Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-12-08
Why Do GlrIs Leave Homer The
Answer, After Mature DeIiberatIon,
Appears to BE "eeeausei"-or
ASK Mother, She knowsl"
by SARAH ID, IOWRIE
WHY do girls want to leave home
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because | did not want to go to teas with
her or university lectures or board meetings,
and l can remember feeling injured because
she would not let me take crowd of girls Of
my own age off for a week or two to our
place in the country and sort Of rough house
It there, getting meals as we pleased. But,
bless. you, my child would think that mere
Child's play! What she wants to do is to
earn her own living, preferably in any town
but this, and live anywhere and anyhow
and get her meals whenever and wherever
she feels hungry. She does not want to be
what we used to call fast. She wishes to be
independent
WYE USED to get appeals from the Y w.
w c. A. and the Travellers Aid about the
living conditions of the girls in the country
districts that made life uncomfortable or their
work at home so dull drudgery or their
pittances of pin money from their parents
so pltiful that to escape the drab monotony
or pinchcd poverty or hard drudgery Of their
narrow lives they were tempted to seek the
whirl and excitement of the big cities, en-
ticcd by the tales of easy pay.
hut the girls who wish to leave home now
because they find life in their natural en-
vironment strain have large allowances, or
at oil events ample ones, most of them, to
supply the obvious needs for dress and for
amusements and for entertaining. They toll
not, neither do they spin let alone drudge
! IL there is any monotony in their lives 1t is
| the monotony of constant hustle and coming
| and going. Whatever narrowness there is
must come from reiterated opinions and en-
| phatic prejudices concerning the passing
| show they have at least n front seat to
view the show. Nor do they pass their
! young lives within the cOnfining walls of Il
| country farmhouse or look out of obScured
windows on n provincial street, Most of
| them spend their winters in large city and
their summers i'll a large and abundant en-
| vronment of country clubs, bathing beaches,
| horse shows and national tennis and golf
| association meets.
! TNlIEY VINO have rather shrked alh work
| l. about their homes or for themselves at
! home are willing-ndccd, anxious-to apply
| ior the first strenuous. useful job that offers
| itself in any one else home or Office. They
| who lived layishly on their large allowances
| 80 that they were often obliged to 'fess up
and get helped out, contemplate with salts
! faction living on less for their board and keep
! and dress and pin money than was spent on
! their slippers and cabs the year they came
! out They who find 1t difficult to evolve any
! thing much in common with their parents to
| make food for table talk, look forward to
| communicative chats with the "odd LOTS of
| the art school or the business college or the
crafts shop or office or bank or editorial
! room into which they plan to drift with the
! first encouraging current.
some of them have "ompun"tions, inasmuCh
| as they ask worricdly, "nO you think mother
| will be too lonely and | ought to stay ut
| nome: Some OF them promise themselves
| that they will come home for every holiday
oven IhankSSivinG' Some Of them mean to
! write twice IL week. some every day. Some
| Of them put the whole thing on the ground
| OF wanting To earn money so as not to be
| dependent. Some feel that their mothers
| VIII worry loss If they ar" out of sight and
| hearing of tn" perfectly sensible things they
! do. som" have feeling that you can study
| better away from home or that III" schools
are better in Il town that is not ones own
town. Some hold that in year or two every
! one will hav" TO work at some trade or pro
| lesson nr art be SCurnp1 ms a paTn ito SO