The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-08
Finds Husbands for Old Maids

from the Chicago Tribune.
 Finding eligible husbands for olo maids and exercising general supervision over matchmaking with far-seeins' kindly eye is a novel form of philantnro- py that would not appeal to many per- sens because of the wide range of dis astrous possibilities 1t involves Yet there is a woman In New York who Is wen-to-dc and who finds herself with plenty of time on her hands. who devotes a good deal of her energy and much money to this peculiar work She calls it philanthropy, pure and simple, and emphaticelly denies the allegation Of su- perficial acqualntanccs that she Is crank" Furthermore, she rescnts the inference that she possesses an inordi- nate passion for matchmaking
 Many years ago." she says, In ex- pleining her unique philanthropy, T was dee ply impressed by a psychological study of a convincing typs which I came across while reading a novel. found in this book an impre gsive description Of the sense of abject loneliness that bore down Q poor unmarried woman, and was fascinated by the depr essing situa- tion. for at that time I was engaged to marry the man I loved and could not look ahead into the future and see much happiness in store for me. l easily im- agtned myself in that girls position and tho picture haunted me so persistenly that I at once became intensely inter- ested in the general subject of old maids. That is why I have devoted so much of my time to the rather hazardous work, if 1t may be called work, of finding con- genial companions for lonely women who are approaching the meridian of life with absolutely no matrimonial pros- pects."
 rhis energetic woman has not con- tented herself merely with making matches, but has gone deeper into the subject of marriage and has studied 1t from the point of view of the psychoio- gist. In the first place she has discov- cred, with many others. that there are a thousand and one reasons why some girls remain unmarried. and. what is even more surprising, she is convinced tt at plain looks are by no means the most frequent cause. This IS shown by the great number of old maids who pos sess what might really be termed pretty, attractive faces and graceful, we'll rounded figures.
 One woman fer whom have been try HE u d 0u5DdHu was py ldf ln6 prettiest of my acquaintances," she says. "She did not look to be more than 25, al- though she frequently admitted to me that she was past 40 Hers was an un- usually sad case. In spite of her good looks men never lost an opportunity to shun her, and after studying her learned chat his was cue to a certain eff feet of melancholy pride and mystery which her face and manner produced. When first met his woman she excited my curiosity, and after many futile at tempts I finally discovered that she had once been in love.
 And the remarkable feature of the cage was that her love was returned in full measure. But she belonged to that rather numerous type of women who are doubters of themselves and she could not make up her mind whe ther she loved the young man enough to marry him. She constantly questioned the depths of her affections and the result of this persist ent burrowing was that she found new evidence all the time that she was right.