Audiences didn't have to wonder how Major General Stanley got all those many daughters...the lyric reveals that.
"We are Wards In Chancery, and Father is a Major General."
So these women are not the Major General's biological daughters, they are his wards. They were put in his care by the Court of Chancery. They refer to him as "Father" and seem to genuinely care for him, but it's also possible that they have been in his care for many years at the point we meet them.
Without anything in the text to support the idea, I've assumed that these women were placed in his care as children because he was a wealthy person with the means to support them and the willingness to do so. All of these people seem to consider themselves to be a family, despite none of them likely being biologically related to any of the others. |
