Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1908-02-07
The Passing Of the
Old Maid.

SuS VI ldSulOu. IIllIl, uuL1dIllSu wv
men with ringlets and theories 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 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 it; there are
just as many "fdgety old maids" to
be found among married women as
among those who have not entered
the holy state.
Our population is such that a vast
number of women must always re-
main unmarried. There is not the
slightest disgrace in that; indeed,
there is often honor. because it shows
a woman prefers to stand alone rath-
er than sell herself without love to
the highest bidder Formerly those
unmarried women were jeered at,
sneered at-politely, maybe, but new
ertheless chaffed and scoffed at, for
being less attractive than their Sis
tiers, less amiable than their cousins
or less worthy than their sisters-in-
law. The world was hard and cruel
and unjust upon the spinsters. Lit
tie wonder, then, that they resented
unpleasant remarks or cruel acts and
became querulous and soured, until
the fidgety, cantankerous 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 edu-
cation swallowed all the family cash,
while the sisters were neglected, told
to find amusement in making their
own clothes on a few dollars a 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 of.
fer.
A cruel picture, but true, neverthe-
less. Many of these girls did not Sc
cure the husbands they were taught
10 look upon as necessity, and the
natural result to an unbalanced and
uneducated mind was disappointment,
which ultimately developed that sore
ly-to-be-pitied class--the old maids.
Every year is altering the position
of women; they are emerging like
butterflies from the chrysalis, and,
although We folk are not likely to
live song enough to see them on an
equal footing with men in all things,
that day approaching rapidly, and
our children and their children will
reap the reward of the women pion-
GERS.
The term "old maid" is now seldom
or never heard; the expression bach
elor girl has taken it's place. and
many and happy are the bachelor
girls In the country today, with their
independence, their little homes and
theiI own well-arranged lives.
Parents are realizing more and
more that they owe just as much to
their daughters as they do to their
sons, and their first act showing this
newly-awakened feeling of response
bilisy 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, IL ne
cessary, 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
peacemaker in time of quarrel. the
sympathizer and helpmate in time OF
sickness 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
he 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 a hopeless hindrance
to their family.
Work, IL well done, no matter it's
branch! is honorable; to cook, to sew,
to paint, to write, to teach, to do any
thing requiring knowledge, applica-
ton and skill, brings its reward. In
competence will always go to the
wall, and thoroughness must triumph.
1t is ridiculous for men to shake
their heads and say educated women
do not make the best wives and
mothers, for most undoubtedly they
shine prominently 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 bless |
ing of clever mother, with a well. |
balanced mind and mental capacity.
Fools OF women generally have |
fools of sons, because so much de- |
Ponds on early home training: and |
ever a clever father can not often |
overweight an incapable mothers |