Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-26
CHAPERONS.
A Question of the Hour ReIat-
ing to Girls Discussed
BY SOME FAMOUS WISE WOMEN.
Letters on the Subject from Margaret
BottoEle, Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Ouida
and Louisa NJ. Alcott.

| Copyright, 1891, for the Gazette aud all
rights reservedl
! Some years ago began to ask every dis
| tinguished woman 1 met TO favor me with
| her views on the subject of chaperous for
| girls. have at length decided TO combine
| Jew of the answers received in the follow
ing symposium.
GEoFFREY WILLIsToS CHRISTINE.
DAUGHTER OF THE KING.
| Mrs. Margaret Bottonie is widely known
| as the noble Christian woman who founded
! the great order of The Kings Daughters.
which has shed the light of JOY and peace
in so many gloomy places and upon so many
| darkened lives.
Good principles and pure noble aspir-
| ationS thoroughly instilled into the mind
| of girls are their best Chaperons. The
| girl who has been taught from childhood to
| love and revere the pure, the beautiful, the
! noble and the good, who has been thor
| oughly imbued with the idea that she IS
| really q daughter of the King of Kings, that
| she is therefore of rank far more noble and
| exalted than that of the child of any earthly
| monarch, and that she must in every
| thought, word and deed strive with all her
| heart to be worthy of her birthright, has d
| chaperon in her own heart that is ever
present with her.
Mothers should so rear their daughters
| that they can be fully trusted TO chaperone
lucIISSlNtS. Ii III grows up uuOcl liV
influence of true, pure woman, nine Tunes
| out of ten she will unconsciouSly grow up
/ to be like her. II is not example alone that
| influences girls, but there are thousand
other ways in which they may be taught to
love the pure, the beautiful, the good Ii
we consecrate our daughters to the great
| King and guard them with our prayers we
| have done much to protect them from those
evil influences which chaperous are de-
signed to ward off.
MARGARET BoTToME.
THE MOTHER OF UNCLE TOM
Many years have passed since Mrs. Har-
riet Beecher Stowe gave '.Uncle Toms
Cabin" to the world, and though the author
of that wonderful book still lives at the age
of more than eighty years, it is not likely
that she will ever again come before the
public in the guise of a writer. Indeed, it
is so long since she did 50 that peculiar
value and interest attaches to the following
thoughts on the subject under consideration
| which she kindly jotted down for me some
time ago.
In considering the question of chaperons
for girls, it is important to determine, if
| possible, where chaperonage ends and es-
piOnage begins A chaperOn should make
her charge feel that she is merely discreet
companion, not watchful guard. A girl
who finds that she is being watched feels at
once that she is suspected, and in that case
is apt to make up her mind that she will not
be suspected without cause. Between the
course of Gypsy mothers who never permit
| their dark-eyed, swarthy daughters to leave
| their sight and who keep most vigilant
watch over their every waking moment
| from the cradle to the marriage bed, and
| the neglect of many mothers in the lower
| walks of life who permit their daughters to
come and go as they please unguestoned,
! there are many gradationS. Mothers must
be careful to adopt one which shall be
| neither too lax nor too rigid.
SELF reliance is noble quality which
| should be cultivated in every girl 1t is
| very likely to be crushed out entirely if
| Edith or Ethel is never left to herself and
| her own devices for moment but is always
| kept in leading strings by mamma or auntie.
| Every girl should early be taught that she
can protect herself far better than any
chaperon can protect her, and she should
| also be taught how.
SIN the society of our day, as at present
| constituted, no mother can have her daugh-
| ter constantly under her eye, and it is not
best she should. We want our daughters to
| be grown-up women some day, not grown
| up girl babies. When, in later life, she is
| eft to her own guidance. If the storms of
temptation should beat upon the girl who
| has always been accustomed to the surveil-
| lance of chaperon, she may fall through
| d sheer lack of mental and moral strength
and of self-contidence and courage, of
| which excessive chaperonage has deprived
| her.
Still chaperons are often Indispensable
not because girls would be guilty of any
| imprudence or wrong if unchaperoned, but
because we must avoid not only all evil, but
all appearance OF evil, and there are many
situations and pleasures which, while per-
| fectly innocent and harmless in themselves,
may seem otherwise to an uncharitable
world, and the presence of chaperon d.
vests them of all suggestion of all impro-
| priety. The girl who drives out alone of a
summer night with an agreeable man may
| have her action unpleasantly misconstrued
| and commented upon, but if mamma, or
auntie, or good Mrs. Brown-an old and
trusted friend of the family-goeS too, Mrs.
Grundy's malicious tongue has nothing to
wag about.
1.-The same principle applies to the summer
picnic and excursion. Only the other day
the newspapers were telling the story of a
Young girl on an excursion to u seaside re-
sort, forced into a hasty and ill-advised
marriage because she and her male escort
had missed the last evening train and were
obliged to remain at the hotel. Had she
been accompanied by proper chaperon
such thing could not have occurred.
Mothers should prize their daughters TOO
highly to subject them to such risks. Wise
mother love and good judgment should
guide US to the happy medium of wise chap
espionage of the gypsy mother and the utter
neglect of many ignorant and most culpable
parents. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE"
THE AUTHOR OF ''RoBERT ELLsMERE."
Mrs Humphrey Wards novel of Robert
Ellsmere'' has made her name moro widely
known in America than that of any other
English woman of our time, and special in
terest will be felt in what she has to say on
this question of chaperons:
I'D not think the system of constantly
watching girls good one. In our English
society girls become accustomed to depend
altogether too much upon their mothers,
and when, after marriage, they are sud
denly left to take care Of themselves. they
are often incapable Of doing so. In Amer
lea girls enjoy much greater social freedom
than they do with US, yet there don't seem
to be nearly so many scandals among mar
ried women of the upper class in that coun-
try as there are in ours. May not the fact
that American girls are not chaperoned to
anything like the same extent as English
ones and their thus acquiring more equi-
poise and self-reliance before marriage-to
say nothing of their chances to see more of
life and thus have more Of ''fingn-have
a great deal to do with thisl
In France chaperonage, or espionage, or
whatever you please to call it, is carried
to the fullest possible entent. Girls are i'm
INJURED in converts from about their twelfth
year till they are married. Let any one
who thinks that such a system tends TO
strengthen and confirm woman's virtue
contrast the family life and morals of
France with those of England and America
ssMRs. HUNPHREY WARD