Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1895-01-24
OF INTEREST TO MEN.
ELLA WHEELER WILCOX ON A RE-
MARKABlE LETTER.

of Scores of Her Sex-A Few Comments
ON the "Advanced woman--A Mighty
Influence.
Copyright 1895. by American Press Associa-
| ton.
I DEAR MADAM-In a recent article by
you read this sentence: mo woman
ever reaches 40 who can truthfully say
she is glad she is not married.
Cannot the archer who drives the ar
row SO straight home to the woman
heart do something to advise that wom-
an who appeals to her?
There are scores Of middle aged good
men In the world, are there not, who
would make kind and loving husbands?
There are many women in the world
who have reached mature years with
the youth of girlhood in their hearts
and the wisdom of womanhood in their
department
These men would marry these women
if they knew where to find them. But
such women shrink from revealing their
home longing and love craving from
their nearest friends, and either
through the formal conventions of a
large city, which are often a bar to ac-
quaintance, or by being shut in small
village, like myself, where no marriage
able men exist. they drift on into old
age, alone and unwedded.
IL the wish to love and be loved and
add a happy home to the wealth Of the
world is the noblest Of desires, why is
there not some safe and honorable way
for bachelors of both sexes to meet and
become acquainted?
j do not speak from the standpoint Of
wornout woman who wants a home
and proyider. speak from the stand
point Of girl who has always felt very
young, and who stiIl has only Just
reached maturity, though past 35. | am
often called upon to account for my
youthful appearance in the face of dates.
''I am alive" is all the explanation can
give. cannot be old and feel as I do.
Now, would like above all things to
have the company Of a grand, jolly old
boy" during the remainder Of this
natural life and into the shades beyond.
/ feel that a woman should have the
right to take some steps in the most
important affair Of her life. If you have
not treated this matter in its entirety,
please do SO. Suggest some way that a
woman obliged by her occupation to re-
main month in and out in a small inte-
rior town, WHARF she has not one single
man friend, could bring about an ac-
quaintance with worth while men of
her own or more mature years.
could live in one room and be happy
with the man could lore. Several men
have loved me in my life, but always
the wrong ones. Surely somewhere must
await the right man whom could love.
How can find him? DoRoTHEA.
This remarkable letter came to me
some weeks ago and seems worthy of
careful attention. Without doubt the
writer voices the secret feeling of scores
Of single women in the land
The present time is called "the wom-
ans century" and we have ON every
the advanced woman. She is in all
the professions, she is in all the trades,
she is in all the sports heretofore re-
served for linen only.
Men first pitied, then endured and
now occasionally embrace" her in all
these situations. I have even heard men
say they admired her in that most IN
attractive and ungraceful of positions
ON che wheel Without doubt bicycling
is a convenient mode of locomotion and
moderately INDUCED in must be health
ful exercise. But have never yet seen
the woman who looked well on the
wheel. 1t is distinctly masculine atti-
tude, and no woman looks we'll in mas
culine attitudes. Yet I have heard men
declare otherwise.
Now, while the modern woman has
pushed her way into all these new high
ways and byways and won not only toll
erance, but frequently admiration, from
mankind in doing SO, she has as yet
made no progress in solving the momen-
tous question of her life, for marriage is
and ever must be the momentous ques-
ton of all human lives.
However broad gauged man may be
in his view of woman Is rights, he is al
ways shocked and disgusted if she open
~ makes the slightest advance toward
husband hunting Of course society is
full of women who have but that one
object or purpose in life, but their meth
DDS are veiled and their purposes at least
screened by artful subterfuge.
Man is not SO utterly changed from
the creature he was few centuries ago
as is woman There still lives in him
the desire to wake the sleeping princess
with his kiss. he does not like to think
the princess has been for many years
very much awake, sending out spies and
search parties to bring him to her feet
The fear that any other wayfarer or trav-
eler would have been just as eagerly
welcomed by her mars his pleasure. In
such cases Cupid loves surprises. Abso-
lutte frankness between the sexes is foil
to romantic happiness.
However wide awake the princess may
he when the lover appears, she is wise
to keep her eyelashes down and seem
to awaken somewhat reluctantly under
his kiss.
/ am glad the age has gone by when
maidens sat idly in their towers, wait
ing for the lover who often came only
to ride away and leave them to go
into decline. / am glad woman has
found many things to do and think
about, to help her bear the years of
waiting before the lover comes, or to
aid her through the years after he has
ridden by. I" But I trust the time viii
never come when she will go forth
boldly toseek him. His coming" must
ever, while the world lasts, remain the
most important thought and hope Of a
wholly wemanly nature, but she must
let the occult powers of her heart and
mind, rather than her outward actions,
bring him to her side. She must VIII
him TO come to her with those silent
soul forces which are the mightiest in
huences in the universe. For
With each strong thought, with every earnest
longing,
| For aught thou deemest needful to thy soul,
Invisible vast forces are set thronging
/ Between me and that goal.
'Tis only when some hidden weakness alters
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