GIRLS OF TO-DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 77

GIRLS OF TO-DAY.

(By January Mortimer, in the Dailv Mail.) The ex-headmistress of a large high school for girls has just tolcl us that the girl of to-day is too fond of “ pleasure and frivolity,” and that we need some of “ the old-fashioned austerity ” of the time of our grandmothers. In the “good old days” the tutelary methods were certainly more severe than in our generation. Those were the days when the “ backboard ” was used in “ the seminaries for young ladies ” as a corrective of the habit of stooping. Games of the athletic sort were unknown. The pupils “ took the air ” daily for about an hour, and -walked sedately in pairs without being permitted to “ leave places.” If two of “ the young ladles ” were discovered talking in class time the schoolmistress would say: “Miss Priscilla Jones and Miss Marion prown will stand back to back in the middle of the room for half an hour.” My mother told me that she often stood on a bench ns a punishment for some minor misdemeanour, and sometimes, ns a matter of discipline, girls were not allowed to “ take the air.”

The repression of youthful energy and high spirits caused by the interdiction of romping and “ tonibcyism ” was distinctly unhygienic, both physically and morally. The faults and the foibles of the modern girl may be many; but she is healthier in body and mind. Lord Dawson, the King’s physician, stated the other day that the physical development of English women is more rapid ami marked than that of men. Other investigators have shown that our girls are increasing in stature, and that the general health of young women has improved immensely. In the days of the backboard and the inculcation of muscular inactivity, girls often fainted, and were prone to a curious malaise described as “ the vapours.” Cricket, hockey, swimming, tennis, cycling, and even the frivolous diversion of dancing, have aided in almost banishing the tendency to faint upon the slightest emotional excitement. No doubt the increased stress of the working life in the present day has induced a reaction of somewhat feverish pleasure-seeking. Nevertheless, the selfassured, eager, adventurous, well set-up girl of our time is, on the whole, a better type than her carefully shielded and somewhat morbid forebears of the era of the “ seminary.” And, to my mind, she is more companionable, though probably a less effic! it cook.