MISS OK MRS.?

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8306, 12 July 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

MISS OK MRS.?

Ai.i. women oat of their teens are entitled to he sryled " mistress." " Miss" is merely ,i diminutive, and is properly confined to young girls', just as " muster" is commonly confined to schoolboys. In the days of I'opo ■■ Mrs." was the common appellation of unmarried Indies. Sir Waiter Scott, too, sp'j.'iksof .1 ouina (unmarried) as Mrs. Joanna K-.illi.'. There are nowadays plenty of spinsters— and young spinster*, too—who insist on being addressed as "Airs."'; and at one or two places in Sussex, curiously enough, the married lady is "Miss" and the unmarried lady receives, the title of "Mrs." The same custom is found in many parts of Ireland. The form "Mrs." was at one time applied indifferently to persons at aliases. .Nowadays your servant girls expect to have their letters addressed as "Miss," though there are a few that have more sense. There is a story told of a certain mnid-of-all-work who transferred her savings, upon the advice of her mistress, to the Post Ollice Savings Bank, and she was asked how she did it.. " The young lady pave me a book, ma'am," she said, "to write my name in, and her wrote my name in another book ; and her says to me, 'Are you Mrs. or Miss '!' ' Neither, ma'am,' I says ; '1 am a servant.' " That young woman respected herself and her calling. She had not been educated at a Board School. Among servants generally the cook, whether married or single, expects to be called " Mrs." So do housekeepers, though unmarried. In point of fact, Mrs. or Mistress is a title of respect that the plan "Miss" is devoid of. Why actresses who arc married women should .seek to disguise J hat fact by allowin'.' lie misleading portix of " Miss "to be attached to their names is a mystery that admits of no intelligent explanation. Arc they ashamed of their husbands? There are many well known exception? to this habit of disguise and masquerade, but 50 percent, of the theatrical " .Misses" are entitled by law and custom to the tonn generally recognised as distinguishing the married woman. Only about 5 per cent, of the entire profession admit that they are married, and are nob ashamed to publicly own it on the theatrical programme.—The Lady.