, 1884-09-05
CAPE COD WOMEN.
Wives and s~westhearts Whose Livoa
Are Full of Sorrow.
The Torture of Mind and strain of
Nerve which Destroy Youth
and Heauty-Uneeasing
suspense.


New York SUM-
IF there ever was a bliehted race Of
women said a gentlsmAn OF this city.
recently returned from a visit to Cape
Cod, at exists in the peninsular vii
lagos OF Massachusetts,, villages which
depend on the fisheries for the sup
port of thoir inhabitants Nowhsre elss in
all New England will ono 500 80 high an aver
age of female beauty, especially in sym
metry OF form and FRESHNESS Of complexion
as is n .ticeable among the young girls OF
these Cape Cod fshermen's towns, girls rang
ing from 10 to 20 years Of age. But 1t will
not take one long to discover the startling
and melancholy fact TINT II this girlish
beauty and freshness "a unusual and unex-
pected, 1t Is also only too apparent that its
duration is brief. The change produced in
these girls by tho lapse OF a few years ia
painful in the extrome. No mAtronly giaces
are to he seen among them after their girl
hood days are past That charming mid
die stage OF maturing ~womanhood, be-
tween the freshness and buoyancy
Of the girl of 20 and the woman OF IS
or 40, Is entirely absent The heightened
color Of the cheeks is gone. The eyes are
sunken and wear u constant look of sadness
and anxiety. Gray hair in heads over which
a score and a half of years nave scarcely
passed, and deep lines in faces which should
show no trace OF nge for twenty-five years to
come, are rather the rule than the exception.
These women, besides suffering from all the
inevitable sorrow which fall 10 women's
lot, no matter in what station she may be
placed, have an added intense and perpetual
sorrow all their own. Theirs is n life Of con
tinual suspense and anxiety, which Is almost
certain 10 be In time embittered by an over
whelming grief.
ATha most ahfttua ahuaryar uaaIa not 20 aub
the cause Of this lack Of complete m~atronly
beauty among these women whose budding
days open with the greatest promise of a
superb physical womanhood, and for the
utter extinction Of that lightheartedness
and brightness which marked their girlish
life. The cause suggests itself at once to ono
who sees the congregations Of women on the
beaches and In the quiet streets OF tho
sleepy villages. He will notice occasionally
a feeble old man among them, generally sup
ported on the arm OF some female companion,
who, most likely, carries on her other arm a
chubby-faced child Of lusty lungs. But In
these groups, or anywhere about the village,
the observer will look In vain for the pres
ence OF males between the lettering years Of
theso relics OF tho past and the prattling days
of babyhood. II Is the fishing season, and
there aro no men or boys on shore. Their
smncks nre tossing on the treacherous
waters OF the fishing banks, and their re-
turn, II they return at all, is as uncertain as
the weather, which forms the one great sub
ject OF conjecture and apprehension among
the villagers Husbands, sons, fathers,
brothers and svoethearts are semewhere out
on the bosom of tho sea, probably homeward
bound, perhaps steering for still more dis
tant waters, perhaps struggling for life
among the waves. Fair weather keeps hope
warm in many an anxious woman's breast;
the bowling northeaster chills II with doubt
and despair. Constantly watching by day,
waking In the night 10 listen for sounds
from the sea, whether they may be tho roar
ing Of the dreaded tempest or merely tho
moan OF the surf on the beach, is 1t any won
der that the torture of mind and heart aud
strain Of nerve and vital force that must fol-
low this perpetual suspense and longing
should destroy tho fountains Of youth and
beauty in those patient, suffering women and
place upon them the marks OF age while they
aro yet young.
"Yet the girls grow up with but one
thought of what their future lot will DO, with
but one object In view upon which their
visions OF happiness are based. Go among
any group OF these bright, buoyRnt girls In
any OF the villages OF the class | am speaking
of, and you will find that nine out Of ten OF
them look forward to a union with some ono
who will spend his life fishing In tho summer
and c~oasting in the winter. The idea that
there might be any other future for them
than the one which is to come to them as
hshermen's wives, or that the life of a fisher
mans wife is anything different from the
natural sequence OF married life never seems
TO occur to them.
Looking at one Of these bright, happy
girls, chatting and romping amid half a
dozen sad-eyed young wives and Mother on
the beach or at the landing, where some one
is always waiting and watching for a sail in
the otfing, one cannot prevent his imagina-
ton from seeking a most melancholy chan
mel There Is the girl now. It will not be
long before she will be a wife. Imagine
her two years married, sitting alone IN
her little home, her baby in the cradle,
and the north vino bowling without. She
knows too well that at that moment the one
for whose return she is longing and praying
may be struggling in the breakers, while the
Highland light, which she can see, Is shining
pitilessly ON his agony, for she has only to
climb n spur Of land that rises behind her
house to see the skeleton OF a ship which
foundered only a few months ago, and all
her crew were lost in sight OF home. The
gravestones In the little churchyard recall
TO her every Sunday how, In one night, by
the wreck Of fishing craft homeward bound,
over seventy women OF her own village were
widowed, or those already widowed left
childless, and nearly ev cry home made desc
late. 1t is 70 Il future attended with painful
suggestions suel as these, and with unceasing
suspense and ever present agony OF mind,
that these bright, fair young girls sacrifice
all their youth and beauty, and ~bouyancy Of
spirits, and pass voluntarily within the pale
Of a blighted w~cmanhood."