The Chilhowee echo. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1899-19??, 1899-11-18
AN OLD MAID.
Look at the list.

Elizabeth of England, one of the most
illustrious of modern sovereigns. Her
rule over Great Britain certainly COM
prlsed the most brilliant literary age Of
the English-speaking people. Her po-
litical acumen was certainly put to as
severe tests as that of any other ruler
that the world ever saw.
Maria Edgeworth was an old maid.
1t was this woman's writings that first
suggested the thought of writing SINH
larly to Sir Walter Scott. Her brain
might well be called the mother of the
Waverly novels.
Jane Porter lived aud died an old
maid. The children of her busy brain
were "Thaddeus of Warsaw" and "The
Scottish Chiefs, which have moved the
hearts of millions with excitement and
tears.
Joanna Baillie, poet and playwright,
was lone of EN-"
Florence Nightingale, most gracious
lady, heroine of Inkerman and Bala-
klava hospitals, ever wrote Miss before
her name.
Sister Dora the brave spirit of Eng
fish pesthouses, the wonder, the almost
matchless, whose story is as a helpful
evangel, was the bride of the worlds
sorrow only.
And then what names could the writer
and the reader add of those whom the
great world may not know but we know,
and the little world of the village, the
church, the family know and prize be-
yond all worlds. 1t is the ''old maid"
of the village who is ever first at the
threshold of stricken neighbor; who
has no care for self and breads no con-
tagion, whose hand is skillful about the
sick room, and whose eyes never seem
to need sleep; who is full well known to
be within the call of suffering far and
near. 1t was she who baked the we'd
ding cake, and ran her fond old feet off
for you, miss, glad in your gladness as
if it were her own wedding day. 1t is
the old maid of the family who lives
but for the convenience of others; and
in every emergency the first Thought Of
Jail her married sisters is: ''Send for
: Ann" Did Ann ever fail to respond if
she was able to crawl?
Who fingers at decrepit mothers
side, and is like staff in fathers old
, hands? Who keeps the old hearth
blazing and the old roof-tree from be-
ing sold ''to settle up the estate?"
Why, it is your old maid sister, sir, and
madam. She yet tends the chickens
and the ponies, and trains the ivy above
the porch, till the ancient mansion is
very paradise of sweet tranquility.
There is something indescribably
pathetic in the old maids face. You
seem to catch at times passing CLEAN
of some old hope: some far-off song, half
sung, and never to be finished, echoes
in her voice; face mayhap forgotten
by every one but her seems at intervals
before her meditative gaze, and is
l swiftly hid as you enter.
1t is not true that all women were
created for wives, any more than it is
true that all men were made for hus-
bands. Since the world stood there
have been minated among both sexes.
Can there be greater fool than she
who marries for the sake of being mar
i ried?-who marries because she is "get-
ting round the corner and it is time"?-
: or because "all her friends are being
: married off, and she breads to be left
alone"?-or who marries 'to get sup
: port" in this free land of plenty and
many open doors to women's industry?
u Poor dazed creatures, taking up with
the next pair of pantaloons and waist
. coat that offers, "before they get round
= the last corner" aged tlirty-fve!
But the genuine old maid is not of
such poor stuff. She knows her own
{ worth; she has counted the stored
# wealth of her true woman's heart and
\ she has made high resolve not to bestow
# that wealth without some adequate re-
Q turn. She is right; and generally one
4 of her married sisters, sooner or later,
J. comes to whisper, "Ann, you were
o wiser than l." Poor thing!