The Columbus journal., 1889-04-10
NEW EEGLANDS GIRLS


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WIS n Me- Nasty.
Il has often been asked what becomes
a tie surplus Of tie female Over -
mals population q amso f ths stn1sa
especially oe Massachusetts, and Coanso-
lieut. and perhaps q some q The othW
"doWn esd" commouwealthAL An Cd
mable lAdy BY the name q Mn Rsbseca
Jones, Who hessek belong to that num-
ber, and who vas . school teacher lbe
nearly twenty years IN . small New
England town, and who + 9cw visiting
friends IN Brooklyn, gave some intasest-
ing satisfies bearing upon this point to
tho writer Of this article. Said she:
81 have kept . record Of the giris Who
have graduated from the high school a
my native village, where I have been .
school teacher since 1871, what th9s
have done and what haa become OF
them"
She gave the figures for the classes a
the years 1871 to 1676-frome eighteen to
elsven years agoeand strange figures
for any marrying and giving In mar
rage community they IN. Continuing.
she said:
THI MAJORITY AR1 aPnlSIKRA
The average age Of the female grad-
uates from atypical New England school
= between 10 and II years. Hence Il
win appear that the women Of whom
this List has been made. ranging today
hetween % and 81 years old, have done
the greater part Of al the settling in
life that they are likely to do. Out Of
total Of ninsty-nine graduates there were
tWenty-seven marriages, eleven deaths
and sixty-nine are still single. Strange
- Il may seem, the eleven deaths were
all caused by consumption. There have
been two cases Of insanity, both Of the
twenty-seven married group. The larg-
est number OF children Of any h three.
Three Of the girls gent to college after
leaving the high school, all Of whom are
married.
"Of the unmarried sixty-one, twenty
one follow . very usual feminine calling
that Of schoolma,ml One Il at Hamp-
ton, Va, teaching the Indians; the other
twenty are in country schools in or near
by their homes. Three Get type; one
reads proof; one Is head dressmaker In .
large establishment in New York city;
four are dressmakers on their own hook;
is practicing medicine; three are
music teachers; fifteen are stitchers and
buttonhole makers in shoe shops, and
the rest are home bodies
'Just what has brought about such .
preponderance Of spinsterhood il IL not
altogether easy to say. Some people
have contended that it did not exist, but
statistics prove to the contrary. Such
people have explained the great surplus
Of women in New England On the mppo-
sition that most Of them are widows,
made 60 BY the hazardous occupation Of
tho men along the eastern coast. Wild
WI there are in plenty, but the sixty
one Of my records certainly never mar
ried.
THE YOUNG MEN LEAVE HONE.
Probably most Of them never had IN
opportunity to marry. There are few
manageable young men at the present
time to be found in most Of the small
New England towns. The serene quiet
Of this most lethargic rural section Of
the country does not suit the active spirit
Of young men Of the day. They 60 away
before they are old enough to marry, and
the chances are that they don't come
back again.
1T they do return they are Impressed
with the lack Of money in New England.
outside Of the cities, by the length Of
time since the houses have been painted
and the amount Of calculation required
before he can find . place where be can
satisfactorily spend . dollar. They do
not stay long enough to admire the hardy
thrift that can wiring q comfortable sup
port from the stony coil where . New
Yorker would stsrve, and the girls they
left behind them cannot compare, %
they sesm to think, for beauty Of dress,
fascinating coquetsy Or small talk Of %
ciety with the Establishments Of the city
girls, who have insensibly become to
them the standard for admiration.
These things considered, it il FORUM
ate for the spinster that she h fast learn
ing to think It . natural and not alto
gether unpleasant state Of Affairs to be
what she Is. They do not look IN UNI
happy lot. and New England Il learning
to be tender Of and appreciate them.
She does not call them old mazda and
the fiction Of their youth h kept up till
they die. One may hear Of the Fisher
girls the Smith girls and 20 on for
weeks before the truth dawns that the
girls are well past the half century
milestone Of life. They never married
and no one wa ever cruel enough to
mark out any line beyond which they
ceased to be young. They are self ~
specting and universally respected
There are New England towns In
great numbers, where the best educated
and best bred Yankee girl, Of the best
colonial families, can 60 into the shoe
shop and work there for years after she
has ceased to b q girl, ave BY courtesy.
and still read the classics and move n, y
perhaps Lead, the most
Of the town."-New York Mail and EI-
presa
EnaDsaE WAase3as HssG
Ma Alice J. Shaw, the whistling
pgimA donna, and her company appeared
Is tho opera house before . good audi
enca. An additional number Wa furn-
lihed BY Thomas F. Browne. the local
NJ II