Maids Wives and Bachelors   By: Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr (1831-1919)

by AMELIA E. BARR

Author of "Jan Vedder's Wife," "A Bow of Orange Ribbon," etc.

NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1898

Copyright, 1898, By Dodd, Mead and Company

University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A.

CONTENTS

PAGE Maids and Bachelors 1 The American Girl 13 Dangerous Letter Writing 23 Flirts and Flirtation 32 On Falling in Love 38 Engaged To Be Married 47 Shall our Daughters have Dowries? 56 The Ring Upon the Finger 67 Flirting Wives 73 Mothers in Law 86 Good and Bad Mothers 97 Unequal Marriages 114 Discontented Women 125 Women on Horseback 145 A Good Word for Xanthippe 155 The Favorites of Men 160 Mothers of Great and Good Men 170 Domestic Work for Women 175 Professional Work for Women 187 Little Children 200 On Naming Children 205 The Children's Table 217 Intellectual "Cramming" of Boys 225 The Servant Girl's Point of View 231 Extravagance 240 Ought we to Wear Mourning? 248 How To Have One's Portrait Taken 254 The Crown of Beauty 272 Waste of Vitality 281 A Little Matter of Money 288 Mission of Household Furniture 293 People Who Have Good Impulses 302 Worried to Death 307 The Grapes We Can't Reach 313 Burdens 319

Maids and Bachelors

Women who have devoted themselves for religious purposes to celibacy have in all ages and countries of the world received honor, but those upon whom celibacy has been forced, either through the influence of untoward circumstances, or as a consequence of some want or folly in themselves, have been objects of most unmerited contempt and dislike. Unmerited, because it may be broadly asserted that until the last generation no woman in secular and social life remained unmarried from desire or from conviction. She was the victim of some natural disadvantage, or some unhappy circumstance beyond her control, and therefore entitled to sympathy, but not to contempt.