The Abilene Daily Reporter (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 329, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 1, 1924 Page: 26 of 40
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Mary S. Allen, commandant of
the Women’s Auxiliary of the
Police of London, is here to
study American methods
THEY are having their own time in
1 England over the merits and defects
of the modern girl. And about the only
Englishwoman who isn’t getting excited
over the discussion of the flapper is
Commandant Mary E. Allen, head of
the women’s auxiliary police depart-
ment of London.
Yet, as London’s first policewoman,
and as a woman officially looking after
other women, you’d expect Commandant
Allen to be more up in the air over the
matter than any one else. You’d expert
to find her tossing bombs of disapproval
at the impudent young thing who wears
'em short and bobs her hair and sasses
her elders.
This is before you have met Com-
mandant Allen. After you've met her,
and noted her close-cropped hair, to-
gether with her knickers, high boots,
man’s police cap and military cape, you
expert Commandant Allen to stand up
stoutly in defense of the ultra-modern
girl, hurling at least a scornful look in
the direction of the mid-Victoriar
paragon.
PUT Commandant Mary E. Allen la
D full of surprises. She doesn’t sneer at
the old-fashioned girl, and she doesn’t
brag about the flapper. Neither does she
, look with admiration on the former nor
with horror on the latter. She takes
them calmly, philosophically, even
humorously.
“Really, you know, I can’t get startled
ever the flapper question," she said the
other day in her clipped, cultured Eng-
lish voice. We are getting back to nor-
mal so rapidly. The flapper and all her
doings were part of the post-war de-
lirium. We all went a bit crazy, don’t
you know?
“And now we’re all swinging back to
normal. The whole world is getting
normal—flappers included.’
This, when you think it over, is a bit
extraordinary, when one considers that
every one, especially every one connected
with welfare work among young girls,
has clawed the atmosphere and shrieked
about the ever-increasing abnormality
of young women, who, it seems, are going
more and more rapidly and by more and
more brazen means straight to ever-
lasting perdition.
“Not at all,” Commandant Allen in-
aisted easily. "The modern flapper is
flapping less and less. She may never
return to Victorian standards. The war
has changed us all. But the future of
the human race is safe enough in her
capable hands.”
It’s curious, the kind of woman London
chose to be its first female policeman.
Yet curious is not precisely the word;
“gratifying” is better. At first glance
Miss Allen seems absolutely mannish.
Even her gray hair is cut man fashion,
and till you hear her speak you’d mis-
take her for a man any time. But her
first word dispels the illusion of mas-
culinity. Miss Allen’s voice is delight-
fully soft and feminine; her smile is
magical in its womanly, sunny quality.
Even the monocle which she wears la
her right eye fails to give any effect of
the mannish when once you’ve heard her
talk.
And that’s what is so curious about
her appointment on the London police
force. The officials selected a woman
who dresses like a man; who has, by
personal preference, dressed like a man
for years; a woman who doesn’t possess
Celia Cooney,
the “bobbed-hair"
bandit of Brooklyn
omance GoneWild in the
Modern . That's How London's Lady Cop,
Commandant Mary E. Allen, Accounts
for the Flapper and the Abnormal Run of Crime
Featuring the Bob-Haired
Bandit of Today
Flapper Nearly Passe!
BEHOLD! - The word "flapper" is out of fashion-
DD almost. -. ,
A prize of $50 for an original word or term describing
the opposite of flapper has been offered by the alumni asso-
ciation of Camp Hiawatha, a camp for girls in Maine.
The antonym will be used as a banner word by the
organization, which seeks to counteract the effect of “flap-
per,” which they term “a stigma which no intelligent girl
would apply to herself."
1918—The mod- T
ern girl drove an
ambulance, mingled
with men in the in-
ferno of shot and shell and be-
came imbued with the reckless,
daredevil spirit of adventure, ir ted in
the girl of today, is the bob-haired flapper bandit who foolishly
seeks romance and adventure in the role of the gungirl.
1930__But the girl of tomorrow, evolved out of the flapper,
will be a sturdy, self-reliant damsel of poise and superb
physique-the athletic girl of good sense and good taste.
a dress in her whole wardrobe. And yet
if they’d combed the British Isles for a
wholly feminine woman, they couldn’t
have found one to answer that descrip-
tion more beautifully than does Com-
mandant Allen.
She was appointed during the war to
look after the various problems that
came crowding upon women: new prob-
lems, and old ones under new guises.
Her work was so successful that she re-
ceived a permanent appointment, with a
staff of policewomen under her au-
thority.. -
AS SHE sat in New York police head-
A quarters, chatting easily and wisely,
a slim, tall figure In military knickers
and tunic, one high-booted knee slung
over the other, her ruddy face now
serious and now lighting with mirth, you
thought to yourself: “Here’s a woman
that other* women can trust.” She In-
spires utter confidence. The masculine
attire seems a bit of affectation to the
"casual onlooker. But it isn’t.
"The greatest problem we have among
women in England today,” she said. "Is
the canes. Our girl bandits don’t always fectly ordinary little girl to me. Ive
bob their hair, but our girls do go in for met thousands like her in England only
banditry. This is an outgrowth of the
war, as I judge it is in your own
country.
“But with us—-and I venture with your
girls, too-this experiment in banditry is
at basis a seeking after romance. In
England, a girl begins to go around with
a wild set of men and girls. She begins
to shoplift; usually on a dare. The idea
is to visit perhaps half a dozen shops
and try to get something from so many
of them as possible. The girl who steals
something from each of the half dozen
shops wins the game.
“It starts mors as mischief than as
crime. But the girl who becomes adept
In stealing from a shop is often induced
to join a gang of thieves. And then, of
course, her real criminal career begins.
"Your girls—your bobbed-hair flappers
and also your bobbed-hair bandits—seem
pretty much like our English girls. Per-
haps you remember that the word
■flapper’ originated in England.
"I had a talk with your Brooklyn
bobbed-hair bandit. She seems a per-
they didn’t happen to go in for holdups.
She's a rather romantic soul, yearning
to be a heroine, eager to match her wits
against those of the police, and in love
with a man who holds people up.
“Cella Cooney's banditry wasn't very
bad banditry. She certainly didn’t plan
to hurt any one. It was romance gone
wild, if you like; it was malicious mis-
chief rather than actual criminal tend-
ency. ,
“In England, I never happened to
know of any case just like Celia’s. But
I dare say there are plenty of girls
in England who might do what Celia
has done, under the same circumstances:
the English arid American girls—flapper
or not—are pretty much alike.”
COMMANDANT ALLEN swung her
U monocle on its long black cord. The
heart warming smile came again to her
sensitive mouth. It is, by the way, a
smile that does not blur the keen, direct
glance of her eyes. She is sympathetic,
this clever Englishwoman, but not senti-
mental
and Interviews are the result What
did Celia Cooney do? She robbed several
shopkeepers, she escaped the police for
two or three months, she got very little
money out of it after all, she was cap-
tured by the police, and she will go to
prison. It’s all a rather silly, sordid
business and nothing that merits a halo.
It is even little more than commonplace.
And yet Celia Cooney’s name is known
all over the country.
"Too bad, don’t you think?”
Commandant Allen, sensibly enough,
didn’t think Celia’s bobbed hair was
either the cause or a symptom of her
tendency toward holdups. Yet it is a
strange fact that no London policewoman
is permitted to have her hair bobbed.
She may clip it short, if she likes-
as Commandant Allen did in order to
make her military cap fit better-and
if it isn’t short it must be done up
smoothly under a net. But the bobbed
head is taboo. It doesn’t look dignified
to British eyes.
In New York City, policewomen may
. . . in bob their hair if they wish. Mrs. Mary
"Of course, I oughtnt to speak Hamilton, head of New York’s 100 po-
reproof of any institution in a country neewomen, bobbed her’s last summer,
where I’m visiting, she began, but it doubtful 'whether a closely
is a reproof I can administer to my own But K Teminine head would be toler-
country as well. You know, I honestly cropped lemin
believe Celia Cooney has received great ateo.
harm and perhaps irreparable harm from THERE is another point, and a funda-
the publicity in the newspapers about T mental one, on which ’American and
her misdeeds, and fromthe great d British policewomen differ. In American
that gathered to look at her, cities, the policewoman dresses like any
“In own country, the newspaper € • Y. inton.
^ xma zete ireilmnane: xrsi ameeme/th4.
E --=== = --==
thest crowds assembled whenever she to be as conspicuous as possible,and
great naturally supposes herself to therefore the better preventers of crime.
ART:a aon something very clever. She It is two methods of approaching the
thinks she’s a heroine. In reality, she’s same end.
Deny little ignorant girl who has given “One other big problem whieh “ a
herself a long term in prison and given well as you, have had to deal with in
other people a great deal of incon- recent years is the increase, in the use
venience There’s nothing laudable in of drugs,” Commandant Allen added;
X ^. did. But how are you ever “since the war, this use has grown tre-
going to convince Celia of the fact?" mendously. But in England I think we
At a question concerning a cure for have it pretty well under control now,
banditry Commandant Allen put the and in this, as in everything else, the
monocle in her right eye and regarded whole world Is gettingback to normal,
the questioner in musing silence, perhaps more swiftly than we realize.
Trough her mind seemed to be passing "Girl bandits—yes, they are some:
review thevarious cases of banditry thing new. But they are a result of the
which had come to her notice, war chaos. You simply cannot
"If I had my way, the young bandit women nor conditions by the .%
upon arrest would get almost no men- years after such experience tr.5
tion in the newspapers; perhaps no men- world war. Everything P J
tion at all. A quick trial, and adequate for at least • few years in 3
sentence and absolutely no glory—not beginning to see straight age n
- .-=======
"Naturally any man or woman thinks a war hangover. At her best, she a the
the misdeed is something to be looked athletic new type of womanhood-end
upon with pride when long writeups getting more normal every minute."
T
Copsrieht. 1924, by Publie Ledeer Company
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The Abilene Daily Reporter (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 25, No. 329, Ed. 1 Sunday, June 1, 1924, newspaper, June 1, 1924; Abilene, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1697578/m1/26/: accessed July 13, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Abilene Public Library.