Show HUSBANDS SCARCE > Maids Numerous as Dead f Leaves in the Fall NOT ENOUGH MEN FOR TflEH Some Curious Statistics that Will In terait Those who Want Hue I band or Wives I BOSTON Apgu t 25 Borne curious statistics sta-tistics fell ihto my hands the other day which I shall reprodncelor their bearing bear-ing on question of the houra pre sing s-ing question in the east at l astthe growing numberofnamarried women In one of the smaller New England tovrnf where if deemed aaif the family were almost ceasing to 1 be the unit of society bI met d women who for some years back has kepta record of the girls who have graduated from the High School of Jthejrillajje wha they have donfl and what 71 p to data hue become of them She gave me her figures for the classes from 1871 tq 186r rom sixteen six-teen to eleven years > aRo and strange figures S for any Carrying or giving in marriage community they seem The average age of he raduaterf from a tvsfcaINewEnglaaahigh cho9l is be tw < 11 Jf6and 17years Hence 1itwould seem tlipUh tpomen > ofwbom this list has been Kept ranging present from 27 to 37 years old having done the greater proportion the setthngm hfd whichthey1 are likely to do There were nineteen girls in the class of 1871 Of number five have married mar-ried tour have died of consumption ten unmarried Of the sixteen girls of 1872 six are married and ten are single Of the twentyone of 1873 three are married and eighteen are single Of the thirteen of 1874 two have married five have died of consumption and six are single Of the thirteenof 1875 five have married one has died of consumption and seven are single Of the seventeen ofi876 six have married one has died of consumption and ten aro single making mak-ing for a total of ninetynine graduates twentyone marriages eleven deaths and sixtyone women thus far single No account is taken of the years since 1876 because as the average age at marl riage is advancing no fair conclusion could be drawn from thei younger classes The proportion of single women it will be seen is nearly two thirds of the whole number whether this town is fairly representative of its section I have no means of knowing nor whether the same proportion will hold among the unschooled or less schooled girls of the place There is no obvious reason why it should not however how-ever for a high school education is not sufficiently exalted to rouse in my mind the suspicion that the girl who has subject = sub-ject d herself to it has thereby unfitted herself for the domestic duties of life The eleten deaths were one and all from east wind consumption which gets to be hereditary and plays direful havoc in families There have been two cases of insanity but these both occurred among the married twentyseven The largest number of children in the families famil-ies of the married is three Three of the ninetynine girls went to college after leaving the High School but these are in the married list Of the unmarried sixtyone twenty one follow a very unusual feminine trade they are school maamsone at Hampton teaching the Indians under General Armstrong twenty in public schools and academies Three set type one reads proof one is the head dressmaker dress-maker in a dry goods establishment four dressmake on a smaller scale three are music teachers one has studied medicine fifteen are stitchers and buttonhole but-tonhole makers in shoe shops and the rest are homestayers FEW MARRIAGEABLEYOUNG MEN Just what has brought about such a preponderance of spinsterhood it would be hard to say People have contended that it didnt existand have explained theimmense surplus of women in New England on the supposition that most of them are widows made so by the hazardous occupations of the men on the e steln coast HiVidQwsithere in plenty but these sixtyone and everybody every-body who knows anything of New Eng land will find it an easy blatter to call up plenty of similar instanceshave certainlyinever married r probably most of them have neverTiad an opportunity to marry There are verb few mart r ringenble young niif tobo found at the nresenfrtimeirXany srBallishrJJew Eng daM town The serene uiet of the most lethargic section of these United States doesnt suita TOung man He goes away before he is old enough to marry and the chances are he doesnt comp I back again ° He isrardrumme ont on the roadlsom whei r be finds his way unto Business inBoston New VnT trrti the west Tf Tio matroa o trotai lion i7phon lie fsf impressed by the lack of flaoneydn ew England outside the JJ ti S6y the length of tiI since the houses have been fpaintecf and the amount of calculation required before a dollar can expended He doesnt I stay long enpughjo learn admire the hardy thrift that can wring acomfort able support out of a rocky soil where a Ne w Yorker would starve or commit suicide and the girls he left behind him cannot compare sp be thinks on his return for beauty of dress or pretty coquetry of manner or small talk of society with the city girl whb has become be-come insensibly his standard of girlhood girl-hood Not that he expects to marry the city girl not at all no The news paperahaveslanderedlher to the transplanted trans-planted country ypnng man until between be-tween ice cream In summer and sealskins seal-skins in winter civilization would be justified if it put much faith In newspapers news-papers hi flinging its girl babies into the Charles River or the Hudson rid the world of such useless encumbrances The fairly wellmeaning and domestic young man thinks he doesnt approve of the city girl but her chic has none the less surely spoiled the country girl for him the usual result being that he goes Into bachelors lodgings until he Has unfitted himself in tastes and habits to marry at all These things considered it is fortunate fortun-ate for the spinster that she is begin mug to think it a natural and not altogether I al-together unpleasant state of affaire t8 baapninsteiv Thejrtlonot look to mean me-an unhappy lot thetffi 3few < Bngland old malde Ior one thia SetTtBngtand ic learning to beteod8r of them gbe does jaotcan ihfcafold midvBetas s6 pfirQ JI an tltitochtYI they pail i alle RtNlfkGwardl l Tttr At J Ui rsrialefa yeapl st eRp eism enough the 11en Ef I I perpetual youth is kept up until they die You may hear a New England woman peak the Fisher girls or the Simpsog girls for weeks before the truth is borne in upon you hat the girls are well along toward their 70th year D eyr ever married and nobody was ever rUJetenough to marloutany line beyond which they ceased to be young rheyarS ePe tini d7eSp ted these i spinsters too I wonder if itS it-S 1 strange in more sophisticated latitudes to be told that there are to this day New England towns in abundance where thebest educated andbeat bred Yankee girl of the best old colonial family can Ro into the shoe shop as Lucy JLarcom nnijherl ompeers did iato the Lowell mills when mills and shoe factories were new and work there Tears after she ceased to be a girl save by courtesy and stillread the Auntie arid m veSlri perhaps leadthe most aristocratic society sin the place It iff nbtsuchla bad thingto be an old maid whereyoucah work at whatever comes handiest without loss ofdignity and w1 ere y6ur neighbors on bothrsldes are more likely than not to be bid maids too Yon are following what is there the I natural destiny of a woman If you marry then indeed comes tne wonder the surprise J Where did he come from whoIs ne ana now did it happen that y6dtooka fancy to him Sometimes a New England village puts an exaggerated exagger-ated value orra man especially a newcomer new-comer as a rare and unexpected L being who opens new possibilities 10 half the girls in the place but f oftener the women grow so selfdependent so used to manage for themselves that the unnecessary un-necessary creature man must be very good indeed to be good enough for one them There is more or less commonsense common-sense floating around in New England and it is about as good place to be an old maid in as one could find WORKED AFTEB HABRIAGE The practical independence of the Massachusetts woman shows itself in a monetary selfreliance thathas pleasant and unpleasant aspects I have in mind a couple type of some thousands of others who bave been married six or eight yeas perhaps Before marriage ne was toreman of t he lasters in the inevitable shoe manufactory She was I boss of the stitching room He earned perhaps18a week She earned about 12 to 14 After marriage both retained I their positions It iEi yarE of the creed of shoe towns that the shoemakers wife works inthe shop usually his wages compel her to When that is not the case habit which has bf ed n the shoemaker shoe-maker a wav of giving his wife no money compels her td all the same This couple keep house They have no children The wife is proud of her neat home andrises early and goes to bed late to teepit m order out of workin 1 hours She washes summer and winter before the sun isup She irons and cooks and sews by lamplight She does all her household duties well for she is a genuine oldtime New England housewife house-wife An an equivalent for this home labor on his wifes part the husband pays the rent and settles the provision bills All other money that he earns is his and it would give him a shock of surprise to be called upon for penny by his wife If she wants furniture she buys it and has invested a good deal first and last in upholstery and dainty hangings that women love She buys her clothing and putswhat she saves into the savings bank in her own name The financial relations of the two are as well defined and as distinct from their conjugal relations as if they were business busi-ness partners Even in the matter of benefit associations they stand on an exact equality He insures for her with the Red Men she insures for him and forthe same sum in the Daughters of Pocahontas whose lodges are officered of-ficered and affairs conducted entirely by women He pays his assessments she pays hers I have seen this instance repeat itself innumerable times When husband and wife are ofn the right sort the arrangement ar-rangement does not work badly The moneymaking power of the wife in such a practical community insures her respect re-spect and improves her position Both bank accounts prosper if the pair are prudent and the times comes when they buy a homestead together on very even terms When there are children or the characters are illbalanced it does not go as well There are women in plenty who are dying by inches because their husbands know that they can support sup-port themselves and by withholding supplies compel them to do so in spite of a growing family and work enough at hdme for any womans strength It his not so many women who are physically I physic-ally able to do two days work in one nor so many men who can be trusted with the knowledge that they can get so much from heirwfvesif they try A great many people have studied the < NewEngland girl but her exact characteristics I char-acteristics are hard 10 hit Is it the absence ab-sence certain chrracteristics not the presence ofany thaistrikes a stranger i first She hasnot the spice of the New Yorker the luxuriance of the southerner south-erner the dash of the westerner You miss something bout her She is quiet and rescued her dress but not severe enpughfor i that to strike you as a distinguishing dis-tinguishing marK You meet her a second time and a third before you can apply to her any special attributes whatever Then at last you perceive that she is far enough from being neutral neut-ral It is only that after roses an interval inter-val is necessary before one can appreciate appre-ciate violets Your true New Eng lander is seen in her perfection in Boston Bos-ton and Howells and the whole crop of Boston girl newspaper jokes to the contrary notwithstanding she is far enough from being aggressive Neither on the other hand is she icy She is simply self contained with interests enough in life not to rush in utter boredom with open arms at any new sensation living in a world of her own but ready after a minute of consideration to meet you from a third to half way She looks at you with very straightforward eyes and if she likes you she will let you see that she has some serious notions in life and holds herself to rather strict account for her disposition of her time If she likes you very much she will show you further that she has plenty of fun in her and that when she enjoys any thing she enjoys it all the more heartily because she dont spend her whole life trying to enjoy things everyday every-day Some people find her formidable because she has arare thing in this world a conscience and can not quiet keep it out pi her face But if you know how to take her right she is about the most reliable girl going and apt to be as protlyas girls average nowadays |