The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1923-04-16
Gives CONF
mon Sense
Award to
Modern Girl
Dorothy Dir
GRANDMOTHER Dress and Actions Weren't Sensible at
All, Compared With Those of Her Flap
per Granddaughter


waist. Eighteen inches was consid-
cred proper belt measure. which
means that she was laced until she
squeezed the very life out of her
Indeed, when grandmother is off the
lecture platform, she will tell You
how she wet her corsets and was
laced into them by a strong armed
maid so as to get the greatest
amount OF compression out of them.
Mother also tells how Senslbly she
dressed, yet mother Wore pounds of
false hair on her head, and a hustle
on her back, and skirts that swept
the streets, and sleeves so big that
she had to so through d door side
ways.
She, also, was laced to the limit of
human endurance. Surely no woman
who remembers how her back used
to ache from the wire contraptions
strapped upon it, and how tired she
used to get packing around the ten
or fifteen pounds of haircloth and
papier mache (used to make her
skirt and sleeves stand out). and
who recalls how her arms ached from
holding up her skirt every time she
walked, can argue that there was
anything sensible about the way she
used to dress.
Perhaps girls wear their skirts too
short now. Perhaps they don't wear
enough petticoats. Perhaps their
bodices are too scant. But their
clothes are sanity itself compared
with those of their mothers and
srandmothers. In her widest mo-
ments the flapper never does any
thing SO silly as wearing hoopskirts
and microbe catchers Her move
ments are unhampered and she has
parked her corsets in her bureau
drawer where they will do the least
harm.
Girls are more sensible in every
way now than they used to be. Why,
il We were confronted with a girl of
grandmother's time now we'd con-
slider her q moron. She would be as
helpless as a baby. She wouldn't
know how to do any one of the mil
lion ard one things that every mod
ern girl knows how to do, and that
we think nothing of because it is
such matter of course,
There are hundreds of thousands
of girls II. and IS, and 10 years old
who are not only earning their own
livings but who are helping to sup
port their families. And it takes a
lot of intelligence to hold down any
sort of job and do the kind of work
for which employers are willing to
pay. Furthermore, just the common
or garden variety OF girl is a capa BILE
little creature who can get a hundred
cents out OF every dollar, and rush
the bargain counter, and who at 20
IS as shrewd and worldly wise as
grandmother Is at 60. Likewise. she
can play golf and tennis, and sail a
boat, and drive car, and trim hat,
and give luncheon and organize
charity drive, and do a thousand
other things that require what New
England country folks call faculty"
and that 1t took grandmother half
her lifetime to acquire.
Tho modern girl is more sensible
in her relationship to men than
grandmother was. Grandmother used
to sit around on the anxious seat
and wait on the off chance that the
man she wanted would come by and
notice her. and If he didn't, she died
of broken heart. Granddaughter is
a go-getter, and IL she doesn't
achieve her hearts desire, she takes
the next best chance. Which is
sound, common sense.
Granddaughter discusses topics
with men that were taboo even 20
years ago. II shocks us older ones,
but we can't deny that ignorance
never has been innocence, and no
good ever came of blinking the
truths of life. Also. it is certainly
better for any young couple to know
each others views on vital matters
before marriage, instead of waiting
TO find them out afterward.
No. The flapper Is neither a saint
nor a Solomon in petticoats, but she's
nobody's fool.
And she is the embodiment of all
wisdom as compared with her grand
cother at her age.
yACE uERTHA ron DIN FROCK