Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-03-13
o ENGLAND FOR HUSBANDS.

TO ENGLAND FOR HUSBANDS.
An Attempt to Explain Why So Many
American Girls Turn I'm that Direction.
From the ST. James Gazette.
Many people seem to be exercising their
minds as to why American girls marry Eng
lishmen. and they seek the reasons far and
wide. 1t has, for instance, been asserted that
it is because Englishmen are Landowner than
Americans, statement that could only ema-
nate from an English mind, as any one well
acquainted with Americans and their inmost
ideas can at once perceive. One of them OBJ
served to the present writer: when landed
at New York cit was after years absence)
was perfectly ashamed of myself for staring at
the men the way did, but 1 couldn't help it. 1
could not take my eyes on them, they seemed
to me too beautiful for anything after those"
&c: And yet We prefer to marry Englishmen,
and am told that We do 80 in ever-increasing
numbers. Why is this, since American men
are so handsome? In the first place there il
the natural tendency of women to be attracted
by the new and the unusual. 1t seems to have
arrow maker found to his cost when Hiawatha
came to WOO in the land Of the Dacotahs:
Comes youth with haunting feathers,
NAnders piping through the Village,
And she follows where BE Leads her.
As with Minehaha so with American girls
who have less musical names; they leave all
things for the stranger. The Englishman comes
among surrounded with the pleasant fra
GRANGE of mystery. We don't know all about
his people, nor where he was at college, nor
what his business is. nor how much his last
speculation brought him. Indeed, he never
talks about his business of ALL which il quite
too fascinating popularity; and then he lis
tens to what we say with an air of absorption
and delight which our young men never sue
coed in acquiring. They also, no doubt listen
undivided attention. There is always a wrinkle
on their foreheads, or at all events anxious
twist in the eyebrow which means that they
still have an eye on their business and are
wondering how it is getting on while they are
away wasting their precious time on our non
sense.
THE ENGLIsHMAN AT PICNIC
will stretch himself on the grass at your feet
and smoke his cigarette lazily in manifest con-
tent, and by and by he will say very slowly:
sAh, you know-this is what call happiness
should like it to go on forever" The Ameri-
can gets you ices with exemplary zeal and
promptitude, and he finds for you the coolest
nook wherein to rest; then he stands bolt up
right against tree, and looks furtively and
snxiously at his watch. After q while he hopes
1.-THE girls won't think of going for q ramble
In the woods" because he must catch the
half past train back to town. He may
be an Apollo to look at, but who would not
prefer the lazy Englishman, be he never SO
plain? The American men are not idle enough
to make love with any chance Of success against
the leisurely European. Mr.. Max O'Rell strikes
the keynotes of American life when he says
everybody works-young, old, rich and poor.
The idle man who in Europe is called a gentle
man in Chicago is q loafer. That is just it
Ia a<|f
the most prosperous, but also one of the most
unbeautiful lands imaginable. Nobody, either
rich or poor, has time to idle; and nobody
seems to realize that 1t Is only in idleness and
leisure, or at least in cessation from the pursuit
of wealth, that anything beautiful will be
evolved out of either brain or hand.
PURGAroRY AND PARADISE.
There is another point to be considered.
Matthew Arnold said that America was the
paradise of the working man. England is GER
tainly the paradise of the married woman, and
it would scarcely be an exaggeration to say
that America, by comparison. is her pur gatory.
The freedom and happiness enjoyed by the
American girl prepares her badly for the
drudgery of married life. And this is not be-
cause our men are cruel or bad husbands;
far from it, but simply because the conditions
of married life in America are averse to hap
piness. That American marriages are very
often unhappy is notoriously the case, as is
shown by the list of divorces that fills the
papers. One of the main causes of this is
the defective domestic arrangements, which
throw an overwhelming burden upon the
shoulders Of the American wife. She has to
work SO hard, even though she may be delicate,
that she has no time to be happy. Her nerves
are soon worn out. her health gives way,
misery ensues, and relief is sought in the d.
vorce court. The trouble was not that she
married the wrong man, as she foolishly
imagines, but that she had no servants. En-
glish women don't realize the blessings they
enjoy in being able to obtain the services Of
capable servants. When, as is frequently the
ness OF their servants, wishing in their folly
that they had none, and saying they would be
better of without them, feel inclined to arise
like prophecies and say: Hold, Speak not
thus. When the time comes that you have no
domestic servants you will have seen the sun
set upon
YOUR LAST HAPPY DAT.
Let me give an example from typical Amer
lean family of the well-to-do middle class. 1t
is a type Of thousands which may be seen
anywhere in the eastern states There was the
father, a business man, who left home at q.
m. during six days in the week, to return
twelve and half hours later, too tired and
weary to dream OF recreation or amusement;
there was the mother, q delicate woman with
two children, one an infant; the grandmother.
q vigorous lady Of ffty-fve, and a cousin Of
twenty. The house was entirely self-support-
ing; there was not aservant In It. Every con-
trivance that brains could devise or money
provide was there to tighten the labor;
but the women were always overworked,
and never had leisure to read or paint
or enjoy life in any of the thousand ways that
are open TO English ladies. They were not
poor people, as the father, who has since be-
come very rich, was then making between
$4,000 and $4,000 year; but no money could
buy the services of good and faithful domes-
ties, and rather than resort to that last refuge
Of despair, the family boarding house." they
chose TO be their own servants. The visitors in
this family were expected to pull their own
weight" in the household. It was an amuse-
ment for a European visitor to do so. but one
could see that such a system deprived the
women Of all chance Of social happiness and
pleasure. In fact, when they wanted rest they
came
TO EUROPE FOR TWO YEARS.
Now. again, there is another reason why we
like England We are more thought Of here
when married than in our own country. In
America the girl, it is true, is paramount.
There she Is the center of social life; while over
here the girl is only a graceful and pleasing
inquire Of the background. But marriage dis
tnguishes the English woman; it extinguishes
the American. To be girl in America and
matron in England is to obtain the maximum