"OLD MAIDS."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 182, 27 April 1908, Page 3

"OLD MAIDS."

/"There is no more delightful personage, living than ybur ■ delightful - old l maid .(socalled)," says' Miss - Ellen Thorneycroft •Fowler. . ■ ■ And it takes a far cleverer woman .to be an admirable old maid than an admirable {wife; let no one -forget that. : There is a growing tendency among the girls of the present day not to'marry. ~ . "In our grandmother's'time every woman considered marriage as her raison, d'etre, and spinsterhobd as aiuunmitigated. calamity; but nowadays many women deliberately prefer to remain single., - v ;[{:,, • { .-" And'there is much ' to- be said in. favouiv of: single life, with its.' independence .'and! its ' freedom from aVixiety and responsibility. It' has fower: joy's -than .the married state, but also-fewer cares, j And a single, woman has a far- better j.time now. than she ever, {had:before, : owing to' 'her .'increased liberty .and freedom. Nevertheless, the present. reaction against marriage ', is not {altogether ,'a. good thing.; '• •'■ : "It is all right for a woman.with"means and ■ position of her • own—she can afford ,to please'•herself.'" Biit thero are numberless daughters of middle-class'men who' havo comfortable'homes'aiid: a good timo during,their father's life, and - refu/e suitable 'offers ; in their tcon's or feheir early' twenties;. and then— wh.eii tho home is broken up—they find themselves left,' in their'., thirties{ or forties, alono and unprovided; for,* arid with;,'no •chance., of changing their state." . .. ■ . ; AT TABLE. '• The .correction*of faults, complaints, and accusations are'sorry food-for tho t'ablo for children or,; their elders, ' aiid caiis'e m'oro indigestion tfian tlie. worst-cooked . foods: in the/ world. : The-family dinner-table 'is "all there-.really'is. .of actual honie life. | We may live, and;.comfortably,' in' boarding-hoiises •or hotels, but neither boarding-house, nor .'hotel can give us tho sacredness- of the family "din-ner-table, with its unity, of-interests, .its. dear, foolish'jokes', its freedom from restraint,.its understanding of one another's tastes and n^s./.-Lot.'.us.not'.{thereforo,abuse, iW:» . . NAMING THE BABY. V / There is. no . reason to call a child by'an ■'ugly iiainc bccause ,it happens to be that .of grandfather or/grandmother,: or spine other lioiioured member of the 'family/ :It is -a positive cruelty to. give a . child i -name ■which will make it tlie laughing-stock of- ; its playmates.'- Ugly and eccentric names often add to, if they do not actually cause, awkwardness and self-consciousness in'boys .and girls, which' greatly handicap them in'the battle of life. / {/ Miss ICarin Hylauder, a pretty girl of sixteen, has just benefited under one-of the strangest wills-on record. About a year ago an immensely wealthy Swedish banker died, leaving {£50.00 " to provide' annually a marriage portion for a deserving, good-looking girl of sixteen with red hair." Tlie curious bequest, suggestive of the well-known Sherlock Holmes story "The Red-headed League," was at once claimed by Miss Hylander,, who boasts a wealth of hair of tho stipulated colour. Woods's Great Teppermlnt Cure for Coughs and Colds never fails, Is. 6d. and 2s. 6d. 0811.