The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-05-12
WOMEN MAY
 NOW 60 ALONE
UNEscoRTED WOMEN ARE vTEN
 SEEN IN NEW YORK.
They Are Safe Even Late at Night Simple Dress Best--How One
 Woman Avoids Trouble.
Geraldine Bonner in San Francisco Ar

Geraldine Bonner in San Francisco Ar
 gonaut.
 One of the most noticeable of changes that have taken place in New York within the last seven or eight years is the way ladies--young and good looking ones-go about unescort- ed in the evening. Of all the signs or the emancipation of the human female 1t is one of the most marked and meaningful, the freedom of the iatch- key was not more significant--the re- volt of the daughters no more revolu- tionary.
 Even as short time back as five years ago, 1t was regarded as fast, not to say dangerous, for two women between 25 and 40--to go out alone together to the theater. There was sense of peril about the enterprise that, to the timid. was alarming, and to the bold had its charm You, so to speak, committed yourself to the deep, and passed from the sphere of the known and familiar, to that of the adventurous. not to say sinister. You went both ways in a carriage, which left you at the theater door. and was waiting there for you when you came out, and 1t was understood that your costume and demeanor must be se- date, If not actually funeral. After ward your friends asked you about it. and seemed quite disappointed when you told them that no desperate man had followed you like a sieuth hound. proffering love in a low, hissing whis- per
 This has all changed now. Women go to the theater in pairs, even as men do. and when say women, I mean young, good looking and well-bred ones. They go exceedingly well dress ed and they go both ways in the cars provided, that Is, that they live in the same house or close together. There are even daring, fearless spirits. who. at midnight, will walk few blocks alone, leaving their more tim orous companion on her doorstep, and continuing their way to their own walk farther along. A young married woman of my acquaintance, still in her twenties, and very handsome, told me she often walked home alone at eleven from her sisters, distance of six or seven blocks, and that no one had ever noticed, much less accosted her.
 There are women who are very fond of telling you of the 1urid adventures which have attended their walks through populous cities, and the some. what embarrassing tribute paid to their charms by unknown gentlemen. Some are frankly lying, while others have deceived themselves. Jus. before I went to Paris, I met a fairly good looking English lady In London. who dold me no woman could walk unat- tended in the streets of Paris with out attracting to herself the most nor tifying attentions. She, personally, al- ways stayed in her room at the. hotel till her husband was free from busi- ness and then he guardedly took her out for a walk, protecting her by his presence from the admiring men who dogged their steps. I had sort of mental vision of the husband beating them off as Rizpah beat the eagles off her dead sons, and it made me look forward to my Parisian existence with uneasiness, not to say apprehension, for I had no husband to protect me. I would have to do the beating myself.
 The first day I went out alone in Paris was pale with fear. for I at least expected to be egregiously in- suited. probably Kidnapped. And, noth- ing at all happened! No one took the least notice of me. I felt quite dis appointed-rather small and cheap. Af- ter I had roamed about for an hour and not one ogle had been directed to-