Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-05
WINIFRED BLACKS
W SPECIAL ARTICLE
GIRLS WHO ARE ALONE"
Copyright, 1922, BY Newspaper Feature Service

Mary Garden says that any girl
who's old enough to go TO Paris to
study singing is old enough to go there
alone.
Either the girl knows how to take
care of herself. or she doesn't, and
in either case a chaperone will be only
wasting her time.
The stage is no kindgarten,' says
Miss Garden. Neither is the opera
and neither is Paris. A girl who is
going 10 make a fool of herself alone
will make a fool of herself with a
chaperone at her very elbow"
Either she'll keep her mind on her
work and succeed. or she'll take her
mind off of her work and fail and it's
all up to her"
Good news-from Mary Garden.
The average girl is just as much out
of place in Paris alone. as a mouse is
out of place in a house full of cats.
Neither Parisians. nor Romans. nor
F~lorentines. nor people who live in
Venice. nor people who live in Buda-
pest. understand Il young girl who goes
out into the street alone.
Over there such a girl is considered
fair game and nobody is very much
surprised. or particularly shocked. if
she throws her life away before it is
fairly begun.
1t All Depends
Paris is full of American girls who
ought to be back at home learning TO
make their own dresses and bob their
own hair and manicure their own mails
and marry their own sweethearts. Some
of them can sing a little. some can
paint a little, some can play on the
violin or the piano-just a bit. and
some ambitious creature has sent them
over to Paris 10 be trained and the
poor things think they are going to
climb right to the top of the ladder
just as sure as sunrise.
Most Of them will never get ont Of
the chorus. those who sing. Most Of
the artists will never do anything but
copy. and most of those who play the
piano will GO back home some day and
teach little Susie Hopkins from below
the tracks how to play the "Maiden's
Prayer and "Warblings at Eve at
the high school graduation exercises.
For such girls as this. Paris Is a
waste of time and a waste of money
and sometimes it turns out to be a
waste of hope and of life itself.
For the real genius they're all the
same-the different parts of the world.
Rome. Florence. Paris. Berlin, London.
New York. San Francisco-they're
nothing but a background for hard,
absorbing work.
The born singer will sing-and she
won't do much of anything else-any-
where. anyhow. anytime.
incidentally. she'll take care of her
morals. if she's that kind of girl-and
if she isn't, she won't, and neither the
singing nor the acting nor the paint
ing will have a thing in the world to do
with it.
This round old whirling earth Of
our is fairly crowded with girls who
are alone in big cities-pretty girls.
young girls. clever girls. stupid girls.
ugly girls. and some of them are good
and some are bad.
It all depends-not upon the place
where she works. not upon the work
she does or wants to debut upon the
girl.
As to the talk of temptations in
Paris. any American girl who makes
her own way in the world. knows we'll
enough what this so-called "tempta-
ton means. She meets it from the
first minute she goes down town to
earn her salary. till the last day She
holds her youth her attraction. and she
doesn't care a snap about it-one way
or the other.
Paris, Aione2
She sees other girls falling hv the
wayside and she's sorry for them.
Sometimes her heart aches with pity.
but she goes on without a word to
n human soul. No one says much about
her. we all take her as a matter Of
course-the brave, honest, self-respnct-
ing. modest. wsrm-hearted. sensible.
American girl who can walk upon hot
p%lowshares and never feel 4 wound.
or If she does feel it. never let anyone
know about it.
This world is no kindergarten for a
girl who has her own way to make
whether she's n singer or a poet. or
a stenographer and the sooner such
a girl as that takes Mrs. Common
Sense for her chaperone and never
stirs a step away from that 'iuenna
the better off both she and the world
will be.
Paris slone? No not even the Gar
den of Eden alone-for a girl who
doesn't know how TO take care Of her
self. There was Eve. you know, and
she found-the snake.