The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-05

Wait until you cannot wait any longer"
Walt, that Is to say until she-that not
impossible she-comes with smiles so
sweet and manners so gracious that you
cannot wait any longer, then marry,
and may you be happy ever after! As to
the age at which women should marry.
am afraid of burning my fingers with
that question. All l shall say is that II
some women are not worth looking at
after 80 years of age there are quite as
many not worth speaking to before it,
Let man please himself. but let him
not marry either a child or an old wo-
man."
A woman, says the New York Times.
who was discussing the self-sacrificing wo-
man the other day,decla red her q creature
of the past, The only example that now
remains. she claims, is the older woman
who has made the habit of self-sacriice
the practice of a lifetime and cannot get
away from it,
II know what ii is myself" she said.
81 was brought up TO believe that
must live life of self Annexation. l de-
voted myself to my children in season
and out. Poor things, I brought them up;
they never had a chance to grow indie
pendently. That was in the early days of
liClt lives. w men my nuSDdNu came nome
at night my house was Immaculate, but
l was tired to death and cross, and he
didn't know what 1t was. Finally / was
Ill. l had worked myself into a perfect
wreck. Then I had to stop and l had a
long time to think.
am never going TO do as l have
DONE I said to my husband one day, L
have made mistake, and I am no long
er going to slave myself to death
No, what's the use? he answered
cheerfully, we only have to pay the doc
tors bills
THE woman who is constantly giving
up everything for everybody does no
good to herself or TO any one else. BY such
a course she makes her children selfish
and they do not thank her for 1t. They
like a pleasant. cheeful mother, not a
tiresome drudge. And how one comes to
hate these martyrs who will sacrifice
themselves in spite of everything! They
spend their time and money for others
and have the martyr spirit unconsciously,
whether they mean to show IT or not. Half
the time the helpful things they do for
others the others would rather do for
themselves There are new ideals of a
woman's duty in this generation and 1
would not be the one to say they are not
as worthy"
According to a woman who has had ex-
perlence the modern Christian martyr is
the chaperon, says Dorothy Dix in the
New Orleans Picayune.
Don't talk to me about other peoples
sufferings," she says, II have chaperoned
half dozen girls through summer cam
paigns. and l know what real trouble and
tribulation is. The office of the chaperon
is one that brings neither pleasure nor
profit. nor honor. 1t is one in which you
are blamed if you fail, and get no credit
for bowling success. Nobody considers
the chaperon. Nobody pites her. Nobody
is interested in her She is a poor perse-
cuted, put-upon creature, sacrificed to pro-
prieties yet people have been sainted and
monuments reared to commemorate their
heroic sufferings for less than she goes
through.
ITO begin with, it's the most thankless
task on earth. 1t never even seems to
occur TO anyone that you are making a
sacrifice to cucumber yourself with girl
People meet you on the street and say
casually, quite as If they were bestowing
a prodigious favor, instead Of asking one;
"Oh, Mrs. Blank, l hear you are going
off 10 the White Sulphur Springs, or the
Berkshire Hills, or somewhere next week
Would you mind chaperoning my Mamie?
She's crazy to CO. and it's Just impossible
for me to leave home this summer. I'm
sure you will enjoy having the dear child
with you. She's so sweet and won't give
you any trouble. etc.
What is one to say? If you've ever been
through the experience once and were
honest, you would say, Not on your life
I am going off TO enjoy myself, and not
to DO penance for my sins by being a
chaperon. 1 don't want to be bothered
with any young girl, and / won't have her
at any price but you know perfectly well
II you do say il Mamie, and her friends,
and her family will call you a mean. self
fsh. hateful old thing. So the chances are
you murmur hypocriticay something
about being delighted and you have the
sweet satisfaction of knowing. for vour
pains, that unless you dog Mamie's every
footstep her parents won't think YOU have
done your duty by her and If you do the
sweet creature. for whose sake YOU walk
weary miles and go to picnics your soul
abhors and help line the ballroom walls
long after you want to be in bed. win call
you an old dre gon.
1T doesn't make much difference
either, what sort of girl you undertakes
to look after. AS far as your conduct is
concerned, there is small choice whether
she is the fiighty girl whom you are al
ways trying to keep out of scrapes. or
the stick-to-the-wall girl, who keeps Won
huobliiiB i9iHS " AHQ DeauX Tor her. In
either case the work of the chaperon Is
from the rising of the sun to the going
down thereof, and the putting out of the
last light in the hotel, and If snybodv
thinks the job is a snecure, they are well
come to 1t.
Il tell you 1t takes the talent of a din
lomat the patience of Job, and the wis
dom of Solomon to be successful chan
eron. You have 10 have the forbearance
to put up with the never-ready girl. who
delays every excursion and keeps YOU
waiting for meals until the head-waiter
Is ready 10 shut the dining-room doors,
and there's nothing TO eat but warmed
over scraps. You have TO have the hui
mility 90 fasten the clothes of the girl,
who thinks part of a chaperon's duties
are to be dressing maid. You have to
have the generosity to supply the borrow
face powder. or hair pins, or stamps, or
anything she can sponge on another per-
son for, and you have to have the self
control not to want to spank the weepy
girl, who goes off and cries every time
everything doesn't go just to suit her, or
another girl has the most attention.
You have to know when 10 beat up
the dark corners Of the gallery and rout
out the sentimental girl TO keep her from
being gossipped about You have to know
just how much rope 20 give the Jolly
good-fellow girl. and when to pull her
up. before she degenerates into a rowdy
You have to know how 90 keep the girl
who thinks she's picturesque and likes
to pose from posing in idotic attitudes