March 12, 1922 — Boys Vamped by Flappers, Parents Cry
Girls Blamed for Snuggle Pupping and Petting Parties Nowadays
The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden, UT, March 12, 1922
CHICAGO, March 11 — Parents of the male flapper are holding indignation meetings throughout Chicago to protect against vamping of their poor defenseless sons by sweet young things still in their ‘teens.
How to curb petting parties, the popular pastime of the younger generation everywhere it seems, occupied most of the discussion at the convention of social hygiene associations, at which were represented the Chicago Woman’s club, the Woman’s City club, the Parent Teachers’ club, and other prominent women’s organizations.
GIRLS BLAMED
The girls are to blame for all the petting or snuggle pupping that is going on, it was decided.
Dr. Rachaelle Yarros, chairman of the convention, voiced the sentiment of the gathering when she said. “It is always the girl who leads the way, either for good or for ill. If she does not maintain the standard, how can one expect the boy to do so? She holds the situation in her hand. It is she who started flapperism and it is she who must end it.”
To Miss Lillian Collier, young and pretty, proprietor of the Wind Blew Inn, credit is due for coining “snuggle pupping” as a new word for future dictionaries. Since she used it in court recently after the raiding of the center of Bohemian activity in Chicago, it has been generally accepted here as a synonym for “petting.”
PLACE CLOSED AGAIN
“There is no snuggle pupping at the Wind Blew Inn.” she announced so emphatically that she was allowed to keep her place open until it was raided again for permitting disorderly conduct. It is open again now under an injunction.
But whether or not there is “snuggle pupping” at the Wind Blew Inn, parents recognize that there is plenty of it going on right under their noses.
Among those who held mothers of these “dangerous” young flappers responsible for the situation at the recent convention was Mrs. Julius Rosenwald, wife of the president of Sears Roebuck & Company.
MOTHERS HAVE DUTY
“Unless mothers can make their girls realize the harmfulness of ‘petting parties’ how can they expect the girls to learn it outside?” asked Mrs. Rosenwald “A girl is branded as a ‘poor sport’ and no fun at all if she does not do as the other girls do. Mothers should open their daughters’ eyes to certain essential facts and teach them at home the value of maintaining some degree of dignity in their actions.”
“But girls like to be called snuggle puppies,” wailed a careworn principal of a city school. “They grant the boys liberties, encourage them to take them, and if the young chaps do not follow the pace, they are called sissies, poor boobs, or flat tires.”
GIRLS INTERVIEWED.
What have the girls to say about it? Students of the Chicago School of Physical Education say frankly that they wouldn’t think of going to a party with a young man unless he took them at least one way in a taxi. In this school which annually turns out one hundred teachers of physical training, the girls frankly admit that no young man can prove his devotion save to the tune of $10 to $25 an evening.
“If a man wishes the pleasure of our society.’’ said one girl, he has to go out and spend something besides the evening.”
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