WILL OUR CHILDREN SHOCK US?

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3087, 18 May 1917, Page 3

WILL OUR CHILDREN SHOCK US?

THE CHAPERON'S RETURN

(By Winifred Wynne-Harding:, in the "Aiirror.")

How wfll our cnildreu shock us? By what: "goings-on" will they drive us to 6hako our heads in our old age ns we give voice to the lugubrious reflection that "people never did such things in our voting days," or that "what the world is coming to, we don't know, we're sure'''?

That they will shock us is certain—as certain as that wo shocked our parents, and they. theirs, and they theirs before them, and so on right back to the First Man and the First Woman on this planet, who must again and again have held up their hands in dismay at the ultra modem ideas of Cain, and Abel. But what means to this end will those who aie now lording it in swaddling-clothes and perambulators adopt? Where, exactly, will they "break out" ? It is difil- • cult to conjecture. It has always been difficult to conjecture. Each succeeding generation has imagined itself shock-proof, has preened itself on forestalling futurity by opening all the jack-in-the-boxes. And that is why each succeeding generation has been / so fundamentally shockable. That is why, however little we , may believe it, wo are as shock able as tho very earliest of the Early Victorians. Take a few examples. Tne woman of to-day shocked her mother by cultivating the cigarette Habit. Suppose the woman of to-morrow shocks the woman of to-day not merely by 6moking tobacco, but bychewing it! Unthinkable, you say, that woman should ever come to such a pass. Exactly—unthinkable. We aren't quite i eo "advanced" as all that. But you may begin to perceive that we are not quite shock-proof, either. Or suppose our children should clamour for the right to smoke in church. Or suppose our girls should think nothing of adopting pugilism as a profession. Or suppose they should set on foot a movement in favour of trial marriages. Or suppose they should shelve all parental responsibility, and calmly hand over their babies to a kind of communal nurse, whom they would pay to keep the youngsters out of their sight from, year's end to year's end m 6ome Eygienlc spot. Or suppose they should consign all their mentally and physically -unfit to the lethal chamber. Unthinkable! Unthinkable! Unthinkable! Yes, very likely. But remember, it is only by tne unthinkable that von will ultimately be shocked. All 'the above are, of course, very much shots in the dark. I would not risk my reputation on them. No; if I were compelled to prophesy, I would suggest that the next 6tep round the circle of civilisation I is hk§ly to be what we shall call reacj tionaiy (though our children, of course, i will call it progressive), that there will be a return To the strict conventionalities of Early Victorianism, with. Spartanism as a substitute for smelling-salts and swooning. Thus, our children will shock us by being shocked at us. Already, we ourselves show faint srgns of, becoming tinged" with Spartanism; but the idea is new to us, and the very pride we take in it shows how un-Spartan we at root. Already, too, boys and girta are being educated from a more or less Spartan standpoint in our schools; and a ®. the twig is bent, so the "free is inclined. Imagine tTie Tigorous result. Conceive,. for example, the woman-who-smokes badly sandwiched between a forbidding mother and a disapprovingohild! Father is altogether too flippant!" "¥otnerhas no sense of responsibility!" It' will startle us, tq 6ay the least. It will be something new for parentsto steal on secretly-, to the music-halls-, hoping that their, lapse will not be-dis-covered, when their children are well out of tBS way; to sing the dear old rag-time ditties on the sly; to dino out at restaurants and make merry at dances vrhile their offspring stay soberly at florae, reading philosophy or the Engineering Supplement of the "Times." And if our children are shocked at us, 1 7?, s bo locked at them. Wo shall ! I tell them that, they, do not understand °f "living... TTe shall complain I that boys are no longer boys. We shall I rigidity of the new age. •And, just as our parents were wont to , asseverate that the world was running 1 to seed,-so slialT we asseverato that it is drying up-into a shrivelled pea for want • of a refreshbg draught. t It is all explainable enough, this swing- i ing to andTro of the pendulum from the \ broad to tne narrow and the narrow to < the broad. Captivityeivcs place to the t cry. for. liberty; liberty gives place to license; license gives place to tho cry for a curb; and back we hark to captivity again. •At regular intervals through history t the nliaperonTms com© and gone, a duti- ) nil figure ever ready to answer the call , or to sinic into obtivion. And the chapcron just about due back again, a pvmbnVin Hie eyes of tffe child of the r mghtiness of f lip, parent, and a symbol in ' the eyes of the parent of tlio prudish- ' ness of Ilia child. r

~ resident of Hawke's Bay, r^l%!l ary Ann Wylie relict of the late Col -Servant CtimpbeU Wylie, of tll6 Hth Segiment, died at the residence of S 6l ', ». Macdonald Street, Napier houth, last week. Tho late Mrs. Wylie's husband ,waa in the Imperial Forces for practicaUy twenfc-ono years, and was killed m the Afghan War in 1880, within a fortnight of the date which would have seen the completion of his twentyOne years of service. He took part in the Maori War from 1861 to 1866. He had three medals. The late Mrs. Wylie artived in Hawke's' Bay in 1881, and had resided at Port Ahuriri from that tiraft until within, a. lew weeks of her death.

/.iT ,®, lueottng of tho Hospital and Charitable Aid Board yesterday, Mr.' D. Campbell, chairman, of tho Charitable Aid Committee, mentioned that one of tho board's most valuo&le servants was very seriously ill. The reference was to Mrs. Truebndge, matron of the Ohiro Home, who was taken ill a fortnight ago, since when there had only been a slight improvement in her condition. Mr. Campbell mentioned ' that when they heard of the matter the inmates of the home assembled, and passed a resolution of sympathy with Mrs. Truebridge, as one they all loved and respected. He noped that she would soon be restored to her former position. It was announced that a letter of sympathy had already been, forwarded to Mr. Truebridge. '

Princess Patricia has an autograph album, and'in the days of her childhood ®P e us ™ to rule this book out into neat lutle divisions, one each for a signature. When she asked the Kaiser to write his name he scrawled it right across the page, and surrounded it with throe bold circles—-finite irrespective of tho neatlydrawn little departments. At the time Princess Patricia was very grieved, but .from subsequent events she considers this page of her album a symbol of what the All-Highest was going to do to Europe.

„^' r . Mrs. G. Moore (Hissington) loft Wellington for Napier earlv this week.

.Mr. and Mrs. It. W. Nosworthy are visiting the Hot Lakes District. Miss Ruby Wilding, who won the tolo flanco competition at the Christchurch ' omnetifaons this week, is a nupil of Miss Dorothy Saunders, of Wellington

Superior Silk Hoso in all shades, navv, grey Gabardine, light and dark tan, black and white, are now showing at Prices Store, 54-56 Willis Street. *Hose ot superior quality,, finish, at prices which stand for good value.—Advt.

the visit of the talented musicians, the Cherniavsky Trio, is a pleasure and a privilege we enjoy for the moment. Alas! they nmy not always stay in our' city; but why not have the privilege ot always enjoying these performers in your own home? To all music-lovors demrous of hearing these Pathe records of the Cherniavskya and other eminent artists, we extend an invitation to visit our Pathephone Department. Oscar ITewett and Co.. 56 Culm Street (iust below Bank of N.Z.).—Advt.

Donnelly's Hair cures Dandruff, stops . hair falling. Chemista' Stores, 2s. (A. Donnelly's, 65 Vivian St —AttTt.