The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-01-21
WHY IS AN OLD MAID?
By ouAs. II. MANDY

1 say after all 1t was not best for both parties?
 These few instances merely show thai l even at the expense of being termed all
 old fnaids the ladies in question had the judgment and common sense to prefer te remain unmated than to be misplated.
 If more judgment and discretion were used in the selection of a life partner who is there that doubts the ultimate good arising therefrom, or the fact that the growing divorce evil would be speed fly settled?
 Tie term old maid is no longer con , sid6red q reproach It is often used as a | jest, sometimes spltefully, 1t is true vet the term carries with it none of the sting of former years, when to be unmarried was almost considered a mortal sin. Many superior women are single from choice preferring their freedom to mar ital restraint Not q few are caring for an aged parent or helping a struggling brother The person who Is inclined to make indiscriminate jest or criticism of unmarried females had better look into his or her own state and condition of life. and it is a safe bet that such per sons will lose by comparison.
 Firm in the belief that a well mated marriage is the happiest and best con dition of Iffe the writer might venture on another proposition, one based on per sonal observation, which ss, that the mar riage of persons of mature years are nSore frequently followed byi complete happiness than those early marriages, which are often the result of mere puppy love or infatuation.
 For instance. the man who marries at l the age of 10 oi whereabouts. and of all l the insufferable bores ever turned loose on a community, he is it, when il comes to bragging about his first born. No such kiddo was ever born as the one that l bears his name nor one so smart. and so .on:4.in fact, he persists in talking about his youngster to such an extent | that VOL feel inclined to smite him on l the ear with a baseball bat or hit him
 with a pick axe But after all it is the pent up affection of his years of lonely l hacherlorhood, and with his love for his offspring comes adoration that almost l amounts to reverence for it's mother. l Now comes the hard part of this article
 meaning hard for the writer to express
 the sentiments the foregoing paragraph
 has led up to, but as the old saying
 has 1t, Fools rush in where angels feal
 to treada so here goes;
 True as is the statement in reference
 to the man of 40 and his love for hi;
 wife and child, yet, when it comes tt
 affection that is holy in its intensity. i | is found in the mother who married late
 in life than her sisters, for all the pen
 up maternal love of past years is lavishe( | on her babe with an intensity that il
 almost divine Tn every woman's arm
 is a curve, prepared for the nestling 0
 an infant s downy head. and to clasp t
 her heart-here again the writer is com peled to back up. having got far be yond his deptr, and to the readers ifnag
 nation Is left the rest.
 All of this means that, in the selection
 of a wife, fellow might go farther am fare worse than to lay siege to the hear
 of her who has passed the first flush o
 youth into the calmer walk of a mature
 life, who by experience knows that Tiff
 is made mp of more than passing frivolti' | and who accepts the marriage states a
 a divine institution; provided, of eoafse
 she doesn't spring on you the refrain O
 her youthful days and warble still NJ l Wedding Bells for Me"