Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-06
MODERN MARRIED BELLIES.
TYPE OF WOMEN TO BE FOUND IN
ENGLISH SOCIETY.
Sweeping Assertions About Women
What an English Writer Says of
fashionable Women.

What an English Writer Says of
fashionable Women.
There is no more convincing evidence
of ignorance, prejudice and lack of judg-
ment than the habit of making sweeping
assertions; and yet how many persons in
dulge this habit! In fact, they cultivate
it; they think it shows knowledge, wit
and strength of mind. And they keep on
making sweeping assertions, but never
telling, or even remembering, how many
times they have been obliged to retract
their words in face of facts.
Women is the subject about which
large number of assertions are made, and
concerning which all the world general
ICES. Women are all fiippant, shallow,
heartless; they have no self-reliance. no
independence, no courage They care
only for dress and flirtations, so we are
told, and much more in the same strain.
| That this is true of some women no one
will deny, but all women are not alike;
| there are women and women, and as a
married woman has said that no two mar
riages are alike, and that each must be
judged by itself, SO the same may be said
of women.
However, we have the authority of a
| writer in an English magazine for certain
statements regarding the modern married
belle of fashionable London society. This
woman is but one of many types, we will
assume, that are to be met with in London
drawing-rooms; for there are pure, good
and lovely women in all ranks of society.
|. This modern belle has been instructed
| from her early youth that she must marry
| a titled man with money. and having done
| SO, she is what the world calls Settled
| So long as her husband lives and she keeps
| clear OF the divorce court, she knows the
| broad outlines of what she is to expect.
| As to minor details she fills them in at
her own pleasure.
Having made up her mind early in life
with the assistance of relatives and
| friends-that it would be too much 10
expect the fairy prince to possess good
looks, money. and the power TO captivate
her heart, she takes the money and title
| and marries a man whom he neither
..
looks like a golden prize in the matrimo-
NAL lottery, but it contains much base alloy.
SO little, oftentimes, has the husband any
qualities that make him attractive in his
wife's eyes, that she sees him as seldom as
possible.
For neither personal unloveliness nor
shady reputation does the fashionable
young woman of modern society care the
| traditional two straws. That bailiff's
daughter, with her little son, to whom the
husband was formally but morganatically
married, does not weigh against the man
In her eyes, when she is assured by the
lawyer that it will not inyalidate her
claim to the title, to the fortune, and to
the rightful name of wife. No mortal OBJ
stacle exists to this modern woman. She
knows before marriage circumstances in
her husbands life that should keep them
forever apart; and she overlooks, after
marriage, additional facts which would
give her divorce in any Court, however
severe. Indeed, she is rather glad that
there are such circumstances and facts in
her husbands life, for do they not loosen
the bond and giver her additional liberty?
And as she married the money and the
coronet, not the man, what on earth does
it matter about heAt, fidelity, and all
that?
And this modern young wife is great in
friendships. She is always surrounded by
a number of young men who are attractive
| ia appearance, and who have fascinating
| manners. She says that she is their men
tor, sister, confidante, and gives them az
vice on various matters She speaks of
them as her dear boys, but there is always
one who is dearer than the rest; and these
at the races, at shows of all kinds, and fire.
quently at dinners. The husband endures
all this, and shows no faintest signs of
anger, Jealousy or suspicion.
If people smile and frown at this init
timacy, the smiles and frowns count for
nothing. So long as husband protects
his wife's name by his own, no one has a
right to speak, and when he is blind, no
ones eyes must see. This is the I'M
written law of society, and it is vigorously
observed.
1t may be that the husband truly loves
the wife whom his money and title have
bought; or it may be that he purchased
her simply as beautiful ornament to his
house-the sign of his prosperity and tie
seal of his social success. In either case
he accepts the conditions of his life be-
cause he must. In the one he suffers, in
the other he reasons. But this marriage
has none of the truth nor dignity which
belong to marriage. and his home is as
miserable as his social circumstances are
brilliant. And he has done the thing
with his eyes wide open. He knew that
he was buying just so much beauty and
grace, and that love was left entirely out
of the question. Heartbreak or any dis
honor he accepts with the same apparent
eauanimity. 1t is not the fashion in mod
ern society to exhibit ones woes for the
inspection of ones friends. But those
who know more than the rest pity the
husband for what he suffers, though they
despise him for what he allows
And the home of such a couple is as
little home in the true sense as their mar
rage is union. Even if her health
compels her to be much in the house, she
has neither the art of making nor the
wish to make that house home. The
greater part of her time is passed in her
own room, absorbed in the mysteries of
the toilet, trying new fashions in her hair,
or experimenting with cosmetics, trying
her best to make art take the place of ma
ture.
Her housekeeper and cook control all
that relates to the housekeeping affairs; of
the state of things below stairs the young
wife knows nothing. She does not even
know the names of her kitchen-maids or
other under servants, when they come or
go, whether they are sick or well, happy
or unhappy, nor whether they are treated
by the upper servants like human beings
or like ours To hold the reins of gov
eminent of her establishment would i'm
ply sense of duty that would include
some personal trouble, and the modern
young wife has none of the former, and
will undertake as little as possible of the
latter.
And this type of woman is never alone.
A tete-a-tete with her husband would
seem to her supremacy ridiculous, and as
uninterssting as ridiculous To be by