Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-05-29
A BELLIES LAMENT.
Seven Weary Seasons without Winning
Husband-Dead Sea Fruit OF Society
Compliments,

Com p1ment8s
1t is lamentably true that, like many another
girl my ears have grown so accustomed to COM
pliments that they are only empty, meaning
less sounds; for, despite the victory q woman
achieves every time somebody tells her she is
beautiful, particularly when she knows there Is
truth in the assertion, the fact remains
and overwhelms her like an avalanche
from which there is no escape, that among
all the knightiy gallants and gentlemanly
minnesingers. not one Of the praiseful
throng has the manliness or courage to ask
her hand In marriage. II am pretty.
II my eyes are SO beautiful my figure
sUeHe by the society writer's over dozen times
and II my disposition Is so charming as they
have at last made me believe 1t is myself, why
then is it that am allowed to be a butterfly so
long? Is matrimony out OF style. or do the
young men find bachelorhood a sweeter bless
ing than connubiality? Here the fashionable
season Is over again, and the prospect OF disen-
thraiment from the giddy and semi-veXatious
letters tnat bind me to the rock of society is no
The summer finds me in condition of larval
retirement again, and with the russell of autumn
more and resume the winged form of the social
moth. Six years ago-yes, even three years ago
i eoala stand this Kind of thing; indeed was
iona OF 1t, and the summer interval, with its
weary round of country visits and eastern
hotels. was as dinmal and distressing to me as
astretch of sickness would be. All, the vast
chasm stretching between the night when I
was debutante and the last night figured ia
heart Wen, masouefad or1 to M ana my neaHy
ton In a toilet that was worth at least six lines
In a sunday morning paper! What a difference
between the simple, heartful, innocent glory of
that first night and the leaden miseries of this
last one. Behind the pleasant mask wore at
Mrs. IS there was a soul of sorrow and
shower OF tears. L tremble as think now of
the FOLLY there Is in such deception, Of the in
jury ii infiicts on the nervous SYSTEM of the
fiintiness it gives to the heart, of the dark re-
DnsiSp- lOVetPSS all
The world and everything and everybody in II.
II teaches us To sneer, it qualities us to despise
our nsighbors and to detest ourselves.
To put the matter in as strong and clear a light
as possible, let me ask and answer two or three
questions: How many girls are there in st. Louis
society who have been there longer than three
years? Hundred of them; have been "in the
swim" as they call it, for seven years, and can
name fully 200 girls who have been with me
through this long and weary ordeal How
many are of marriageable age, l. e., from 90 to
"a years? Hundreds; 1 am "a myself How
Not dozen. There is the whole story Matri-
mony seems to be the exception not the rule in
sosg,y; There are from four to dozen couples
society lady or society gentleman's name
IN the list? Not once in a mouth. The aver
age period for counting outside of fashionable
circles is, according to a reliable old bald
headed statistician, about Ia months In so
clety II is-let us see: An average OF girl in so
catches on only after she has been belle for 8
or 10 years. The other 40 none ALONG and
tahe their chances with the newcomers, who
OF course are more numerous than the out |
SOers. am not much figures, but think
II the lives of the other 40 could be prolonged
and the gentlemen, too could live alway and
there WAS some Archimedean da po; sto for |
perennial old mathematician to sit upon while
he looked on and figured the proceeding out, 1t |
would be found that the average period of
counting in fashionable society would reach
INTO the neighborhoOd of 2, DIG years, months
and 20 days.
Now, isn't this shameful9 Isn't it simply
heartreDdlng for a girl of my years+and nv
quallncatlons, too, may add-tO contemplate?
Is 1t any wonder sit III my room every day
after night OF decolette dressing and siIiy
Waiting and shed bitter tears because though
men Halter, they refuse to think well enough of
me TO marry me? / know that suppers and
Carriages and theater tickets and neckties ETC.
are great expense to young men, but they
seem more willing to remain bachelors in pow
erty than to save their money by taking a WIFE,
who will gladly accept street car to the theater
after marriage and who will save the price of a
late supper by eating good lunch before leav-
in2 home.
Nothing is said, however of the expense to
which the girl is put, and there seems TO be no
sN hpathy for her even on this Sigh point, NV
dresses have cost me between 81 400 and al 500
every season since 1S19'SO, and other expenses
mother and brothers at least, naming the low
est possible figure, $4,000. Idon't know what
the attentions have received from young gem
tie1nen cost them, but We have had many nights
al the theaters at cost of SO or So many balls
and parties, excursions and rink sOciables and
suppose that possibly l have been an expense
To somebody. or several bodies, each year OF per-
maps LOCO, so that, between myself and the
gentlemen VINO ran after me since 1879 we
have squandered 100000, and worse than ali
else, We are Just now where we began seven
years ago. That money would have made
me and any one OF these geptIemen-for
they were and still are all good, worthy and
deserving young men-happy; with the
slightest encouragement L might now have
made a loving wife TO any of them. But the
money is gone, the years have fed the seventh
season is overland what Is left? A lew tear
stained trophies, of which am not proud be-
cause they represent no victories worth cher
lshing; they were not won, but were purchased
with smiles, and no love memory fingers
around them. / am still young and still
handsome, but my youth is slipping from me
and my beauty must soon fade. How long
shall i continue to be mere marionette ia |
this circle? Must 1t be until my beauty is |
entirely gone and my age will be the only
prominent feature possess? Will the gentle |
men who the other evening said l was hand
some and my eyes beautiful and my figure
magnificent, continue TO say these soft things
until they are not true, and will they then de- |
sert me and leave me to the regretiul doom of
SATISFACTORILY letter to the ST. Louis
GtO6e-Denocrdt.