The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY. JUNE 5, 1937. OF SPINSTERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 8

The Wanganui Chronicle SATURDAY. JUNE 5, 1937. OF SPINSTERS

like v. inc, improve with age. But first let it be decided what a spinster is. Historically, a spinster was an unmarried woman who, to make her contribution to her parents’ household, spent the greater portion of het- workaday life at the spinning wheel. Having taken the weaving of cloth out of the home, some shortsighted people used to object to women in business. The objection was preposterous, and has remained unheeded. In society of to-day unmarried women are not esteemed, says Mr. H. G. Wells, but it is a pleasing sign of the times that jokes concerning “old maids’’ are a rarity, even among men. The term “bachelor girl” has, however, not taken its place, ami it may happen that the ancient term of spinster may yet come into its own honourable estate. A spinster is one who justifies her economic existence; the unmarried lady of independent means is not necessarily a spinster unless she occupies her time, in useful ways. The term “old maid” carried the implication that Ihe lady desired the married stale, but missed, like a wallflower at a dam-e. The spinster of to-day. however, finds life full of compensations, and realising that while a happily-married woman is lhe most fortunate creature on God’s earth, nevertheless appreciates the fact that a miss in the matrimonial field is not altogether like drawing a blank in a lottery. Married men regard spinsters with friendliness, for they offur friendship minus responsibility: the talk of spinsters is usually both refreshing- and stimulating. Men also realise nowadays that a spinster has. in all probability, refused to compromise, in the matter of Life’s ideals, and not finding that which she sought, she has determined to cut her own path through the world rather than accept a second best. For some women, of course, romance never comes. There is no room for jokes in such instances. But it is not now inferred that the absence of romance is the result of some personal deficiency. Many a woman lias been too good for her environment. .Married women regard spinsters with suspicion. It is argued as between girls, that if a woman is not married she wants to be. It is also realised that as the. years pass the eligible men become fewer, the competition harder, and a breach of the rules of the game more probable. In this game of catch-wlio-eatch-ean there is no umpire to cry fault or foul, and that makes lhe general conduct of the game the more difficult. Imagine the game of football played without an umpire! It would soon degenerate into a code of “go for your man and make sure, of him.” That is just what goes on in the matrimonial market, and the married woman, having collared her man, doesn’t want to be dispossessed of her prize—whatever the value of the prize may be. Married women, metaphorically speaking, don’t like the scrum—they prefer an open game because it is easier to watch the moves. Spinsters should never abandon the idea of matrimonial possibilities—and possibly they don’t—on the ground that it is better to live in hope even though one dies in despair. Woman gains her economic freedom by marriage, she becomes her own mistress and her husband’s as well.

Life secs to it that nothing lies stationary, and woman is always seeking to be mastered. But herein is provided one of Nature's most interesting paradox. 'Woman seeks her master by downing men with her personality. The man who succumbs she rejects because he is not her master, and she goes on warring against the males of her circle until she meets her fate. Herein lies the reason for the capacity of spinsters, their personalities have not met their match, or rather more than their match, and they disapprove of the philosophy which proclaims that half a match is better than no flame at all. Subscribers to this philosophy. however, fail to appreciate the reason for the spinstorial rejection of such a erced, but those who realise the cause of such rejection metaphorically kiss the hem of the garment of the spinster as she passes on her’way. Many things need to be done in this complex world, but how many find, on looking backward over the years, that much of their way has been smoothed, quietly and unobtrusively, by the gentle hands of maiden aunts’’ How much I hey do. and how little they receive in ref urn. Yirtuc. which means strength, by the way, is too often its own reward. And if in loneliness they meet the. years, what splendid examples of ?>rfitude do they provide. Bravely they move through the world, meeting its reverses bravely, usually uncomplaining. generally unselfish. It is because Englishmen, deep down in their hearts, realise their tremendous respect for the true spinster, and they reveal it in tUou. custom, arily illogical way by joking about it.