Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-04-12
The Decay OF Chivalry.

rom the bottSn IfanecrlptI
'T don't believe In chivslry," said the
spinster sternly. 'T believe In simple
equality, and I only ask to be treated as q
human being"
''It cant be DONE said the mother of
daughters, "snd If had my way should
teach every young man knew to be inf
nitely more chivalrous towards women,
and especially towards young girls. If
had sons should bring them up In the
nurture and sdmonition of true modern
spirit of ohivalry. OF course nobody
wishes to see a young man wearing his
lady loves colors st the athletic club, or
riding tilt In her honor at the country
club rscss; but I'm not sure that 1t would
not be quite as well for the young man as
the present reversal of things. Luckily
my girls have q mother who looks out for
them, and invites 30 many young men to
the house that none can imagine himself
especially sought out, but they have num-
bers of friends, pretty young girls, who
positively have to seleot their own friends
among young men, and who say Come 20
see me- with as much readiness as their
mothers or sunts. Now when i vas q
young girl, q young man expected to Ask
to have the pleasure of q young girl's soci-
ETY.; he expected to do little of the court
ing himself; but the youths of to-day have
lost all sense of the delicate Difference due
to girls. Why, down on the north shore
In the summer, girls who ought to know
better, will drive up serenely to any
friends house they choose and ask any
young man they choose to come for q drive
In their carts with them.
I 1ns - III
the preregstives of the young American
princess, and 'aueenly initiative and sl
that sort of thing. But / won't let my
girls have bit of It. Carrie wasn't per-
mitted before she was married, neither
was Eleanor; and Fanny and Margaret
know very well they would get into trou-
BILE with me. / caught Fanny trying her
hand at 1t at the Assembly ball She had
been dancing with young southernsr, q
Harvard man, who had only been intro
duced that evening. and she was sitting
out & dance With him-right at my elbov,
tool-and heard her say, soft and low,
Mamma and / are at home Thursdays
Won't you come next Thursday didn't
wait minute for his answer, but turned
around promptly, not seeming to hear. of
course, and asked the young man to dine
three weeks off. OF course he had to &C
cept my invitation"
"Whst did your daughter say to you
when she got you slonei' laughed her In
terlocutor.
Kissed me good night, as a daughter
should, and told me she thought I was
funny smart lady, always getting the best
of my po IT little down troddsn daughter"
"But why not let your girls do as other
| girls dol"
because wish them to help foster the
decsyins chivslrY of New Englsnd. 1t is
very, very bad for young men TO be court.
ed and sdulated and run after "a they are
nowadays. They get 60 that they think
| themselves lords of creation before they
| are out of college. Why, at the Assembly
ball one young man came strolling up to
my Margaret, and dra~led ont, with a
manner between chatting and seriousness,
Well, 1 suppose l must dance this time
with you Not at ALL said Margaret,
! sweet as a peach, and sitting still, though
she knew she was engaged to him for that
dance and the next one, toe. She would
have sat ttill the rest of the evening before
she would have condoDed that condesuen-
sion. just then up came another man
and asked for the dance, and away went
Margaret. She told me that the other
one came to her afterwards aud said,
What did you do that fors / intended
| to dance that waltz with you You in
| tendedf said she, and made him q little
courtesy. -.
Now, of course, / don't want young
men TO crawl and eat from a girls hand,
i but don't want them to be insuffsrably
| rude. Oue time at 3 tes at our house /
saw q young man fall in love with a regu-
| lar little rosebud of g girl of eightesr,
| who had never been at any party but
the one her mother gave for her when
/ she came out. Ii was still winter, and
/ IarE at 6ua IN halr,
him out, asked him to take her home
| when she started to go homo. She lives
| only few doors away, and has always
been in and out of our house since she
was a baby. What do you suppose that
young msn-and hes thirty years old and
| ought to have some sense-ssid TO me next
time saw himi 1 expected him to thank
\ me for sending him with her. I'm sure
1 ought to be thanked, for every woman /
know, Including the girls mother. would
say was q sentimental creature, ard dis
pensed With all the formAlities. doing such
| q thing b.csuse / saw he fell In love at
| frat sight. Well, the oonceited creature
said dejectedly, 'Miss - did not AJAX
me TO call the other night may say
read him a chapter. 1 told him she
| would have been scared to death to ask
| any man to call told him that men
Sigh to see sweet, retiring girls, and mourn
over the ideal women they can't find, and
then force the girls of to day to do all the
seeking and almost all of the inviting,
with the mistaken idea that they are them
selves the proper object Of admiration. 1t
wasn't go when was young. am sure
my husband aEked to come to sse me the
first time be ever came. Ny girls grand
mother would have licked me up on
| bread and water for a week If she had
heard me say, Mamma and are at home
Thursdays as heard my Fanny-bo say
nothing of the usual modern girrs ever
lasting Come to see me-"
"You are very old fashioned"
'T am very new style, too, the very
latest style indeed. Thess ways come
back into fashion now and then; but used
to embroider, too, when 1t was quite out
of fashion to know how"