Daily Yellowstone journal., 1891-01-21
TAE ~sPINsrERs1 REsr.
Al Abnormal Social Condition in tn,
Backs County Metropolis.

~ oNAaA 1onNAAAun IN Nn1
Backs County Metropolis.
Bristol, the prosperous manufacture
ing center Of Bucks county, is an old
maids town. Well iuforn.cd citizens
of that enterprising borough claim that
there are more unmarried but mar
riageable women there in proportion 10
the population than can be found in
any other place between the silvery
Delaware and the Ohio state line.
Careful estimates made by the census
enumeration place the number Of eligi-
bles whose years range from 30 years
upward at 21O. Ol' residenters. who
have kept a keen watch upon the soli-
tary maids about them. make the fig
ures much larger than those of the
enumerators
In a quiet Quaker home on aristo-
cratic Radcliffe street is a brood of five
maids the oldest; is nearing three score
and ter, and the youngest is approach
ing the meridian of life. Not 50 far
away dwells the oldest old maid in the
town. She is a leader in the Friends
church, and three-quarters Of a century
measures her years. She has a sister
who is already far beyond the point at
which the majority of women marry.
Radcliffe street is the most fashiona-
able portion of the town and stretches
along the river front. On it live no
fewer than twenty-six females who be
long to that class commonly called
'old maids" Proud a Radcliffe
street may be of its record in clinging
to its girls, Wood and Cedar streets
surpass it. The men with marriage in
their eyes seem 70 have avoided these
two thoroughfares entirely.
There are nineteen lady school teach
ers in the borough. and a gentleman
connected with the board said that
with but a few trihing exceptions all
had passed the border line that bounds
girlhOod. Among the number WHO are
enjoying a single life is Miss Eliza Van
Horn, a maiden Of go odd years. who
looks upon marriage neither as a dead
failure nor the contamination Of bliss.
She remarked:
''Oh, no, | don't believe marriage i
a failure, but | do think there Is a
sound. practical reason for our Bristol
girls not marrying. | know Of a mum
Der Of cases where peculiar circum-
anc separated devoted lovers. and
the girls are old and unmarried vet.
There is pleasure in single as well as in
married life"
Another maiden lady, past the half
century mark said Il had no use for
A husband, and 80 paid no attention to
the men who came with offers Of mar
rage. y man in the majority of cases
is only that much extra luggage for the
woman TO carry"
James Monroe Bruden. who cast his
first presidential ote for Gen. Jackson,
said, concerning the fair sex:
There Is an unmarried woman OF
2j years old in pretty nearly all
the houses in town. | can't tell YOU
why. but they are there. Now, this
strange condition Of things is not the
fault Of the girls, for Bristol has as
many pretty girls as any own in the
Only last week two young men
Of our own married girls from outside
the borough. Now, that wasn't right. .
The wife of a census enumerator was
questioned about old maids, and she
studied a minute and then replied:
Yes, know a few in our ward. / can
eighteen whom | know PERSONAL
.y, and this is one of the smallest wards
the town Ny husband says there
ire more women in the town than men,
but there are few bachelors. "-PhIa-
Record.