Year: 1875

The following article from the Liver.
pool (Eng) Mercury contains so much
solid, practical sense that We transfer it
to our columns. We are apt to ridicule
maiden ladies, out that they are the salt
Of the earth is as true now as when some
sensible fellow first made the discovery
scores of years ago:


Aweary of hashing and rehashing the
dull commonpaces which nowadays pass
by the name of politics, a not at all unna.
turally lively metropolitan contemporary
has opened its columns to the discussion
Of the characteristics. grievances. pleasur.
able compensations, social relations, ani
status generally of that ofientimes i'll used
and frequently misunderstood section of
the community, which is known by The
generic term-by no means gallantly con-
ceived-of cold maids" " We, too, in
view of the opprobrious use made Of the
unlucky phrase by those misogynists Of
both sexes who so ardently strive 10 pre-
vent women from obtaining further social
and political rights, think it not inadvis-
able, since the ball has once been set roll.
ing, to say few words Of our own on
the subject. 1t cannot have escaped re-
mark that to many minds in many cases
ii is considered sufficient to condemn a
case to say that it is promoted by ga lot
of old maids" Sometimes they are
"strong. minded females" at others,
"blues," but if you want TO cover them
with ineradicable ridicule, dub them ga
bevy of old maids" or throw in the male
Of their philanthropic or charitable objects
and facetiously term the whole "a parcel
of old women of both sexes" and your
end is at once accomplished. Why this
should be so, we were never able to un.
derstaud. Age is surely as honorable
in woman as in man. Celibacy can
be no more worthy Of censure in the one
sex than in the other. If it be, indeed
the men are in the worse prcdicament
for it so happens that in Great Britain
there are half million more women than
men, so that the ladies could not all get
married if they would. Nor are the pro
fessed misogynists at all consistent in the
bestowal Of their ridicue. Let perse-
vering band of spinsters strive to break
down the wall Of prejudice which bars
their entrance to the suitable and honor
able profession of medicine for the pur
pose Of alleviating the ailments Of their
own sex, and no terms Of obloquy are
thought too discourteOus to apply to them.
Let Miss Nightingale 60 out to Scutari
to bind up the wounds and attend to the
wants of the sick soldiers, brought fresh
from the battle field, and she is heroine
The woman as nurse may be deifed, as
physician she cannot be tolerated. Let
woman strive to enter our universities.
the so.called nurseries of belles.lettres and
the arts, and they "unsex themselves, "
yet who thinks of sold maids" as they
read the novels of Miss Austin or admire
the pictures of Rosa Bonheur ? Let them
seek to obtain the right to vote, for wild
ows and spinsters who have the same
qualification aud fulfill the same state
duties as men, and politicians are aghast
Yet Miss Harriet Martineaus "Political
Economy" has been in its time a text
book, and Miss Burdett Coutts was made
peeress in her own right for her effort
to ameliorate the condition Of the poorer
classes of the community.


Consistent or inconsistent, however, as
may be the conduct of those who are so
ready to use the term "old maids,' there
can he no doubt that the term itself has
come to be understood as carrying with it
some kind of reproach. And here again
we are at q loss to make out why. "Old
maids are so crusty," says one. Well,
suppose you admit, for the sake Of argu-
ment, that some of them are, has nobody
ever heard of scolding wife. or tried to
imagine the proportion Of husbands who
could consc ntiously claim the Dunmow
fitch What was Lord BrAxted's an.
swer to his butler WHO gave him notice
to leave because of "her leddyships tenn.
per ?" Stay whaur ye are. man, an
thank the Lord ye're no married to her"
All women, like all men, have their trou.
bes and crosses and worries and we
have yet to learn that it is the sole priv.
ilege of the married to be gifted with
those qualities which cause the mind to
rise superior to the every day cares of