Los Angeles herald., 1892-03-20
u DEFENSE OF THE "oLD MAID"

The Lot of the Single Woman Is by NJ
Means an Unenviable One.
What is all this nonsense about oil
maids?
Leap year not only gives us an extr;
day of work and worriment, but it get
up on its tiptoes and raises terribl,
hullaballoo because there are som,
women in this world sufficiently indie
pendent and self content to get alone
without having men forever hanging tt
their apron strings. No sooner does ont
Of these miserable years that is divisiblt
by four poke its quadricolored nost
over the top of the time table than some
body blows the whistle for the funny
men to begin work on the old maids
What a shame! What a mean, despic
able thing for an adult male, whose
hours might be spent to better advan.
tage in some useful employment, to ply
his pencil in caricaturing the noblest
type of womanhood that exists!
The old maid is the grandest monu-
ment civilization has unveiled.
Look at her. She is not weak, wishy
washy, gum chewing, letter writing,
beau hunting creature. In world
where woman as rule thinks it her
duty to cling to somebody or something,
where men and women are propped
against each other in an apparently
helpless, mutually dependent way, the
old maid stands alone and asks odds of
nobody. She gets up in the morning
and looks with clear eyes upon a bright
and cheerful sky; she walks through
the day felicitous and unruffied, seeing
good everywhere and joy in everything,
and when she goes to bed at night pleas
ant dreams and refreshing rest are her
portion. She has a heart, and it beats a
healthy response to every note that
multivoiced nature sings. 1t is not an
aerated heart, porous and pincushiony,
that is sensitive to every sigh of the op-
posite sex and that bounds like rubber
ball every time man glances it's way.
She has good heart, true heart, a
perfect wonan's heart, and it beams
with true and honest love, not for self,
not for one person, or for any set of per-
sons, but for the whole world and all
that is beautiful and lovable in it. The
old maid is sweetheart at large, if
may use the expression. Her affection
belongs to nobody in particUlar-unless
it happens to be to her dear old tabby OF
her little canary-but to everybody in
general. like her because she is unique.
A manproof woman is a rarity. A girl
who can carry her heart safely through
the wiles and over the pitfalls that the
other sex prepare for her is worthy of
honor and the best regard, and that is
why have put on my war paint and ar
rayed myself on the side of the old maid.
And why call her old, pray?
Nobody really knows when the age of
spipsterhood begins. Some say that a
girl who passes twenty without vowing
fealty to some young man or showing a
disposition to expose her cardiac to Gu
pid's shafts is tending toward the condi-
tion that is described as old maid. Some
claim that she must pass twenty-five and
others favor thirty years as the limit.
But years, my dear people, have nothing
to do with age. Oliver Wendell Holmes
saying that he was ''eighty years young
meant a great deal. The youngest wom-
Oll LII ulO WOll ~ dl Q OaO oO Cdl1cu OlQ
maids.
What is there to bother them? No
anMeties to burn out their souls. They
sit up waiting for nobody. The club
and business down town" do not cause
wrinkles to cluster on their brows. They
know nothing of the deception and trick
cry that trouble the lives of married
women. Life is smooth and flower spread
for their feet and their eyes are filled
with the luster of the stars. The rose
wreath of youth is forever on their brows.
1t is good thing to be an old maid. l
confess like it as far as I've got, and if
there are any old maids who are restless
in their single blessedness and would like
to desert our band | want to say to them
that now is their chance. Wake up, girls!
This is 1S92.-New York World.