CHAPERONS AS FRIENDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19753, 28 September 1927, Page 7

CHAPERONS AS FRIENDS.

It is said that the <h ape run is coming in again, presumably because the modern gsrl is not quite as capable of taking c*r» of n«r«elf as #h* is supposed to i«e And it is true that yon do see more and more girb going about with asi <-trier woman —whether she mother, aunt, or a friend. But the chaperonage, if one can rail it that, n so subtly disguised that it has become quite a different thing, writes the Hon. Mrs. Fitr.roy Stewart. Where there used to be an ogre there is now a friend The oid style disperof! is dead. I, for one, ar;s glad. "Ill# gsrl of today has Oram* as well as loo*", and a big lot of courage and self-confidence. Hhe can steer her own course and take cars of homif tn » way that was mat known to her great-auets or to her grandmother. As a result, she does not n**d «h« strict chaperonag* that was the fate of a girl tn the far-off 'ninc-tsea. {.'haperonage was then, of cootie, the ngid rale, and the middle-aged matron and her herd of daughter* w«« we!lIcnown figures- at bail*- a»d receptions. A girl never "«t out" tot was brough' bacjt at once to her waiter, arid it wa* a piteous sight to tfc* ranks of weary, hungry chaperon# wasting to be takers ' sts to tapper. | The war ch&sged the world not only | in pohttes. but is society. And, no doubt, the firtfc few *t*n after Us# armtstte* | were a tsste of unrest and of a certain I licence 1 B«t, a* ever there earn* a r*aet«*». : A few women of mind *»d character ; came to the fore and iook*d after their I daughter* Lady Londonderry was s ! pvooeec its this r«!xr! an<i gave coo** a? ' ' '-are tr» h*r eM*<st da>ish'+? now b'dv Maureen Stanley; and her eramp!e h*« | i followed by some wow. en «-• f*.* j ttoa down to the present j Manners change; a e other r.-.w »i j «*t«r fr.end to b»r <ta«j?h , «" a- **< » f ; live# her owrs hfe ar I ba* h*r «**» :n I tercets. But she i* spard#** :r- b*r sorr«< • career 1 f."haperonage !» not est tact; but « I practised srttfc a difference.