Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-06-24

A WOMAN, who Is the mother
~ of daughters, asks me how 1
n stand on the chaperon ques-
ton.
Frankly, I don't stand at all. |
am sitting astride Of the fence, and
alight. 1t looks so un-American and
so much like the slave-of-the-harem
business on one side, and so dam
gerous and full of snares on the
other side.
No one will deny that every young
= girl not only needs some older wom-
an to look after her, and protect
her, but she also needs for it to be
generally known that she has a
guardian who Is Keeping tab on
her, and all with whom she associ-
ates. So far the chaperon is all to
the good.
1t should not be forgotten, how.
friends as we'll as enemies off Of
the premises, and that while. a
chaperon may possibly keep undesir-
able men away from a girl, she can
most certainly cut them off from
eligible ones.
Here's a case in point that has
just come under my own obserVa-
ton. I have been at a summer no.
tel where there were many mother ]
and daughters. One mother was the
conscientious chaperon who is al
ways on the job.
She never took her eagle eye off
of her daughter day or night.
Wherever the girl went Mother tag
ged her. If daughter played golf,
mother sat where she could COM
mand a view of the entire links. Ii
daughter was asked to go automo-
also invited and crowded in. If
daughter was laughing and talking
with a crowd of boys and girls
mother joined the group. If daugh-
young man mother turned the duet
into a trio.
The girl was just the common, or
garden variety of, girl--pretty
enough, bright enough, sweet and
sensible, and attractive enough to
the young people and had a good
time, and perhaps have one of the
nice young men fall in love with her,
if she had been left to herself, and
to go it alone little.
But she had no stupendous fasci-
nation, no ravishing beauty to en-
able her to carry the handicap of
mother, and even run in the popu-
larity race, to say nothing Of win
and SO, as it was impossible to have
the girl without mother, the girl
was simply left out.
overheard some young chaps
planning a little party they were
grl Was disc aass0n y a Wshs wee
could" said one youth. "but if you
do the old lady will come along and
I'm not going to be the goat who
has her wished on him" Nor J"
the girl was left sitting with moth
er on the hotel veranda, when the
laughing, merry throng drove off.
a victim of too much chaperon.
Furthermore, mother will chap
eron her into the Old Maids Home
never permitted her daughter to go
to the theater without. her and
that she he'd never received a gen
tlenan caller alone.
Now among the 400 who may need
chaperons more than the four mil
lion do and where expense need not
be considered it may be well for the
chaperone to accompany a young
couple everywhere they go, but the
average youth in business does we'll
if he has the price of two theater or
opera tickets, or can buy a lunch
for two. It puts him entirely out
of the running if he has to drag the
girls family along with her. SO the
girl with a chaperon is perfectly safe
from being invited to see improper
that matter.
Now is there any danger of the
girl whose mother always helps her
entertain her beaux ever being
pestered much with masculine so.
ciety. When American boys go to
see a girl they want to see her, and
not her mother. and they want to see
her out of ear shot of her family.
Foreign men appear to be able to
make love before a third party, but
have not yet acquired.
Young people in this country OBJ