"Ken feared she was...MODERN"

I've never been able to get through the stories in vintage magazines from the 1930s. Often they're like some of the bad movies from the time where women who were "modern" frightened men. Sooner or later they'd be tied down, roped at the ankles, branded, and trotted down the aisle.

This illustration, done by John Henry Crosman (1898-1970), was for a story entitled The Amateur Husband by Leona Dalrymple. You can go to Project Gutenberg to read some of her work. In the meantime, just a morsel of what awaited the reader of this "modern" woman.

Kenneth Mallory, on the eve of his marriage to old Dr. Pennington’s granddaughter, was likely to keep it. This was the opinion of his employers, who were successful metropolitan architects. Young Mr. Mallory, it was conceded, had ideas and foresight.

Ken met Mary Pennington at a summer log cabin on a still, blue lake. The cabin belonged to his cousin, Hugh Mallory, and Ken arrived for the week-en on the 2:56, Saturday afternoon. Eventually, in spotless flannels, he went out to look at the late.

The lake, ten feet from Hugh’s dock, had lost all of its stillness. It was supporting a brilliant scarlet cap, a wet, tanned gypsy face with healthy scarlet lips and cheeks and a pair of brown eyes which examined with interest Mr. Mallory’s clean-cut darkness and intelligent blue eyes.

Click image to see it larger. (SOURCE: Collier's, October 8, 1932)

The caption next to Kenneth's leg reads:

What emerged staggered Mallory. There was very little suit, a great deal of smooth, graceful tan…. Ken feared she was modern.

Miss Dalyrmple herself seems to be very much the "modern" woman with enough spitfire to put people in their place if you read this article from the March 9, 1914 New York Times.