Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1879-10-31

| The Paris american Register says: The
republic has set on foot several reforms that
were much needed in France But II is
chiefly Of the laws Of France relating to the
marriages of French citizens with aliens
that we would speak. Would that our
words of warning could be spread through
out the length and breadth of our land
to bid our young girls who may contemplate
matrimony with Frenchmen to look warily
to the ceremony and to their marriage lines.
In the first place, our advice TO every
American girl who may think of marrying
a Frenchman is Punch's old counsel to those
ly, Dontp In fact, the very training receiv-
ed by the youthful Frenchmen forbids him
to become a very exemplary spouse He Is
taught that love has little to do with matri-
mony. Marriage is a business arrangement
that is to bring him in certain sum of
money and provide him with housekeeper
and some legitimate. children. But apart
from the natural characteristics of the
French husband, of which we shall say no
more, the American wife must be very sure
and certain that her marriage Is lawful in
France.
The ignoring of the marriage. laws of
other countries forms prominent and pain
fu feature of the French code. The Ameri-
can bride must remember that what consti-
tutes a legal marriage in the United States
by no means makes of her lawful wife in
France. French laws make Of the civil mar
riage a sine qua non. The French bride
groom and the American bride may be mar
ried with all the tormality that religious
rites may bestow--nay, with all the rites Of
the Roman Catholic church butt even should
Cardinal McClosky himself be the ofiiciat-
void in France If the pair were not united
before the French consul That act--and
that alone-constitutes legal marriage in
France
One can readily perceive to what dire
complications this rule, which is generally
unknown in the United States, may give
rise. Not II year passes that 10 some poor
American girl does not come some one of
the American lawyers in Paris TO ask the
heartrendering question, Am i or am not
legally married Deserted by her French
husband--too often with two or three little
children on her hands to support-she has
been coolly informed by the man whom she
espoused in the United States, In the pres
cncc Of friends and relatives, and with all
due tormalities Of priest and ring, that she
is not lis vic atdii AnA iin her legal ad
visor deyolvcs the painful duty Of telling
her that, In the eyes Of the French law, she
Is nothing but concubine and that her chill.
drcn are bastards.
Happy is II for the poor creature If she
has home to return TO on the other side of
the Atlantic; for in France, the boosted land
of highest civilization, she will find no law
to protect her or to punish her betrayer.
Thus, to every American girl IN the United
States who contemplates matrimony with a
Frenchman we would say: Do not trust TO
the tender love OF your Jules or Gastons or
Alphonse, but marry him hard and fast in
the presence Of the nearest French consul
before you cross the seas with him and ven
ture into the PLEASANT pays dc France
which is SO charming TO live In for u multi |
tude Of reasons, and so wonderfully the re- |
verse TO any woman who does not look |
sharply after her rights. So will you escape |
the direful doom Of being turned adrift In "A |
foreign land, penniless and forlorn, a cast
off mistress instead OF the welded wife you |
had so fondly imagined yourself to be-
The recent fragrant case made public
few months ago In the French papers, re-
speeding the marriage and desertion of
young English girl by a Frcnchman, called
forth an infinite degree OF indignation in
England. Yet cases rs outrageous, wherein
the unhappy wife is an American, are un-
fortunately Of too frequent occurrence. We
should think that revision Of the French
code, by which such unions should be made
legal and valid, would be an act not only Of
humanity, but Of ordinary justice.