Morning journal and courier., 1893-08-07
THE RENEyOLENT WIDOws

There are many kinds of widows, Just
as many as there are kinds of women.
Indeed, come writer's speak of widows as
"widow women" and though purists de-
ride them for 60 speaking there is more
truth than poetry In the phrase. Perhaps
the most iinterestiug kind of widows are
those who, having loved and lost, feel,
after a proper and decorous period of
lonely waiting, an inclination to love
again, even at the risk of again losing.
These widows, of course, can never love
anybody as they loved those who are sleep
ing in the cold, cold ground, but they can
make q try at loving. And they know
that they can at least be a comfort
to those who need comfort and
that they can be useful in help
ing to set the esolitary in families.
They feel 1t their duty to do what they
can for the human race, especially the
male part of it, and they feel sure that the
loved and lost ones would, If they knew
all the circumstances, approve their no
BILE ideas of duty and self-sacrifce. So,
out of pure bsneyolence and good will,
they marry again. And, as may be no.
tioed, we do not surround this statement
with any cloud of dubiety. These widows
marry again when they want to. Their
previous experience is made good use of
by them, and with their natural re-
sources aided by education they are able
to easily persuade men that marriage, even
with one whose heart is in tie grave, is a
fine thing, and hath somewhat of tri-
umph in it. A man who has led a widow
out of inconsolable and lifelong grief into
the light of hope and the sprouting of a
new love has had a victory which is very
fattering to him and which makes him
think there must be something TO him af-
| ter all.
But the benevolence, the self sacrifice
and success of this kind of widow, inter
esting and instructive as they are, have an
| element of sadness in them in addition to
| the haunting thought about the man in the
| ground. When a widow marries again she
doubles up, 60 to speak, and in having two
husbands lessons the chances of those who
are not widows to have one. And 1t is q
serious question how far she has a right &c
go In this direction. 1t looks as If she
ought to repress her wild desire to benefit
Man by marrying two or a half dozen oi
him, and give the girls show. They want tc
be married as much as she does, and If sh,
will look back to the time when she was q
girl che will know how they feel. Having
been married she has reached the height oi
achievement, and 1t would seem that
true spirit of generosity and fairness
would lead her to be content and Il
help her unmarried sisters climb But she
doesn't seem to be made In that way. Sh,
Is after the greatest good of the creates
number, and she reasons that the more sh'
msrries the more good there will be, ant
the more will be made happy. So she will
allow no false idea of fairness and gener
osity to induce her to turn over her owl
sweet and noble mission to the hands o
youth and inexperience.
News comes from over the water tha
the mothers of England who have dsugh
ters are organizing for the purpose of edu
eating public opinion against the msrriag
of widows. We sympathize with them
but we feel sure that their organization
will be futile. Nothing can be done t
carry out its purpose unless the widow
themselves can be educated out of thei
desire to benefit the human race In thel
own sweet way. Can thsyi