Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-25
YANKEES GOOD
FOR SORE EYES
IN GAY PAREE
American Youth Appre-
ciated by Homesick
Travellers in France.
By A GORDON
su.clsl Correspondent of Great Falls Tribune
Cnnvrirht. 1872. BIZ rhe Great Falls Trtbuns

SHbEtat LOTftspDHucHb VI oiuah avs AFtNe"N
Copyright. 1922. By The Great Falls Trbuns
Paris. Sept. 24-"Good to see some
American girls, eh?"
1t was in an American bank, where
American tourists cash their letters of
credit, receive mail and read the latest
American papers.
The speaker was seated in an arm
chair at the Window homesick fam
lily man of so. He nudged his neighbor as
he spoke, indicating a group OF young
boarding school girls, tarrylng late IN
Paris, who had just entered chattering.
Look at EN-. Look-talk about
French women-why, I've been from
Cherbourg to Marseilles and there's
nothing in France that can touch our
American girls. Don't know how it is,
but our girls look younger, fresher."
The neighbor eyed them up and
down, from thei- untrimmed felt
sport hats to their low heeled, calf
skin shoes. They were typical flap
pers; practical travelling suits of gray
or brown, trimmed with green or burnt
orange; severe tailored shirtwaists,
stock collared nth four-in-hand ties,
or open ever so modestly in a small
v. And all American. And if there
idu ~D6tn nO OLuCI lhuiNatACh LAN4A
strongly reinforced silk stockings,
black or brown, of first quality but
heavy, contrasting sharply with the
gauzy, flesh colored hose of the Paris
ienne who looks at a distance as if she
wore none at all.
and look at that boy there" con
tinued the laxative man nudging his
neighbor.
No Youth in Paris
"Whereu you find a French boy like
him? He's got to hurry home, proba-
bly, to enter college this fall. Clean,
1.-THE, athletic, smart up-and-doing.
Neat, snappy clothes, soft collar,
bronzed neck. Bet he can kick a foot
ball, sail n boat, play first base, drive
a car or build an Adirondack shanty.
There's our American young people
for you. They've got it all over the
Europeans like a summer sky. Ever
notice it, walking around. Paris you
never see any youngsters-girls or boys
either-between 10 and 10. They must
exist, but where are they? You see
plenty Of kids and you see men and
women who look younger than their
clothes, but you don't see any that
look the age of these youngsters here"
There is much truth in the observa-
tor. That very interesting age so
much catered to in America and also
In England, scarcely exists on the con-
tinent. A French girl dresses like a
child. Short dresses of white, pink or
baby blue b~e-ribboned bonnet, hair
down back, no jewelry-until about IL
or II. Suddenly she blossoms forth
without any intermediate changes, into
a woman somewhat like her mother:
Flapperhood is simply skipped. The
Inr n TT he tnIIar - or hio othop- w a "
even be growing a most successful
mustache-but he continues to wear
breeches that stop short of his knees,
leaving the latter bare down to where
the turnover socks begin. On his head
a dinky 'beret," q cross between a
tam shanter and a skull cap.
A Metamorphosls
One day, as a bolt from the blue, it
Is abruptly decided lin family council,
it may be supposedly that Adolphe shall
be a man. He gets an awkward tall
ored tweed suit for every day, a black
coat and vest with striped trousers for
dress up. A felt hat too small. and a
derby too large, complete hs wardrobe
of manhood.
The period between utter ignorance
and complete sophistication Is by com
mon consent IN France, ignored, treated
as Of it did not exist. Today a girl
(contented, supposedly with dolls) and
tomorrow a woman, candidate for mar
rage, accompanying her mother to teas,
dances, theaters. dinners. Today a boy
never seen in the day except by stern
schoolmasters, tomorrow is q man, with
his favorite newspaper, habitual cafe
and not i~nfrequently a private gar
conniere" where he may entertain the
invifahle Margot or JaDiSe.
The lack of an age intermediate be-
tween childhood and maturity is ascrib-
able to the sharp separation Of the