St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-08-22

to marry. she must. of course, be re-
garded as failure in life if she did not
do this. And though she may have
refused forty offers of marriage, or
have had the most imperative duties of any
sort. or developed the most decided talent
for some vocation in life other than mar
rage, yet neither one nor all of these would
have been accepted as a valid reason why
she should not follow what society had de-
cided was the only proper course in life for
her.
From this condition of things there arose
in literature and the1 minds of people
in general the typical sold maid" She
was always pictured as gaunt, angular and
forbidding i'll appearances; morose and i'll
tempered in disposition, as became a
blighted and disappointed being; hating
youth and pleasure of all sorts, with a
special grudge against loye-making and
lovers. since they reminded her of her own
vanished youth and the opportunities which
she had never had, or, having, had neg
lected.
But we have changed all that in these
later days, With the edu alton of women
and the broadening of their opportunities
in every way, their destinies have broad
ened also. A woman is still, perhaps, ex-
pected first to marry. and it is best for her
thathe should provided her marriage can
be happy and suitable one. But if from
her own choice, or q necessity arising from
a Jack Of appreciation Oh the part of the
other and more stupid sex, she remains at
the end OF her days what some one calls an
unclaimed blessing" she is 40 longer con-
Sldered, from this circumstance alone, a
failure and an unhappy creature. She is no
longer doomed to a life of dependence in the
house of another, for a score of vacations
are open to her, in any one of which she
may win livelihood or even competence.
Consequently she commands respect, and,
far from being subject of contempt or
pity, she is more likely the object of open
! or secret envy on the part of most of her
married acquaintance.
And so it has come about that the typical
old maid OF former times has passed away,
and in the literature of to-day we find new
type conforming to the new facts of the case
and quite different from the old. The mod
ern old maid is not angular and forbidding
| in appearance, but plump and pleasing. She
| is not morose and ill-tempered, but jolly and
good-natured to an extent that makes her
| the best of company. AS she has never had
the absorbing cares which come with mar
| riage, and has no family of sons and
! her of the flight of years, she has naturally
| forgotten to grow old, and young people re-
gard her as one of themselves when good
times are being planned while in the mat
ter of lovers and lovemaking she has had
that experience which makes her simply in
| valuable as confdante and adviser, and she
is the repository of all the secrets of this
| sort which exist within the range of he1
acquaintance. She dresses in exquisite
taste. she pets q pug dog OF white rat, a
| golden beetle. or whatever animal fashion
may dictate; she entertains beautifully; is
idolized by her family, especially her young
nephews; has hosts of admirers, but is dis
erection and proprety personifed; is the
guiding spirit in orphan asyluns, hospital
fairs associated charity matters and other
good works, and, in short, lives out to the
end of her days a happy, useful, we'll
rounded existence. Telegraph.