New-York tribune., 1922-02-05

hold en-, and I won't dc 1t. Id rather never
De marriedw
And she would, too-now. But lfe's long
business when you're as young as that ard az
strong.
Behind the defensiveness ana the wistful-
ness there was look in her eyes that wa.
growing hard.
There are lot of hard girls nowadays vhx
a few decades ago would have been soft.
The bishops granddaughter, for example
She's an od-fashioned type. To see her is to
think Of criuoiue and lockets and candelabra
and things. And that's the way they reared
ber--as far as they could. Her surroundings
rcek with traditions
But all Of sudden one day, when she vas
sixteen or so, she saw that wasn't going to get
her anywhere.
AS nearly as I can make out" she are
nounced, in the course of explaining her dis
covery, the technique Of the thing Is to be
just as rude as you can and to take what you
want, boys Included
1t sounds like q Joke, but it wasn't. She's
been taking ever since The elder women of
her household are crowded 10 the wall. and the
bishops little granddaughter. sNcetheartless
before, has several now, who respond to every
tone of her slightly srideot voice.
Shes still astonishngly attractive, consids
cring. but it must be admitted there's good
deal TO consider She's happy, and it's vastly
important for young people to be happy, bus
its hard on her elder relatives when she walks
over them and doesn't even notice that they
aren't the Garnet.
Altogether its complex matter, with ore
Of its roots: 70 yamp or rot tc vamp@
81 can stick here in this one room said
vivid little Greenwich Nagcr. and color pho"
tograpbs till iii my youths gonc'-shes twcn-
ty-four and salieutly pretty-"or yamp my
way right out Of it,
But don't 1cant to. can't poke my nose
into mans neck and trust TO luck, as see
these tfappers doing every night at The dances.
They shut their eyes and open their mouths
till they lose their gum, and il makes me sick.
And yet'-hcr dark chlds eyes, that were full
of tag ends Of such bitter wisdom. opened
sorro~fully VI do want i good time. Ard it's a
pretty weak and feeble imitation of one, can
tell YOU, to go into one Of these places ard
dance with another girl. And even if YOU do
you have to clear out at o'clock. unless you've
picked up a man. Any man'lI do, but you
can't stay without You can't DO anything
without one, And YOU can't hold those know
unless you vamp thcm.'
Heigh ho It's hard choice isn't it: En-
cept to moralists, and, thank heaven, they're
getting scarcer every year.
1t would appear that this predicamcnt OF
some Of our young people is a bad by-product
Of a good movement; that women, in getting
economic independence, legs, chance to use
their brains and other desirable things, have
lost to the good bit that they used to
have, and that men are less well fitted to
possess, and that both sexes are suffering IN
consequence.
If that's true it's nice to know it and anus
ing to write about it, but cold comfort to the
toad beneath the harrow" who "knows exactly
where each tooth point goes" One can at least
refrain from emulating "the butterfly upon
tie road" who "preaches contentment to that
toad
In fact the fewer congratulations one in
dulges in the better. The French have a wise
saying to the effect that "No generalization Is
truth. Not even this one."