Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-01-27
WOMAN AND HOME.
MRS. SHERWOOD WRITES CONCERN
ING A CHAPERONE'S DUTIES.


Society ut the Capital-Comtort for Weak
Hearts-Cure Tor Frosted Feet-Cold
Starch -Femininity - Economy - stray
Bits of Useful Information.
But if girl enters the world of fashion she
must accept its laws and limitations They
are inexorable, and she must accept them if
she would succeed American women ami
ably possess strong sense of propriety. They
have a truly HEALTHY love for virtue, an alb
sence of morbid suspicion of wrong, as Ameri-
can men have u natural love of law and order
and "A propensity to obey the law. Let us
hope that it is the natural outcome of young
republic and owing to the exceptionally re
spectful and chivalrous nature of American
men that an American woman is safe any
where Bret Harte and all the play wrights
have treated us to the spectacle of the sight
of one young schoolmistress who charmed a
whole colony of wild miners into submission
and clean linen.
But we are ceasing to be the fresh and
primitive young republic. We are becoming
one Of the richest and most powerful and
luxurious people on the face of the earth.
We can afford to care little for the opinion
of foreigners But we do not wish to place
our young girls in false position in their
eyes. We do not wish them to grow up OBJ
hvous of good manners.
The duties of a chaperone are tresome.
They call for great unselfishncss. She must
accompany her young charge into society.
She must sit i'll the parlor when gentlemen
are calling. She must, especially after the
young lady is engaged" go everywhere
with her.
A chaperone should be an intelligent
woman. Society requires n certain amount
of handling, which only the social expert un-
derstands. Some women have this tact, and
great many more have it not 1t is a sort
of genius.
No very young flrtatious married woman,
bent on amusing herself, should be selected
for chaperone for young girls. She is no
protection to the charge, and She lacks the
first requisite of a care taker, sense of pro-
priety, and the second requisite, which is I'M
sefshness. If any woman should have
spotless record it should be the chaperone.
Much of the loudneSs and fastness of a Ger
tain set in American society is due to this
adoption of young chaperones. i girl mar
ried yesterday is i'll no wise fitted for the
post. In Europe if she were a princess or a
grand duchess; she would still be chapcroned
herself 1t is amusing for an American tc
see always noble ladies' royal ladies. dra-
gooned by an elderly, watchfu Lady Sophia
or Charlotte something, who never leaves
them
Although we have thrown off the slavery
of pomp and rank, although our young wo-
men come as near to the Juste mliu of lib
erty and proprety any women in the
world. although they are vastly the most to
be envied of any pretty young thing in the
universe, this question of chaperonagc is one
which should be more considered than it is
1t would so far to silence gossip, to promote
respe ctability.
We cannot, perhaps, Immediately educate
the daughters of people who have suddenly
stepped from the responsibilities of crude
prosperity into the etiquette of the quiet
elegant, educated, thoughtful people who
have constituted for a century what we may
call our American blue blood. The two
classes, however, have always been living
side by side, and gradually they amagumate.
1t SENS impossible that any American
woman, with her quiet intelligence and her
initiative faculty, can be so oblvious of the
prophecies which she shocks as are some of
those who travel or stay at home, oblivious of
Chaperone or careless of good manners We
can only refer as an explanation to this mis-
take to the lack of reverence, and to the i'm
itativc idea that it is clever and indepen-
dent to outrage the recognized etiquette of
the best society all the world over. We
Americans are very sensitive to ridicule.
Let us first see that we do not deserve it.
We may as well accuse ourselves of our
national sins, and take the bitter pill at once.
1T is "A foolish begging of the question, to pre-
fer to appear badly, rather than be told that
we Dc No harm will come to girl from
the c,.Epanion,hp Of nice and good chapc
rome. Her mother, if possible, if not her
mother, then the next best thing.-M. T.. W.
Shcr~ cod in New York Mali and EXPIRES,