Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1886-12-14
MODERN OLD MAIDS.



Jolly and Good Natured Women Who
Dress In Excellent Taste.
According to theidea of things which
prevailed not so very long ago, the
woman who did not marry was
5lighted being.\ 1t lid not matter
whether she remained single from
choice or necessity; for since it was
considered woman's only manifest
and unalterable destiny to marry, she
must, OF course, be regarded as fail
ure in life if she did not do this. And
though she may have refused forty of
fers of marriage, or have had the most
imperative duties of any sort, or devel-
oped the most decided talent for some
vocation in life other than marriage,
vet neither one or all of these would
have been accepted as a valid reason
why she should not follow what society
had decided was the onlyproper course
in life for her.
From this condition of things there
arose in literature and the minds of the
people in general the typical "old
maid." She was always pictured gaunt,
angular and forbidding in appearance;
morosc and ill-tempered in disposition.
as become blighted and disappointed
being; hating youth and pleasure of all
sorts, with special grudge against
love making and lovers, since they re-
minded her of her own vanished youth
and the opportunities which she never
had, or having. had neglected. H f.
But we have changed all that in
these later days. With the education
of women and the broadening of their
opportunities in every way their desti-
nies have broadened also. A woman
is still, perhaps, expected first to marry,
and it is best for her that she should,
provided her marriage can be happy
and suitable one. But if from her own
choice, or a necessity arising from n
lack of appreciation on 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 no longer considered, from this cir
cumstance alone, failure and an un-
happy creature. She is no longer
doomed to a life of dependence in the
house of another, for score of voca-
tions are open to her, in any one Of
which she may win livelihood or even
competence. Consequently she COM
mands respect, and, far from being a
subject of contempt or pity, she is more
likely the object Of open or secret envy
vn the part of most of her married ac-
quaintances.
And so it has come about that tho
typical old maid of former times has
passed away, and in the literature of
to-day we find new types conforming
to the new facts of the case and quite
different from the old. The modern
old maid is not angular and forbidding
in appearance, but plump and pleas
ing. She is not morose and ill-tem-
pered, but jolly and good-natured to an
extent that makes her the best of COM
pany. As she has never had the alb
sorbing cares that come with marriage,
and has no family of sons and daugh-
ters growing up about her to, remind
her Of the flight of years, she has nat
urally forgotten to grow old, and young
people regard her as one of themselves
when good times are being plannedi
while IN the matter of lovers and love-
making she has had that experience
which makes her simply Invaluable as
contidante and adviser, and she is thf
repository of all the secrets of this sort
which exist within the range of her ac'
quaintance. She dresses in exquisite
taste, she pets a pug dog or white cat
golden beetle, or whatever anima
fashion may dictate; is idolized by her
family; especially her young nephews
has hosts of admirers, but Is discretion
and propriety personilied; is the guild,
ing spirit in orphan asylnms, hospiIa.
fairs, associated charity matters and
other good works, and, In short, livo'
out to the end Of her days happy
useful, welkrounded existence. -Wl
wGukee Telegraph.