How to Get Rid of Old Maids.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXV, Issue 3, 22 July 1905, Page 59

How to Get Rid of Old Maids.

(By

Delia Austrian.)

A German scholar who was in this country recently to study social conditions, was asked if he was not delighted with our progress. lie waited a moment and answered: "It’s great, but I'm afraid it will all end in failure, and woman s rights are at the bottom of it. The old maids are driving men out of business, and the modern woman is driving the man out of the home. It is foolish nonsense. Why don’t girls get married and settle down and care for their homes? It is the men’s business to care for the women. Too independent and too particular, 1 guess, but they don t have to begin where their parents left oil. The owning of automobiles and racing stables is not necessary to the raising of a happy family. “I’ve seen few business places in your country that aren’t half tilled with girls. If you have plenty of children in this country, some of the men must be home caring for them. The unmarried women are out working for themselves, and the married women are out working for reforms. It seems to me that with your great number of politicians the men could tend to these matters without calling on the women. 1 suppose many of your girls make fun of the European dowery system, but 1 should like to know if it’s not much better than having old maids all over creation. Our wedding portion gives young folks a chance to get along, that’s all. “This isn't a joke; it’s sensible talk. When I visited in Boston 1 soon came to the conclusion they raise old maids there instead of hothouse Howers, for every other woman is a spinster. They don’t want to get married; they’ve made so much fun of men and love they’re driving both away. What a classical air they have—independence and women’s rights are written all over their faces. They are lawyers, doctors, writers, de tective agents—everything under the sun. I couldn't tell a miss from a Mrs in Boston, and the old maids got me in all kinds of trouble. I sat next to an elderly woman who looked old enough to be my mother, and every time 1 spoke to her 1 called her ‘Mrs.’ After 1 had done this several times, when she levelled

her glasses at me and said in a most defiant tone. I’m Miss, not Mrs, if you please.’ I begged her pardon and smiled, though 1 longed to say, If you arenl mariied you re old enough to be.’ "Chicago women are not quite a> emancipated yet, but you cant tell what they will be m ten years. When I reach ed Chicago I hadn't been in my hotel an hour when a young woman's card was brought to me. asking for an interview. 1 said to myself, another old maid, with out doubt. When I reached the parlour I found a beautiful girl waiting for me, and she explained in a most business-like way she had come to get my opinion on womans suffrage and its value for the weaker sex. Taken back by the question. 1 said that 1 hoped she was not a suffragist. She explained that she believed in women voting if they wished, although she wasn t a radical suffragist; she was a writer, and wanted to help the cause. 1 shook my_ head and said that I wouldn't give her an interview on suffrage, though 1 should be glad to speak on the remedies for old bachelors and old maids. Say that 1 believe this talk on the independence of women is nonsense. If a woman isn't meant to love, to have a home an ’ a r imily, I'm pretty much mistaken.” The other evening I was invited to a friend’s home to hear a talk on the bringing up of children. Later in the evening 1 was introduced to the young speaker, and said that I should love to see her children. She blushed and smiled, and then explained she was not married; she was only the president of a mother's club. Don't ask so many questions; just put down what I want to say. If 1 were the next Mayor of Chicago, 1 should make the question of old maids and bachelors part of my platform. I should give them a mask ball, and make the affair so delightful that (-very man and woman would fall in love with some one. I should have the best talent in town write sonnets and Alexandrian verses on love, and I should give them an exhaustive discourse showing how- all wise nations dislike bachelors and old maids. Here’s a true story of a Russian girl

who had not met a man she cared for especially. Her mother was so annoyed by this obstinacy, and in a fit of anger called her daughter “an old maid.” The girl was so hint by this remark that she ran away and entered a cloister. This sensitiveness is not unusual in Russia, for every Russian woman marries or pretends to mary. If a girl feels

that she is never going to have a suitor she leaves home. The peasant girl goes to some district, and afterwards returns home a widow. The girl of means goes oil' on foreign travel, and in a year or two she comes back a broken hearted widow. No questions are put to her, for in Russia it is considered in bad taste to mention a dead man to his living widow.