The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-02-11

many, has it's inflexible power in Russia,
exists under another form in Greece and
Italy, is called BIZ a different name in Egypt,
Turkey and Persia, and is also strictly en-
forced in Spain, and even in farof China
and Japan, besides in France and England.
In the latter country it is honored rather
in the breach than in the observance, but
in France it Is as unchanged as ever.
The fashion Of having chaperons for our
girls is to my mind a most r~eprehensible
n and one likely to be abused in many
ways. If one is conscientious, she makes
herself heartily detested by the girl she Is
set to guard, and more than likely is the
cause of developing deceit and perhaps fur
Their w~rongdoing. What Is the reason our
fashionable mothers cannot have as much
confidence in their daughters as the women
in small towns and villages where chap
ercns are not known?
We see a young girl go off to walk or
ride or row alone with q young man, and
who takes note of it or thinks 1t wrong?
We see them sit for hours i'll a parlor with
a gentleman and think nothing of it as
long as it is not in a city and the chief
actors are not in the social world. 1t is no
harm for a young artist, musician or girl
of any class who has to earn her living to
go to theaters, concerts or balls with q
friend, but because a girl has been born
with a gilded spoon in her mouth she must
perforce have a chaperon along to preserve
her reputation.
The real fact is not that girls are less no
BILE or men less honorable, but that foreign
fashions are obtaining in our own country
which are humiliating to true womanhood.
I see in this fashion a most humiliating
fact, and that is that mothers here all seem
to be determined to marry their daughters
to foreign noblemen. They fear that those
pure and immaculate saints from abroad
will misiudge the innocent freedom of their
daughters, and SO they try to ape the style
that prevails in other countries of keeping
a watch upon them from cradle to altar"
The functions of the chaperon cease then.
We have built up our nation with true
hearted girls for our mothers, who could
be trusted under all circumstances, and
our daughters are Of the same stock or else
we ourselves are to blame. II girl cannot
have the confidence of her future husband
and her parents without a @laperon, she
cannot with one, and who shall trust the
ckaperon? If O girl cannot be trusted
alone in company or to go out with a male
escort, then she should be kept at home or
never allowed to go out without her mother
to keep her in order.
The impartial observer must admit that
the growth of the chaperon in this coun-
try is a distinct trucking to foreign Gus
tom in order to make our girls seem more
worthy Of the acceptance of some poverty
stricken and unworthy foreign nobleman.
Nobleman indeedl If there can be found
in the world nobler men than ours, I have
never seen that country on the map. At
any rate, our nob.emen are not SO particu-
lar about the mighty dollar as are the for
eign noblemen. What ahumiliating thing
it ought to be to parents to turn and delib-
erately pay a wornout, dissolute pauper to
marry their pure and fair young daughters.
whose beauty and sweetness are beyond all
price and compared A man ought to kneel
to kiss the white little hands and think
himself blessed to take the precious gift
with empty palms. But do these noblemen
feel sos Not at all, for they calmly and
deliberately bargain their titles and names
against the dollars and quarrel In petty
rage that the price is not high enough.