St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-20
THE SOCIAL OHAPERoNE.
A System Of Espionage That Is {
Dead Giyeaway to Our Girls.

A System of Espionage That Is a
Dead Giyeaway to Our Girls.
Washington Post.
Is it not rather nOnsensical that a
young lady in Washington society must
have permanent appendage by way of
an elderly woman to accompany her on
her walks, drives and rides, and share
with her all the calls and attentions CT
her gentleman friendsl This late inno-
walton of the chaperone is the aping of
social condition wholly different from
our own. English society is based Oh
heredity and privileges of birth. Eng
lish aristocratic government divides
the people into classes. 1t creates
castles, which we are supposed to de-
spise. English social life from the
cradleeto the grave is one unceasing
effort to maintain all the rank zone is
born with and prevent those of lower
caste from crawling up step higher
This creates English eXclusiveness'
which American shOddyism loves to
initiate. This English idea of eXclu-
siveness is the secret of home training
for all who can afford it. 1t explains
the tutor and governess idea, the herd
if1g. as it were, of the family under the
ancestral tree. In consequence the
English girl grows up with an unusual
idea of the Importance of her family.
She is we'll instructed in books and de-
pertinent, yet lacking the confidence.
ease and grace of woman who has
strength. She is innocent, awkward
and ignorant, shy, gullible and ex-
tremely susceptible. She needs chap
erOne guardian.
With our public school system and
mixed colleges, backed up by good Re-
publican ideas of equality, politically
and socially, our boys and girls come up
on a more natural idea of companion
ship. They are from infancy SharerS
and partakers in study and pleasure.
Both boys and girls are better for prop
erly regulated and guarded association.
Boys are softened, made more gallant
and less selfish; girls are less suscept-
ible, more graceful and more wOmanly.
A oy with good sister, a girl with a
good brother, are not only better, but
m ore prudent and polished members OF
society.
Nine out Of every ten American girls
now affecting chaperOne come up to
the debutante aye with a crowd of
play-fellows and schoOlbOy friends. If
ten. She played with dolls and at
dolls with them, jumped the rope,
played tag and blind-man'S buff on the
school play ground. She had her boy
sweethearts. too. and she will never find
more gallant knight than the boy who
adOred her chiefly by glances. and cara
mels to the extent of his income. She
competed with boys for school standing.
and expended her sympathy on them
when she beat them. All along the line
the American girl is trusted till fortune
launches her into ultra fashionable
society, when the bars are put up and
her gentlemen friends must yield to
boredom, espionage, and double eX-
pense for the pleasure of her society.
A chaperOne in society here means
one or three things-that the girl is
badly trained or Incidentally silly;
that the men who visit her are ill-bred
or wholly vicious. or that she is a victim
to a foolish and unreasonable affecta-
ton. The chaperone prevails in France.
Does that country show higher level
of morality? Does the espionage system
anywhere increase feminine self-re-
spect? Does it elevate or degrade? Does
il make women strong or weak? Does it
prevent or encourage intrigue? Are
women stronger, mentally or morally,
when marriage cuts the chain?
The typical American girl Is not a
wood violet. She dances, plays tennis
and swings on horizontal bar. She
studies philosophy and political econ
omy, reads@Browning, Spencer and In
gersoll; has decided views of church,
state and marriage. She discusses
suffrage and cherishes philanthropic
schemes; she has literary. musical and
artistic aspirations. The American girl
is. or should be, thinking, self-re-
liant woman, to whom a hawk-eyed
chaperone is as unnecessary as the fifth
wheel to a wagon. The chaperone In
American society is an affectatiOn not
creditable to our common sense or q
wholesome civilization.