Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-04-15
FLAPPERS HAVE ALWAYS
FLAPPED, SAYS HASKIN
Daily Letter by Frederic j. Haskin

NEW YORK CITY, April 12.-Let
those who bemoan the bold, bad
ways of the modern flapper take
heart. In a few more years, she
will be enduring her share of grief
and envy as an even wilder genera
ton flaps daringly before her out
ragged vision. Twas ever thus. His
tory shows that every age has had
its recalcitrant young people who
have rebelled against the discipline
of their elders and caused anguish
to the public-spirited.
Take a few samples of the loud
laments on the subject of Tapping
recently appearing in our daily
newspapers and compare them with
those written at various periods in
the past (plenty are to be found in
the archieve9 of our libraries) and
you will at once be struck by their
uncanny similarity. Listen to this:
The girl OF the period is a crea-
ture who died her hair and paints
her face as the first articles of her
personal religion: whose sole idea
of life is plenty of fun and luxury;
and whose dress is the object of
such thought and Intellect as she
possesses . The girl of the period
has done away with such moral muf-
flshness as consideration for others,
or regard for counsel Or rebuke .
II a sensible fashion lifts a gown out
of the mud, she raises hers midway
to her knee. . She talks slang
as glibly as a man, and by her pref
erence leads the conversation to
doubtful subjects"
II 1t were not for the one word
midway" n would scarcely guess
that this vitriolic criticism was
penned by Mrs. E. Lynn Linton,
once popular English novelist. as
early as 1868. We are so accustom-
ed to having the late war blamed
for all the giddy behavior of the
present that it is something of a
shock to discover that the flappers
of other eras were also considered
fact, there has probably never been
a ear since the days of Adam and
Eve when some %querulous voice has
lot been lifted up against the heed
less designations OF youth.
Thus, some Mrs. Grundy, COM
planning several decades ago on the
ways girls dressed to attract atten-
ton. added philosophically:
But has. not in every epoch, the
race-old instinct of the female to be-
deck her body 81 as to attract the
male, through whom alone she can
achieve her destiny. led to extremes,
extravagances, even vulgarities ?
Doubtless every savage tribe har-
bors some shameless mink, who by
her daring OF putting or or
taking off a single bead brings down
on her the walls of wrath of the old
err women who wonder what her
mother a be thinking Of"
Bad Girls OF the Eighties
Even the prim eighties were not
sufficiently prim to satisfy many of
the good cities OF the period. Ac-
cording to Mrs. John Sherwood's
Manners and Social Usages" (18S4)
Washington in those days found it
to be-'a record OF drunkenness,
Irritation, bad and gossip,
backbiting, divorce and SANDER"
Far back in 1919, apparently, con-
ditions were just as bad. In this
year we find Miss Emma Willard
making an Address to the Public,
particularly the Members of the
Legislature Of New York" in which
some instant means for educating
the young females OF the state "as
a possible panacea for the frivolity
of the time"
mot content with doing nothing
to promote their country's welfare"
she declared, like pampered chill
dren. they revel in its prosperity and
scatter 1t to the winds with wanton
profusion, and still worse, they en-
prison it's source by diffusing a con-
tempt for useful labor. To court
pleasure their business: within heI
temple, in defiance of the laws OF
God and man, they have erected the
idol of Fashion. and upon their al
tar they sacrifice with shameless rites
whatever is sacred to virtue or re-
ligion."
; Miss Jane Richards. lecturer. re-
, Gently charged that good breeding
seems to be a thing of the past, and
one al only infer hat mothers nc
! longer take the trouble to instill into
their children's minds the fine high
ideals of womanhood which were
once given to them" But as far
back in the past as 1884 we find
Mrs. Sherwood registering the same
, complaint. THE American mamma
wrote Mrs. Sherwood, treats hei
| beautiful daughter as if she were q
common piece of Delft indeed, anc
as IL she could drift down the stream
of life. knocking all other vessels e
lIpisess hgk sfcapiRx iniaEZ hsxsalf.