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The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, November 14, 1914, LAST EDITION, Image 14

Image and text provided by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-11-14/ed-1/seq-14/

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court of common pleas of Paterson,
N. J., when he dismissed complaint
brought by Mrs. Maria Cardalazzi
against her 15-year-old daughter
Evelina, who had run away from
home because her parents would not
permit her to ""receive young men
callers.
This judge's name is Abram Klen
ert and Young America is likely to
hail Mm as a second Daniel.
When this decision had been rend
ered black-eyed Evelina smiled tri
umphantly and went back home with
her mother. But if X am any judge
of human nature the beau question in
the Cardalazzi househeld has not
been settled permanently by judicial
decree.
"They think they will get me to
change my mind about my young
man," Evelina confided to me with
flashing eyes. "My father took me
to have my photograph taken and my
mother, she tell me, 'here is a nickel
to go to moving picture show,' but
when I say, 'when can I have my
feller' come to the house like Judge
Klenert said, my mother she only
shake her head or cry and so my
young man he is still afraid to come
to the house!"
"He is no good. That is why I do
not want him to come," Mrs. Carda
lazzi assured me. "And Evelina's fa
ther has told him three times to fieep
away from our girL But he won't do
it. And she meets him outside and
they go to picture shows and dances
together. "When she came back from
court Evelina told me she must go
with her young man to picture shows
three times a week or he must come
here to see him. And I said 'you are
too young. Your father win take
you to the picture show.' But Evel
ina she only cried. She should go to
the reform school, I think.' "
I repeated Mrs. Cardalazzi's views
to Judge Klenert whom I found in his
law office at 120 Washington St., Pat
erson, late the same afternoon.
The author of the revolutionary de
cision about beaux is a clean shaven ,
young man with an intellectual brow
and the perpetual smile of a new
made bridegroom which, indeed, he
is. And perhaps you as a student of
human nature may find in this factr
the reason for the learned judge's un-
usual sympathy with young love.
"That Cardalazzi child is as nice
a girl as there is anywhere," said
Judge Klenert. "She's a big girl and
like all Italians mature for her age.
"The only sane answer to the ques
tion 'Is a girl old enough to have a
beau?' is in another question 'HAS
SHE GOT ONE?'
' "If she has, she's quite old enough
to see him every little while and the
BEST PLACE TO SEE HIM IS IN
HER PARENTS' HOME. You know
a great many of these foreign mo
thers with MADE-IN-AMERICA
DAUGHTERS are as bewildered over
them as a hen with ducks.
"They were brought up in the se
verity and repression of the older
countries and they can't understand
the liberty we grant our young peo
ple here. Hence, trouble when the
beau problem arises.
"The way I look at it is that our
boys and girls are thrown together
from the earliest age in public schools
and that it is ridiculous to say to a
girl that she can't have a boy call on
her in the evening who probably sits
next to her in high school all day
long.
"It's bad policy on the parents'
part, aside from anything else. The
way to put a premium on anything is .
to forbid it. I believe that the se
verity of parents is sometimes re
sponsible for the moral downfall of
girls.
"It's a foolish thing to say that un
til a girl reaches a fixed age say 18
Bhe should not be .permitted to have
boys call on her. She should have a
beau when ever she wants one and
can get him. And if her parents al
low her to receive him in her own
home they will be doing the very
best thing for themselves and for the
girL"
j--j. j-.
i:-?1

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