannot control three or four des- ;inies she thinks she IS failure. and her shoulders begin to stoop, the lines begin 10 show or her forehead and the silver begins to streak her hair; the blue has faded out of her sky and the cloucs rarely If, again. Then If she adds to other disasters the sin of being poor the tragedy Of life seems to be complete in her. In the circle in which she moves the poor enoourageuen, of sham praise is not gwen often; she was never very sure that even her simple usefulness was appreci- ated, though she mustered self-coniidence enough now and then to make it her own warrant for staying amongs, us. But that was when she was younger. She is old now. and even that excuse for living IS taken from her. If she could be pitched into the Ganges as propitiation for her children's sins she might comfort herself with the thought tn I, she still had value. But we have passed that age of the world and that system of utilizing old women, and we have not reached better for her.
 A poor old woman is poor indeed. She presents to me, as nothing else can, the compassionless force of circumstances and the possible calamity ot being born.