The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1886-08-28
OLD MAIDS AT HOME.
Massachusetts, Surplus Women Not n Bad
~ Usually Painted.

Massachusetts Surplus Women Not A. Bad
~ Usually Painted.
It il one of the signs of our comfort
able circumstances and highly civilized
manner of living that there are seventy
seven thousand more women than men
in Massachusetts, as set forth in the re-
vised census returns, but it will be sure
to elicit from the press of 9th er States
some of those time dishonored reflec-
tons on the number of old maids in
this Commonwealth. This is theme
that springs perennial in the New York
press. Somehow it is traced by New
York writer's to Puritanism, transcen-
dental philosophy and sublimated in
tellectual atmosphere. The social facts
and conditions that account for the
large number of unmarried women are,
of course, perceptible, but the oppor-
tunity for newspaper wit is still more
perceptible, and that opportunity is
always made the most of.
The stereotyped Massachusetts old
maid is always lean, lank, harsh and
blue specialized. according to the COM
mentators. As part of the picture, she
is portrayed as having no affection for
any one since Plato, though with an
almost kindly feeling for Kant. Con-
sumption and shoe-binding are sup
posed to reduce the number of single
women in Massachusetts, but notrapidly
enough to keep them on numerical
equality with men-a consummation
apparently devoutly desired by the
class of newspaper critics alluded to.
Then it is vaguely limited that the exist
ence of a woman majority is sign of
deeadence of women. 1t is scarcely
necessary to expose these theories to
the touch of facts to show how COM
pletely they are the products of mag
ination. The Massachusetts, woman Of
to-day, though she be single, is not
necessarily singular. That so many
women to-day are unmarried does not
necessarily prove that they are either
idle or unattractive. There are many
careers open to women in the State to-
day that were closed to them forty
years ago. At that time it was difficult
for women not wealthy to qualify them
selves for callings for which their tai
ents or inclination fitted them. Now
high-schools, colleges. training and
technical schools are as open to them
as to men. A woman who desires to
become q physician does not to-day
have to run the gauntlet of shifts from
women and sneers from men. Her
entry upon the studies for a medical
career passes as unnoted and unnoticed
as that of her brother. 1t is the same
with the arts or the mechanical EN-.
ployments.
Every man who goes into society at
all is acquainted with scores of single
women who lack none of the attrac-
tons calculated to win them regard
and esteem. There are in Massachu-
sets hundreds of women who are pleas
ing. we'll educated, wealthy, who have
never married and probably never will.
There are a large number living in
their own households, currently spoken
of as supported by male relatives, but
in reality rendering such returns for
shelter of their kinsman's roofs that to
speak of them as supported is the
veriest misnomer. That this class is
large speaks well for the men of Massa-
chusetts and for the home life in our
midst. Women who are driven to
marriage because their dependence"
is forced upon them are sincerely to be
pitied, but not more to be pitied than
are the kinsmen who compel them to
choose between uncongenial wedlock
and more uncongenia1 homes. The
life of a man from whose associations
mother and sister are excluded is
usually one that will not bear the light.
1t may be quoted also, not in extenu-
alton of our women majority, but as
stating an undeniable fact, that among
the great class of unmarried women in
Massachusetts, are thousands attracted
from other States by the educational
advantages to be enjoyed here. II
there are those who believe that the
woman student is invariably a blue
specialized griffin, let them visit Welles-
ley, Smith College, the Harvard An
mex or the Conservatory of Music, and
learn the full extent of ignorance un-
der which they have labored.
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