The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-03-19
old Maids
Haze Joined
the DOdO
BY MARTHA LEE

IL years OlQ WHO AAaI AAoS ~
snagged husband was labeled and
shelved an old maid? She was as
definitely out of the picture as II
she had died, so far as men ana
marriage were concerned. Down
she sat herself, to spend the rest OF
her days tatting, embroidering and
playing finch with her old uncle
Henry.
| But 81 today is a glorious age
| these days. Life is just beginning.
IN the first place, a woman's whole
! life schedule has changed. Twenty
five years ago a woman's education
was, for the most part, complete
with the eighth grade. Sometimes
high school was included in the
schedule, but not invariably as 1t is
now. College was for women who
wanted to specialize in some profess
sion.
That meant that women were
busy preparing for rnatrimony at
the ripe old age of Is. Convention,
public opinion, or what you will,
gave girl five years in which to get
her man. If she had no husband
by that time, she was failure. An
old maid! An unwanted woman.
And, with rare exception, she re-
NAMED that.
No Old Maids Now
This is untrue, in this year of our
Lord, 1929. There are no old maids,
now. At least no new crop Of old
maids. Those women who term
themselves, or are termed by others,
"old maids" are hangover from
twenty-five years ago. And the
problem is this: Is there any place
in the world for an unmarried
woman over 35 or 40? Here is a
letter from a woman who still thinks
in terms of "old maid:
| Dear Miss Lee-Is there any place in
| the world for an old maid? 7 am 38 years
old and unmarried. Through combina~
| ton of circumstances, was forced to give
/ up my schooling when I was H., to help
support the family.
am of serious turn of mind, anyway,
and the responsibilities of my work and
| the financial worry made me old before
my time. 1 know many girls who have
worked and still found time for the pleas,
ure of a mans companionship. and event.
ually marriage. But 1 am not one OF
| those
| I am nearly 40. My parents are dead,
| and my brothers and sisters have married
| or gone away. Where is my place in the
worldP 1 can not bear to see the years
stretch ahead of me as lonely and friend
! less as they have been.
SPINSTER.
In the first place, you are not an
old maid. An old maid is an I'M
married woman without an interest
in the world accept her diet, her
! knitting, her cat, and the latest gos-
sip. You are mentally alert, and no
one is old and done for who keeps
in touch with the times.
You have your work, your indie
pendence, and the peace that never
can be imagined by a married
woman.
She Has Freedom
] You have freedom. And what is
all the world fighting about, if it is
not thatP Your worries, if any, are
of your own making. You have no
children to fret about, to spend
hours wondering how you ever are
going to bring them up to be good
men and women in these hectic
times.
You have no husband to wonder
about when he is late for dinner IN
the evening or comes in with cola
and wet feet after hard day at the
Office.
You have definite place in the
world, surely as definite as a mar
ried woman. How about the married
woman who reaches so, to find her
children grown and married, per-
haps her husband dead. Where is
her place in the world? The same
place as yours. Wherever she makes
it.
In the first place 38 is NOT old
1t used to be, but not now, Some
how, with all this rush and hurry
of our time, we have done one thing
1--WE have advanced the age limit
when a person truthfully may be
I called old. I think it now is about
70.
Old at Seventy
When one is 10, one is beginning
to be old. But not before. This
ballyhoo about youth is the bunk
Middle age is the ideal. 1t is then
that one has the knowledge to look
situations squarely in the face, and
profit by them.
If you do want to marry, you
could, easily enough. You are
feminine and intelligent. But dc
not make The fatal mistake of trying
to appear young and vivacious. A
friendship gotten through those
methods never would be anything
you would care for.
Your charm lies in the beauty of
your character, in your unruff1ed
placidity.