The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-07-25
WHAT oE DUB eIRLs7

VIVA | OF OUR GIRLS?
! The silly season has come. the season
| OF Sunday outings and night trolley
rides to Electrical farylands. Maidens
| IN pairs or paired with sWagger youths
occupy the foreground.
We are concerned about the madens
/ The youths if not amenable to advice
| ana correction are at least aboundantly
able to take care of themselves in pub
lie. Young girls are entirely out of
place in noisy, vulgar. jostling crowd
late at night, with no other escort than
a fresh and budding boy of unripe ex-
perience and Scant discretion. To be
sure. they are both earning few pen
| MES and feel quite independent of tn
! Old folks at home. COoped UP all day
! in shop or a department store they
! need recreation, air and amusement.
| Ihey give mite weekly to help out at
! home, grudgingly enough sometimes.
since they must dress and enjoy them
selves. Another claim for independ-
ence. Still the roof that covers them
is the parental roof. In most cases
they could not live on their own re-
sources, apart from the home that is
supplied them. There are other claims
TO their filial obedience and gratitude.
| based on the lifelong obligations Of
children to their parents What right.
then. have they to be out till all hours
of the night, to frequent questionable
resorts, TO be in company with certain
companions, without the consent of
their parents? How are they allowed
out of their homes; or. rather, how are
they received back into them? Girls,
think of it: so-called respectable girls
daughters of good fathers and mothers!
Every pastor has the problem to deal
with: the young men. the young women.
Religious societies seem inadequate to
cope with their restless needs. Social
organizations scarcely spring into eX-
istence in the church. ere they begin
to wrfggle and squirm under pastoral
authority. The cultivation of mind, the
gentle and harmless pastimes of a re-
fined evening, conversation. music
these soon fail to attract An outing, a
trolley-ride. a dance, a vaudeville.
smoker; one thing and another are
tried, until the limit is reached and
tireless efforts to Gmuse 50 down into
failure.
In the good old days. people were
heart and soul interested in purely
religious societies. Priests were not
forced to qualify as amusement experts
Today scarcely a religious society can
be kept alive and active without its
side issue of social functions and card
parties. Consider the magnificent pro-
portions of the Children OF Mary in
years gone by Young women and
maiden ladies were proud to wear their
wells and medals in honor Of Our Lady.
Now only the few are found faithful
and ready to serve The others have
made engagements on their meeting
Sunday. They are out of town on
their Communion Sunday. The older
ones drop off as the younger ones come
in. May we hope that the League" at
least has gathered them in and that
they are faithful in attendance on each
first Friday morning.
But 10 return TO the pleasure seek
ers. Recently we were crowded and
jostled in a trolley car, with it's COM
plement of late meTrymakers, and the
coarse and suggestive remarks contin-
ued unblushingly despite the presence
of a priest There were some Catholics.
too, and they were very much mortified
and ashamed. But we thought, If the
priest were not there, would the talk
have been more general? The CathO-
lies were of the party.
Perhaps we are regarding the merry
go-round through old-fashioned specta-
cles, and have become with the ripening
years a little sour and cynical!
Still the consequences and issues are
DulS W uCdl VIII, We lt ldI IlOlll /
ignorant of what is going on: and we
cannot remain blind to our RESPONSE |
bilities and duties.
The fact is, young girls belong at |
home with their mothers. Not even
random word must reach them. They |
must be shielded from the very sus-
piciun of wrong. Their purity and spot I
less character are all they have worth |
holding in this world. They are de-
and need protection. They are
weak and easily led. Who have they
to watch over them but their fathers
and mothers? Where is their safe
guard outside of home? OF course they
will not be lectured or advised. They
will not agree with us or their parents.
They will conrrive somehow to have |
their own way through much opposi-
ton. The forces beating against their
young hearts are too strong for their
weak resistance They cannot see that
they need help, counsel to be Strong
and firm But they will find it out for
themselves sooner or later. The road
is not long, and the turning point must I
come some time. A man may run the
race and set the pace over it to the
end but a woman. never She must
stand or fall; turn back or meet dis
lster on the way.
Hers. the secluded path the sweet
scented rose garden: the parental
porch the home paradise. There she
will be sought for courted and loved.
There are her credentials of truth and I
worth, with her parents to Vouch for
ler Thither he will come to win place
IN her parents hearts as well as in
hers. And when he has won her, it
will be with her consent and blessing. L
-Ouis, in Newark Monitor.