The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-09-28

csuo, tn0 oflnkine Of cheaper
wines, and the employment Of 4 less ex-
pensivs cIothies, and the average gilded
youth regards with deeper concern the
name OF the popular tailor sewed inside his
coat collar than he does the affection of the
sweetest woman In the universe, who
would bear with his unreasonableness, re-
Joice ~ his success, conceal his failures.
ana love bim for dear life when he was 80
stout and wbeesy he couldn't waits meas
uIe or stoop to pick mp glove II . princess
had let il fail ct his feet.
Owing also 70 the legiors upon legions
q women. wise and witty, dark and fair.
! sweet and crusty. strong and helpless, to
wnom ne conieth not. or at least whose
coming - not fraught with matrimonial re-
sulsS. the manageable man grows critical
ana dimcult TO plesse, Ike man ut feast
appetite.
When in the old myth siegfried follows
the magic bird through the circle OF FIRE TO
this child OF the forest, who had never be-
neid the face OF woman before, Is to possess
her, to have her for his own. II siegtried
mad lived In the nineteenth century no
magic bird could have cajoled him into de.
Tying dragons and Drawing fire to be re.
warded simply by the sight OF q woman's
lace. however fair. or the touch OF wo-
mans lips.
Or, on the other hand. IL the boy siex.
fried had found slumbering beneath craven
ormor, not one. but i've or six Brunhiioas
al fair and beautiful, with proud lips and
flashing eyes. would he not have waited
and compared and criticised, aud finally
let them AL TO search again. lest there be
yet fairer women somewhere in the unex.
piored forestf It must be admitted. too.
that II all OF these Brunhildss had risen up
and set about making themselves agree
able TO the youth In the bearskin tunic,
after the fashion of the young woman OF
the day, be would have fed precipitately,
before this evil had befallen him.
So much for men and their matrimonial
conceit, which women foster and encour.
age TO their own disadvantage. The trouble
10 not that there are not modest girls
enough, but that there are too MANY OF
them; not that they are too indiscreei, in
decofous and generous of their compan-
ionship and charms, but that thew are too
numerous. The market is overstocked.
valuable.
And now for the woman's reason. and
she has her reason. albeit she docsn't AL
ways have IL SO well fortified with conyinc-
Ing arguments. 1t is safe 10 promise that
not one woman in fifty ever lived to be
forty years old without receiving one or
more proposals of marriage, and not one
IN 500 may be found who might not have
received more offers than she did if abe had
not avoided them with all q woman's
kindly tact and diplomacy. In the same
ratio that the old chivalric adora,lon for
women has diminished among men q GER
tain dignity and strength has developed
among women.
The avenue of employment, usefulness.
aud honor that the necessity OF woman has
opened and 10 continually widening make
some iuture possible for every woman of
thoA 4
clear starchine of one mans linen and the
cooking OF mans dinners To that standard
OF excellence established by the way his
mother did it. Marriage is to many women
the interruption, rather than the con-
summation. OF her ambition, and she
Is inclined to weigh well in her mind the
the worth OF the man who honors her
with his regard before she relinquishes in.
terests endeared to her to bear his name,
provide for his home, and rear his chill
dren. all for the sake of support, in many
cases less satisfactory than she could, Ii
untrammeled, secure for herself. and for
bis love. which sometimes outlasts the de-
cay Of her beauty and survives the fascina.
ton oil the first fair face that comes under
his observation. and frequently does not.
As has been already stated, there are
more women qualified to become compe-
tent wives than there are men capable of
developing into worthy husbands. In
the same circumstances OF life and SUBJ
1ected to the same influences. a greater
proportion OF girls grow up into sweet
womanly women than there are of boys who
develop into honorable, successful men.
Formerly there was no alternative but for
the girls to wed the boys, worthy or un-
worthy. woman unwed was a woman
dishonored. The old maids prayer for
oh. any man, good Lord was
unconsciously the desire of every girls
inner consciousness. Now the stigma of
dishonor has been removed from the brow
OF the spinster. and the petition is changed
from ANY one" to 1.-The one, good Lord"
for. in spite of being bracketed with senior
wranglers, holding professorships and
offices OF honor and trust, notwithstanding
the writing of books and the perfection OF
great enterprises by women. the woman's
heart vibrates just as sweetly as tendery.
as gladly to the touch Of true love as in the
garden, when Paul wooed Virginia, and
Siegfried kissed Brunhilda's silent lips to
life and love-
There are three kinds of spinsters-those
who are born old maids. those who achieve
old maidism. and those who have old
maidisni thrust upon them-and the latter
are. 1t must be admitted, the greater class.
though the cause of their solitude is far
less their own unworthiness than the un-
worthiness OF the average man to realize
the ideal OF true woman's heart.
God Almighty creates some old maids
In his mercifui providence. to take care of
imbeciie parents, disagreeable old parties,
and motherless children to care for the sick,
attend 10 the darning, convert the heather.
to do all the duties that no one else will
attend to. and TO give unhappy married
women the little superior pharisaical
nk-God-I- am. not as other women are
sensation that helps them bear with un-
kind husbands, shattered ideals. and
wrecked hopes in their own lives.
Such old maids sometimes writhe
beneath the cross they are
compelled to bear, it is so rough and com.
mOnplace and humdrum, and their natur-
al sweetness acidulates with little sharp
sarcasms occasionally, but they are noble
army OF martyrs, nevertheless, and deserve
to be canonized as saints of greater self
sacrifice and holiness than any coister-
bred, halo-crowned Sister in holy orders.
The few men who walk the narrow way
and enter in at the strait gate ought TO
dance attendance on these long.suifering
and deserving spinsters through all etern-
ity in recompense.
As for those who achieve old maidism.
their name is legion and their methods as
manifold as their numbers. There are
pretty, attractive women who fiirt desper-
ately with numbers of men, PLAYING fast
and loose with hearts, secure In the power
of their charms. until men believe them in
capable of seriousness. and they wake up
some fine morning feeling that hollowness
and emptiness of life known only TO the
queen from whom the sceptre has departed.
There are ultra romantic women with
absurd ideals, longing for Greek gods
and despising honest men as husbands,
forgetting that they would have TO ask
these supernatural beings TO order coal,
nav the grocer and hunt up tire paregO-ic