The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1919-08-15
To the Editor of The State ::

To the Editor of The State:
I attempted some time ago a de-
Tense of stepmothers. purpose now
80 say something in behalf of cid
maids-a class of persons who are
not so severely censured as those
Others, but who are sneered at and
shifted at to an extent almost as ex-
-asperating.
What an old maid is shall en-
sdeavor to show later. Now | must
define who is an old maid. Formerly,
when women generally married at an
earlier age, woman at twenty-five
began to be reckoned in that class;
but now l should say that that stage
of existence begins at thrty-five.
The unfriendly feeling for them is
largely the result Of the ancient no
ton expressed by Tennyson's "fat-
faced curate, Edward Bull" that
sGod made the woman for the use
of man." and without the clause he
added-"And for the good and in
screace of the world-except the 'in-
crease
Woman, long and almost univers-
zally was held to have no independent
sphere of action, but to the created
to marry man, breed children, and
work for husband and children. An
unmarried woman, consequently, was
considered a sort of superfluity,
without mission or merit.
l was disgusted recently, in re-
newing my acquaintance with the
Greek dramas, to see how the women
dwell upon matrimony as the great
object of women's life. There is
Antigone. the fine, heroic daniels in
the tragedy of that name by Sopho-
scles, whose chief grief at the pros
pect of being buried alive is that it
will prevent her from being married.
~'Ne marriage" 'No bridal song for
me-" is her repeated wail-lament-
ang that deprivation much more than
separation from her lover, Halmon.
And Polyxena, in the "Hecuba" Of
Euripides, expresses the same state
sof feeling-she to be sacrificed who
was fit to be the bride of king.
And she breaks in on Hecuba's la
5mentation about the death of others
with her cry of unmarried" "With
no wedding song::" and the like. And
in the "Oedipus Tyrannus" of So
phocles we hear Oedipus exclaiming
;as the elimination of his misfor-
:tunes, "Who will marry my daugh-
;ters?" And in "The Suppliants' of
.Aeschplus We hear the fifty unmar-
:ried daughters of Danaus condens-
ing the helplessness Of single women
IN three words-"gune monotheis
ouaen"-"a woman left alone is
nothing" These things remind us
of Jephtha's daughter going into
the mountains for two months, ''to
bewail her virginity." This state of
feeling led men to give away their
,daughters as arbitrarily as they
woa3d a sheep or pig. Herodotus, in
describing the magnanimity of Sal
has the Athenian, mentions, that he
: No. only gave his daughters fine por-
lions. aaut also allowed them to marry
husbands of their own choice.
And this insistence, in days Of old,
on marriage for women was peculi-
arly outrageous because of the pow
er men then had over their wives.
-The Rnman law authorized hus-
band to beat his wife with whips and
rods. Blackstone tells US that it was
not until the. reign of Charles the
Second, of England-in the latter
half of the 18th century-that, in
that country, the right Of man to
whip his wife ''began to be doubted"
Z have nothing to say against mat
rimony. 1T is an excellent institu-
.si.srl Tor.nost women, and for almost
all 2rasA. And have nothing to say
infAvor of old bachelors. They are,
generally, isolated being, misfits IN
society, discordant notes in the har-
mony of the world, selfish, fault
finding and crusty. But the old maid
is by no means female old bachelor,
There is always a place for her, and
she usually fills it well. She adjusts
herself to her environment, looks at
:ser other peoples children, assists IN
sthA care of household, is kind to
.-tl1e poor and the afflicted, gives
j :Exaely in charity, and works faith
:Fuitp and efficiently for the cause OF