The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-08
OLD MAIDS AND OLD BACHELORS.

"Friend OF the Family WINE the
Formers Visits Are Apt to Be Visit
tations-How spinsters Might Dis
count the Bachelors Popularity.
Eron, the Ne.o York sun.
There is one prerogative exclusively ex-
eroised by the bachelor Of uncertain age
that the old maid of uncertain age oovets
more than the franchise--that OF friend Of
the family. Every one knows this bachelor
friend. Papa gives him hearty greeting,
even IL stocks have gone down and the
butchers bill is too large. Mamma smiles
warmest welcome though she knows there
isn't soup enough and that she is the one
who will have TO 60 without. The
children climb into his lap, and the young
girls OF the household fiutter about him In
sweet devotedness. Now why not the
old maid friend as well. She is q gentle,
refined and oharmingly cultured woman Of
the world. The Respondent, dependent,
apolsgetic. blighted being without 9 male
Is an old edition--out OF print and only
found occasionally in college towns and
old fashioned hamlets. The fin de steele
old maid probably has as large an income
or earns as big salary as the old bache-
for himself She has more money to spend
just as she likes than half the married
women she visits. She has time to read the
books. She sees the latest play. She keeps
up with the magazines. Nothing IN music
or art escapes her notice. She brings with
her an air OF refinement and culture united
with sweet womAnly tact and sympathy
that Is refreshing to a degree, that is IL she
is the right kind Of an old maid that every
man wonders why some other fellow doesn't
marry.
One trouble with the old maid in estab>
lisbisg herself as friend OF the family is that
IL Is hard for her TO realize and acknowledge
that she is an old maid. The transition
from girlhood to womsnhood 10 brought
about 30 unoonsciously In her case that she
doesn't understand just when it takes place
The girl that marries assumes with the title
OF madam the responsibilities of wifehood.
The maiden unwed has no epoch-making
period In her life which determines the
dawn Of womanhood. She is In her heart
perenuially girl As so ne one has said,
I'm the soul OF every unwon woman there
abides eternal youth" Now the world was
created to serve the young girl Friends
and parents strive alike to give her
pleasure. She needs not 10 do, but to be In
the first freshness of her girlhood. No one
expects any more of her than they do Of the
rosebuds-the unconscious grace of beauty
and fragrance. But the woman's life means
service; 1t involves sacrifice; IL demands
effort. That Is what the old maid doesn't
understand always. She gets disgruntlsd
and gloomy because she is neglected, when
il is as natural an evolution az the success
sion of the seasons. She must give out
more than she takes, grant more
II IL were not for making the old
bachelor a shade more conceited than he
is now, one might counsel the old maid to
take leaf out Of his book. Suppose she 10
careful to take the last book she has finished
to the man of the house, or remembers q
good story for him she has heard, or per-
hape reads up an article on the particular
aVYhi hn {Z fata kaA N, a,nl plrak l. a
vice about 1t. Never know is all yourself
when you are talking to man, remember,
unless you want to get even yourself dis
liked. Make him think he is tell
ing you all about 10 and be will
decide that you are immensely clever. Aud
what about q hAsdful u roses 60 the
hostess. or bunch Of piuks Ter the dinnsri
Womsn like those little Attentions frsn
woman as well az from q man. There Ia
peculiar satisfaotisn 10 having the kind Of
devotion that is supposed b Be expressed in
q womans gift OF nowsss You can buy
bonbcas for the girls just 40 veil ~ the old
bachelor cAn, and remember the kind they
like, and little kaickknacks for The chill
dren. You know halt the houseksepsrs
that fare sumptuousIy ever day al home
| just dote on being taken out to lunch where
they can eat somsthiaR they haven't
| thought about at all. OF courre you
may have to deny yourself q lit
tie bit 80 keep UP with these
small courtesies, but 90 does every
married woman who entsrtains at all She
| must return in full measure every favor she
| receives from the day she 10 married, though
| for her to invite TO luncheons and give dim
| ners often means TO 20 without the dainty lit
| tie elegancies OF the toilet the matinee tick
| cts, the new books that you always enjoy. Ii
means, too, to 90 down into hot kitchen
| where yesterdays cabbage and onions fight
| for f1reQadant in IL WrAaflfpor
with perverse cooks and tmpudent Mattresses
| as Jacob wrestled with the angel-only
longer. II means nervous headache and
| hysteria, and q cross husband when he
| comes 10 at night aud discovers the situa-
| ton. So you see IL Is not the old maid
| alone who pays for her popularity. Then
| there Is another readable page in the old
| bachelors book, only he is 30 pulled up
| with vanity 1t is too bad to call attention
to il.
Did you ever notice the old bachelor never
| has any troubles or vexations to rehearse?
| IL his stocks has gone down be never says
| anything about it. II his landlady gives
him bis claret cold and his champagne hot,
| IL she frizzles his beefsteak to a crisp and
| gives him his mullins dough he lies low
| and says muffin" IL his tailor Is exorbitant
and his laundress starches his handker-
| chiefs more than she does his dress shirts,
| you never know IL. That's why he's such a
| ROOu t6llOWs IbdLs WY everybody
| 10 90 delighted to see him. That's WHY he
doesn't get any OF the sympathy poured
out over the old maid. That is why people
are not continually ssking him
| why he doesn't get married. 1t is just like
the clubs that men are always telling their
their wives about as models of comfort,
running without friction or annoyance. OF
course, the club cook never leaves, because
he has such an opportunity O. helping him
self to things from the grocer's supplies, aud
the buffers can never secure 90 much wine
without paving q revenue anywhere else.
And the directors OF those model clubs
know, IL they dared tell, that there is moth
| ing but confusion worse COMPOUNDED in the
homogeneous. arguments and discussion
and fuss all the time.
| So with the enviable old bachelors exist
ence. However grievous It's disoomforts, he
never airs his tale of woe at dinner. Now
| the old maid has infinitely the advantage of
him after she learns how much more utter
esting it 10 to everybody to rehease their ills
than TO hear the account Of some other per-
sons misfortune. The old maid who, Of
| course, never has nothing to trouble her,
can become the trust company and safe de-
post of every ones secrets in the household.
The wife can con6de to her things that she
is too proud TO have another married
woman know. The young girls can whis-
! per their shy secrets that they can't Ouite