The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-03-16
FLIRTs AND FLIRTING.
The Danger of Young women.

Careful mother, You who shrink with
horror from the thought that breath Of
scandal can ever tarnish your daughters
fair name, or that she can be a subject
for gossip Of any kind, as you have reared
her so tenderly and believe in her so I'M
those evenings when She stays out long
after the hour for retiring, and you may go
many times to the door looking into the
darkness and listening for her feotsteps9
You know where your neighbours daughter
is, for you have talked that over with ar
other neighbor, wondering what Mrs. -
was thinking about, and why she didn't
see to it and know what her daughter was
doing. Pity that while seeking to pluck
the mote from her eye you couldn't cast
out the beam from your own and look into
the side streets and public squares, or the
boulevard along the river or canal little
out of town, where after dark you would
never think of walking alone But go to
any one of these on summer nights. and
the nights of early autumn, aud you will
find plenty of company there-your daugh-
ter among the rest--although you supposed
she was at some neighbours house, sitting
upon the doorstep with girl friend, as she
often says she Is when you question her
Of her whereabouts.
What are they doing, the young people
you fad there9 Nothing very bad, for
they belong, many Of them, to the best
families in town and would be greatly
shocked if told there was anything immod-
est in their proceedings. They are simply
having good time-firting, as they I'M
derstand the terfn--while their fresh
young voices ring out on the night air in
all the abandon of delight and freedom
from restraint. Only flirting. An easy
thing to do and old as time itself, for be-
lieve it has existed ever since there was a
man for woman to flirt with, and am
not sure that it was a man with whom the
first woman flirted, for | rather think that
Eve had listened to the tempter'S oily, per
suasive tongue and given him to nnder-
stand that she'd like TO see him again be-
fore that fatal day when she ate the apple
and brought upon her daughters all the
wretchedness they have ever known. II
this thing is true, the kind of flirting
which began in Eden is a heritage from
Satan himself. Like everythg savorirg OF
him SHOULD be put behind US. But firta-
=
years ago were thought to mean something
very different from what they do BOW.
Noah Webster in his day defined flirt or
eoquette, as a trifing female who tries to
attract admiration and gain matrimonial
offers with desire to crafty her vanity
and with the intention to reject her suitor
when it pleases her fancy to do so; a '.jilt, =
who wins and plays with the human
heart iast for the fun of the thing and
then throws it aside as a garment is cast
off when its freshness is gone and it no
longer pleases. But things get in mud
die as ore grows older, and many words
change their Specification, flirting among
the rest, and when l interviewed young
girl on the subject her answer was eharae-
teristic and to the point:
..Pshaw." she said eve don't call it
flirting now TO have two or three beaux on
our string at time That's mean, bat
flirting is fun
And when asked her for her definition
of the term as she understood it, she wax
ed eloquent over that practice which has
of late years come into fashion and which
threatens to destroy the freshness and
mcdesty OF our young people if ii does not
prove their ruin,
In the cities were young girls are seldom
in the streets at night without suitable
escort. the firtations of the better class are
mostly confined to daylight, ard New
York lady Of high position once told me
that her own daughters tlirted with the
leungers around the hotels. and even with
the conductors Of the street cars on their
way to and from school, and could not be
made to see that it was wrong, SO common
was the practice and so full of a certain
kind of pleasurable excitement. In the
smaller towns and villages, where the
streets are considered safe until after nine
O'Clock and The girls and boys are free to
go out as they like, there is broader field
for action, and, as the parties are aeqaint-
cd With each ether as Iule, they are nat
urally more at ease, and little more open
in their llirtations.
You viii meet them ON the side streets
aud The public squares, and the road by
the river, If there is one. in groups Of fours
and threes and twos--those who know each
other well and have paired off, walking
arm 10 arH--ihe boy of IA and the girl Of
IS. who are just on the A of the flirting
alphabet, initiating the girl Of 10 and the
boy Of 90, who have passed from A. to q,
and know every sign in the vocabulary,
from the handkerchief filtration to that Of
The eyes and feet. They mean no harm
by IL, and see no harm IN 4
it. They are only having good time. a.
they call it, but having y In way Of