The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-03-25
FEW WIDOWS WEO kGAIN
New York Correspondence for The
Journal.)

(New York Correspondence for The
| Journal)
which says: "A maid is sometimes
charming but a widow all the while"
Latter-day rhymes on the subject OF
widows charms are scarce, it is said.
The destinations of widows are not, it
seems, a popular theme just now with
writers in this part of the country.
Neither in fact nor in fiction does the
widow now play the leading part in
| most matrimonial romances.
1t was New York widow of mature
age and large fortune who pointed out
this circumstance when at her lunch
con tables some one referred to the
scarcity of widows among the winters
brides and suggested that nowadays
widows didn't seem to be in such
hurry to marry as formerly.
Il could name a dozen Widows she
said, women of middle age and young
er. good looking and with nice little
incomes, whom L have peen expecting
to step off for the last five years, and
they don't step. Not one of them, so
far as 1 know, is engaged.
''At one time there were every sea-
son several weddings of widows who
We're conspicuous in society. 1t was
almost the exception for COMPARE
lively young and good looking widow
to stay single more than two years.
Il do not know anything about the
widows to whom you refer said the
hostessa but I do know that, taking
widows as a class, they are much less
popular than they used to be. Widows
don't get the chances to marry they
once did. How do I account for it?
In this way:
widows are just as attractive as
they ever We're, but spinsters as they
used to be called, bachelor women as
they are now described, are good
deal more attractive than in the old
days.
Il was introduced to society at II,
and soon after I remember I met a
young widow of % who used to go to
the parties and entertainments given
| by her girl friends with whom she had
grown up. She was not nearly so
pretty as some of the girls, but she
always got a lot more attention from
| the young men.
| I'm those days a young girl might
| stand a slight chance of holding her
own with a widow of her own age;
| but a spinster of So or more had not
| the ghost of a chance when competing
! with widow of So.
| Young girls We're kept back from
mingling with general company and
| older folks till out of school and almost
| segregated from the other sex, with the
result that when first introduced to the
world they were shy, lacking in CONVEX
| sational topics and no match at all for
a widow of any age. 1t is not like that
now. The bachelor woman, instead of
assuming an apologetic air, born of a
feeling that she is almost in disgrace
because she has reached 80 without
| being married, goes about with a SUI
perior, lofty, I-prefer- my-freedom ex-
preston, exactly the reverse of apollo
getic, and instead of retiring modestly
behind younger women and widows she
is more apt to be found in the front
row when it comes to a question of be-
ing entertaining and jolly.
The widow is no less charming than
woman-the one time old maids
much more attractive than formerly
and generally better read and better
educated than most widows.
Simply because she is a widow no
longer entities a woman to first place
as charmer of the other sex. She
must compete now with the young
girls who are neither awkward nor shy
nor tongue tied in the presence of
men; and also with single women of
her own age, quite her equals in diplo-
macy and powers of fascination
Perhaps you are right" returned
the woman who had first spoken. Il
am inclined to think, however, the rea-
son why fewer widows than formerly
marry is because they are more chary
of matrimony than We're widows in the
old days and prefer to enjoy their
freedom. They believe that the most
enviable state for woman is widow
hood in conjunction with a good sized
bank account
When the manager of a big business
concern which employs hundreds of
women, among whom are many
widows, was asked what proportion of
the widows married again, he gave the
answer:
Almost none, SO far as I kruv. In
ten years I can only recall one case of
a widow giving up her place here be-
cause she meant to get married.
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