The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-01
"LoNe, LoRN WOMEN
And How They Live in New York Under
Difficulties.

Special Correspondencel
NEW YORK, March l5-This city is full Of
''lone lorn women" Life isn't rosy exper-
fence to Them either. Nowhere under the sun
is the fight fiercer. Gentility and necessity
have it nip and tuck here all the time, and the
women get the worst of it.
A woman who writes recently told me some
of the trials and tribulations of her "sect," as
the clairvoyants say. "Do you think any re-
fined woman who works in New York finds
life easy!" she asked "If you do, you are far
Their from the truth than theatrical advance
agent With the most of us existence is about
as restful and luxurious as the career of rat
with a cat after it, To begin with, we pay a
higher reSpectability tax than men. We must
live genteelly or take rank with the ungenteel
We must live in highly respectable neigh
borhood, both for safety and appearances;
we must be well clad, or else pass for
something less than we are We must main
tain our dignity, though we starve in the
effort and dignity and respectability are
both expensive, you know. For everything,
from our lnundress TO our landlord women,
we pay more than men. Even monday
luncheon of the simplest kind costs us more
than it costs men, We may be ever so poor,
still we can't dart into cheap restaurant
| II we do we are not only miserable while we are
there at finding ourselves among lot of men
eating with their hats on, but are stared at
by the entire gang of natural protectors
and in all probability followed by one or
more of them when we leave No, this is a
lopsided world hard on the women who
work. 1t doesn't SGT out to be so, of course
1t Just is so without any intentions on the
subject"
"Still, women come here continually and
stay when they get here" said. eyes, they
come because big city has its thousand in
dustries," she replied. "They remain after
they are here, because they don't know what
else to do with themselves But they don't
live, they merely exist Talk about the home
instincts of womenl New York, with its
crowded lodging and boarding houses, is poor
soil for such a plant, Women who have any
love of home life lose it here. They live
herded together till they get so accustomed to
that kind of life that they can't endure the
thought of any other"
"But the lone, lorn women who do not
work. but live on incomes, great small and
moderate, they come here and couldn't DO
driven away with clubs. What's the secret
of itF' asked.
"The fascination Of great city, for one
thing" she answered. 'The hope of finding
pleasant society, for another. They are q
class for which have no hope. They lead
useless, purposeless lives. Cooped up in small
rooms, they put in their time see-sawing
about the shops, going to the matinees and
Cabling in the parlors with each other. The
theatres, the fashions and the freshest scan
dals constitute their conversational stock.
They have no aim, no occupation. IL they
have a hope it is to marry some man rich
enough to take them to Europe once q year,
to Delmonico's to dinner twice week and to
the theatre all the time"
The lady did not exaggerate. know one
boarding house that contains fourteen widows
and elderly maidens to every man married
or single, and there are thousands of Others
whose guests are similarly proportional
The lone, lorn woman who has an income
without working for 1t goes into what
she calls enjoyment with considerable
spirit. As for society, II she hasn't Q
"set" where she is important, she ha'
nothing but the accident of meeting
pleasant people to hope for A big city
has fewer opportunities for making pleasant
acquaintance than any place else, the desert
and mountains not excepted. Cupid has
poor chance in such vast throng.
Boston has long been quoted as the head
quarters for unappropriated females. New
York is surely not far behind her. Every
audience, as well as every boarding house
has lions share of bonnets.
EBBoN OLIVER