MAIDEN AUNTS.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 185, 26 April 1878, Page 3

MAIDEN AUNTS.

Did we hear a call for a champion to break a lance in defence of "maiden aunts?" Do not hundreds of homes throughout all lands bear silent and grateful testimony to the noble, patient, and helpful lives of those daughters, aunts, or cousins who, having by some chance failed in the one union which to them was the only one possible, have devoted their strength and lives to the well being of others ! There is an old saying that " married women have taken the men the old maids would not have," and though to a certain extent this is often absurd, yet there lingers a strong flavour of truth in the saying. How many girls we hear declaring that they will take the next husband that offers himself, and how many we see who, though not proclaiming their sentiments so boldly and baldly, yet demonstrate by their conduct on every festive occasion and opportunity their perfect willingness to be satisfied, nay, delighted, with any admirer. How far nobler and more truly womanly is the picture of her who, having once quaffed the rich draught of faithful and trustful love, cannot turn aside from her faith ;

. . . That higher vision Poisons all meaner choice for evermore. That love may be lost for this world by many of the sad, inevitable, stern chances of life—so impossible at times to fight against and so pitilessly sure ; and yet ew dare, in our ignorance and prejudice, to laugh lightly at the " old maid" and the " spinster " who keeps her faith •quietly and strictly, and who modestly works"in. the shadowy places of the world. Nowadays we "are beginning to learn tha*i there is a higher life for young women to lead than mere headlong, ■eager, restless pursuit of pleasure. The feverish existence spent in living from one ball to another is beginning to prove itself somewhat unworthy. The endless round of gaiety and flirtation, fatigue and disappointments and bitterness, are surely bringing home conviction to our maidens' hearts that, after all, the old sage was not far Wrong when he declared all this to be " vanity and vexation of spirit." In these days our pleasures, like our journeys, are taken at railway speed, and one gaiety succeeds the other with modern rapidity. But in the still water, out of the course of this rushing torrent of pleasure seekers, are to be found countless happy homes, whose secret we find perhaps in one patient spirit, tranquilly ruling and ordering. Occasionally we find tough bnsiness quietly and wisely transacted, the farm and estate cleverly managed, the schools seen to, the poor relieved ; and widely spread through our literature of the day is the influence of many a quiet-faced unmarried sister or "maiden aunt." And, in the impudence of ignorance, or supposed matrimonial superiority, " old maid" has grown to be a byword amongst us. Far be it from our purpose to hold matrimony cheaply. " Love is the fulfilling of the law," and we believe that, if possible, a really perfect life consists in true union. Yet you, Gracie, who took George because you could not get Tom—and you, Annie, who' finally espoused old Tiffin, the Indian general, for better or for worse, because you could get neither, think twice before you heedlessly chaff " old maids "or talk slightingly of maiden aunts.