Year: 1876

crude, just as liberal politics stand for COM
munism, and communism itself for rapine,
murder, the absence of all law, and the
unchecked exercise of individual brutality
With all this she has marvellous curiosity


on the hidden lives of men, and thinks it


in no wise unbecoming to inquire after


them when she can. She has an idea that


monstrous things go on where two or three


OF the dangerous sex are gathered together,


and she is fain to know of what complexion


that monstrOsity is, as she "thinks it only


right that women should know the truth"
She is the police of the little world where


she has her Grabbed being and she spies


after 1T with even more than police mistrust


and watchfulness.


THE BEST MAIDEN-AUNT TYPE.


Besides these several old maids already


discussed there are others of quite different


types, and of these, who so beautiful rs


that sweet-natured, generous and loving


woman of whom one can never understand


how it is that she has remained unmarried


so womanly, so loving so born to be happy


and to give happiness as she is, and who


seems kind of spiritual mother to all


rather than the natural parent of few? q?


Sharer of all joys, soother of all pains, no


one can marry or be i'll or die without her.


She is the first person to whom the young


people confide the secret of their engage


ment; the first to whom the distracted


mother sends when her child is down with


fever and she wants comfort as much as


AID. Whatever goes wrong in the family


she bears her share of the trouble that


ensues. For this is her life: having no


life, properly SO called, of her own, she


lives only for others, with svmpathics


practically ineXhaustible and powers of


help unlimited. Her fixed idea is that all


wives and mothers arc occupied from


morning to night with their homes and


children, while she has nothing on earth


to do, and is therefore glad to be made


useful. And for the most part her friends


crafty her desire, and in no wise stint the


burdens which it is for their pleasure or


advantage that she should bear for them.


If she is useful as friend, as a relation


she is simply invaluable. Her married


sisters find in her a servant and counsellor


IN one, and the children have second


mother oftentimcs wiser and more helnful


than their own. The only difficulty is


when she has more married sisters than


one, and all want her at once, while She is


dragged different ways by her affections.


and has to decide on a single duty while
she wants to fulfill several. In which case


she goes to tho house where she is most


uncomfortable, but fancies herself most
needed, herself being the last consideration
on the list, and sacrifice coming as a matter


of course in her line of action.


There are few people who would be more
missed out of life than this old maid Of
large-heartod, generous nature, this self


sacrificing friend, this spiritual mother Of


other women's children. If she makes no
noise in the world she fills a most impor
tant place both in the house and society
, and while others prate of woman's work
} and wOman's right, is content to do the
one and to embody the other without blare
or bluster. She knows nothing of the
hostility to men and the ordinances of
nature by which some of her kind belle
: their own womanhood, and seek to DESTROY
the charm and loveliness Of that of others
) by some chance, either of disinclination
for those who offered or of love for one
whom she could not marry, she has been
swept by the current into the shadows by
the side, and has no personal part in the
| great stream of life flowing ever from time
into eternity. But she is neither soured
} nor rendered unhappy by her lot, and she
l contrives to crowd it with blessings beyond
t those which fall to the share of most. She
r has the blessing of love always with her
: the blessing of hopefulness, the blessing o.
g self-sacrifce.


/; THE UTTERLY HELPLESS" ONE


Of another kind altogether is the natural
nun, that old maid of Protestant communi
ties who, in Catholic countries, would have
found her fitting place in convent wher,
she would have been happier in her safe
enclosure than is possible to her now with
liberty and want of protection. Timid anG
inactive, needing direction and companion
; ship, but afraid of men, and not at homo
with children, the old maid of this kind il
by nature only daughter, a school girl, {
subordinate. For all her youth she ha,
probably been under the control of hel
mother, and has come to her independence
= when too late to profit by it, and when lons
use has made it not independence but
: loneliness. She is a mental cripple who's,
u crutch is suddenly snatched from her, ant
her steps are feeble, uncertain, and totter
. ing. Fifty years of age as she is, she feel
I like girl Of fifteen; and she regrets he
u mother as much for the moral suppor
9 which she gave her as for the love that wa,
u her sole possession and her only pleasure
This is the old maid who, as time eoe
9 on, becomes more and more eccentric
9 moro and more shut up from the world ant
e devoted to cats and worsted work. He
u dress is a study Of oddty and ugliness, ant
Il