The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-12
NOW CONE BACHELOR WOMEN.
An English Writer'S Conclusion Regard.
Ing the Growing Numbe of spinsters.


Ing the Growing Numbe of spinsters.
Bachelor Women" is the title of a
recent article in the London Contem-
porary Review. 1t is By stephen
Gwynn. n will be read by women
with mixed feelings. Mr.. Gwynn de-
votes a good deal of space to discussing
the latest theories OF Signor Ferrero re-
garding the increase of spinsters in
A~nglo-Saxon society, as he put it. Sig
nor Ferrero is quite alarmed on the
subject. Mr.. Gwynn qsotes one of his
Illustrations as follows:
Il knew a family which was COM
posed as follows: The mother, widow
of a Cambridge professor. had devoted
herself to politics inc fought in the
front ranks of the radical party; the
eldest daughter. unmarried and 80, was
a journalist, m lived by herself in a
fiat. where she received her friends of
both sexes: the second was a professor
of history at Girton; the third had
ounde a model farm, with the pur-
pose of training ladies to earn their
livelihood as gardeners; the fourth had
become an artist, and was studying
sculpture. Not one of these four girls
had the least desire to marry, nor
troubled herself In the least to capti-
vate a man. They might easily have
found husbands, as all were well off.
and the two youngest exceptionally
good looking; but hey did not want to;
they said that as things were they had
more freedom, Inc that marriages
would diminish their liberty and their
pleasures in life. They had. in short.
devoted themselves to sterility. not from
religious motives, but from sheer cal
culation."
Mr.. Gwynn argues against this pes
simistic conclusion. He grants that
society Is being greatly modified by the
new and rapidly increasing class or
women to whom marriage is not the
chief end and aim in life; but proceeds
to show by actual instances, and also
by modern fiction, that the advanced
and educated woman may still occa-
sionally be induced to take pity on
single men. He lays:
For the most part the bachelor wom-
an has either to grow old in her vlrtu-
Gus B~ohemia-and II is not wholly a
cheerful fate-or to marry and go into
ordinary society. There is, however,
one thing TO be said. II she immigates
in sufficient numbers into society she
will probably end by modifying its con-
ventions: and il is surprising what a
number of women one meets who have.
at one time or another, studied art in
Paris and lived on two or three francs
a day when allowances ran snort, or
assisted i'm a bonnet shop or tried their
hands at journalism. A good many, or
course. have merely broken away from
HON for a few months in sheer desire
Of change, or may ave set up a studio
chiefly in order hat they may give tea
parties i'm il. But however little serious
NAV have been the work they did IN
their effort TO be self-supporting, yet
the habit of independence is implanted
and a rude shake is given to the old
equilibrium. Working gentlewomen
who are promoted to the dignity OF
marriage will probably by their COM
bined influence modify soclal usagss 20
a very considerable extent, thong py
no means in the direction that Slgnor
Ferrero indicates.
.sThe working gentlewoman, as we
have seen, wants TO get married IN OF,
der that she may have less work ana
more comforts: h club oma VINO
Is often a widow. remains unmarried
for the very same reason. Naturally,
she is not a pioneer, nor an emanclpa-
tor, nor enthusiast, nor theorist or any
she is simply the counterpart OF
the club man-that Is to say, a person
who organizes life on the lines of least
resistance, n aims chiefly TO save
trouble and avoid responsibility. While
IL was bad form for a woman to live
in chambers by herself, these ladies
would never a thought OF doing so'
but as soon as society accepted people
were either doing or had done this
thing, they realized the possibilities
open to them. and. though they were no
theorists. contentedly put themselves
in advance of humdrum people. Ana
certainly they have gained enormously
in the convenience of life. The lady
who has $50 or $500 a year and no IN
cumbrances used formerly to be obliged
to AXE a house and have two or three
servants: that condemned her at once
TO a cheap suburb and made entertain
ing practically impossible. Now she
has chambers somewhere in Piccadilly,
her mind is free from the cares of \
she has neither to engage
nor dismiss servants. nor compose their
quarrels: she has absolutely all the at
tendance she wants, and everything
about her is well turned out; meals
come for the touching of a bell, and IN
stead of a carriage she has her pick or
the hansoms. II she want to see faces
about her and avoid that sense of soli-
tude which has driven so many women
into matrimony, all she has to do Is TO
step round to her club; IL may be a
club for women only, or. II h prefers
IL. one of the mixed arrangements
which are becoming so popular"
The author concludes by expressing
the opinion that al a result of present
conditions there VII be "A great falling
off in the humble Of marriages Of CON
v~enience. The ~reproachful term "cld
maid" will disappear and instead we
shall have not only the bachelor girl.
but the old bachelor woman. who,
when the middle-aged single gentle
man Of the future grows tired of club
life and offers her the comforts of a
home. will reply:
The comforts Of home are for the
husband. | do not want to take upon
myself the charge Of an establishment
and tho fRdinm ~ .ugFn1 thraa meals n
which ! myself have ordered"
These bachelor women are thing
and the old-time old maids quite an
other.