The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-06-24
NOW A VANISHING LADY.
PART THE CHAPERON rs PLAY
ING IN SOCIETY,".
Her Decline in England Charged to the
American Girl, Who Has Introduced
New Ideas on the Subject Substitution
OF aid ChaperOn for Girls OF Rank.

New Ideas on the Observation-Disclosures
OF Paid Chaperon for Girls OF Rank.
There is no doubt that the chaperon, as
an institution, is playing the part Of a
vanishing lady. More particularly is this
the case in the upper middle class Of So
ciety. The daughters Of well to do pro-
fessional men and others Of a similar social
stratum, such as country squires, large
landowners, bankers, and so on, were once
on a time as carefully guarded as the young
Lady Clara We're de We're herself.
That was in the days before the bicycle
brought al undreamed Of emancipation
on its wheel, an emancipation that ex-
n into scenes n occasions from which
the emancipator itself was unav oidably
absent. The girl who, for the first time in
her life, rode twenty miles from home and
back without even a groom behind her, fell
too much In love with such unwonted free
dom not to carry the thing out consistently.
IL she could go unattended in the daytime D.,
why not to dances in the evening, and
even to the theatrei With certain limita-
tions, so It came to pass.
1t is not by any means unusual for a girl
to 60 alone to a dance, but there is one thing
SNS hiAeDS i'N wv "itNCo AlauRo Ill lu6
London Truth, and that is to go with a man.
even II engaged to him. Here is one of the
cases where the chaperon is still necessary.
Do we not know her, putting in her hours
Of penance at a dancer Have we not seen
her, silent and neglected, at the play, while
the two heads near her incline toward each
other In the manner SO sympathetically de-
scribed by Oliver Wendell Holmes?
Now two or three girls can go unohaper-
oned to the opera or the play. 1t was not
always 30. Those were the days when
matter Of o~haperonage. They had the
choice OF depriving their girls of amuse-
ment or else OF a accompanying them in order
to shield them from the vicious tongue of
Mrs. Grundy, Sometimes a worn out (or
a, course to which there are almost always
objections-but now she can send her girls
alone, that is, if she can trust them.
In high society, though the bonds of the
chaperon are beginning to be loosened, she
remains a necessity to a much greater de-
gree than in the upper middle class. (The
girls of the lower. middle class have ever
been free from c~haperonage) True, the
boy and girl dances of the last few seasons
have tended to do away with the time hon
crei institution. The lady who gives the
dance undertakes to chaperon the girls who
come to It., Her duties are scarcely more
nominal. 1t is certain that a fair crop
OF engagements resulted from these boy and
girl dances
Can it be that ~ohaperonage is actually
antagonistic to marriage? This should not
be so, for one of the original reasons for the
protecting lady was that she should keep
away all detrimentals from her charges
and do her best to encourage eligibles. or
course, IL she showed her game too plainly
she would defeat her object. ."Vainly is the
- ira ~ ~ tha .,nht IL ~ |
This may possibly explain the crop of en-
gagements that followed upon the boy and
girl dances.
There is still plenty Of Use for the ohaperon.
Though country house visits are less
rowdy than they were some years ago, a
cept an invitation 10 one of them without
a ctiaperoi. unless the hostess Is a relative
or a very old friend Of the family. High
at bridge may get a girl visitor into an
awkward scrape. She may fine some prac-
teal jokes unpleasant. Circumstances may
arise that would make an early departure
advisable: and In all such cases and a score
Others that might be instanoed the pros
of a ohaperon is a shield and buckIer.
Even in the highest society, however, girls
OF our oldest and noblest families hold
firmly by the old order of things and would
not dream Of allowing a daughter to go on a
visit without the mother or a matron friend
TO take her place. In travelling, too, girls
Of rank are never ungualded, though the
paid lady is now very frequently substituted
for the chaperon as once understood.
One of the causes Of the decline OF the
chaperon is that the American girls who
have flooded our society during the last d. O.
ade or two have been the r1eans Of intro
diucing transatlantic ideas oh the subject,
Accustomed to absolute freedom in their
intercourse with men friends. their example
has unconsciouslv undermined our social
laws. Perhaps 1t Is for the better. Who can
Certain il is that a change has been gradu-