UNCHANGING WOMEN

NZ Truth, 15 March 1924, Page 4

UNCHANGING WOMEN

«•» — ■ ■■ Yesterday, To-day, and fl To-morrow fl The Old Standards Still Unshaken, fl When Rupert Hughes was writing H his novel "What's the World Coming WM To?" m 1920, he ran across some trans- mt lated Egyptian hieroglyphics of 1920 MM B.C. whose substance was a tirade j^H against the bad habits of that day. It B immediately occurred to him that the same sort of thing had gone on even since. And hasn't it? There ai'e writers and moralists who are ever ready H to extol the virtues of the past at the H| expense of the present. In reality M there is nothing new under the sun. BH Sin is as old as mankind. Still m each VJ succeeding generation new prophets Mm arise, and, judging by their enthusiasm, ME discover the mournful fact for the first _M time. Waves mount on the face of the WM sea, hurry forward for a short while, H and break. But the great body of the Mt ocean rolls on almost undisturbed. So H it is with immorality. Here or there, H m this century or that, outwardly licentiousness may flourish, while the H old standards are at anchorage m the H heart of the human race. gMt CHARITABLE REACTION. fl . Through history there have been fl periods of considerable freedom when H actions and conversation were permit- fl| ted which would' have scandalised HJj (visibly, anyhow) the sensibilities of JH other times. These periods, however, {H were very often the reaotldn following WM a generation or two .of V unblushing- MM lewdness, for even rosea and wine can WW pall. The naughty 'nineties, aa the Mm declining yeara of last century were called, were subsequent to Victorian MM prudery. The further a pendulum is MM forced on one side the further it will H swing baok on the other when the pressure is eased. But the days of poke WM bonnets were not aa lily-like as they are sometimes painted. The ladies fli then powdered and bedecked themselves as freely as is customary to-day. MMt When thinking of the modern girl, and^H criticising her fondness for the jazz, HI we must not think her any gayer than^^B the girls of 1827, the year the waltzHH was born. When first danced, thefl^B waltz, like the jazz, was denounced as_H immoral. Byron thought it rude. IiHJK spite of it all the girls of that da^^H danced it, and we have been dancing i^^H ever since until we have come to regard^^H is as the very attar of decorum. It ifl_H well for the moderns that the girls oH^H 1827 were courageous. In 2027 thHjH girls, of to-day may come m for a llt-^^H tie more commendation than they aro^^H now given m some gloomy quarters, HAH THE DREGS OP YOUTH; \\m\ Age is pessimistic. Even if theflH| world were Utopia it could never beHJH Utopia for the old. The scenes otHHg childhood, the good old days, cause ad-HHa vancing age to criticise the present andHJH glorify the past. .To-day, perhaps, HH there is an excuse for moderate pcs- BH| simlsm. We are living at an abnormal HH period, at a crisis m history. There have been times when the morals of the world have been worse, and times, HH too, when they have been much better. WMM But we must admit this m favor of HB the modern woman: many of her sis- _^| ters m former ages would have gone down before the wave of licentiousness |^fl which has beaten against the great JH bulk of our women m vain. Caught in^BH the backwash of dangerous tendenciu.9 her head "is bloody but unbowed." -^H THE MEAN MORAL TEM- _H PERATURE. HI There is a reflection of each age m its literature. Though some of the HI best sellers (many of them represent- 'WMm ing society at its worst) make warm HH reading, their indictment, even flippant JH and exaggerated as lt is, is light compared with the castigations of Isaiah. Readers of Shakespeare often say: WMt "Oh, but they were different m those days." That is a mistake. Human H nature varies very little, and its expression throughout the centuries does HB not change a great deal. ' With the m- MM dividual the normal temperature is 98 degrees. Temperature may rise to 104 MM and fall without death resulting. But |H the figure must remain somewhere HJ around 98. There ls a mean moral MM temperature with nations. If, through HJ corruption, it rises very high the nation HJ decays, as nations have done In the HI paßt. More often than not the mean is kept. (H On certain subjects each' of us has JH an obliquity of understanding. When WM it is a question of immorality there is JB great difference of opinion. If lt can |H be held that all is impure to the pure, MM it might very reasonably be maintained M that all is pure, even degeneracy, to the IB impure. But on this subject precon- MM ceived opinions, and definite standards, H hardly give us a fair chance. Shakes- HJ pe&re says that beauty is m the eye. "Vice is also m the eye, especially when wM a wholehearted condemnation of H modern women is voiced. She Is meet- H Ing — that is, the majority are — attrac- H tlve and alluring temptations vie- HJ torlously. If each one of us calls to Mm mind the women he knows, separating H the good from the bad, he will find the H brazen greatly m the minority. WHY IT IS COMMON TALK. H Foolish styles of undress, stockyard fl morality, and boosing, ls news desired by readers of newspapers, and that is why thoy are acquainted with these H facts. It is not interesting to know H_ tc-.at 9!* girls, after a rasubj.-ry aundae, H| went straight homo to bed at 10 p.m., but it is interesting to,' learn that Harriet Hardnut and a few friends, after drinking a couple of bottles of HH whisky, ran into n telegraph pole, |H smashed a motor-car to bits and were taken to the hospital. That is why HB people are saying: "We are always reading about it m the papers." Nowadays girls do sit out m motors during dances, but is that any worse _H than the buggy rides tholr grandmothers used to take? MM It is ridiculous to attempt to general- HB Ise from particular Instances, and only AH hy this method of fallacious reasoning HH is it possible to fndtct womankind. fjM\ Even if cocktail drinking were general -^H and widely indulged m, the thing itself HH would not be new. In Puritan times, HH even, girls brewed beer, and drank it, HH too, while ln the middle 'fifties cham- H| pagne drinking was by no means un- HI common m tho ballrooms. But we HI think we have shown that the moral WM standards, while maintaining even levels for gencratidns on end, are H •somotlmes tightened ln one century H and loosoned ln another. A hundred H and one things contributo to these H changes, war, and all tho uncertainties HJ wrapped ln the word, being one of the ~H most potent of them. Lot It not h« H Imagined, then, that modern women, H even If It is held that In tho aggre- H gato sho has broken away from tho old H moral sanctions, has broken new H ground m any of her offences. And If H tho Influence of bad example is a strong H Incentive to evil, the modem woman -fl must bo regarded as tho miracle of our H time. H