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Show j Dorothy Dix Talks I By DOROTIiY DIX, the World's Highest Paid Woman Writer I OLD MAIDS j A woman writes nie that she is continually con-tinually twitted with being an old maid, and that the married women "f her a. i.u.i Inta nee look down upon her because she is husband less, though: goodnexs knows, she culd I at the head of a hc-harem If she had been willing to take what some of them did, flracious I supposed that the old maid Joke had died of senility long ago I did net believe that there n anybody left. In the length and breadth of the land, who was such an old-timer old-timer as to see anvthlng humorous, or Strange In a woman's either mnrrIng, or not marrying. In the days when every woman's livelihood, her social position, and her opportunities of enjoying life, depended depend-ed upon lnr annexing a husband, inevitably in-evitably some stigma a'taehed to a woman's being unmarried. It showed that she was -a failure In the man hunt and that she had failed to br;ng down her ipjarry. For every woman was In the chase Every woman married mar-ried If she possibly could, and If Hhe couldn't get whit she wanted, she took any poor moke-Shift that offered. In lliiis-i dreary times, marrying t-.i tho chief business of woman; It was the way i-l e hud of making her living, liv-ing, l.ei ause there were no occupation i open to her whereby she might make' lnr bread and butter except the most menial ones. An unmarried woman; had no place In tho sun. She might not have u home of her own. nor go about unchaperoned until she was so old sho had lost every tooth In hor head, and was doubled up with thoj 1 heumattsm. She hail po absorbing interests, 'nothing entertaining to do. and no j hopes, no ambitions, of her ow n. She had lo be a sort of ward In some rsl-lstlv rsl-lstlv s famllyi when the wasn't an unpaid un-paid servant, so It Ls no wonder that she was an object of scorn, and look-led look-led upon at a failure because she had fa I led lu a 1 I even an a Ppruxima 1 e prl.e lout of 1 be matrimonial grub-bag. But all of that belungs to the dark ages of Women history. Marriage has .. 1 ,i tu be a profession thHt women ! follow for gain, it has become a career ca-reer that they espouse for love. When 'the average girl gets married now. daya she does not feel puffed up with pride because she has raptured a husband. hus-band. Generally she feels that she la making a sacrifice 1n giving up nn eosj Job for a hard one, and relinquishing relin-quishing lnr freedom and Independence, Indepen-dence, and her Individual pocketl k. The woman who earns n good salary in definite Working hours, looks at her married sister, Slaving over cook ' stove, and sewing machine, und wash' tub in a homo whose work ls never done. She comparer her own good clothe with the poor ones that are all her slsier can afford after sho has bought Johnny's suit and Mary's frock ' and the baby's shoes. She consider;, her own freedom, and 'he serfdom of the women who must forever pate i- the whims of husband and children first, and think of herself last, and she realizes that nothing but a great " d uv. rw helming lev.- can make marriage mar-riage worth while to a woman. For there are not enough Fnlrv LPrinces Ir. the world to go around. , J he men who can OSSUlre their wives lives ,,f BOSS and omfort. are few and far between. Most of the women who I marry commit themselves lo a life sentence at hard labor with scant pay. and no thanks as Its reward, and so lit is no wonder that women now have .the shoe on the other foot, and It is 'the old maid who pities the married woman, and not tho married woman Who Is sorry for the spinster. The Idea that a woman is an old maid because Khe couldn't marrv is too absurd to discuss seriously. Women! remain single for Just as many reasons as men do. Some are old maids be- ! cause they are congenltally celibates. ' l li. v are born with a distaste for the Opposite sex. and.no man has the at-' traction for them that their own latch-' key has. Some women do not marry because' rr the idiotic convention that prevents! 1 woman from openly choosing her j mate. Such a woman sets her heart Upon some man w ho embodies all i thai she admires and desires In a hus- I hand but he Is too blind, or careless, or perhaps too humble to sense her I attitude towards him. and pick her out of the herd. She cannot woo him. and I so as she will not lower her Ideals.' and marry a man of commoner cloy, she drifts Inlr. ,.,... 1 r. 1 1 I Home women do nm marry because .they are too selfish. The woman 1 who has a career upemng before her. Is not willing to sacrifice this for any man The womun who Is auci reeding In business Is not willing to give up Iwr good office position to o into! some man's kitchen. .Many wo- men are enamored of their own I freedom, and are not willing to marrv hecaue I hey do not wish tu be tied down to a husband and home. 1 u her w omen do not marry because they ure too unselfish. Many a girl gives' up the man she luves because lane has an old mother or father whom I she has to take care of. Many a girl gives up all thoughts of having a! husband and home of her own In or- ! der thnt she may educate and rear ber little brothera and sisters and give them a chance In the world. She makes of her youth and her romance n ladder on which they climb to sue- 1 cess, und which only too often they; kick over when they have no further1 use for IL She Is the most pathetic of I all old maids becnuso sho Is the wo- man who would have liked to marry, 1 nnd w ho gave up her happiness to (.'.hers. Oh. there Is every reason under the aun vhy women don't marry except j the one attributed to them by fools. which Is. that tiny didn't marry because be-cause they couldn't. For every woman wo-man can marry If she la willing to take what Is offered Hut the trouble, with women is that they arc getting choos-ev choos-ev Hence the splntser crop grows apace. Let us thank God for old maldn. They are among the noblest of their Bex, and they do the work of the world that 1 he balance of us leave undone. un-done. Dorothy Dlx's articles appear In thil newspaper every .Monday. Wednesday and Friday. |