Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-03-01
THE AMERICAN CHAPERON.
SHE is ALWAYS ON HAND IN
SPITE OF FOREIGN NOTIONS.

lung women OF Europe-CnaP-
erons May Be Young and Frisky,
but They Are on. Duty.
Foreigners, even some who have
Visited America, are convinced as a
rule that the American girl is al
lowed to go her own sweet way on all
occasions unhampered by so much as
the ghost of chaperon. For instance,
the other day young Oriental Prince,
who had paid a visit of several weeks
to New York was quoted on taking
his departure for England thus:
There is much less trouble from
chaperons in New York than in Con
tinental society. Chaperons are NUS
ances.
When | take a girl to theatre in
London l have to invite also her old
father or her grumpy mother or her
maiden aunt Here she doesn't need
chaperon. 1t is so much nicer"
This Prince was either misquotad or
he did not move in good society while
here. After all, though, one mis-
statement more or less about the
American chaperon, or the lack of
her, doesn't matter much. The Amer
lean woman isn't particularly sensi-
tive
Even when held up to the world as
sort of curio not to be found out
side of the New World, the American
girl only laughs and goes on her
sprightly way. Sometimes, It is true,
she wishes she might have the game
as well as the name of going about
unchaperoned
AS matter of fact, instead of be-
coming less of an institution, the
American chaperon is more to the
front than she ever was before.
Women who have lived on both sides
Of the water declare that in good so
ciety in New York, as in good society
in London, young women are not al
lowed to attend entertainments of any
sort, with young men, unchaperoned.
Some go further and say that even
among wage earners in this country
the chaperon is now more or less in
evidence-much more it seems here
than she is in England, for the reason
that of late years many American
women of good social position have
joined the ranks of the money makers.
When it comes TO fashionable so
eiety, the path of the American girl
is hedged in just as carefully by chap
erons as is that of the English girl
all beliefs to the contrary notwith
standing. The American chaperon
may be less formidable than the Eng
lish chaperon-she usually is-but she
is equally omnipresent
Although it may turn ont that she
is livelier and more. fascinating to the
men of the party than the young girl
or girls she is chaperoping, it is none
the less certain that she knows her
business and does her duty. At all
events she is always on hand.
1t is possible that it may have been
this style of chaperon who was en-
countered by the Prince already refer
red to. Even so, and admitting that |
he mistook a chaperon for young |
girl-a mistake often made by the in
experienced from other countries
that does not explain his presump-
ton that American girls are in the |
habit of attending the theatres with |
men quite unchaperoned.
When this interesting question was |
brought to the attention of leading
society women she replied:
Il never heard of such a thing as a
young girl going to any entertainment |
at nighG with a young man to whom
she was not related without chap
croft The thing cant be done. 1t is
not done.
in New York it would be next to
impossible to find two young people,
outside of the wage earners' ranks,
out in the evening alone. Neither
will you find them even lunching tete-
a-tete in public.
Were they to do such a rash, al
though apparently harmless, thing, l
think the news would be cabled across
the ocean in less that twenty-four
hours.
Where foreigners get the notion
that the New York society girl has
the privilege of going around with
know; certainly not from anything
they themselves have experienced.
THE one thing in which American
guardians are less strict, perhaps, !
than the English is that when receiv-
ing men in their own drawingrooms
our girls are not under such close
espionage as the London girls. Under
such circumstances the English chap
eron sticks close to the elbow of her
charge and seldom or never leaves tina
room.
over here we ease matters by stay
ing somewhere in the vicinity and
putting in an appearance only occa-
sionally. have heard of cases where
an English girl, even after she was
betrothed, was not allowed to receive
her fiance alone.
1T goes without saying that the
American duenna is more merciful
than that. She makes exceptions.
But the rule is that even on occa-
sions where bevy of young people
go together to dinner, dance, a
drive, to the theatre. opera or con-
cert-tc frolic of any sort-invar-
ie5ly an older woman must be of the
! party.
Il am inclined TO believe that the
English mamma may be more grumpy
| than the New York mother. but
| doubt whether she is whit more
careful about chaperoning her daugh-
tiers. At all events, one thing is GER
| tain-the New York girl who moves
| in good society does not go TO the
theatre or any place else at night
alone with a man. New York Sun.
Woman ard Her Nose.
THE latest wrinkle" said a Fifth