HINTS TO UNMARRIED LADIES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 424, 27 March 1880, Page 3

HINTS TO UNMARRIED LADIES.

A certain Mr. Finlayson has made out a table showing, to a very fraction, what a woman's chances of marrying are for every year of her life. This most precious document should be posted, I think, on the doors of all our churches, and if, after such pointed admonition, young girls trifle away their time, the blame is entirely their own. The calculations were made, I understand, upon 876 cases, but, for the sake of greater perspicuity, let us enlarge the denominator to 1000. Of 1000 married women, taken without selection, it is found that the number married at each age is as below. Or if (by arithmetical license) we call a woman's chances of marriage in the whole course of her life 1000, her chances in each two years will be shown in the table :

Now this table, it will be seen, tells us that one-half of a woman's chances of marriageare gone when she has completed her twentieth vear; and mind you what the consequence of this is. She must then, as seamen say, " carry less sail," and shoot at a lower mark. At twenty-two she ought to be " very reasonable," for three-fourths of the golden opportunities are gone, never to return. At twenty-six you will see at a glance that sauciness is out of the question, for your hopes, if the case should be yours, fair reader, will then be shrunk to the small fraction of an eighth. Possibly you may then think the poor fellows you once despised fine " catches." At thirty-one, despair should begin to wrinkle your brow, for when that age comes, and finds you single, pray remember that if you have in the circle of your acquaintances forty marrying men (a rare contingency) you have just one solitary chance among them all. When you stand on the dreadful verge of thirty-six, it is " quite too awfully terrible " to reflect that of the thousand chances with which you started, three only remain—a miserable remnant of three. It is now high time to bespeak lodgings for a siDgle lady, and to procure a couple of cats. Therefore, carpe diem, or in plain English, improve your time. There are plenty of Barkises about.

As^e. Chances. Age. Chances. 14-15 32 28-29 ... 45 16-17 .. 101 ! 30-31 ... 18 18-19 ... 219 32-33 ... 15 20-21 ... 133 34-35 ... 8 22-23 ... 125 36-37 2 24-25 ... 102 38-39 ... 1 26-27 ... 67 1000