IS THE WORLD DANCE MAD?

NZ Truth, Issue 935, 27 October 1923, Page 12

IS THE WORLD DANCE MAD?

Are Young People Any

Worse?

FAULT-FINDING ELDERS.

Defence of Modern Youth.

Crabbed age and youth cannot notoriously get on together, and the cause of It wou2d seem to be that Age is less crabbed against than crabbing. It sometimes seems almost as though, the moment that men or women put on spectacles, they notice hideous shortcomings m younger people to which they had been blind before. And when they notice these shortcomings, they feel it their duty to proclaim them from the house-tops, for a sense of duty is put on with the spectacles. These lines are from the pen of Lady Diana Cooper, described as "England's Most Beautiful Woman." She continues.

This, we must suppose, is human nature, and it seems probable that every generation has had dinned into its ungrateful head its vast inferiority to all other generations, but more especially to that which immediately preceded it. No doubt the early days of little Cain were embittered by his mother's (fictitious) accounts of what a much finer fellow father Adam had been at the same age. And no doubt Eve believed every word she said, for it is characteristic of the old that they invariably succeed by endless repetition I In convincing themselves that what they say is true. ONE-SIDED CONTEBT. The young do not retaliate by pro- ! miscuous abuse of the old. Perhaps they are too kind, or perhaps they are too humble, or perhaps they have something better to do. So the old have it all their own way. Nor are they above seeking extraneous allies to assist them m the bloodless and one-sided contest. They appeal shrilly to the Press and they seldom appeal m vain. Press campaigns against the young appear to be so popular that they are not confined to the silly season, but flourish throughout the year. Until th« month of August m the year 1014 the young man of the day was the principal object of criticism. The "knut," as he was called, his ties, his collars, his socks, his .cigarettes, bis motor-car — all formed targets for abuse, and there was no end to the demonstrations of his silliness and degeneracy. Since that date, however, there have been reasons why even the most crabbed and cantankerous, the most selfcomplacent and contemptuous of our elderly critics have not dared to throw mud at young men, and. although it Is more than four years since the war, the same reasons still apply, for the youngest, most beardless face may yet conceal a war hero, and children fresh from the university may belong to the category who "went "out." before they Went "up." This immunity from criticism will, of course, not continue. We may safely prophesy that m a very few years attention will be drawn to the degeneracy of the modern youth, who will be compared, very much to his disadvantage, with the type of youth who fought m the war. Let the youth of to-morrow not be dlscouraced — he will be every bit as good as his predecessor, and let us only • pray he never haß a chance of proving it. FAVORITE TARGET. In the meanwhile, nil the pent-up venom of the old V»iis been loosed against the unfortunate young woman of the present day. The "Flapper" bore the first brunt of the attack, which has now been more widely distributed so as to embrace all women, married or unmarried, to whom the coveted but dangerous epithet of "young" applies. What does it all amount to? What is the charge against the women of to-day? It la not, I think, that she is morally worse than the women of former generations, but that she is sillier, less dignified, has less restraint, less sense of what is decent and becoming, than had the woman of, shall we say, two generations ago. This is an indictment which is too often and too easily admitted. We cannot set two different generations side by side for purposes of comparlson. because one of them has passed away and the only remnants are a few awe- Inspiring dowagers or gentle, white-haired grandmothers with whom we have neither the courage nor the wish to compete Therefore we are apt to plead guilty m order to save an argument. But we are not guilty, and I propose to prove it by the production of a document of the past. Captain Gronow was a young gentleman who, while he was a very young gentleman Indeed, fought as an ensign In the Grenadier Guards at the Battle of Waterloo. The remainder of his life was spent peacefully, and m Tits old age, nearly half a century after Waterloo, he wrote his memoirs. In them he compared the women of his youth to the women of the time m which he wrote. • "Perhaps it is because I am growing old," he says, "and woman has less power to charm than heretofore; but, whatever may be the reason, I cannot help thinking that, m 'the 'merry days when I was young,' or 'm my hot youth, when George the Third was King, 1 the women of England were more beautiful, better bred, and more distinguished m appearance and, above all, m manner, than they are nowadays. How grand they used to look, with their tall, stately forms, small thoroughbred heads, and long, flowing ringlets, dreamlike, fair, and queenly as Ossian's fabled daughters." TERRIBLE GIRL OF 1862. "You could not"— he contlmjes— "help feeling somewhat elated Jf perchance one of those sidelong glances, half-proud, half-bashful, like a petted child's, fell upon you, leaving you silent and pensive, full of hopes and memories. Egad! It was worth being loved by such women as those! And if there were then, as now. tales of sin and shame, there were also the extenuating circumstances of strong temptation, overwhelming passion, selfsacrifice, remorse: often the blighted Iseart and early graye — things almost unknown m these days of filrtation and frivolity. • | "I do not mean to say that there are not now, aa there always have boon In every state of society, beautiful and amiable women combining good sense and high principle; nut there arc ton many who seem to have tnken for their ideal a something' between the du«hInp horse-breaker and some Parian artiste dramatUiue of a third-rnto thentre: the object of whose ambition s to he m!stnkon,-for a femmo dv domlmondo. to be insulted when (hoy walk nut with thoir petticontH plrt up to their knees, showing (to do thorn Justiro) remnrknbly pretty feet and legs, and to wear wide-nwnke huts over pointed checks and brows, and wear thnt indescribable, jnunty, devil-may-enre* look which la considered 'tho rlp-ht thine* nowadays— to make sportInjr bots— to address men as Jack, Tom and Harry— to Htlb ahead m the Park —to call the paterfamilias 'governor' and the lidy-motlier 'tho old party, to talk of the younj? men who 'spoon' them, and discuss with them the merits of 'Skittles' and her horses, or the list HcandalouH story fabricated m tho Nvy window at White's, the very fnintpßt allusion to which would have mnd.* their mothers' hair stand on end with dismay and horror — this Is to be plenHnnt nnd 'fast' and amusing, "Tho younsr lady who Is weak enough to bIUHh Jf nddrojwd rather too familIprly. and bo unwise an to Ignore th»» ox!stf»nro of ')os dnmoH aux camplln*,' Is railed 'hlow,' and dlßtanood nltoefthpr; In tho steeplechase* after husbands sho Is 'nowhere' — an outside- n

female muff. The girl of 1862 who is not fast' is eeherally dull and blase, pleased with nothing, and possesses neither the wisdom, of ftg© no* the naivette of youth." ALWAYS THE SAME LAMENT. That is the opinion of Captain Gronow, whoso youth was spent In the days of the Regency, and whose later years were passed m the very zenith of the mid- Victorian epoch, 1862 is the year m which young women were all that he most deplored. 1862— the very heyday of all our grandmothers! If you change a few of the slang phrases, Captain Gronow's indictment might have been uttered by any of our living elders m condemnation of this generation. . It will always be the same. The old will always condemn the young, and the young can very well afford to disregard these reproofs which hurt them no more than the slanders of the disappointed hurt the ripe grapes upon the wall. It is as difficult for those who have been young to appreciate those who are still young as it is for the late Government to appreciate the Government of the, day. Mistakes they made m their time — they are willing to admit that; but not such mistakes as they see being made now. Somebody once said that it is the duty of an Opposition to oppose. Similarly we must suppose that it *s the duty of old elders to find fault. "We will not grudge them the performance of their duty — they have little enough else to do— but after studying Captain Gronow we may bo tempted on some wet ' afternoon when our grandmother comments for the hundredth time that it was not so m her day — we may be tempted to reply that, oi? the contrary, m her day it was precisely so, and that so. it la likely to remain for ever and ever more.