The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-18

"'Oh, damn it, said the chaperon.
cheerfully.
Nobody seemed to notice it. I don't
know why they do it. Think it fetch
ing and sporty 1 suppose. 1t doesn' t
hurt my feelings, but I'd like to catch
my small sister at it."
Other witnesses handed in like testi-
mony. Evidently there is something
doing in the line of emphatic e%pres-
blame for it?
That's the question no one answered.
In a New York letter to the Cincin-
natl Enquirer Clara Belle discusses a
much discussed question in an enter
tanning way. She asks:
What would you do if you had to
be out after dark alone and man
was to annoy you? 1t might depend.
suppose, on the manner of the annoy
ance. If a brute should rush up and
grab your purse, you would know that
he intended nothing worse than rob-
berry, and if you had been sensible you
would let him go, unless policeman
happened up just them, for you would
know that he wouldn't get anything
that you would miss seriously. But
that isn't the kind of annoyance that
woman fears most Now there are
or less at night. quite late some of
them, and, no matter what the neigh
horhood, they are always in some dam
ger of being unpleasantly accosted.
In such case, l repeat, what would you
do? The question came up among
some girls a little time ago, and one
Of them had an answer. She showed
us a whistle with which she said she
always went armed.
showed us: the thing gave an ear
heard for many blocks on a quiet
night. "If 1 blow on it a policeman
is sure to hear and he will come to
my aid. Most likely the sound would
brighten away the man anyway"
We asked her why she said most
likely" and she confessed that al
though she had carried the whistle for
a year she never had had occasion to
use it, Somebody suggested that the
very presence of the defensive weapon
might have been enough in some sub
tie way to keep vile men at a distance.
All the girls said that they were going
to get whistles at once, and / believe
that some of them did so. 1 know one
who did, for she told me her exper-
fence with it. She lives in an intense
ly respectable and deathly quiet neigh
X
It is frequently necessary for her to
be out alone late at night. Two or
three nights ago she left the L station
at lEighty-first street a some awesome
hour after midnight. Several persons
left the train at the same station. but
she did not notice who they were, for
of such is the manner of city persons.
Half way down the block she became
aware that a man was following her.
He seemed to gauge his steps to hers,
for when she hurried a bit the sound
of his steps still seemed to be as close
behind So at Amsterdam avenue. in
stead of going straight on, as was her
custom, she turned north a block and
proceeded down Eighty-second street.
The man behind made exactly the
same turns. and even stuck to the
game side of the street. How she wish
ed she dared to look around and see
what he was like, and how she wished
that there was somebody on the long
block between her and West End ave-
nue., 20 which she must go to arrive at
her home! The street was sufficiently
well lighted to make II clear that she
and her pursuer were the only persons
IN IT, She felt him drawing nearer
and was IN agony. Then suddenly she
remembered her new whistle. which
she hadn't thought Of before In her