Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-08-08
The Passing Of the OLD Maid,
BY MRS. ALEC TWEEDIE.

ried women with ringlets and the
ories have ceased to exist.
! Old maids are dying out
In a few years time the typical
old maid of our youth will rarely be
seen, and a hundred years hence she
will probably be dead altogether.
| Let us look at what constitutes the
present-day old maid. An unmarried
woman? Not bit of 1t; there are
just as many "fidgety old maids" to
be found among married women as
among those who have not entered
that holy state.
Our population is such that vast
number of women must always re-
main unmarried. There is not the
slightest disgrace In that; indeed,
there Is often honor, because 1t shows
woman prefers to stand alone
rather than sell herself without love
to the highest bidder. Formerly
those unmarried women were jeered
at, sneered at-polltely, maybe. but
| nevertheless chaffed and scoffed at.
for being less attractive than their
| sisters, less amiable than their
| cousins or less worthy than their sis
| ters-in-law. The world was hard
and cruel and unjust upon the spin
sters. Little wonder, then, that they
resented unpleasant remarks or cruel
acts and became querulous and
soured, until the fldgety, cantanker-
GUS old maid stage was reached.
What else could they become?
Girls were brought up to feel that
they were not wanted in the world;
that they must always be thrust aside
for their brothers, whose education
| swallowed all the family cash, while
the sisters were neglected, told to
find amusement in making their own
| clothes on a few dollars year and
to look out for the first eligible man
who came in their way, and thus
seek freedom for themselves and give
relief to their family by selling them
selves, body and soul, to the first
offer.
A cruel picture. but true, never
| theless. Many of these girls did not
secure the husbands they were taught
to look upon as necessity, and the
| natural result to an unbalanced and
uneducated mind was disappoint-
ment, which ultimately developed
that sorely-to-be-ptied class-the old
| maids.
Every year is altering the position
of women; they are emerging like
butterflies from the chrysals, and,
! although we folk are not likely to
live long enough to see them on an
equal footing with men in all things,
that dag is approaching rapidly, and
our children and their children will
reap the reward of the women pio-
neers.
The term "old maid is now seldom
or never heard; the expression
"bachelor girl" has taken It's place,
and many and happy are the bachelor
| girls In the country to-day, with their
| independence, their. little homes and
| their own well-arranged lives.
Parents are realizing more and
more that they owe just as much to
srns, and their first act showing this
newly-awakened feeling of RESPONSE
bility Is that they are beginning to
| educate the girls. Women are being
brought up to think work honorable,
| to feel that they are not machines,
or, as Byron says, "a soulless toy for
tyrants' lusts;" but that they have
| place in the world and can be, If nee
essary, the breadwinners Of their
! families.
One sometimes comes across an
| ideal old MAZDA woman who as a
girl has helped her mother with the
youngest members of the family, the
helpful, kind aunt and cherished
| friend, whose advent in the home Is a
comfort and blessing to all, the peace
maker in time of quarrel, the sympa-
| thiZer and helpmate in time of sick
ness and death. That Is the ideal
old maid; but she is rare.
The ideal old maid, with cats and
dogs and parrots to lavish and waste
her love upon, is dying fast, and one
| and all of these women will in time
be sufficiently educated to read with
| pleasure, to travel with appreciation
| and to work for their own good and
| the good of mankind, feeling them
selves of some consequence in the
world, instead of hopeless hindrance
| to their family.
Work, if well done, no matter its
branch, is honorable; to cook, to sew,
| to paint, to write, to teach, to do any
thing requiring knowledge, applica-
tion and skill, brings its reward. In
competence will always go to the
wall, and thorougbness must tri-
umph.
1t is ridiculous for men to shake
their heads and say educated women
do not make the best wives and moth
ers, for most undoubtedly they shine
pre-eminently in that line. We have
only to look at the biographies Of
great men to learn how they owe
much of their success to the blessing
| of a clever mother, with well-bal-
anced mind and mental capacity.
Fools of women generally have
fools of sons, because SO much de-
pends on early home training; and
even a clever father can not often
overweight an incapable mothers
faults. 1t is well-recognized fact
that great men seldom have great
| sons; but, then, great men generally
marry women totally inferior to
them intellectually, because they
have a pretty face or winning ways,
and their sons suffer accordingly.
There are exceptions, of course. as
in the case of the two Pittses, and
| many of the men who have made