Evening star., 1922-08-20

TIME question Of the passing OF
the chaperon is one which has
been rather generally neglected
by many of the authorities on
the younger degeneration" as John
v. A. Weaver picturesquely character
ises the flappers and cake-eaters OF to-
day. But the subject is amusingly dis
cussed in two articles in recent issues
of the Atlantic Monthly.
In the June issue, under the heading.
'Who Killed the Chaperon?", some
very interesting material Is set forth
by young woman who signs herself
"a Young Barbarian" She says.
1--WE (young people) don't mind things
don't miss refinement. At fifteen we
would have liked to enter into our
families responsibilities and to meet
our mothers friends; now. We don't
miss them, and we get along very well;
But of course, since we have lived
among ourselves so long there is no
last link between US and the elder gen.
Grafton. We hardly understand her;
we pity her, she seems SO bored and De-
wildered among u.s. She is passing. and
we young people are letting her pass.
We have forgotten her as we nave for-
.'Who is responsible? I think I have
shown the system in modern life which
keeps US from appreciating the
chaperon--the chaperon. a symbol OF
the connection between young and DID,
TT DOES indeed seem true that these
extremely self-centered. speedy
young barbarians Of the present genera
tion are growing unconsciously cal
loused to the feelings, even the very
existence. Of their elders to q point that
is almost outright cruelty. They have
taken to treating life as they treat the
stories in motion pictures-with sneer-
ing contemplated only the most inti-
mate and tragic kind of a knockout
seems to be able to cut through the
young people.
Conditions indicate that it was
really up to the previous generation
to just haul out the paternal slipper
and take the young culprits into the
family woodshed. The older genera
proper and most convincing method
of saying NO" to the children.
A rumble Of retort to the young
barbarian" brings an interesting light
on this phase of the subject. 1t Is
signed The Old Crouch" and con-
tains the following. published in the
August Atlantic:
wherever in the world they came
from, the napper and her older sister,
the fiapperoid (by which I mean a
molting fiapper, whose plumage is
changing with the advent Of mid
summer responsibility, have brought
a vivacious. aromatic and parti-col-
ored joy into life. They are like
shimmering butterflies in a field of
clover, and the crouch delights in
the bobbed heads and Josephine raj
ment. their graceful agility and
amusing independence. They are the
prettiest things going. But where
note is here: She speaks of the
things that keep US away from the
older generation the things which
have made US forget the older gen
eration.' etc.
THE barbarian must be told plainly
this world. She must not make any
mistake about it. She is attractive,
but in her present state she is moth
ing but a frisky bobveal that has no
value to the world. She is composed
of legs. a rainbow and shocked
head. Her boarding school ,educa.
tion' does not amount to hill OF
beans. 1t is not what she is. but
what she is to be. that justifies her
Just now she is OF no more real i'm
portance to the real welfare of the
world than Is an organ grinder. In a
few years she will become a persim-
mon, and then she will scowl at the
audacious super-fiappers that follow
in her train. But she may content
herself with the assurance that her
successors can never be more attrac-
tive and diverting than she is now,
So the young barbarian must not fash
herself over her desertion OF the
older generation"
y X X X
THIS reply would indicate that.
after all. it seems to be merely
the happer herself and those of
her generation who are worrying
about her, and the older folks are
Just lying back, apparently listening
intently and in reality not bothering
their heads about our awful young
people of today at all. All Of which
is rather humiliating, considering the
wonderful amount of advertising that
has been put into the subject of the
f1apper and her Tapping. As for the
chaperon. nobody ever did consider
her. anyway, so why worry about her
now?
LEADS IN ATHLETICS.