Evening star., 1912-11-03

Court took waltzng the prestige of that sanction
sufficient to settle the whole question. Here in
this country it is the example. 1t that there
no leaders of Society set that ought to be
distinctive than another and that the farylike realm of
the life fashionable creation of the society reporter
and of the novelist of the genre of Mr.. Chambers.
A IL very well; but the "other half eagerly devour
every item of news concerning New York "swell"
Society," and the newspapers cater to this appetite by
long articles headlines, illustrations, and even
editorials. The pulpit also falls willing victim; for
behold here is topic, and many who would
have heard of turkey trotting and bunny hugging,
cept perhaps in connection with vaudeville and bur
lesque shows, are Immediately pr1ng to taste the de-
lights of this forbidden peasure That is only human
nature. These dances also appeal to the less
primitive female m1nd because they suggest the brute
force in the other sex.
As far morals concerned there is little if any
harm in these dances they done in Society. New
York has changed great deal in the last ten years
It's social code founded that of Europe. Un-
married we're always carefully brought up
They watched by nurses and governesses, and
then they chaperoned wherever they went 1t was
absolutely the worst form for young girl go the
play with man, to go driving with him, even to be
in his company, without chaperon after candleigh
But in many Western cities and even in such places
near New York as Brooklyn, manners much
freer and relations between young people liberal
in the extreme and all these practices were deemed
absolutely proper and in fact the thing to do In
of these communities chaperons practically unknown
Now that each year forty or fifty from
these paces-of people extremely rich cultivated ed
Gated, and socially anD1tOuS-are added to the Social
Register in New York, they bring with them their
code of rules their traditions of etiquette. In
their broader lives they wont to be Free and they
have seldom if ever taken wrong advantage of what
to Eastern ideas the unconventional. The young
people have proved that they take of them
selves.
But, unfortunately, the conditions in New York are
different and the innovation is likely to be more
harmful than beneficial. The dancing of pass
ing fad such as the Turkey Trot is only straw.
THIRTY years ago the American child or
less offensive and the liberty allowed it by parents
of the first of national traits that impressed
foreign visitor. Then Henry James, in "The Point of
View, little sketch in letters supposed to be written
from America to England makes of his characters
say, "Apropos of the young people, that other
danger: the young people eating up-there is
nothing in America but the young people The
try is made for the rising generation life arranged
for them; they the destruction of society People
talk of them, consider them, defer to them, bow down
to them They always present, and whenever they
present there is end to everything else.
The little boys kick your shns and the little girls offer
to slap your face There is immense literature en-
rely addressed to them, which the kicking of shns
and the sapping of faces is much recommended =.
Longellow wrote charming little poem called The
Children S Hour but he ought to have called it The
Childrens Century And by children, of course
don't simple infants: l everything of less
than twenty"
After that was written there came reaction. For
at least fifteen years the young married couples and
few maturer children had the prestige. Young girls Of
the most notable wealthy families kept back and
parents blamed sometimes for leaving their prog
with and governesses this country while
they took short run over to London or Pans. But
Continued page