Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-10-12
THE BAcHELETTE.

events, ana the ownership tucIeOi hos Luz
vet been determined.
THE BACHELETTE.
She Has Taken the Place of the Once
Much Dreaded "Old Maid"
There is progress all along the line, and
every living creature must move on" Ii,
at the beginning, enough of "the breath OF
life" was not ''breathed into" being, then,
like the dodo, it "must go" and serve here
after only to decorate the shelves of the
fossil hunter. 1t would truly be a pity
were any class belonging to half of the
human race left behind in this grand
march, but that is impossible, and so, while
the thorny single rose has blushed into
the hundred petaled, and the sour crab
apple mellowed into the golden sweet
ing" the crotchety, typical old maid has
developed into the selfrespecting and re-
spected bachelette.
The time was when a single woman, the
femme sole of the lawmakers, was supposed
to be single only because no one had asked
her to be otherwise her eyes were dim In
the popular picture, with vain watching
for the coming man" who never came.
Vinegar was in her aspect and acid IN
her temper, all soured from long waiting.
If independent in fortune she lived alone
because too disagreeable to keep associates,
solaeed only by the company of her cat,
whose claws matched her tongue in sharp
ness. cover the tea cups" she was full of
bitter gossip, and her piece de resistance
was the character of her neighbor.
If poor in fortune, then, indeed, was her
fate sad one She perhaps lived with
a married sister on suferance, where,
in return for taking the children through
the measles, whooping-cough and two sets
of teeth, to say nothing OF all sorts of dis
agreeable drudgery which no one else
would do, she was given bare and meager
support. Or, having no sister, she per-
haps went in through the only half-oPened
door of some brothers house and sat in
the cold corner of the freside, where, in
addition to the tasks in her sisters's FAM
lily, she bore the taunts of her sister-in-
law and wore her cast-off dresses.
Little account was made of the precious
unpaid service, which could be bought in
no market, of her patience and her self
sacrifice. On how many page has the
story-teller may he be forgiven, because
it was sometimes true-drawn the forbid
ding silhouette.
Now, modern progress has changed all
this, and, though few typical old maids
still exist, they are as scarce as white
blackbirds."
The bachelette of modern civilization is
a woman who remains single for any one
of many good reasons. She may be by
nature afflicted with the virtue of con-
stancy and unable to forget the lover, who,
too early, went over to the majority"
Shakespeare says that "men have died
and worms have eaten them, but not for
love-" but many women always remember
the eye that no longer sees and the hand
that has 'lost its cunning" Again, the
bachelette may not have found it possible
to love any man, who has happened to
ask it of her-all men are not adora-
Bile, though some of them come pretty
near it-and she is not, in this age,
obliged to marry for home. She may
have vocation, a talent, genius; in short,
for some good reason she chooses q single
life as a man may choose, and so becomes
a baehelette.
If independent in fortune she has her
own house, a "weel keepit," one, too,
where the very lares and penates run the
risk of having their faces washed oc-
casionally, and becomes the center of
gracious social influences. She adopts
child. some homeless wait, or a young SIS
ter, takes care of her old mother, or man
ages an orphan asylum so that there Is no
deficit at the end of the year.
If poor, she still has her own home,
where the fire burns brightly on the hearth
no more cold corners-and there she
composes editorials for her brothers to
read, designs costumes, writes books, paints
pictures, chisels statues, and, when the
time for summer rest comes, she fits to the
mountains or the sea !; she runs over to
Europe or crosses to the Yosemite.
Possibly at the same time her married
sister and sister-in-law stay at home and
cook the dinners through the hot summer
days, while the servant, who is also a
bachelette, takes her outing.
And so it is not such bad thing after
all. this single blessedness. A prominent
Judge net hundred miles away sup
press the name and spare his bushes
once told the writer that eff he were a
woman in this wonderful world he would
not marry any man on earth, King or
Kaiser" and a cultivated Englishman,
travelling in America recently-probably
Duke in disguise-says that "the most
delightful feature of this breezy New
World is the lady bachelors bachel-
cites.
And just here if any purist cavil at this
name, let him turn to his dictionary and
forever after hold his peace" He will
there find that the English word bachelor,
derived from old French, bachelor or bache-
lier, originally meant young, single man,
and gradually grew to mean an unmarried
| man of any age. He will also find there
| that bachelette is the exact feminine oppo-
site, meaning, originally, young single
| woman, now intended to mean a single
women of any age. So take notice, all We
i've, or who would rather die than be old
fashioned, that the form 'old maid" has
become obsolete, otherwise old-fashioned.
1t is given over to the rude and uncult-
ured, who use it from ignorance or malice,
which is enough to make the well-bred
cast it aside forever.
| Do not, however wander about through
what Dickens calls the decentralization
| Office" to find substitute, hating at the
Incidentally station, the single woman or
the femme sole, but take the goods which
the gods provide progress and
the dictionary as when man is
single you call him the bachelor, SO, when
woman is single, call her, as the writer
signs herself, "THE BACHELETTE."
SOCIAL AND PERSONAL.
| Mrs n. N. Porter, of Reno. New, is visiting
| the family of Mrs. J. F. Iogghty OF this city.
Arrivals at the Capital Hotel yesterday
CO. IL i..,c.. nnNiS sac.