Newspaper Page Text
Is ThQ Amo
when it comes to supplies. Even women who “Always Had Their Hats On"
«tan as’bfg 'mMs—'^ill h Uke t money V from C a “At one of the big Saturday evening dances
'Br\ without a blush. She considers that all that is given by the war camp community service, of
lavished on her is her right and his privilege. which I am one of the hostesses, I thought it odd
Her attitude is much like that of a dependent Viftnr hnva anoulr rvf viaitimr trirlsi in thn stlllill rliit
By Helen Hoffman
IS the American girl a parasite?
Have the changes of war opened our eyes
to what foreign visitors for years have been
telling us, that the American girl, "A spoiled
creature, demands more, gives less, than any
other woman in the world?”
For years I have been hearing this criticism.
Now reiterated by the returning soldier, and the
mothers of men of this country, I am almost be
ginning to believe it.
I asked the head of a family what he thought
•bout the allegations that the American girl is
• “natural grafter.” He said this:
“Perhaps she isn’t any more ‘naturally’ a
grafter than other folks, but she has been
brought to the grafting business by tradition and
training, and being good at anything she sets her
mind to she is as clever and successful a grafter
as you can imagine. Of course women don’t have
reasons for things. They just do them. So that
there is no way of getting at their motives. You
get a glimpse of her state of mind when you ask
her about a given case. She says she likes to
have a good time, and why shouldn’t he pay it?—
he being the man in the case.”
My head of a family gives me this bit of dia
logue as typical:
“Why do you take money from that young
man?”
"Money? I never took money from him.”
The One Who Buys
“Doesn’t he pay money for the lunches and
dinners? Doesn’t he pay for everything?”
“Of course. Why not?”
'•Why should he pay for your food?"
‘Don’t I give him my company?"
“Doesn’t he give you his?”
“What an idea! His company!”
“Well, then, if you don’t think his company
is as good as yours you lunch with him for the
money he spends. Doesn’t that put you in a
rather funny position? Doesn’t that mean that
you sell your company?”
“The idea!”
“You see,” said my head of a family, "it
couldn’t get into her mind at all. The average
girl feels no shame at taking money from a man,
from any man. She claims that shp is man's
equal. She claims economic independence. But
•he continues to regard him as her natural ptoy
1 ftilurf Hrrrlr*. fft f
when it comes to supplies. Even women who
work for a living and have their own income—
often as big as his—will take money from a man
without a blush. She considers that all that is
lavished on her is her right and his privilege.
Her attitude is much like that of a dependent
child. But she doesn’t consider herself a de
pendent child. It would be only a joke if a trage
dy didn’t so often lurk behind it. You get the
tragedy in the way earnest minded young fellows
feel about it without ever being able to say it to
a girl. No man feels graceful raising such a
question with women. And then pretty disastrous
things happen to the lives of young men as a re
sult of grasping women—both before and after
marriage.”
As a Woman Sees It
Analyzing the present situation, moved by
war changes, Mrs. Julian Heath, president of the
Housewives League, proud mother of a handsome
sailor son, perpetual hostess to scores of enter
tainments and affairs given for the men in uni
form, voices a strong appeal to the young Ameri
can woman to consider the great problem at hand
with the return of nearly 3,000,000 soldiers and
sailors to this country.
Said Mrs. Heath:
“There is a type of girl all too numerous in
this country—a girl who moves in highly re
spectable society, who would be offended to be
called anything less than honorable, yet who has
in her the making of a parasite, or perhaps what
one might call, in plain terms, a general all
around grafter.”
"For years,” said Mrs. Heath, “young Ameri
can men have tolerated her, have even indulged
her and encouraged her extravagance, her selfish
ness, in marvelously generous, good natured
fashion.
“She is the same sort of girl today who can
think of men acquaintances only in terms of
theatre tickets, handy escorts to cabarets and
givers of flowers and candy. Well,” said Mrs,
Heath, “I’m afraid she will have to change her
views or be compelled to confine herself to less
desirable malt society. Of course,” she added,
“there arc still plenty of the sensible, old fash
ioned sort of girls, hut I often wish there were
fewer of this other kind.
"The fact of the matter is, the great big idea
that is written large and uppermost in every
thoughts today, is the word HOME.
“The boy who has been tossed about at sea
for months, the hoy who has been deprived of all
the little homely comforts in the dugouts of
France, the boy who is wearied of the bleak hos
pital walls of this and other countries, have one
definite object in mind when they disembark in
port here, and that is- HOME.
Natural
3| if Startling Question Raised by the Comments of
ik 111 Returning Soldiers, and by Criticisms of the
Jgf Modern Girl by Observers of Modern Ways.
“There is no more important question before
the country today than the reclamation of the
American home,” said Mrs. Heath. “Women
who have been doing all kinds of war work, par
ticularly the big number who have given such
splendid volunteer service, ought to permit this
work to be taken over now by paid workers, if
necessary, and they ought themselves to return
home to do their duty as homemakers to the hoys
who need their helpful, stimulating society and
sympathy at this time when they are trying to
adjust themselves to normal life again.
“Always Had Their Hats On”
"At one of the big Saturday evening dances
given by the war camp community service, of
which I am one of the hostesses, I thought it odd
to hear boys speak of visiting girls in the suburbs
of New York and even in Jersey.
“I said, ‘Can’t you find any girls in New
York to visit without going so far away?’
“What they told me only ednfirms my obser
vation of the parasite girl. Their explanation
bore a touch of pathos,” said Mrs. Heath.
“The convalescent hero of an engineering
corps, in his answer to me, reflected the reply of
the others.”
“ ‘lt’s nice to be invited to a girl’s homo for
the evening.’ he said. ‘lt’s been so long since I
was in a home. At their invitation I called on
some girls in New York, but they always had
their hats on waiting for me to take them out to
some place of amusement. I don’t know why
some people have homes. They don’t like to stay
in them. All these girls care about us is what
we can do for' them. They’re grafters. If we
don’t bring them candy when we call, or take
them out to.a movie or a cabaret, they’ve got no
use for us.’
“I know from my own experience,” said Mrs.
Heath, "that these boys speak the truth. During
the past winter, I threw open my house every
Sunday afternoon and evening to men who had
leave from nearby camps. I interested a number
of girls to come every Sunday to help serve re
freshments and sing and entertain the hoys. The
boys enjoyed it immensely, but I observed that
the girls would become restive, that is to say,
many of them would, and would ask to be excused
so they could keep an engagement to go to the
movies or some lively entertainment.
Seeing Girls Differently
“The boys, too, who used to look good natur
edly upon the girls who used rouge and powder
plentifully, now ridicule this fashion or show
their contempt for it. It seems they :;aw u good
deal of this in their foreign war experience, and
they like to think of the American girl as some
thing different.
“Speaking of a group of girls they met ono
day, I heard the boys remark of them: ‘Why they
were painted up like blue monkeys.’ Now,” said
Mrs. Heath, “is this type of girl, who represents
a large class in the country, going to permit her
self to remain a back number, a part of a past
program, a past life in this country, or is she
going to wake up and realize the possibilities of
the greatest service a woman can render at this
time, of being the right sort of companion to the
man struggling to regain a new foothold in the
“She Says She Likes to Have a Good Time and Why Shouldn’t He Pay for It?”
life to which he has been stranger for many
months?
“For the hoys, I enn say, nnd I have met nnd
talked with hundreds of them,” said Mrs. Ileuth,
“they are not asking any fnvors; they have shown
a splendid spirit of independence, ns in one case of
many that I can recall. I observed a growing
friendship of a rich young woman nnd « returned
soldier of good family, but no means. I remarked
this to him jokingly one day. ‘lf 1 had money,’ho
said, ‘I should ho the happiest fellow alive to
marry her, hut in my present position, it is un
thinkable.’
“Another was a hospital instance—a boy who
had lost the sight of ono eye and was wounded
irl the leg. He spoke of his mother’s death while
he was in France. ‘There is nobody I write to
now,’ he said, ‘but my father. There was a girl,
but ’
The Returning Soldier
“ ‘But, what?’ I asked. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘she’s
written to me lots of times, but I don’t answer.
I shall not inflict myself upon anyone in my con
dition. I have no right to.’ Such is the spirit of
our returning heroes, for heroes they are in every
sense of the word, und hoys that any girls may
be proud to number in their acquaintances, not
for what they muy get from them in presents
and entertainment at theatres and cabarets, but
for what they muy offer them in friendly encour
agement and homely companionship at this timo
when they are trying to get on their feet again,
as it were.”
Mrs. Heath’s remarks find echo in every
gathering where a group of soldiers or sailors ure
to he found discussing the future of each.
“Every fellow since ho has been in France
appreciates the American girl more, I believe,”
said a youthful Adonis in khaki, listed as Adolph
Brandes on tho U. S. infantry records, who saw
much service in Franco with the old 69tli of New
York. Adolph is a native son of Nebraska, but
previous to the war he had a desk position in
one of New York’s big financial institutions.
"There are lots of nice girls we meet, that
we’d like to ask to the theatre or entertainments,
but as no man today could risk inviting a young
woman to the theatre and supper on less than
$8 or $lO, we boys who are just back from war
can’t afford it. Most of the girls we meet are
this sort. In France one can go to a cabaret, and
spend suy a couple of dollars on wino and some
sandwiches or salad, and dance and listen to the
music and have a pleasant evening, but unfortun
ately the same thing is not true of this country.
The American girl is the finest girl in the world,
but I do wish she would cut down her expenses.”
“The boys in the army and the boys in the
navy are tired of housework,” said William
Stokes of San Francisco, Cal., a young business
Two Women Denied Their Sex and Became Pirates
WOMEN have succeeded in passing them
selves off as men not infrequently, but, so
far as is known, there have been but two
women pirutes—Anne Bonnoy und Mary Read,
who were captured something over a century
ago in the Caribbean sea, charged with “having
piratical intentions.”
Tho woman Honney was the daughter of a
Carolina planter, who had disowned her by rea
son of her marriage to a sailor. Even at that time
Anno had a predilection for man's attiro, inas
much as at tho hour of her elopement she em
ployed it for the purpose of evading her angry
parent. Eventually she shipped with her hus
band and shared in his piratical adventures.
Among her shipmates, who were ignorant of her
sex anil also of her relation to the cuptain, Anno
attained a reputation for courage.
Now, curious as it may seem, the ship wherein
this female pirate practised tho arts of the free
booter wus one day boarded by several strangers,
among them another lady pirate of the name of
Mary Read. It followed that the women became
fast friends, though at first each was ignorant of
man of that city, who has just been discharged
from the navy. “I have a fine home to go to
nnd a wife who is nn excellent housekeeper. But
I can tell you that all tho boys who served Uncle
Sam 1 in the war are tired of making beds and
sewing on buttons, and washing dishes, and the
girls they pick out to marry, take it from me, are
going to be girls that they are assured will make
good homemakers. This is what I have heard
hundreds of boys say, and they are in deadly
earnest. Whereas in peace time, the average boy
never considered whether the pretty, blushing girl
he proposed to could make a bed or cook a meal,
his war-timo training has taught him otherwise,
and out of the depths of his experience I believe
he is going to choose a wife who shows signs of
domestic interest; not the silly butterflies he
knew before he went away to fight the Hun.
“Only recently,” said young Mr. Stokes, “it
was my painful duty to be called upon by an
old friend, a returning aviator, engaged to a pret
ty girl from Texas, to listen to the story of a dis
contented fiance. It is one of many. The girl
came to New York to meet him upon his return
from France. She wan the same silly girl he had
become engaged to with such heart throbs of in
terest two years ago. But he had changed.
“Ho complained to me, ‘I just can’t go cm
with this. She bores me to distraction,’ he said.
‘She is much more interested in having a good
time in New York than she is in me. All she
talks of is the next show, the next dance, the
next thing on the amusement program. No, what
1 am looking for, Bill,’ ho said, ‘is a home; not
public entertainment.*
Learning True Values
"You see,” said Mr, Stokes, "he had changed;
he had learned the true values of life; the vital
things that muke life worth while; the fine
friendship of men who faced death together; the
flno loyalty to comrade nnd country, the splendid
sense of service; all these things that give life a
new meaning. lie know that all the rest—the
lights, the music, the crowds were just camouflage
of life.”
No less interesting was tho comment of a
young aviator, the son of a successful business
man of New York. “I’d like to have a home of
my own,” he sold. "Every fellow who has been
knocking around France for eome time feels like
this. In my dad’s business I can earn SSOOO •
year,” hut he asked wistfully, “How can a fellow
support a girl on that? Sho demands so much
these days. The American girl has much to learn
from tho simplicity of the English girl and the
economy shown by the French girl. They are
satisfied with so much less, and in many In
stances, I believe they are much happier.”
So, girls, here’s the situation. What are you
going to do about it?
the sex of the other. Tho discovery that each
was u woman came about through the declara
tion on tho part of Mary of a romantic attach
ment for the Bonney person.
The circumstances attending the early career
of Mury Read wore somewhat curious. She had
been raised as a boy, made to wear boy's clothing,
und, indeed, regarded on every hand as a real
boy. Mary, on attaining the age of 19, became
in turn a sailor, a soldier and in tho end the wife
of a pirate, just as had Anne Bonney. When
Mary’s real sex was discovered by the regiment
to which she and her pirate-to-be husband be
longed ut the time, a wedding was celebrated
und for a while the two kept a hostelry known as
“Tho Threo Horseshoes.”
Shortly after the two women met they became
widows, and naturally enough cast their lots to
gethcr in a buccaneer crew. Both were admired
for the courage they evinced in their unusual
calling nnd both were greatly loved by their sea
men. Mury Read was nn expert swordswoman
und fought more than one duel. She died in pri*.
on. Annie Bonney was restored to her family.