Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-01-20

COIlc Nleil 10 not, as a RUE,
dislike silly women; and by a wise provi-
sion Of nature, they are rather fond of mar
rying pretty, helpless creatures who cannot
help themselves. Neither are cruel women
universally unpopular. Some lovers like to
be snubbed, and would not value wife
they had to seek upon their knees There
are therefore always chances for the silly
and cruel women.
Something Lacking.
1t is the weak. colorless women. who
have privately strong prejudices. and pub
licly no assertion of any kind. that have
even in youth, few opportunities. They
either lack the power to love strongly. or
they lack the power to express their feel
ings. They have not the courage to take
any decided step. They long for advances,
and when they are made. recoil from them
They are constitutionally so timid that
they fear any step or any condition which
is positive and final change. If marriage
had some reservations and uncertainties
some loopholes through which they could
drag themselves as final resort, they
would be more sure of their own wishes
These are the Misses Feebleminds. who
cast the reproach upon feminine celibacy.
They feel that in some way they have
been misunderstood and wronged, and they
come finally to regard all other women as
selves continually. and the worry and fret
sharpens alike their features and their tenn
per. Then their condition is precisely the
one most conducive to complaining and
spiteful gossiping; and they fall, in their
weakness and longing for sympathy, to that
level. Thus to the whole class is given a
reputation for malevolent railing which
does not by any means belong to 1t. In
fact, married women are generally more
venomous than old maids. The words of
married women have greater weight. and
they do more harm; for they can make
suggestions and accusations, which an old
maid could not make, with any p-opriety.
An old maids gossip is generally without
intentional malice; she has nothing to do
and she wants to make herself agreeable
while married women, having plenty else to
do. must, as a general thing, talk scandal
from pure i'll nature.
There is large majority of old maids
who are to be sincerely respected, and from
whose numbers men with sense and intel
ligence may choose noble wives. They are
the pretty, pure, sensible women who have
been too modest, and too womanly, to push
and scramble in the social ranks They
have dwelt in their own homes, and among
their own people, and no one has sought
them out. They have seen their youth pass
away, and all their innocent desires fade
and they have suffered what few can un-
derstand before they reached that calm
Sweet faded flowers. How tenderly We
ought to regard these gentle victims Of
those modest household virtues. which all
men profess to admire; but which few seem
DESTROYS to transplant into their own
homes.
Clever and Odd.
Another class somewhat kindred to :his il
composed of women who have never found
their ideal. and have never allowed them
selves to invent for any other man those
qualities which would elevate him to their
standard. And these women again are closely
allied to those who remain unmarried, be-
cause they do not, and will not. conform to
conventionalities and social rules, They are
clever and odd. and likely to remain odd
especially if they refuse to men-as they
are most likely to do-that step o. two in
advance which is the only way to reconcile
them to witty or intellectual women
These varieties of unmarried women are
mainly the victims of natural peculiarities
of circumstances they are not RESPONSE
BILE for. But within the last generation the