Show y The Old Maid Yes ehee an old maid And you yonng people laugh at her and speak of her with aaorlof contemptuous contempt-uous pity She baa earned this from you simply through growing old Simply because her face has ever BO little altered its outlines The bloom on her cheek has faded and she has not for a companion a man to make her miserable Yet she baa a heart full may be of affection and oympa thy and longing for an object on which to exspend it You laugh at her capacity for loving but in reality its no laughing matter Iia about the moat serious quality belonging to these hearts of oura It is when ungratified the cause of more pain and agony than all other agencies affecting us put together It ia as vital to human health and happiness as the air we breathe Could you see with your eyes or realize with your minds half the pain and desolation existing in thousands of households through unmet and unmated love you would never speak contemptuoaaly of the old maid It is but the outer akin and muscle that ia old The heart within is aa young aa ever though a little warped may be a Little soured a little eccentric throjgh the trial and misery of a life marred through lack of sympathy It is only the thoughtlessness of profound ignorance which treats these subjects with a combined giggle and jest When next you see the old maid remember that though surrounded sur-rounded bv human forms of her own kith and kin yet she may be journeying journey-ing through life alone Alone for years in that awful solitude ashamed and afraid to speak to any of l her hearts deepest yearnings and longings long-ings alone longing for the compani ship which she knows can never come alone slighted neglected and deemed now lonly fit for duties from which eyes and beauty ore now exempt ex-empt from alone suffering year by year this hopeless hunger of the heart Young people this is your day of triumph It may be short You too may suffer as she does Fifteen twenty years hence you also through the appearance of a few wrinkles may realize that the coveted surface admiration of others is deserting desert-ing you for the last newlyblossomed flower You may learn that surface admiration is at its best but heartless admiration and heartless admiration is close to the cruelty which ridicules the old maidN Graphic |