ENGLISH CONVENTIONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2175, 3 September 1907, Page 1

ENGLISH CONVENTIONS.

HOME AND COLONIAL CONDITIONS COMPARED. In a recent number of the Ladies’ , Field there is an article on “Debutantes,” which plainly shows that the ordinary unmarried English girl (apart from her of high rank) is surrounded by laws of conventions which the young Colonial would soon resent if they were applied to her. Yet it is stated that in-England within the last 10 years a great change has taken place in the manners and customs of a girl’s life. For example, new comers-out are permitted to attend afternoon teas, small dinners, and luncheon parties without a chaperone, the hostess being considered a sufficiently responsible- person on these informal occasions. Also, dances are sometimes given, to which mothers are not invited, when again the hostess is the duenna. But, though strict cliaperonage is not so necessary to-day in London -as it was 10 years ago, still there is not the almost complete lack of supervision as that which holds good in America and Australasia. Some mothers not In- the real world of society imagine in the innocence of their hearts that their girls are smart because they are classed as “good fun,” and allow them to do most of tlie things .to which the now old-fash-ioned word “fast” used to’ be applied; but it is remarked /that the best men still choose the best girls, and wlio have been brought up on other lines. They may be gay, smart, amusing, but they never venture -beyond tlie lines of good manners. A London girl in lier first three or four seasons is not seen alone in the streets, nor does she skate, .motor, or visit by herself. She may go to see her friends early in the morning, provided they live near, but that is her only privilege. It is hard to imagine a colonial girl, who even before she leaves school is often free to do as she likes, being restricted by these hard and fast regulations.