The Washington herald., 1917-11-26
A man said to me:

why don't you write something
about the loose way in which women
talk nowadays? It's gotten so that
| there doesn't seem to be any more
reserve in conversation, and the
things that perfect ladies say would
have made a fishwife of twenty years
ago blush.
why. the other day was read
ing in my library and I couldn't
| help overhearing the talk Of two
or three women who were having
! tea with my wife, and the subjects
A., they discussed, the stories they told
and the jokes they shrieked over made
feel like calling out, Remember. la
dies, there's a gentleman present.!
And these women were good, re-
fined, educated women, leaders in
the church. shining members of wom-
ems clubs, pillars OF society in gen.
eral. I tell you I was never more
Mortified in my life.
'And these women aren't the only
ones. Honestly. a modest man doesn't
dare to let his dinner partner take
the conversational lead. He's afraid
she'll begin on eugenics, or birth
] control. or some sort OF sex prob
| lem. or the nude in art, or some
other topic that will raise the goose
| nesh on him and make the very bald
spot on his head turn red with en-
barrassment. Believe me, women
can't have any idea of how shocking
such talk is to men or they wouldn't
be guilty Of it
| "All men. even those who have
dirty minds and foul tongues. cher
| ish the tradition that a woman's
mind is full OF pure and beautiful
thoughts and that her words turn
! into pearls as they fall from her
lips. as did those of the Good Little
| Girl In the old fairy tale.
| Once or twice i have heard a
drunken woman cursing and swearing
and it seemed the very measure Of the
depths Of the degradation to which
she had sunk. felt j could for.
give her for anything she might have
done. but not for the things she said
only the other day I was talking to
beautiful. delicate and refined girl
girl who looked like a lily, she was
so pure and fragile-but at something
that / said 10 her she exclaimed.
GOSH" ! shouldn't have been a bit
more disenchanted IL she had slap
ped me in the face.
There a word out West they call
the fighting word. When it is said to
man he draws his gun. l am sure
that Gosh" on a young girls lips is
the spell-breaking word that disil-
lusions the most ardent suitor, and
that when it is said to him he folds
his tent like the Arab and as silently
steals away.
1T used to be that only the kind
Of women that We didn't introduce to
our mothers and wives INDUCED in
telling risky stories and perpetrated
double faced jokes, but now some OF
the raciest anecdotes we ever hear
| are told us by mother and wife. And
as for our daughters-well. it's daugh-
ter who calmly drags out on to the
parlor carpet problems that father
wouldn't have mentioned to her for
| the world.
"TH declare" said the exasperated
man in conclusion, Il sometimes think
tiidi iOsl dll sense Oh
modesty. They have thrown away all
Of their seven wells of concealment of
body and mind. They've got no more
/ reticence in clothes or speech, and
their conversation is as decollete as
i their gowns. What's the matter with
women, anyway"
They are in tie throes Of a reaction
from old conditions and customs and
tho pendulum always swings rs far
one way as it did the other" / replied.
Because women for centuries have
been swaddled and hampered by gar
nlents that crihbed. cabined and con-
! fined they have slipped off all of the
garments that they could. Because
they have been hampered by long
skirts and trains they have had to
hold up as they walked they have
chopped of their skirts to the knees,
and because a perfect lady was sup
posed to only say ''prunes and prisms'
| women are shouting Damn at the
top of their voices.
'Slaves aren't to be blamed IL they
mistake license for liberty, nor if
they think that the right of free speech