OCR Text |
Show JML '8 Tde American Girl EfeaUq f a Natural Grafter?9 I I j Startling Question Raised by the Comments of I 4 jkf" 1L Jf Returning Soldiers, and by Criticisms of the 3 I Modern Girl by Observers of Modern Ways. Brandos, Vv 4 -jm Infantryman, Vv fiHHP ?iP Who Says: rVfffl!BmL IBKSbBKkL "The American WBiHalEBVV dsgjmk ' - Girl in he World, but t Do Wish She 5SHi;-iv"i $iP wflBBWBPlll Would Cut Down Her Expenses." By Helen Hoffman IS the American girl a parasite? Have- the changes of war opened our eyea to what foreign visitors for years havo 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 tho mothers of men of this country, I am almost beginning 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 sho has been brought to the grafting business by tradition and training, and being good at anything she sets her mind to sho is as clever and successful a p rafter as you can Imagine. Qf course women don't have reasons for things. They just do them. So that there is no way of getting at thnr 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 dialogue dia-logue as typica): "Why do you take money from that young man?" H ' "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 fooi?" "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 it as good as yours you lunch with him for tho money he spends. Doesn't that put you in a rather funny position? Doesn't that mean that you sell your company?" "The Ideal" "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, Sho claims that she is man's ! equal. She claims economic independence. But H 1 she continues to regard him M naUral prey -p, 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 hiB privilege. Jier attitude is much like that of a dependent child. But 6he doesn't consider herself a dependent de-pendent child. It would bo only a joke if a tragedy trage-dy didn't so often lurk behind It. You get the tragedy in the way earnest minded young fellows feci about it without over 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 result 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 handsomo sailor son, perpetual hostess to scores of entertainments enter-tainments and affairs given for the men in uniform, uni-form, voices a strong appeal to the young American Ameri-can woman to consider the great problem at hand with tho 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 respectable re-spectable society, who would be offended to bo 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 all-around grafter." "For years," said Mrs. Heath, "young American Ameri-can men have tolerated hor, have even indulged her and encouraged her extravagance, her selfishness, selfish-ness, in marvelously generous, good natured fashion. "Sho 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 Tiews or be compelled to confine herself to less desirable male society. Of course," she added, "there are still plenty of the sensible, old fashioned fash-ioned sort of girls, but I often wish there were fewer of this other kind. "The fact of the matter is, tho great big idea that is written large and uppermost in every man's thoughts today, is the word HOME. "Tho boy who has been tossed about at sea for months, the boy who has been deprived of all the little homely comforts in the dugouts of France, the boy who is wearied of the bleak hospital hos-pital walla of this and other countries, have one definite object in mind when they disembark in port here, and that is HOME. "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, particularly par-ticularly the big number who havo 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 homemakerR to tho boys who need their helpful, stimulating society and sympathy at this time when they are trying to adjust themselves to normal lifo again. "Always Had Their Hats On" "At one of the big Saturday evening dances given by tho 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 confirms my observation 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." "'It's nice to.be invited to a girl's home for the evening,' he said. 'It'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 aVabaret, 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 refreshments re-freshments and sing and entertain the boys. 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 natur-edly upon the girls who used rouge and powder plentifully, now ridicule this fashion or show their contempt for it. It seems they saw a good deal of this in their foreign war experience, and they like to think of the American girl as aomoK thing different, "Speaking of a group of girls they met one day, I heard tho 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 herself her-self to remain a back number, a part of a past program, a past life in this country, or is sho 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 ; u i "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 months7 "For the boys, I can say, and I have met and talked with hundreds of them," said Mrs. Heath, "they are not asking any favors; they have shown a splendid spirit of independence, as in one case of many that I can recall. I observed a growing friendship of a rich young woman and a returned soldier of good family, but no means. I remarked this to him jokingly one day. 'If I had money,' he said, 'I should be the happiest fellow alive to marry her, but in my present position, it is unthinkable.' un-thinkable.' "Another was a hospital instance a boy who had lost the sight of one eye and was wounded in the leg. He spoke of his mother's f:?ath 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 condition. 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, and boys that any girls may be proud to number in their acquaintances, not for what they may get from them in presents and entertainment at theatres and cabarets, but for what they may offer them in friendly encouragement encour-agement and homely companionship at this time 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 arc to be found discussing the future of each. "Every fellow since he has been in France appreciates the American girl more, I believe," said a youthful Adonis in khaki, listed as Adolph Brandes on the U. S. infantry records, who saw much service in France with the old 69th of New York. Adolph is a native son of Nebraska, but previous to the war ho 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 $10, we boys who are just back from war cant afford it. Most of the girls we meet are this sort In France one can go to a cabaret, and spend say a couple of dollars on wine and some sandwiches or salad, and dance and listen to the music and have a pleasant evening, but unfortunately 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 housowork," said William Stokes of San Francisco, Cal., a young business man of that city, who has just been discharged from the navy. "I have a fine home to go to and a wife who is an excellent housekeeper. But I can tell you that all the boys who served Uncle Sam 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 heart 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-time training has taught him otherwise, and out of tho 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 ray painful duty to be called upon by an old friend, a returning aiator, engaged to a pretty pret-ty girl from Texas, to listen to the story of a discontented dis-contented fiance. It is one of many. The girl came to New York to meet him upon his return from France. She was the same silly girl he had become engaged to with such heart throbs of interest in-terest two years ago. But he had changed. "He complained to me, 'I just can't go on with this. Sho 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 tho next show, the next dance, the , next thing on the amusement program. No, what I am looking for, Bill he said, 'is a home; not public entertainment.' Learning True Values "You see," said Mr. Stokes, "he had changed: he had learned tho true values of life; the vital things that make lifo worth while; tho fine friendship of men who faced death together; the fine loyalty to comrade and country, the splendid sense of service; all these things that give lifo a new meaning. He knew that all tho rest the lights, the music, tho crowds were just camouflage of life." No less interesting was the comment of a young aviator, the son of a successful business man of New York. "I'd Iiko to havo a home of my own," he said. "Every fellow who has been knocking around France for some time feels like this. In my dad's business I can earn $6000 a year," but 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 the simplicity of the English girl and the economy shown by the French girl. They are satisfied with so much less, and in many instances, in-stances, I believe they are much happier." So, girls, here's the situation. What are you going to do about it? |