The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-02-24
NO WORSHIP FOR MATINEE IDOLS
 BY GIRLS NOW

Northampton, Mass, Feb. 24.- The price on lock of hair of any popular author or matinee idol has decreased, eved though groceries have gone up, according to Miss Mary A. Jordan, of the Smith College Eng fish Department, who notes a change in the trend of the modern girls attitude toward authors of '*best sellers and heroes of the drama
 The modern girl, according to Miss Jordan, lis daring in her writing and in her reading, but she is conserva- tive in the formation of her opinion She does not become easily enthus- iastic, but once she is aroused, only death can alter her devotion. She differs from her brother in that she insists upon quality in every particu- lar and will not pardon a work, how ever brilliant, if it have one startling flaw.
 When Lord Dunsany lectures to her, says Miss Jordan, "she is not carried away by his poetic presence. Beneath the surface of his flow of words she finds a mixed metaphor, and Dunsany has lost a friend Another writer that has stirred
  l has not created a ripple at Smith College. Daisy Ashford's The Young | Visiters,' which at Yale and at liar ward was read, laughed at, approved, 1 and parodied met only with indiffer- | ence at the Northampton college. The l book was not a value as a work of l English, the girls believed, though 1 they admitted that it might be of in terest to the student of child psy- l IoIo onI0 was announced, as a possible subject l for critical theme in a composition course, only three students in the l class chose it and two of these had l paid so little attention to the book 1 that they had not observed the cor rect spelling of the title.
 'tOf modern writers, Mary Roberts 1 Rinehart has had probably the great est influence among young women i students. The tsub-deb' stories have i been read and copied, and many a. typically Rinehart phrase has crept 1 into the girls vocabularies. Samuel l Merwin, whom the al1-forgiving col | lege boy met with favor, is not known at Smith or at Mount Hofyoke l and Stephen McKenna who placed a popular Sonia in the colleges for l women, has lost his audience before | his heroine's marriage.
 Alfred Moves is the poet of Smith College girls and o. Henry is accept
 ed by them as the best of modern short story writers. Poe is no girls sponsibIe for the latter fact may also be assigned for the lack of interest that has greeted the opinions of Sir 1 Oliver Lodge. Spiritualism forms no part of the young girl under graduates mental existence, and in her writings she employs no ghosts
 except as furniture. Nor does she
 use any fourth dimension as a part of 1 her plot. She may at times be in- l terested in morbid psychology, but as
 a rule when left to herself she will
 write only for local color.
 Exposition she will not touch ex-
 cept when compelled to, and in that case she chooses the subject which
 she Knows least about and writes on
 it. She is not a scientist, and, on the average, she does not want to be
 one. If she wants facts for exposi-
 tory writing and she cannot call them
 out of the realm of her imagination,
 she will col1ate a number of passages
 from many books and call 1t exposi-
 tion. She cannot stop to explain. She
 gives you the whole drawerful at
 once.
 At the present time writings of 1 Mount HoFyoEze and of Smith stu dents usually take the form of a poem in free verse or of a drama Amy Lowell is the inspiration for the former, and the movies are largely ! responsible for the latter"
 It may seem that out of this maze | of likes and dis1ikes of the college girl, there is no generalization to be
 drawn. A closer study, however, re- 1 vea1s that there is some unity to ii
 all. She IS daring in her writing and
 in her reading. but she is conser' vative in the formation of her
 opinion. She does not become easily
 enthusiastic, but once she is aroused only death can alter her devotion : i She differs from her brother in that
 she insists upon quality in every par
 ticu1ar and will not pardon a work / however brilliant, if it have one |. startling flaw.
 She is not scientific. She com
 pIetes her English assignment first
 while her brother may be seen rush
 ing mad1y at midnight to the slot-bo1 of his professor to drop a theme
 written hastily at the end of an even
 ing on physics or chemistry, upon { | subject dinly perceived, perhaps
 through a cloud of smoke, or an il 3 chosen expression.
 v Miss Jordan says that it is inpos = sibIe to make a thorough canvass O. t girl readers. They are varied, man! e of them, reading the first thing a 0 hand. She believes, however, tha; s authors of novels and dramas vii e do well to take the hint which tht i modern grill has dropped and not at
 tempt to play too lightly upon tht 1 shallow emotions