New-York tribune., 1910-10-23
FORCED BLOSSOMS
Hany Debutantes 1re Not
Buds. but Full BlO7Cn Roses.

Not many mothers nowadays are as
strict as is the maternal parent of Miss
Marguerite Sherlock. of Chicago, who until
her debut this month was kept secluded
from the world, never having been allowed
to talk to boys or to be without a chaperon
at any time. Fashionable women are
showing a tendency to go to the other eH-
treme with their young daughters and
many girls in their teens have so much
liberty and see so much society that when
their debut comes 1t has none Of the charm
the event once had-that of taking the
debutante into an untried world. There Is
one advantage though-these girls make
their official entrance into society armed
with useful knowledge.
Wealthy youngsters not infrequently, IN
these modern days, have a social life very
similar TO that of their elders-eXcept as TO
late hours and champagne. From the first
dawn of their teens girls in New York and
other large cities have their luncheons'
theatre parties dinners and dances. as
elaborate as those to which their parents
90 The only difference observable be-
tween the girls in short frocks and their
sisters who are out is that the former
are not considering their little beaus as
possibilities in the marriage line. And In
some cases, Judging from conversations
overheard between girls with their hair
down their backs even. this difference does
not exist.
Christmas time is a round of Sayety FOR
these lively young things. The boys are
home from school then, and one social
event after another-including parties at
which they get an appetite for bridge by
PLAYING games Cor priZes-occupies the chill
dren. Moreover all winter long the young
daughters of mothers with liberal ideas are
permitted to attend many of the social
affairs of their elders. They go TO the
opera. ostensibly to educate their musical
ear, but as often as not to fill in vacant
place in the box; and of course. they meet
the men who drop in. and very quaint it
is to see them display their demure, grown
up ways, copied from some adOred older
girl. Often. too the young daughter of the
house is brought down to fill the seat of
a dinner guest who has failed at the last
moment, and very strict she would think
her parents if she were not invited to, help
them out at such times.
Strictness, however, is not entirely out OF
fashion. There is even a legend of New
York mother who preferred giving a din
ner with the fatal thirteen covers rather
than allow her young daughter To occupy
the seat OF the guest who telephoned ex-
cuses at o'clock. The ideas of different
social sets" differ very mulch. and there
stiil exist sets" III which study and exer-
else are considered the proper occupat ations
for girls before their debut But alas for
the strict mother whose daughter meets. at
school or elsewhere. The daughters of moth
erS with more frivolous ideasi
My little girl" said one of these excen
uonal parents with a sigh gives me no
peace because / won't allow her when She
comes nome for the hotlayS the sort of
Bdyeues her companions at boar ding school
are allowed at theil homes Truly, TO bring
up dauShtef nowadays Is a problem
Even IN the old days il wasn't so easy
70 Keep girls IN leading strings Early
debuts, in tact, were rather more common
than they are now. In many a family rec
ords are cherished of erandmuthers who
came out at sixteen and married AT Se,.
enteen or eighteen. The date of a girls
DEBUT nowadays Is deter mined very much
py circumstances. and if she goes TO college
or mas a HniShlng year at college IL is likely
10 be delayed till she is twenty or so
IN her ante-debut days the luckiest thinp
lhat can happen TO a girl is TO have BROTH
ers with them and their boy friends she
mas the sort of sensible contact with the
oIher sex that arms her effectively against
billy notions about men.