Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-06
MUNICIPAL AID TO CUPID
BY Frederic J. HaSkin
vEW YORK CITY, Jan. with Brother
| Crafts attacking public counting on

other, what is to become of the gentle art?
The social service workers Of our large cities
| fear that, unless some extraordinary meas
ure is taken to restore it, the course OF true
love may receive serious setback.
What they advocate is the establishment
of municipal counting parlors-run possibly
| in connection with the public schools or
churches-where the youth of the nation can
do it's love-making against dignified back
ground.
The counting situation is becoming worse
| daily they assert, as housing conditions be-
come more acute. With several families oc-
cupying one small house or apartment there
| is simply no space left for Cupid. From the
comfortable and romantic secluslon OF the
dim, back parlor, he has been thrust into
| the street, where he has about the same de-
gree Of privacy as white-aproned pancake
turner in Childs' restaurant window.
| Never before have our American girls been
| so handicapped in the highly important busl-
ness of fascinating prospective husbands
Never before has it been so difficult to cor
ner and capture eligible young man. For
all the old reliable tricks of the counting
campaign have been swept away by the hous-
ing shortage.
Miss Jones, who used to attract so many
beaux with the aid of her mothers charming
little Sunday night suppers, now has to make
the hest of two feet of space in the front
hall the dining room being rented to an
other family at the rate of 500 per month
And Miss Smith, who used to be able to
wheedle proposal out OF any man In the
dim pink-shaded radiance of the family par
| Ior has now had to learn entirely new
technique for doing the same thing in
movie theater.
It has come to the point where, unless
family is rich, girl practically has to meet
her boy friends outside her home. instead
of sitting in the parlor with the light turned
low, they are now forced to meet in hotel
| Hobbies, corner drug stores, parks, movies
| and cabarets, where there are always many
| interruptions to the serious work in hand.
The experience of social workers shows that
| Cupid does not thrive in such conditions.
! Often he is cruelty misunderstood by the po-
lice, and frequently he himself proves I'M
| reliable with the result that thousands OF
| girls are now finding their romantic dreams
ending in unpleasant affairs in the juvenile
and womens courts.
One of the leaders of the new movement
| for city counting parlors is Miss Mary Bar
feline, chief of the staff of social workers in
! the Chicago juvenile court
81 have been watching the vicisstudeS of
/ city counting for twenty years." declared Miss
Bartelme recently in discussing this novel
project, land I have listened to thousands
of girls tell their Stories how they happened
| to go wrong why they met young men clan
destinely outside their homes, and what they
would have done had conditions been differ
ent. And am firmly convinced that the hous-
! ing problem is at the bottom of most of the
| cases tnaC come TO me.
"What we need" continued the small,
gray-haired lady, who knows so much about
fallen femininity, sis public counting parlors.
School boards should turn their buildings
over to the young folks. Churches should
be open every night to help girls entertain
| their friends
"Cities are building great municipal ga
RACES to park automobiles, so they won't
clutter up the streets. Department stores
and theaters check babies so mothers can
be free. So why not have municipal court
ing parlor where girl can park her
| sweetie?"
The same view is held by a prominent
club woman here in New York, whose hobby
| is smoothing the path of the working girl.
She asserts that under present conditions the
moving picture theaters and dance halls are
the only haven for the majority of counting
couples. So many of the young girls here
in New York come from small towns, she
says, and they do not bring their families
| with them. They live in small rooms in
crowded boarding houses, which seldom main
tain parlors any more where the boarders
may entertain their friends. The only place
they can meet young men is in the street.
"The other day." the clubwoman told
| the reporter, ''a mother came to very
much worried because her daughter, who
is only nineteen, had been seen so fire.
quently with men in a rather notorious
hotel lobby. She never thought Geraldine
would turn out that way, she told me pa
thetically.
"Turn out that way?" said I indig-
nantly. Are you asking me to believe that
| Geraldine is a fool? If so, can't accom-
modate YOU I think that the child is
taking the only course open to her. You
both live in one room in a boarding house,
and it is not a very attractive room at
that. Geraldine could not possibly enter
tain her friends there, and SO she selects
| the most attractive background available to
her, which is the hotel around the corner.
have seen her there myself talking non
sense with that Columbia student who is
so mad about her."
One of the worst results of this lack of
counting facilities, according to this woman,
is the hasty marriage. Noung folks, de-
| spairing of having any privacy, decide to
get married and find a place they can call
| their own, she says.
"And everybody knows what happens in
too many hasty marriages." she added.
1.-THE counting parlor would, 1 believe lift
a tremendous burden from the divorce
courts"
| Several New York apartment houses
have recently responded to the need for
some institution by equipping and relegat-
| ing a portion of their Hobbies for the social
diversions of their young tenants. One
such apartment house in the Bronx has
| large reception room for this purpose on
the first floor containing a tactful num-
Der of cosy corners, tea table, and
player piano and Victrola with a large
assortment of dance records.
| Public SpOOneries
There is also a woman's club, known as
/ The Girls Community club, on East Thlr-
tieth street here, which has made special
| efforts to revive the pastime of counting for
it's members. 1t has a huge clubroom at
tractively furnished and divided into pri-