FLASKS AND FLAPPERS.

Shannon News, 7 October 1924, Page 4

FLASKS AND FLAPPERS.

MODERN. DANCE MANNERS; TOO FREE AND EASY. BLOOM OF INNOCENCE GONE

“There is nothing to which ,exception could be taken as far, as .the dancing is- coneerneu;- nothing un- j seemly, takes place in the;- ballroom, i bu t , - -—” This was one of the | answers an Auckland-“Star”* reporter-j received from one of several young people he interrogated on the matter of the modern dance and the modern j dancer. We have heard a good deal lately about the disgraceful things, that go on at dances, and the rumours may be said to have crystallised in the orgy which shook even free-and-easy Sydney out of its complacency over the trend of modern manners. To people that, know, nothing .about dances .from actual experience during, the past, say, 15 years, the sort of thing that goes on ;at. present-day dances- would come as a- rude shock. This- is admitted by men who are by 'ko means prudes.' - On } the other hand the smart set. will tell you that it is "no use looking at 1924“ through the spectacles of a hundred years - ago. “Move with the times!” is their motto, and if -you suggest that the pace is a bit too merry they will vote you slotv, and old-fashioned. Certainly if you have not .been brought up with the “younger set,’’ the present-day attitude towards “having a. good .time is. rather startling. It is, of course, hopeless for-older-.people to quite get the point of view of the younger generation; the understanding between the two ages is at the‘best only comparative. So,' instead of trying to gauge the position from the point of view of an onlooker it is better to get some opinions from the young people themselves. And the result is certainly startling—unless you happen to have “moved with the times.” Getting/a “Glovv. ; ’

‘“lt is necessary-to get a glow up, or you would not enjoy the dan.ce at all,” was the answer of one man who is pretty conversant with the modern danoing world and its ways. “Why, at Christmas when the town is full of visitors, many of those whom we mayj describe as ‘the best people,’ make a point of going up to the Hotel and getting ‘half-shot’ before going on to dance at the —. If they did not the evening; - wouldn’t spark a scrap; it would be very dull.” This 1 was his answer to a question as to the practice of “oiling up” or “sparking up”—it has many names among the terpsichorean devotees. , From; another quarter it ,was -learned that “Have you got anything in your hip?" was quite a common query at a dance. It seems that this “sparking up” has become such a recognised accessory of the dance that the men make > a practice of bringing a supply in a, flask, and hand out nips. . “Hand out to whom?” asks the old-fashioned person. “Why, to their comes the somewhat amazing answer. You suggest that, in your time the girls would as soon -jhave thought of walking into a public bar. “But my dear fellow,” is the answer “the girls of to-day start going out so young that by the time they have their hair up they have been through most of the -experiences that, made

so exciting ‘the coming, out’ of the old-fashioned Auckland girls, and they want something more* exciting." , You hint that such* "sparkle” and animation as comes from the preliminary cocktail or the partner's hip flask must be quite artificial. In this your informant- agrees, but says he is telling youlexactly >what-happens and does not profess I to explain it. “I like to get sparked; but the fun is always spoiled' if any of the girls of the party have too much, and get ! stonkered.” This was how one young lady explained her attitude to the cocktail question. Prom her description of what happened; when some of the less experienced girls of the party did exceed the limit, or they “failed to carry their liquor” like ladies, one would gather that the preliminary to a. modern dance must be a rather trying experience, and it is no wonder that some, of the flappers of to-day have falsified* the old saying about old heads on young shoulders, or at any rate if the heads are not the faces certainly are. . ' No More Courtesy.

The young , man * who owned the meaning “but” in the opening sentence was asked for-further enlightenment, and his account of modern morals as witnessed at dances was not very, cheering, It seems that the

decay of the private dance and the vogue of dancing in public are coincident with a woeful lack of anything like decent manners on the part of the. modern young man. The oldfashioned courtesy is as dead as a doornail, and the old idea of “duty .dances” and ihelping to entertain the wallflowers have long been on the scrap-heap. No hostess would dream of ib'eating up ; the stray young men from the smoking room or the card room and shepherding them into the ballroom; to help with some of her young ladies who were strangers or perhaps not quite so attractive as, they might have been. Nowadays the correct thing is to go to a dance-like , they Went into the Ark—two and two -j-and if your hostess is so ill-advised as ,to think that you have come to help to make the party a success she soon 1 earns her mistake. You go to have a “good time,” and even hostesses are not allowed to stand in your way. And, also it seems that the modern dancing young, man is a perfect Lucullus in the matter of supper. The old-fashioned “bread and ■ butter supper” would raise a snort of indignation; and nothing short of “fiizz and oysters” ' passes muster to-day with our young sybarites. Modem Flirtation. • While the conduct in the ballroom I is said to be quite de> rigueur the con- [ duct outside the ballroom is appar- ! ently anything but conducive to modesty. As before mentioned, the fact that so many girls of to-day are allowed to go to dances at an age when their grandmothers would have been in the nursery, makes them terribly blase; and,; while still in their-teens, they have accumulated the experience of women twice their age—that is, according to the ideas of a couple of generations ago. In. the old days, the plain-shaded conservatory was generally looked on -as sacred to fluttering hearts; and youthful flirtations. A walk in the grounds was also permissible between the dances; but to-day, conservatory grounds, ballroom, even the old-fashioned mild flirtation, the stairway, are all deserted. If you wish to find the dancers between the dances, you must, look inside the ’motor cars,' of which there is a long line down the drive. And it further seems that in certain sets nothing is thought if a couple of dancers disappear for whole dances, and whisk off in a motor car to the other end of the town for an hour or so.

In the old days there was a tacit understanding that the last word in dancing crime was to “slip your partner up for a dance" No *man would do it, and if a girl did so she was. soon a marked character. But to-day there is no-such' restrain; each goes to enjoy himself, and herself, and "they just jolly well do so.” Frank Talk; According rto young people themselves the conversation at dances doe* ne t consist of the “sweet nothings” which wore such a source of amusement to the, person who was not saying them. Nowadays there is a frankness between the; sexes that would have horrified their grandmothers, and while it must be admitted that there was a good (deal of early Victorianism that had to be swept away, some of the modern tendencies are rather alarming. ; And, of course, the girl of to-day smokes. Nobody even bothers to ask, “Will you have a cigarette?” One simply says" Gasper or Turkish?” and hands the box.

“Of course, alj that the “Star’s” informants tell of the modern youth does not apply all over; there are still plenty of good old-fashioned homes where ifche girls still. have a bloom on their cheeks, where they don’t really like tobacco, nor cocktails, and do not relish listening to doubtful stories. But, on the other hand, that there is much to be deplored in the concomitants of the modern dance, is undoubted, one hears accepted as a matter of course things that no man, would like to think were done by his own daughters. The greatest consolation of all, however, is that the modern looseness and license is only the result of the : unrest that war bequeathed us, and that when the world comes to its senses, the girls will get baok some of their innocence—which does not necessarily dullness.