Los Angeles herald., 1891-11-12
UNCLESAM'SDAUGHTERS
YOU WILL DO WELL TO READ
AND HEED THIS WARNING.

fCopyright 1891. by American Press Associa-
toni
The decision of Lady Randolph
Churchill to refrain from taking any
notice of the scurrilous reports that
have appeared in various English and
American newspapers regarding her al
legged differences with her somewhat err
ratio but brilliant husband, is just what
my acquaintance with her sound, good
sense and her thorough knowledge of
English life would have led me to antici-
pate. She is aware that, notwithstand
ing her transatlantic birth, her social
position and prestige in the Old World
is established on far too sound basis to
be affected by such scandalous gossip.
Whatever else may be said of Lord
Randolph he is certainly no fool, and he
is quite shrewd enough to appreciate the
enormous assistance which he has de-
rived from his clever and popular help
mate. Any one who witnessed the affec-
tionate character of the parting between
husband and wife at the Great Western
railroad terminus ON the morning when
Lord Randolph left London for south
Africa could see at one glance the falsity
OF the rumors to the effect that the
couple had found marriage failure.
/ lam all the more glad to be able to
place this on record, since as a general
rule the marriages of American girls to
titled foreigners have resulted in disap-
pointment and misery, more or less
bravely and silently borne by the wives.
During the course of my diplomatic ca
reer have had abundant opportunities
of observing both in Great Britain and
on the Continent the condition of the
American wives of Englishmen and for
eigners, and what / have seen leads me
to express myself in the strongest man
ner against these so called international
alliances.
There are many reasons why it is al
most inevitable that they should result
in unhappiness to the bride. In the first
place American girls are objects of dis
like and aversion to English and Cont
mental women. There is no use mincing
words about the matter. These I'M
friendly sentiments ON the part of the
fair sex of the Old World to their trans
atlantic sisters-which always exist.
natural under the circumstances. and re
feet no discredit upon the American
girl. No woman, be her character ever
so perfect, is entirely exempt from jeal-
ousy, and it is jealousy which is at the
root of the whole trouble.
Aside from the question of mere physi-
cal beauty, the American girl possesses
as part of her birthright breadth of
view, freedom of intellectual trammel
and an unrestrained originality of mind,
which invariably attract the European
men and generally monopolize their at
tention. The European. and particular
ly the English, woman has been brought
up on lines that are far narrower, and
with much more regard for the strict
observance of those social conventionali-
ties which, although possessed of certain
advantages, necessarily impair the de-
velopment of the feminine mind in the
Old World. 1t therefore stands to rea-
son that the men of Europe find much
more amusement in the society of an
American girl than in that of her Euro
pean sister, who cannot be expected to
regard this preference accorded to the
former with much equanimity.
Conventionality is the ''summa lex
of the feminine world in Europe, and
even those great ladies who presume
upon the loftiness of their birth to dis
regard its provisions SO far as their own
conduct is concerned, demand it's strict
observance on the part of all those who
do not possess similar advantages of an
,a,t,, I'll -.
stances it is not surprising that the
American girl who weds foreigner and
takes up her residence abroad should
find all of her feminine surroundings
uncongenial in the extreme.
Even with the best intentions on the
part of her husbands female relatives,
the latter cannot entirely overcome their
deep rooted prejudice to everything that
comes from across the ocean, no matter
whether it be from the United States,
from Canada or from Australia, for the
prejudices of womankind in Europe are
by no means confined to Uncle Sans
daughters, but are quite as strong, and
perhaps even more so, against the equal
ly fresh and untrammeled minded Aus
tralian and Canadian bellies. This will,
/ think, suffice to show that the senti-
ment is not so much on the score u race
or nationality as on that of manners and
conventionality.
AS rule the European husband,
after the first few months of welded
life with his American bride, begins
to become again influenced by the senti-
ments which ne finds more or less
covertly expressed among all his sis
tiers, his cousins, his aunts, and in fact
among all the feminine world in which
he has been brought up from his earliest
childhood and in which he has moved
until his marriage. By degrees the
novelty of his wifes freshness and orig
,nality of mind wears off; and especially,
if he be man of average intellect him
self, he begins to wish that his wife were
less clever, less brilliant and more like
the women to whom he has been accus-
toned. The latter show that they look
upon man as a superior being, whereas
the American girl makes no pretense OF
concealing the fact that she regards him
generally as an inferior, or at the very
best as an equal.
Then, too, he finds himself wishing
for a wife who would not antagonize
him with the women of his own nation
atty. especially when, az is often the
.osa sona of them have it in their