The Wilmingtonian. (Wilmington, Del.) 1882-188?, 1884-09-06

(Philddelphia Press.


When Harry James drew a picture of the
American village belle abroad as "Daisy
Miller" all Americans recognized the like
ness and were only amused at it. Why should
not pretty girl, they reasoned, be saucy
and even brazen in her innocence? Was
not Daisy Miller" with all her vulgarity
and assurance, pure as snow? To speak
plainly, many American fathers and mothers
are so confident of the impregnable chastity
of their daughters that they too often despise
the lesser virtues. They throw their girls,
without the care of their mothers, into what
ever society they may chance to meet. They
are made sole arbiters of their own actions,
manners and morals at IS. They contract
friendships with young men wholly I'M
known to their parents, and carry ON flirta-
tions with them to the very verge of crime.
As long as they stop short of that, father,
mother and friends look on complacently,
and the future husband is expected to re-
ceive gratefully the rose on which half a
dozen men have breathed and to wear it
proudly in his bosom.
Now, is there any reason why because
our girls are incorruptibly virtuous, they
should not also be modest and refined? Is
there really any merit in vulgarity? If not,
why push our daughters into habits and
situations in which vulgarity is forced upon
them?
Take, Tor example, some of the most pop
ular Summer re sorts. At one of these 1--WE
take one from many instances) an immense
Pavilion projects out into the sea. On this
may be seen, any day during August, hun
dreds of men and woman, usually total
strangers to each other; the women cxtrav
agantly dressed in gaudy silks and diamonds
Tor paste); they are reading novels, or eat
ing candy or hard boiled eggs, which negro
walters distribute among them. Behind
them is the busy street of a large city, from
which their numbers are constantly recru-
tied. Immediately below them are probably
a thousand women and men, of every color
and class, in the water, frolickng together.
the brothers come up dripping and semi.
nude to gossip with their friends in the
pavilion and eat candy and eggs. Now all
this might be merely harmless matter Of
taste and breeding, were it not that the
principal feature of the crowd are the
young girls from 10 to 90 years old running
about alone, bareheaded, in tawdy tinerN
fit only for evening dress, perfectly self
possessed in the midst of the stirring crowd
They stroll through the streets to the hotels
and thence to the stations, waiting in gang
to see the trains come in. They have IL,
mothers with them. They look as if the,
never had heard of mother.
Still further: About a stones throw iron
the pavilion is an enormous tent-likc roof
singing hymns, praying or shouting. Closet,
surrounding that tabernacle are set street,
of tents with the whole front of each laiC
open to view. The cooking dressing, beds
ETC., are as public as if they were upon tin
open highway. The gossip of women, TIL
sizzling of meat in the pan, the loud laugh
Ter Of flirting girls, mingle with hymns an,
prayers.
Now we have not a word to say as to tn
religious work going on in these places
But why should religious people inaugurat
a mode of life which is in itself exception
ally vulgar and indecent, and stripped o
all the mOdesties, the reserves, the sacred
ness which guards domestic life from vice
What training for wives and mothers dc
these Over-dressed, bare-headed, fiauntin,
young girls receive in such q place? VI
commend these questions earnestly to thei