WHY GIRLS LEAVE HOME

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12528, 13 April 1935, Page 9

WHY GIRLS LEAVE HOME

NEW LIGHT ON OLD PROBLEM. SEEKING RAINBOW’S END. Why do girls run away from home? Interesting new light is thrown on this ancient problem, which Ts much tub same in tho United States as in England, and has provided themes for countless plays and novels all over the world. The Girls’ Service League of America, for twenty veaus, has made a particular study of the girl-runaway, and has restored many of those girls-safe and sound to their distracted parents. “The longue was instituted in 1908.” slates the director, “and I hesitate 1o say how many thousands of the -14,602 gnls we have helped since then were girls who suddenly abandoned their homes and came to the great eftv to find ihe rainbow’s end. DECREASE! IN AVERAGE AGP. “AYlmt especially alarms ns is not. so ranch the recent and poss blv only temporary increase in llie number ol runaways, but, the decrease in their average age. “We arc now receiving a number ■of girls only fourteen or fifteen. Even twelve-year-olds sometimes come. The former age, .seventeen, has dropped by a year or more. “The first thought of a runaway girl is for money to finance the trip to the city. She may toll a neighbour that- some member oj' the family is ill and borrow £1 or £2. or she may lake money that her mother has put aside for rent, or she may disappear with her week’s wages. THE NOTE BEFORE LEAVING. “The g'rl, in onr experience, before starting on her journey, usually writes a note to be lott behind, explaining her departure, and reading, ‘Do not worry; I am going to earn money and send it home’; or ‘Do not worry; T am going away to marry a rich man, or something very similar. “She now travels, whenever possible by omnibus, which has the advantage of not landing her at a railway terminus, whore, as most girls know, someone is always on the lookout for runaways. “The girl, during the journey to town, gives herself a new name, generally a little less common than her own. “Dorothy may hero me Gwendolen, for instance, and Jenny may rccliristen herself Thelma. “Other changes occur during the journey. The girl decides that her parents have died —the favourite fatal disease for a runaway's parents is 'fin—and her home is automatically moved several hundred miles. The wily runaway, realises that this -story will make it harder than over to communicate with her ‘dead’ parents. “The modern runaway, on reaching the city, is likely to go straightway and purchase earrings, for the runaway almost invariably increases her ago and must look the part. “One girl when she came to ns claim cd to be nineteen. B'w nce-'tted a few days later being only sixteen. AYe -succeeded in reducing her age in a day or two. to fourteen. She was really twelve. “The modern costume, which is the same for girls of all ages, makes deception easy, and -s 0 does the lipstick. BIG CITY OF PITFALLS. “The Irg city is much better than it used to be. but- is still has many pitfalls, particularly certain dance halls. ‘‘Many parents wonder bow runaways become identified and sent, home by us. “Let- a runaway , talk to you. for ten or fifteen .minutes, however, tolling fib .after fib, and presently' she will become tangled up in contradictious. “The parents wh-o wore dead of the ’flu will be quoted, fifteen minutes later, as living, .and the home will unconsciously have moved several hundred miles. “\Vo look for tell-tale items among her belongings once o«r suspicions are aroused. “One girl may have a library book from home, another a card addressed to her, and revealing her name and .address. “Wo find that a girl lias n-ot infrequently brought her Bible, with her name on the ilylea.f. It- may even include a date and show that ‘mother/ who died when the girl was a babe in arms, somehow managed to give her a. Bible a dozen years later. “Do not conclude, however, that because a runaway girl is a poor hand at fibbing, she lacks intelligence. Stupid runaways are rare, and when a stupid girl runs away it is usually becase some bright girl has talked her into accompanying her. Runaways < ften go in pairs. NOT NECESSARILY BAD. “Do not conclude, either, that a girl is necessarily bad just- because she runs away. Aloney, if it has been stolen by a girl to finance a trip, was ‘taken’ from parents, or ‘borrowed’ from neighbours—she never calls this stealing. “A runaway girl also has to fib —• there is no avoiding it. “It is, in my opinion, mainly tho parents who are to blame for a girl’s running away, , " “They may be too severe, and an adolescent girl resent? being spanked for smoking a cigarette. Tlio parents, again, may be too ambitious and expect too: much,

AFRAID OF FAILURE. “A girl, again, if -sbe is reprimanded at school, or is afraid of'failure in approaching examinations, will he inclined to run away. The publication in the newspapers of. the disappearance of other girls may also lead her to make the experiment herself, even if this means leaving a luxurious homo “There are, further, the indifferent parents, and once a girl comes to feel that no great interest is taken in her she may brood, indulge in too much day-dreaming, or in any case become convinced, like many others* that it is only in the big city that dreams come ,true.”