The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1901-11-01
FULFILLING HER DUTY.

"OuAsAA S@A AosAAA Sod1S oOAo VI
fellow. 'Tis the sheerest folly to
question that. 1t is an infinitely big
ger achievement to remain unmarried
AS many sensible women do-from a
keen sense of duty to others, loyalty
to high ideal or for wider sphere of
action, which is fortunate for the rest
ofhumanity, for the world swings along
very tamely without the unmarried
woman.
She is generally owned by syndi-
cate composed of the various men,
bers of her family, and she is passed
back and forth among them-a sort of
jointly possessed treasure-to be loan
ed wherever it happens to be most re-
quired, frequently serving as the unit
ing link between the dissenting fac
tions thereof. She feels all the inter-
est of an owner in the worldly posses
sions of the lucky syndicate which
knows her ministering, and yet in all
this great universe she owns absolute
ly nothing. For more than one rea-
son she is tremendous source of CON-
fort when things go wrong, the source
of things that cause man to bias
pheme under his breath and cast about
in his mind for somebody to lay the
blame on. She makes fairly good
scapegoat after years have tanned her
spirit and taught her the wisdom of
silence. While she has youth and at
tractiveness she finds it very true that
marriage is possible for any woman.
She may discuss by the hour; she
may write about it at certain rate
per column; she may dream of the
bless of possessing home and real
sure enough man all to herself; of the
satisfaction of indulging her own tastes
and following her own inclinations of
the sweetness of an unselfish love and
the soothing of a mans sympathy
when heartaches and other aches wax
strong; of the pleasing senses of pro-
lection that come with a mans arm al
ways between her and the world.
She may even have an occasional
idea of trying the experiment with
some particular one of numerous ad-
mirers, but when she looks around
and sees the many empty places that
nobody else can fill, and remembers
the many people who need her she
hasn't quite the nerve to desert her
post. She believes that another wo-
man will console each man in whose
life she has created an aching void and
that no one can fill the other gaps.
She is convinced that it would be sell
fish just then for her to think of mar
riage for herself.
As she grows older and these temp
tations come less often she fills the
sentiment craving side of her nature
with other peoples love affairs. Many
a matrimonial aspirant goes to her for
a bracer when his soul is sick with
uncertainty and goes away with GER
tain buoyancy and sense of peace.
1t probably requires much grace
and tact to know just how to behave
when people you've tended through
sundry MANTLE ills and spanked and
bossed generally begin to wear grown
up airs and be patronizing. Its even
worse when they loftily take you into
their confidence about some budding
romance, going into all the details for
fear you wouldn't understand, you,
who've been there so many times, but
the unmarried woman is equal to even
this, and she gets the lions share of
the condolences, too. Being very NOR
tai, there come times to the splendid
abilities and permitted circumstances
to curtail the possibility of their de-
velopment; why he gave her soul
with such infinite capacity for loving
and enjoying and withheld from her
the beautiful things of life and the re-
alization of her ideal.
When she consecrates her life to her
kith and kin, she almost invariably
carries with her the possibilities Of
physician, nurse, cook, housemaid, and
when an emergency arises, generally
commanding the whole situation. She's
"a rock in a weary land" when small,
pink, colicky edition of humanity ar
rives on the scene. She halves the
sorrows and burdens and failures and
doubles the joys and successes with
which she is called upon to sympa-
thize. She it is who gracefully crowns
with tulle and orange blossoms the
girl who walks down the flower-be-
decked aisle to stately wedding music.
to return wife. Her fingers press
down the lids over eyes she had loved
and bid the depal ting spirit godspeed
on its last journey, and with quivering
heart and throbbing brain under a
calm exterior she goes about soothing
grief less bitter than her own, because
it finds relief in expression.
When she dies, there is sorrow in
consolable in many rudderless homes
over the first loss she has ever failed to
tighten, and for the longest time they
wonder how they can find existence
possible without her. They never be-
fore realized her actual worth she had
i