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Show I Above All Things , Strive To Be Natural I-HE Is a bit old-fashioned, -with very charming manners, and was express-Ins express-Ins her viows of tho modern girl. Her remarks had to do with tiro lack of restraint, re-straint, tho freedom of speech and the haJl-fcilow-wcll-met attitude of a certain very attractive friend of her daughter. Tho daughter, somewhat indignantly, took up tho cudgels In tho defenco of her absent chum. "Thoro In not a girl In" our" crowd;" "sho declared, "who Is so well liked by girls as well as by men. She is all thero" (her roothor shuddered, visibly, at tho slang). "Sho Is as fine as they inako them. Tou don't understand us, mother. That ia all, Tou think because we call tho men by their first names that wo aro familiar. If wo wear high cut skirts and low cut waist3 you think wo aro immodest. If wc laugh above a whisper you think wo arc loud, and as for slang, words fail me. The Modern Maid. "In your day, mothor, theso things were not tho fashion, that Is all. If It wero the custom to call Tom, Dick and Harry by their names of Brown, Jones and Robln-Fon, Robln-Fon, with tho Mister attached, wo should do it. But it is not. 'W o know them well. "Why should wc bo so stiff and stilted? "As for clothes, that is fashion, too. If trains should como In again, or hoops, maybo wo would wear them with tho samo graco that you did. I don't know. "But I do know this. Tho girls In our crowd aro a good lot. And as for Anicc, whom you aro so sevcro with, sho Is tho best of tho bunch. Maybo when sho gets older she will quiet down. But I hopo she won't Sho Is as free as a bird, and I envy "I am about the most un-modern of all tho girls, and I think I have been spoiled by too much training. When I was a little girl I was constantly reminded of my manners. man-ners. Thoro was nothing so Important as my deportment. 1 had to sit thus and walk thus and talk thus, until I was mado to feci always conscious of myself. "I havo never outgrown it. I cannot be natural when with a man to savo my life. I am always wondering If T am doing the correot thing, saying the right thins, making-tho right impression. "I long" to bo 'natural, but I cannot I havo thought about myself too much. T am not reproaching you, mother. But 1 1 am giving you tho reason for the difference differ-ence in tho girl of your day and such a girl as Anicc. Tou were trained in an old-fashioned old-fashioned school, and naturally you handed hand-ed down tho samo traditions to mc. Perhaps Per-haps If we had not lived in a small town for so long wo should have grown away from narrow viows. "But of tho two I nhould far rather be Anlce, with her fresh outlook, her friendly spirit, hor healthy mind and body, than to be the self-conscious creature that I am." Tho mother was hurt, of course. She could not understand tho daughter's hot words, which wero probably repented of as soon aa they wore uttered. But tho daughter was right In defending tho modern girl, who is, in tho main, the nicest kind of young person, 0 It is truo that sho wears her skirts short and appenrs In public with arms and neck bare. But, for the most part, sho is a scn-slblo scn-slblo soul. She uses slang nnd sho has a certain freedom of manner and speech, but these are tho outcomo of modern life, results of co-education for ono thing, or of the modern commercial life, which throws men and women together. "Wo hear a great deal about tho bold i young woman of tho day, and often we meet her on tho strcot; but sho Is In the minority. Whcro thero are hundreds of theso girls who aro no credit to themselves or tho period In which they live, thero are thousands of sweet, puro minded, lovable ones who face llfo with tho innocenco of youth, who wear short skirts becauso they aro sensible, who go" with open neck blouses becauso they aro cool, who use slang because it is expressive, who call men by their first names because they arc friendly and know thorn well and it la a custom. They arc noisy young creatures sometimes, because they are young and happy. But thoy aro natural, and thoy aro fine in spirit and healthy In body. They are the girls who arc going to count largely as assets of the nation girls who will make good wivc3 and good mothers. Tho girl of to-day meets men on an entirely en-tirely different piano from tho girl of twenty-fivo years ago. Those whom she knows to-day she may have gono through the public schools with, or perhaps it Is very probable that aho works by his side in an office. True to the Core. We all know that in every city there are men who aro given tho names of men only through courtesy and girls who aro a disgrace dis-grace to their sex. But theso men often hido their real naturo under tho most suavo exterior and those girls aro not the typo that our young friend meant Tho avcrago girl of tho day is fino to the coro. She has high standards of service ser-vice and sho thinks less of tho trifling things that make for selfishness and self-consciousness self-consciousness than any girl of any period in the world. Sho is good and sweet and true, this avcrago girl, and tho world 0WC3 her a debt of gratltudo Ui.it she has helped ?0 malje It a better and .a happier and a more natural placo for all of us. |