The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-06-15
OUR GoLDEN GIRLS.

catalogue of American girls who, i'll the
present generation, have married men of
title in Europe and have brought them for
tunes. The writer figures that the aggre-
gate portions Of these damsels footed up
forty-four millions of dollars, He was in
the position of the novelist who finds 1t Just
as easy to give his hero an income of a
| hundred thousand as any lesser sum. In
| fact, from a cursory inspection of the list,
we should estimate that the alleged dowries
| might safely be cut in two without fear of
! differentiation. Fifty thousand year is
| great deal of money; very few American
papas have given their daughters as much
as that. There are plenty of titled bache-
lors in Europe who would be glad to take a
| bright, rosy-cheeked American girl for that
sum once paid down.
Judging from the papers, one would say
that an undercurrent of Indignation has
been reused by the frequency of marriages
between American girls and titled Europe
| ans. In what breasts is that indignation
| raging? If it is to be found in youthful
| female breasts, the inquiry at once suggests
itself, what have they to do with it? No
| girl is obliged to marry ''baronite." She
may do so, or not, as she pleases. If she
| gets mad because her school friends do so,
! it is said that she is enVi0us of their good
| luck. If, again, it is the young men who
are indignant at the transfer of so much
female beauty and wit to foreigners, why
do they not stop the business by marrying
the girls themselyes2 Most American
mothe rs will confess that they would rather
| give their daughters to countrymen than
! 10 foreigners, provided the former offered
reasonable guarantees for their happiness.
! There are, of course, a few girls who are
| built on the pattern of Moliere's " Pre-
cieuses Ridicules, and to whom the eclat of
title is irresistible. But they are modern
| reproductions of the foolish virgins in
| Scripture, and are very small minority of
| their species. Most American girls know
that marrying man of title in Europe is
| risky business. Such men are not allowed
| to marry out of their set unless they are
damaged articles. The son of an English
| peer is said to have committed mesalli-
| ance when he marries an American. There
are exceptions, but that is the rule. The
| noblemen who offer themselves to Ameri-
cans are generally either paupers, who
marry purely for money, and from whom it
would be idle TO expect love and devotion /;
| or men of hard character, whom no En-
| glish girl of position would have; or the
possessOrs Of titles which have long ceased
to have significance, and who cut a much
poorer figure in society than well-bred and
well-situated commoners. On the Cont
nent titles are thick as blackberries. In
France you find Marquises behind dry
goods counters, and in Germany Barons
are of no more account than Colonies in
Kentucky. Yet if an American girl crosses
the Atlantic with the fixed purpose of in
vesting her possessions or her expectations
in the purchase of title one must be con-
tent with one of these.
When the census enumerators get through
their work we shall know to fraction the
number of old maids and old bachelors
that wither on the stalk in this country.
There will probably be fewer of either class
than people expect. To hear ladies talk
one would suppose that matrimony was AN
obsolete Institution. But in fact, sooner or
later, almost every one does enter the con-
jugal state. Girls think their fate is sealed
because no man snaps them up as they trip
home from boarding school, primed with all
the modern accomplishments; and young
men declare that they will take no matri-
mony in theirs. single blessedness is SO
comfortable. But. by and by, the girl
learns that husbands are won-not by play
ing sonatas, dancing germans and wearing
beautiful clothes, but by showing that
under the clothes there is brave, constant
and unselfsh heart; and young men, as
one joy pals after another. realize that
there is but one happiness to which there is
no end, and that springs from the delights
which are youchsafed to the husband and
the father. So the sexes come together, and
two more names come off the unmarried
list in the census. In time every Jill gets
her Jack without crossing the Atlantic to
find him.