Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-11-28
IS THE FLAPPER
NOVEL DEAD?
n last There is a novel that

reaches down into her SOUL" So
says the publishers announcement.
Then it is that 1 start to wonder If
the probably staid gentleman who
wrote the not at all staid jacket OF
that novel has ever stopped to think
what flapper is. How does this
publisher fellow define the word flap
per? He doesn't define it. The word
and the class of young lady it repre-
Eents form a tag, a brilliant red tag
to catch the public eye, which, for the
moment, glanced eagerly at what it
believed to be a new phenomenon
and av5dly absorbed news Of it. II a
Happier were simply another term for
fhe debutante our publishers prob
lem would be easy; but had he con-
Suited any member of the sub-debs,
dehs or Junior League he would have
found angry denial. What, then, is
a 1apper? I asked a dark eyed young
lady who stood solemnly on the other
side of my desk. She is, fancy, 20
years Of age. She wears her hair
bobbed and shakes it impatiently
when she thinks. Accustomed to eff
ncient movement, she Immediately
seized pencil and paper and wrote the
following;
"a flapper is hard dancing, hard
Shrinking, hard talking, hard smoking,
hard petting entant terrible from 16
20 10 years old" I was abashed; for
I confess it shamefacedly I had
thought that she was a fIapper. Ger
tainly she was none Of those things,
or not many Of them.
at seems to me" I said, 'that you
have rather described a profession to
which That's Ninon de TEnclos,'
MADAME d. Barry -
She interrupted me with, "You
Don't understand. Flappers are nice;
that is. usually" and left me bewil-
6ered.
Even the Atlantic MontIly. with
some degree of seriousness, has
DR.. G. Stanley Hall has seen in our
counterpart of the Teutonic Back
IfSch and the French tendron, with
her new more or less public manifes-
tations, promise Of a newer, deeper,
finer womanhood. Yet even so, 1 be-
heve that a confusion exists in the
public mind. Fldpper to the average
reader does not mean any longer the
young lady in her late teens and
sarly tWenties, with a definite stan
eard of education supplied. It means,
rather. the girl who so wildly forced
herself on The amazed sight OF such
students Of life as DIR. Hall, and who
b January, 1922, was wearing a
uniform including gro
:esquely Hopping galoshes. Now, If
be Will take the tine and trouble
(which may not be unnlixed with ap-
to walk along the Pail
sa6es over the Hudson of a Sunday
re may see her clad in an assortment
II what are known as "knicker
variegated types Of
nee trousers. They are not unbe-
oming; but to the best Of my knowl-
,dge and belief they are not yet be-
ng Worn on Fifth avenue. It was this
Dung lady and her cocktail drink
ng, corset checking sister, the debut
ante (who will not be termed
Iapper) who suddenly brought down
he eye and the wrath of an elder
generation even before the war. Ar
cles of annoyance appeared II The
Magazines. Then, .Ula-nly, this
rowd OF youngsters became articu-
lte. The male fIapper rushed to the
efense Of his female playmate. 1Ir
ohm Carter, writing in the atlantic
replied 10 Mrs. katherine
fullerton Gerould's protests. There
-ere some headlines and much talk
Then appeared the j7appcr uoUelist.
'hese wild young people could not
My exhibit their originality by in
enting new slides and shivers in
he fox trot, out they could write
bout themselves. Their arriva! was
artly a result Of the war, though
he influence Of that noble conflict
n the younger generation as
,hole has been greatly exaggerated.
hat the flapper learned easy famili-
rity from her war work contact
18th the United States forces is
urely not true. She had already
hown her willingness to he familiar
he war did not destroy, among
Their things, the long suffering
haperon whose effectiveness hac
READY been impaired. She was al
sady a doomed lady, and the gull
otine would soon have descended,
lille the flapper's knitting needles
ashioned other things than dough-
oys' socks. What the war did do
yas to create a hiatus in which
Dung gentlemen who would ordi-
arily have been too busy earning a
wing to think were given unusual
opportunities for deep mental exer-
se as they did calisthenics on a
arade ground or languished in
'enches. Then, too, they were
wen responsibilities beyond their
Ears. With a chance to behold the
'orId convulsed they were Torceo "a
nalyze the reason for the convula
Ion and their place in its convolu-
ems. This urged some Of them to
IT down their impressions. MT. s
fitzgerald wrote much of his earlier
ovel IN a training camp. And onca
lie rest Of youth had been given an