The evening world., 1921-03-01


tngs-well. don't see the boys shun-
ming her short skirted, low -neoked
self for the sweet, quiet, old fashioned
girl with a mother hubbard buttoned
aIp to her chln!"
That is the verdict OF one OF the
klndest wisest judges of modern girl
hood have ever known-Kathleen
Norris, who in Harriet and the
Piper" Saturdays Child" Mother"
and a number of other widely popular
novels has set down with shrcwd OBJ
servation, warmed by friendliest sym
pathy, the struggles, the sufferings,
The long, long thoughts" of youth.
Mrs. Norris and her husband,
Charles G.. Norris-also a novelist,
and a brother OF the late Frank Nor
ris-have just sailed for Europe, but
they stopped over a few days in New
York. en- route frem their California
prune farm. (N. B.-There is no con-
nection between the pruncs and Mrs.
Norris's ideas about the girl of to-
day.) l welcomed the opportunity to
ask this charming young woman, who
knows her New York-she lived here
and on Long Island for years-lf in
deed our girls are as naughty as Mrs.
Grundy says they are.
"An the criticisms OF the modern
girl" began Mrs. Norris, fall for me
into two divisions. In one division
are the complaints Of her short skirts,
her refusal to wear corsets, her fond
ness for cigarettes, her frank conver-
sation on all subjects, her particpa-
ton in petting parties. L cannot take
these charges seriously, for they do
not signify the breaking Of a moral
law. And am not willing to admit
that, generally speaking, the girl of
To-day is any worse than she ever
was-ln fact, 1 think her attitude to-
ward life is decidedly more healthy,
in some respects, than the attitude OF
otheE generations OF girls.
Il VAS shopping the other day with
a little friend of mine. and she re
fused to buy silk stockings with cot
ton tops. Your knees show, nowadays,
lust as much as any other part she
observed. oh shocking!' some one
will eNclaim. Yet l can remember, in
my girlhood, how women were de-
nounced for wearing LONG skirts
street cleaners we used to be called,
and carpet sweepers.'
''The problem of the corset haunts
every generation. 1t always has ana
IL ALWAYS will. When my mother was
A girl, her friends not only wore cor
sets, but laced them so tightly that
they tainted away in church and had
10 be carried out 80 that the laces
could be cut When l was girl we
were wild to wear corsets-and our
mothers said, Nice little girls of SIX
teen or seventeen must not put them
on-perhaps you may wear them WheIl
you are twenty and grown-up.' And
now that girls are leaving on corsets
of their own accord they race crltl-
--ism for doing that. Mrs. Grumpy
need not worry. The next generation
will wear corsets from here"-1Mrs.
Norris touched her chin-"to here
her forefnger swept down in q straight
line TO her knee. And then,' she
added, prophetically, "the girls Will
be told that it's dreadful for them 70
dress like that"
How about smoking" asked
"Do you think it is shocking for girls
10 use Cgarettesg'
swereS, frankly. People say But Il
YOU had a daughter, would you want
her to smoke? And / answer,
have a husband who has smoked all
his life, and l consider that he Is a
fine and good mnn-smoking hasn''
ruined his morals
There was a moments pause. Mrs
Norris's delicately shaped, sensitive
mouth set in "a firm line, and wher
she spoke it was with more INTENSITY
than she had yet shown.
Always" she said, Il have an
horred the double standard preached
TO the boy and girl or my generation
that what was right for one waf
wrong for the other that boys mus
be brave and girls must he pure, tina
boys must SOW their wild oats, tina
girls must forgive their broIhers ant
their brothers friends, that mel
didn't like girl who asked question:
or VINO knew too much. That pOin
OF view always has seemed to m'
utterly nauseating. And the thlni
chat makes me hopeful about the glr
OF to-day Is that she is getting ava!
from it, that she Is saying to tn
boys, II a thing is right for you, III
right for me; II it's wrong for me
ats wrong for YOU
"Supe rficially, the girl of to-day 8
demanding more freedom, create
liberty of speech, tolerance for he
cigarette. But in essentials. l be
;.cEe she ls holding the boys of he
7ucauHintance up to more Flgi
standard than ever before. For on
thing, she knows more than she eve
did. She can say, she does say, I
a young man: L understand exactl
what you mean, but 1 do net alloN
it-neither for myself nor for othe
girls"
I remarked to Mrs. Norris at thi
point that the militant moralists VIII
object 10 "pettng parties" seem I
forget that they were a parlor pas
time-with the gas turned low-eve
when mother was n girl.
Indeed they were!" sne assentet
with a reminiscent smile. why,
the eighties II was perfectly prope
for a girl 70 So N a young man N