The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1901-01-08
An Old Maids Age.

Al via Mdau aye.
1t is very odd to look back upon the
alteration which has taken place in
thoughts and opinions curing the last
few centuries of the world. In the
time when Juliet and other heroines
attained the height of their fame at
IA or Is, womans personal charms
seemed to have waned far earlier than
they do in our own days. Queen Hen
rietta Maria bewailed at two and TWEEN
ty that she was losing her attractions
and growing old, and girl who passed |
IS without becoming wife was con-
sidered getting past all hope of mar
riage.
OF course, this was partly due to
| the times. In those rough and war
| like days there was no protection for
women outside their husbands homes
or the convent. Parents We're too
glad to secure a safe asylum for their
girls under a husbands roof, and hur
ried them into marriage at the earli-
est possible age.
Another reason was to be found in
poncy. Fathers trieG to secure heir
esses for their sons, and girls with
good dover We're married in the nurs-
cry, sometimes even in their cradles.
Early marriage were an absolute ne
cessity.
Even in the days of our grandmoth-
ers, 25 was known as the old maids
first corner" and if she reached 80,
a still unappropriated blessing, her
case was looked upon as hopeless.
Nowadays, we have wonderfully
changed all that. Early marriages
are looked upon with disfavor, and
year by year the marriage years grow
later. This is partly cue, no doubt,
to the fact that men are less able to
support wives till they approach mid
die age; but whereas in the countries
abroad, where the same necessity pre-
+ walls, men of 50 and 40 choose girls OF
. is or 20 for their wives; with us it
D only extends the marrying age among
, women.
But another wonderful thing is that
the typical old maid has now died out
/ as completely as the mail coach OF
II bull-baiting. The withered, cantank
. erous scandalmunger, sOured and bit
= ter and spiteful happily no longer eX
Il lists. Unmarried women of uncertain
Z age nowadays are sometimes the mos
delightful members society boasts
u They are bright, good-tempered
= amusing and full of interest, and ar,
=, very often the most popular compar
I" ion of young men.
" Not only that, but, more eXtraordin
u airy still, women no longer look oil
u at the age they used. At 80 a beat
d tiful woman is often but just ar
preaching the zenith of her beaut,
l. At 40, and even at As, if she has goo
'e health, good temper and widened il
IL terests. she should still be in he
~ prime. The dreaded period fair, ia
- and forty is no longer a bugbear t
v the woman of today. She is sti
"a called a girl in society; she plays tie:
AZ mis-, dances. flirts-if she is so il
clined-and has her little courts {
~ love. In fact the debutante Of
10 hasn't chance beside her with mo:
:" men, who will turn away from til
AZ shy and gentle little person with not
~ ing to say for herself to the INTEL
- gent, sympathetic woman of the worl
~ who knows how to amuse and pleas
N them.
~ Women dress young nowadays, to
and that helps to keep them youn
Nobody laughs at woman of so wi
wears a hat: but if she takes to car
Id she is likely to be considerably jeer'
at. Nobody-except few old-fas
on toned people living out of the wor
think that woman should give
hit wearing white from girlhood has pa:
ed Nobody sinks into poke-bonne
and meek skirts and depressed styl
le- of wearing their hair the moment tn
he have passed 50.
No; all this is changed. and t