The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-01-04
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKN. Director.
Washington, d. G.
MUNICIpAL AID 10 CUPID

Bfotner Crafts attacking public
counting on the one hand, and the
housing situation making private
counting difficult on the other, what
is to become of the gentle art? The
social service workers Of our large
cities fear that, unless some extra
ordinary measure is taken to restore
1t, the course of true love may re-
ceiVe, "a serious setback.
What they advocate is the estab-
lishment of municipal counting par
lors-run possibly in connection with
the public schools or churches-where
the youth of the nation can do it's
ve-making against dignified back
ground.
The Counting situation is becoming
worse daily, they assert, as housing
conditions become more acute. With
several families occupying one small
house or apartment. there is simply
no space left for Cupid. From the
comfortable and romantic seclusion
of the dim, back parlor, he has been
thrust into the street. where he has
about the same degree of privacy as
white-aproned pancake turner in
Childs restaurant window.
Never before have our American
girls been SO handicapped in the high
ly important business of fascinating
prospective husbands. Never before
has it been so difficult to corner and
capture an eligible young man. For
all the old reliable tricks of the
counting campaign have been swept
away by the housing 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 best of two feet
of space in the front hail.. the dining
room being rented to another family
at the rate of 800 a month. And
Miss Smith, who used to be able to
xx-I7e a of
in the dim, pink-shaded radiance OF
the family parlor, has now had to
learn an entirely-ne technique for
doing the same thing in movie
thAater.
No Place at Home.
It has come to the point where. I'M
less q family is rich, a 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 lob
bies, corner drug stores. parks. moves
and cabarets, where there are always
many Interruptions 60 the serious
work in hand. The experience of
social workers shows that Cupid does
not thrive in such conditions. Orten
he is cruelty misunderstood by the
police, and frequently he himself
proves unreliable, with the result that
thousands of girls are now finding
their romantic dreams ending in un-
pleasant affairs in the juvenile and
women'S courts.
One of the leaders of the new move
ment for city counting parlors is Miss
Mary Barteime. chief of the staff Of
social workers in the Chicago juvenile
court.
"I have been watching. the vicissi-
tudes Of city counting for 70 years,
declared Miss Bartelme recently IN
discussing this novel project. and !
have listened to thousands OF girls tell
their stories. How they happened to
go wrong why they met young men
clandestinely outside their homes, ana
what they would have done had con-
ditions been different. And ! am
firmly convinced that the housing
problem is at the bottom of most OF
the cases that come to me.
What we need" continued~the
small, grey-haired lady. who knows
so much about fallen femininity. us
puI,lic 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
'aCities are building great municipal
garages to park automobiles so they
won't clutter up the streets. Depart
ment stores and theaters check babies
so mothers can be free> So why not
have a municipal counting parlor
where a girl can park her sweetie?"
The same view is held by promf-
nent club woman here in New York
whose hobby is smoothing the path of
the working girl. She asserts that un-s
der present conditions the moving pic
ture theaters and dance halls are the
only haven for the majority of court
ing 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 board
ing houses, which seldom maintain
parlors any mo-e where the boarders
may entertain their friends. The Only
place they can meet young men Is ini
the street.
Yen Can't Blame Geraldine.
The other day the club woman
told the reporter, "a mother came to
me very much worried because her
daughter, who is 10, had been seen
SO frequently with men in rather
notorious hotel lobby. She never
thought Geraldine would turn out that
way, she told me pathetically.
Turn out what way?" said I in
dignantly. 'Are you asking me to be-
lieve that Geraldine is a fool? If SO,
l can't accommodate you. 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 entertain
her friends there, and SO she selects
the most attractive background avail
able to her. which is the hotel around
the corner. 1 have seen her there
myself taking nonsense with that CO.
lumbia 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
Young folks, despairing of having
any privacy. decide to get married
and find place they can call their
own, she says.
And everybody knows what hap
pens in too many hasty marriages."
she added 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 such institution by
I