THE MODERN GIRL

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6849, 2 March 1929, Page 15

THE MODERN GIRL

NO LACK OF BRAVERY, - For the past twelve years it has been fashionable to deride the modern girl. Her lip sticks, her powder puff, her dancing crazo and her short skirts are everywhere attacked. Personally, I am thankful for the modern girl. She may not be able to cook or sew, but at any rate she is far braver than her predecessors, writes Major F. A. C. Cloughton, secretary to the Royal Humane Society of England. Twenty years ago cases of girls rescuing others from drowning and other forms of death were rare. To-day they constantly occur. This year, for instance, the Royal Humane Society have dealt with no fewer than 27 such cases.

That may not seem many, but it has to bo remembered that only a small percentage of rescuers are ever discovered and rewarded by the society; that a far greater number of rescuers run away from the t=ceno of their bravery, never to be discovered and rewarded, and that many of these unknown rescuers are without doubt women. Grace Darling, the great example of feminine bravery in the past, stands out in history simply because she was unique in her day. The modern heroine, being one of many, is not so often heard of. That does not indicate she is non-existent. One of the most outstanding cases I can recall was that of Madge Franckeiss, the' 21-year-old. girl whom the Eoyal Humane Society presented with their bronzo medal after her bravery in the disastrous Thames floods of last winter. • ' On the dreadful, evening when the waters of the Thames overflowed, and she awoke to find her own room.already half full, her first thought was for the safety of others.' ... Diving into an area she saved two boys who were staying in the same house,' and then, breaking a window, swam through it into tho room in which her aunt was imprisoned and rescued her in the. nick of time, being nearly drowned herself before reaching S 1?T; not only the unmarried flapper who displays bravery to-day. The heroism apparent among married women is no less commondable. Such cases rarely end in tragedy, but a short time ago this did happen. An Irish woman dived . into a swollen stream to rescue a small boy who had fallen in, and was in danger of being swept away by the waters. Her own three-year-otd child, seeing her mother enter the water, followed her, and was gone when the mother returned to the shore with the boy. Fortunately, as I say, such tragedy is rare. Every summer reports of rescues by girls como from the seaside resorts. In tho winter they are no less quick in saving people who have fallen through the ice. Last year such o. rescue was carried out by a. school-girl! ' Nowadays swimming is a regular; uart of the school curriculism, and this is having, its effect. People who can swim have loss hesitation m saving others, although non-swimmers are far from lacking in bravery. ’ . " y But knowing how to swim is not the only reason for the modern girl’s bravery. She is hardier in every way than the girls of former times. She may scream at a mouse, but when tho time comes for her courage to be properly tested it rarely fails.