PIOUS GROANS

NZ Truth, Issue 1196, 1 November 1928, Page 6

PIOUS GROANS

Oh! Those "Spotting" Flappers If -some, of the leading clerics are to be believed, then the youth of the Dominion is indeed fast going to the dogs. Rev. Lionel B. Fletcher, of Auckland, has been indulging recently m oratorical thunderirigs against the hip-flask-dance-hall-loungo - lizard-and-girl-menace brigade and drawing from his "knowledge" a terrible picture of ruined girlhood. . ■ . TT is, of course, quite natural for A pulpit orators to declaim against the so-called "evils" that arc supposed to be undermining the whole of the social fabric. . . ' ■ It is their stock-in-trade and it is expected of them thai there shall be a, periodical outburst. But "N.Z. Truth" does not hesitate to assert that the picture Rev. L. 3. Fletcher paints is limned, m colors far too glaring. The lurid pigment is piled on so thickly as to distort the whole canvas of contention. - The reverend gentleman, like 1.0 many of his brethren of the cloth, sees a mountain of evil where only a molehill exists. No .man — or woman— of the, world' will deny that there are men who pack hip -flasks m their stern pockets when attending a dance. Nor will anyone seek to deny that there are a number of girls who like a "spot." But for a young woman to have an occasional; "spot" — however reprehensible that . taste for liquor is to the clerics — is not to say that the '•'spotting flapper" spots to such an extent that she loses all control of herself. Far from it, as Rev. L. B. Fletcher would quickly - discover if he were to attend "incog." some of the.."hipflask hops."' ' The average modern -flapper, with all her ljp salve, saucy ways and ability to sink a "spot" without getting under the table, is Just as capable of taking, care of herself — more so m many cases — as were the coy maids of former generations. Dancing Youth To talk about the modern girl .being a and unwitting victim of the sheiks who , mix , the contents of the flask for her delectation, is a poor tribute to the self-reliant independence t>f Miss 1928. •■•-.■' For this very intriguing young woman of to-day' has some very definite views about the would-be. ■ sheik who trades on camaraderie to the point of mistaking it. for amorous encouragement. As many an "Oxford bags" gallant has discovered to his cost m terms of self -humiliation ! Of course, all this is really very terrible; For girls even to imbibe from the hip-flask at a dance shocks the clerics, but when will they realize that it is, after all, an expression' of the age that has come forth m spite of all their • thunderihgs? The parsons start from false premises. They simply .... take the outward symbols of youthful frolic without trying to grasp the altered .points of vie^ that make them prominent, Women are no longer the weak vassals and doormats of tyrant- male moralists they once were. They have acquired an individuality, of their own and a new estimate of the values of relationship"- between the sexes. - In. short, they have become ins pal;? of men amd have shown that they can. join m a man's pleasures, and interests, .without m -any way losing their femininity. ' V . Thousands of girls throughout : the'eountry attend dances, but how many of them are the worse for it? And of those^ thousands, how many, have' become 'hopelessly intoxicated through drinking from hip-flasks — oc, if not hopelessly, then sufficiently elated to lose control of themselves? Is Rev. , L. B. Fletcher prepared to give an approximate computation of the' figures — or is he merely basing his allegations on a few cases that have come under his personal notice? The Black Sheep The girls of to -day" are as good as their mothers and grandmothers were. They make just as good wives and mothers — even though m the wild days of their single blessedness they occasionally dare to have a "spot" when attending a dance. And as for the young men, they are m the aggregate just as decent and chivalrous as their forebears. Ask the /girls, Mr. Fletcher, if you doubt this! ■ , It is true that some girls will go wrong. They have gone wrong since the- world began and will continue to do so— just so long as the world lasts. The reason why so muoh . is heard about the so-called decadence of youth these days is „ because women as a sex are more m the limelight than ever before. The few black sheep are hailed as typical instead of comparatively isolated cases that, by their downfall, subscribe to the age-old law of human nature of the good^and the bad. The modern girl can afford to laugh at the vaporings of the clerics who tremble for her moral welfare, but m spite of short skirts and "gaspers," high kicking and occasional "spots," the heart of her is unspoiled — a fact which the future generation of happy, bonny children will proclaim to all the world.