Middletown transcript., 1897-04-10

1
not marry, there not being men enoug
to go round, and polygamy havin,
ceased to exist as fashionable insti
tuition. Then there had to follow con
viction, which took long time to grow
that those women who seemed to havt
been left quite out in The cold whel
marriages were settled might have staiC
out of their free wills, and that there
fore they were not to be judged as
those who had bean tried and found
wanting. But the most potent of all
causes lay in new conceptions of what
individuality might mean, THAT indiv.
iduality which is irrespective of
privilege and independent of tie and
condition-with a growing belief in
the necessity for the development OF
this individuality and the right of its
expression. Through all the upheav-
ais of home and societies which have
sometimes alarmed US, reception of
what this involves for women, as for
men, has been slowly born. The fact
of her being married or unmarried
weights little if a woman be equipped
in every way for the part she is to play
in life.
In home of her own spinster gains
both the table and the fireside. When
presiding over the one or welcoming to
the other she acquires, as hostess GER
tain dignity and surensss of positio n
which once were supposed to belong
only to her married sisters. She be-
comes, in fact, the dispenser, and in
giving she gets her own independence;
for there is more in giving, even in the
way of hospitality, than we altogether
know.
For the working spinister, too, there
is another invaluable gain-shs gets a
place in which to conceal her make
shifts and poVerties, all her ups and
downs of fortune.
Of course the question of expense
suggests itself, for housekeeping neces-
sarily involves hundred unexpected
expenditures. But this question when
applied to the spinster home, ought, it
seems to me, to be considered only in
regard TO general results, to the Ques-
tions of the great gains or great losses
involved, the minor details being left
to regulate themselves, as they will
when principle of life is followed.
For ten dollars a week, When you board
you get a small hall bedroom and your
food. You have no care, no response
bility, but what have you gained?
Looking at it from a purely material
side, what have you that belongs to
yoH at the end of the year?
Now every expenditure inahouse does
bring you some return. Your rent
gives you walls behind which both you
and the things you love may be protect
ID. Your wood-man's bill your but
,her's bill mean rich memories of hap
py intercourse when some friend was
made welcome. What you have paid |
or chair was made the chair 3vour
)wn.
Your possessions, too, will grow. 1t
s a law of life that never fails, that to
he things that one has, others will
Ilways be added. Your possessions
will grow also by the hundred unex-
'ected and never-failing kindnesses of
kindness which are con-
tant factors in all success, and which
lelp to make the richness of all lives.
N a material way therefore you will
o better off. though you may have
pent more money and expended more
trength. Your place in lire, too, will
10 better established. You will
ave a greater number ties, as well as
recognized position. You will have
ad greater opportunities for helping
ther people, and find yourself in every
ray better equipped for all 'emergen-
les. -Harper's Bazar.