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Show GirU tVho XVait for An Ideal to til 7te Old Maids. Imprimis there is nothing disgraceful or terrible terri-ble in living or dying an old maid. Some of tho finest women in the world are old maids; from choice, too. as many a rejected suitor might bear witness. It is a matter of doubt whether the majority ma-jority of girls improve their condition in life by taking a husband. There are obvious objections to being an old maid, but there are also obvious objections to matrimony. Old Socrates remarked a long time ago, "Marry or not, you'll repent whichever you do." As Socrates was tied fast to the famous shrew, Xantippe, this impartial reflection re-flection proved him a thorough philosopher. However, it is a fact, and may be taken for granted, that nineteen girls out of twenty hope to marry some day and would be keenly disappointed if their horroscope said nothing about a husband, hus-band, a home of their own and a reasonable number num-ber of children to rise up and call them blessed. Nature's plans require the perpetuation of the human race, at least during a cycle or two of the future, and, accordingly, the matrimonial and material instinct is planted so deeply and firmly in womankind that no philosophizing can root it out. Bachelor girls one finds her and there, but they do not last. The matrimonial altar is strewn with broken vows of celibacy. Many women who have had plenty of matrimonial matri-monial offers drift into middle age and old maid-hood maid-hood waiting for some ideal of manhood to come their way and propose. They turn away fairly eligible men for slight imperfections of mind, body, fortune, position or character and resolve to abide single until the godlike, supreme, perfect hero of their maiden meditation arrives and claims his own. Pretty nearly every girl has day dreams of an ideal man and a splendid matrimonial match, but the majority of girls, being practical creatures, abandon their ideals at the right time and embrace present opportunity in the form of some ordinary, decent man, neither better nor worse than his fellows. If girls were constant to their maidenly, romantic ideals, what would the men do for wives or the girls for husbands? The girl that waits for her ideal of a man waits until sho is rather up in years. Then, when she concludes that her ideal has forgotten the appointment ap-pointment with her, made by destiny, she may de-solve de-solve to save herself by doing the best she can with the material at hand. But, alas, time in its flight has brushed her with his wings and taken the bloom off her cheek, the sparkle out of her eyes, the grace out of her bearing, the symmetry out of her figure. She is not so attractive or so marraigeablo as she has been. Her disappointments, disappoint-ments, as one suitor after another failed to stand the acid test of her idealist has now gone to the opposite extreme of cynicism. She is in the position posi-tion of the stock gambler who held on too long, waiting further rises, until the market broke and values fell. When a girl finds herself rejecting pretty fair offers and clinging to an impossible ideal of manhood man-hood while cherishing dreams of mating with a being of heroic mold, let her ask herself what she can give this hero in return for all his perfections. perfec-tions. Is she, too, perfect? Has she all the divine attributes which her ideal must have? Has she no human frailties? Is she so much more desirable than other women that her ideal man might not prefer some other girl? Reflections like these destroy de-stroy ideals but make matches. San Francisco Bulletin. |
