The Women Of Our Time.

woman is a dreadful spectacle both for men and angels . But as I am not writing a sermon , or even a religious essay , I do not presume to dwell on this characteristic , essential though it be to my typical old woman . As I said before , it has been my happy lot to knowas life has run on and years have

, fleeted fast away , many real old women ; and kind friends , sound advisers , agreeable companions and good society they ever were . I can see one even now—old and wrinkled and grey—the tenderest and the truest heart that ever beat in womanfull of

; kindness and full of goodness ; with a pleasant word and a gentle message for everyone ; abounding in good works , working on to the end ; and who when she went to her rest , the humblest and most devoted of God ' s servants , left very few

like her in this rough , hard , weary , wicked world . And so I say to-day to all who for their own edification peruse these words of mine ; never laugh at old women , but seek to reverence them when they deserve it , and listen to them lovingly , and don ' t be ashamed of a good old friend because she is an old woman .

Now I am very sorry to have to remark here , that all old women are not the same . There are , I fear , a great many foolish , perverse , troublesome , bad old women in the world . But , as the philosopher says , " such is life . " There are those , for instance

who are what the foreigner termed " old koket ladies " ( he meant coquette ); those who besmear themselves with paint and enamel , like Jezabel of old ; who tire thenheads , and look out of their windows ; who wear low dresses , and indulge in high heels ;

who insist on putting on gowns , whether decent or otherwise , which damsels "just out" might wear ; who will bedizen themselves withhats and wreaths of flowers which blushing maidens of nineteen mi ght gracefully don . There are old gossipsold

, mischief-makers , old flirts , old scandalmongers , old bores , and oldgood-for-nothiiigs —cum muUis aliis—whom time does not permit me to touch upon , and whom it is , perhaps , after all , better to forget . For all such I can only sayas the man said when

, he got a girl instead of a boy , " A las ' A , las !" I will give you a few illustrations of what I mean . There is old Mrs . Bangup ; she is ,

as you know , a very old gal—no one reall y knows her age—some say she is actuall y eighty , and yet there she is , with her false hair , and false smile , and her wonderful inake-up , with everything unreal about her , seeking to attract attention , and even to

engage admiration . Poor foolish , old soul ! She ought to be thinking of another world , instead of this ; she ought to be repenting in sackcloth and ashes for all her

hearfclessness and frivolity , and selfishness , and sins ; and here she is , wearing out ancl wasting the last days of life in grovelling fetish worship , in sad self-immolation before the Juggernaut of fashion and the world !

How curious it is that the love of dress and attractiveness survives the flight of years , the ravages of time . The old " koket " rigs herself out in one of the gowns of the famous "Mr . Thomas , " of Paris , costing 800 francs ( nearly - £ 40 ) , and

hopes even iu her withered hours—insane expectation—to eclipse the fragrance of youth's fresh morn , and the flowery spray of the early bloom of life ! Look , too , at that old flirt , Mrs . Killingman . Yon knowexactly what her

, age is , ancl how she has deposited three husbands in some secluded cemetery ; and there she positively is , with what Jorum calls that " deuced indecent low

dress , and the smartest of habiliments on her old bones ; her very appearance made more distressing by the fact , that the infatuated old woman believes that she is in the height of the fashion , and produces a great impression on all who see her . And now there rises up before me the

thin face and the limrj form of mischief making Mrs . Minnikin . Her great delight is to set everybody by the ears , even her nearest and her clearest . Nothing so much charms her as to snub the young , and silence the agreeable by some ill-natured

inuendo or remark . Her " role " seems to be to make things generally disagreeable for everybody . She always has a black side for everything , and nothing appears so much to gratify her as when she has succeeded in raising a

storm , and iu making her hearers uncomfortable . She is a thoroughly illfavoured , bad-hearted old gal , and you generally see her mumbling out her illomened sentences , and munching acidulated drops .