The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-03-07

N~~S~S~s~SS-S.S~SS
All the old maids and their champions
are bflsthns with indignat ton on le-
count of the statement of a woman
author that Jeanne Arc IS the only
unmarried woman to have attained dis
tnctiOn. Miss Marie Van Worst. joint
author with Mrs John Van Worst Of
The Woman Who Tolls" an interest
ing study of the condition of factory
women in the different parts of the
United States is the offender. in an
article published in a Chicago neWspa-
per last week she said:
Tell me where you viii find an old
maid in the history of the world who
ever achieved distinction Jeanne dare
is the only unmarried woman, to my
knowledge, whose deeds are historic
The article was further elaboration
of the principal burden of Miss Van
Worst s book, The Woman Who Tolls -
which protests against what its author
designates as race suicide" the grow
ing number of childleSs women in
America. The book has received a con
siderable boost by the advertising given
it by President Roosevelt who wrote
its authors a letter in praise of it and
especially of its appeal to women not
to neglect the highest privilege of their
sex. maternity
Miss Van Worst is very hard upon the
old maid the woman who prefers indie
pendence to marriage and earning her
come to the duties of wife and mother.
She sees in the growing number of
childless working women, many of them
married but unwilling to give up their
positions for their homes, a menace to
the race and the strongest proba bility
of its imminent decadence.
But when Miss Marie Van Worst,
thorough student of sociological subjects
of but one unmarried woman in the
worlds history to achieve distinction,
she but pEoclaims her ignorance. Robert
J. Burdette has been one of many de-
tenders Of the unmarried woman to re-
ply to Miss Van NOrst's charge of the
insignificance OF the attainment of the
despised old maid and he mentions
among the husbandless and chiIdless
women of fame in past and contempor-
aneOus history queen Elizabeth, Helen
Gould, Florence Nightingale, Sister
Dora, Grace Darling. Clara Barton, Su-
san b. Anthony, Frances Willard, to
say nothing Of Jephthas daughter and
the Queen Of Sheba" rs President
Carey Thomas a nObOdy2" demands the
incensed Mr. Burdette. rs Jane Ad-
dams doing nothing?"
To the list of famous old maids
cited by Mr.. Burdette one is able to
add without half trying, Jane Austen,
one OF the foremost English nOVelists
of any time, Caroline Lucretia Her
schel. the astronomer. Rosa Bonheur,
the painter. Sappho, Charlotte Bronte.
/ Charlotte Cushman, Mary Russell Nit
ford, Harriet AIartineau. Christina
Rosetti. Mary Lamb, Lucy Larcom,
Margaret Fuller, Maria Mitchell Anne
/ Whitney Mary Louise Booth Clara
Louise Kellogg, Elizabeth and Emily
/ Blackwell Elizabeth Barrett was an
/ old maid of thirty-seVen when Robert
Browning married her. but she had
/ done some of her best work at that
neys to the Homes of Famous Women
more than half the women were spin
sters- There are no spinsters in Viz
ginia T. PeacOck'S Famous Bellies of
America, but in any volume of biog-
raphy of women writer's, scientists,
musicians and artists you will find I'M
married women filling a place re-
markedly prominent in proportion to
their number as compared to married
women in all classes and conditions.
Marriage is the rule and the spinster
the exception, therefore it is only nat
ural to expect the number of famous
married women to exceed the number
of unmarried ones who have attained
distinction, but the facts are that If
you struck from the records of time
the achievements of the "Old maid
the sex would show more Ditiably than
ever in contrast with men. Even IN
the histri0nic profession. among whose
members marriage seems to be a sort
of specially, so that it is exceptional
for an actor or actress not to have
/ been married more than once. the IN
D
Maude Adams. Viola Allen. Georgia
! Cayvan, Ada Rehau and Olga Neither
sole are all spinsters, past thirty.
Robert Burdette goes on. after men
tiOning a few of the famous old maids
forgotten by Miss Van Worst to de-
fend the position of the unmarried
woman. Talk about race suicide
Joan of Arcs sole mission in life was
! to destroy families of men as fast as
other people could raise them But
other spinsters, while they haven't
been renowned for raising large fam
/ lilies of their own, have been and are
famed for taking care of the families
/ Of other people Race suicidei Did
you ever know an Old maid who WASH t
nurse, teacher seamstress and step
mother to all the children of her six
married sisters. if she had so many2s
More are the children of the spfnster
J than of the married Wife, saith the
prophet. If all the women married
and raised families who would take
care of the children? A family with
out an old maid aunt is a rose garden
without its perfume. And speaking of
/ spinsters. what's the matter with Miss
/ Marie Van TOrst2'
Tt is really time that some one was
rising to the defense of the unmarried
and demanding why men and women
may not decide for themselves whether
| or not they wish to venture upon the