Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-04
Penalties of Spinsterhood
Old Maid Tells Some Of the Things
She Has to Put Up With Daily
Frances E. Kelley in Harper's Magazine for
August.

Sometimes ] am tempted to marry. | can
perfectly understand the heroine OF the farce
| who moves to a distant spot in order to be
permitted to invent for herself fictitious spouse
| indefinitely and mysteriously absent. The desire
| for husband figures as little in my plans as in
hers; what we both desire is a chance to escape
the kindly condescension OF the sel-elected
successful. My heart has long treasured
the story of the little girl who an
nouneed her ambition to be widow and who
justified herself by the statement that, "If you're
| married your husband bosses you; if YOU don't
| get married, your folks boss you; but il you
widow you can do as you please Particularly
| trying IS the pity OF your social group even if
| it be directed toward more doubtful msfor-
| tune. Among my friends are any number who
share the views of the poor bruised, broken crea-
ture whom Jane Adams rescued from the drunk
en- attack of her husband. Washed, bandaged and
put to bed, the woman opened her one good eve
| recognized her surroundings and deliverers, and
sighed ptyingly as she said, ut must be hell to
be an old maid"
There is, in all justice, "a good deal 10 be
said on her side;" there are plenty OF moments
when. sigh over my orphan nephew Willie's
fate in the very simple order of life with his
maiden aunt, but both Willie and shrink from
the married havens which might be persuaded
to open to receive him. By the welded, Willie
and ! are ptied and admonished; by the uil-
married, we are regarded with puzzled bewilder-
ment Childless wives clutching Pomeranian
say: II don't see how you can bear to keep up
an apartment for just that child. Isn't it terribly
expensive" And carpet-baggng individuals of
both sexes ask, DO you save much that way?' as
If Willie and |, sitting before our own CRATE and
eating real butter, were all the time signing for
a hall bedroom and the weekly cycle OF boarding
house meals,
'Nohedy knows but a mother, poor lamb"
all of these people feel qualified to say, shaking
their heads over Willie broken out with hives,
as il his poor mothers death had automatically
brought them on. Only the other day the ador-
ing mother of fendish lad of II folded her
hands across her ample foreground to say, "My
dear, no woman ought ever to be made dean of
women anywhere unless she has been a mother
Indeed within the last few years have listened
to endless arguments to prove that good sense,
scholarship and social graces should be disregard
ed as qualifications for police women, matrons,
welfare workers and heads of physical training
departments to make room for a woman who
"has been mother" All of this, Of course, with
regard to what are considered desirable appoint
ments. but cannot help observing that when the
baby has dphthera they telephone for a trained
nurse without asking whether she has ever "held
a child of her own in her arms"
Having no aspirations myself toward any. of
the moot positions, could get on very comfort
ably If | were not resolutely labeled as a
dreamer and theorist. Gwendolyn, to whom |
taught her multiplication tables not so many
years ago, came in the other evening to show
ME her engagement ring and to wait until
her fance had finished with his night class.
Gwendolyn draped herself effectively before the
fire and talked to me about the worn out inst-
tuition" of marriage. She said that she would
Submit to ceremony to please her mother"
but that to true soul reaching out for life .
I listened as long as I could and then at
tempted to say something about Mary Woll-
stonecraft and the eighteenth century. Gwendo-
lyn did not hear me, however, for it was time
for Henrys sociology class to be dismissed She
kissed me affectionately, in her usual manner,
and said: Good night, old thing I shouldn't
have spoken as I did to you. know you do not
understand, dear, for Of course you have never !
faced the great realities of life