Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1903-07-03
An Old Maid to be Admired.

Sometimes the brutal world speaks
unfairly OF such persons and says
that they are peculiar and angular,
and never had a chance to get
married. Some of the most brilliant
and beautiful women of the land have
refused many jeweled hand in
marriage and allowed the bloom of
youth to fade away, in order that
they might achieve the highest ideals
of life and accomplish the greatest
good for humanity. 1t is an i'm
possibility for every girl to get
married. The supply for matrimony
is greater than the demand. In
Great Britain, there are $4,000
more women than men. In the
United States there are 100000 more
women than men. In looking over
the statistics of Massachusetts, and
New York, you will find that the
women number in the majority by
the thousands. By the rules of
arithmetic, it is an impossibility for
every girl to contemplate matrimony.
1 do not know why the Lord should
create more women than men unless
women are his favorites. There is
no question but women are an
improved edition over men. The
old Persian proverb was, as
diamond was the last and highest of
Gods mineral creation, so women
was the last and highest of Gods
animal creation. I suppose that is
the reason women and diamonds
have such love for each other. In
her religious instinct and affectionate
nature, which constitutes the best
part of human nature, woman is
about IS per cent mans superior.
You look over the list of high
school graduates, and you will find
about 80 per cent of the boys are
girls. There is another reason which
lessons the chances of thousands of
girls for marriage, it is the corrupt
character of SO many men. Many
men are such moral lepers that it
would be an insult for them to offer
their hand in marriage. 1t would be
about like turkey buzzard counting
turtle dove for such men to try to
win the affections of pure girl.
There are men in almost every
community, who are struck through
with moral decay from the scalp of
their heads to the end of their toe
nails A pure girl might as we'll
expect happiness by jumping into a
cage of red hot iron as to anticipate
bliss by uniting her destinies with
such a character. Another. reason
that many girls do not marry is be-
cause they consider it their highest
duty to remain on the old homestead
and care for their aged parents. No
words in the English language can
express my admiration for such
heroines. 1t is easier to care for a
half dozen rollicking, frolicking,
romping children than it is to
| administer to the wants of one
childish old man or woman. While
other girls are yonder under the
moonlit bough receiving the tender
caresses of her lover, this fair young
maiden is at home soaking the old
mans feet; while other girls are
yonder in the parlor or the hall keep
ing step to the sound of the violin or
the lutte in the arms of some attractive
| young man, this maiden is at home
dancing to the wants of neuralgia ard
rheumatism and spreading plasters
on lame backs. Although brutal
society may nickname such girls as
old maids and sneeringly say they
never had a chance to marry; but
God calls such saints domestic
martyrs. A dozen ordinary women
living in their beautiful homes lolling
in luxury haven't as much nobility
and heroinism as could be found in
the tip-end of the little finger of such
maidens.
The world looks with admiration
upon Anna Ross, the heroine of the
battlefield of Fair Oaks, and
Margaret Breckenridge, the martyr
of Lookout Mountains, and Georgina
Willetts, the angel of Cooper Shop
hospital; but the bravery of those
noble women will not compare to the
| fortitude of thousands of young
maidens throughout the land in which
the only music to inspire them is the
wines of a childish old man or
women, and the only landscape to
greet them is shelves filled with
bottles, and hydraulics, and the only
one to applaud them is the eye OF
God and angels. If l am speaking
to any maiden in which the sparkle
of the eye is beginning to grow dim
and the bloom of the cheek to fade
/ auau and time Is heoinnino to make