The morning call., 1893-04-17
A BRILLIANT MARRIAGE.

On tomorrow. at high noon, one of the
best known young noblemen in England,
the Earl of Craven. will lead to the altar one
of the bellies of New York, Miss Bradley
Martin. The marriage differs from most of
the recent Anglo American alliances In that
the gentleman is not marrying for money,
nor has he chosen his bride for her beauty
Lord Craven has an income of over hundred
thousand dollars. three country places, and
town house; his mothers diamonds,
which she has presented to the new
Countess, are among the finest in Europe.
Miss Bradley Martin is plain little girl,
only is. and not yet out. The only thing
which the newspapers have been able to
say in her praise, is that she has chic It
seems 10 be love-match on both sides;
brought about in part, by Mrs. Bradley
Martin. who is the most supernaturally
smart woman that New York ever produced.
She was unknown ten years ago, when her
father, old Sherman. the cooper, left her his
millions. She raised herself. by the sheer
force Of her intellect, to the level of the As
tors In the Four Hundred, and when she
crossed the water she stepped to the front
OF the best London society, as if she had
been to the manner born. She has capped
the climax of her exploits by capturing for
her daughter the best parti in England.
AS rule American girls are more likely
to promote their future happiness by mar
rying American men than going abroad in
search of husbands. 1t is to be feared that
poor Mrs. SartOrls is type of a large class.
This has perhaps arisen from the fact that
in Anglo-American alliances the lady has
sought a title and the man a fortune,
whereas in marriages in this country the
station of the couple remains unchanged by
marriage, and though the lady may suspect
that her money was in her husbands mind
when he wooed her, it is not absolutely i'm
possible that he might have been swayed
by love as well. A girl may be rich and yet
lovable. But however much the English
man or the Frenchman may love his Ameri-
can wife, she never becomes as close to him,
or he to her, as either would be to a spouse
of their own nationality. The Englishman
remains an Englishman always. His
American wife does take on Some English
color, but she never becomes thoroughly
English. bone. sinew and fiber, and be-
tween the two there is always little
strangeness which good breeding partially
but never altogether oyercomes. There is
always a feeling that circumstances might
arise which would place the wife ON one
side of a momentous question and the hus-
band on the other.
American girls who make the tour of
Europe with a lurking feeling in their
minds that they might remain where titles
toat in the air must also remember that
Europeans never quite accept Americans as
their equals. When they are well bred they
do not show the sense Of superiority in an
offensive manner, bus it can be de-
tected by close observer. An English
mother regards her sons marriage to an
American girl as n mesalliance, to be
atoned by money, beauty or wit; and
though, II she be 4 lady, she will not openly
exhibit her disappointment to her daughter
in-!aw, she Will betray it in a thousand
trifing ways. It is not so very long since
people in coed station in England were sur
prsed that American girls had discarded
the blanket as an article of attire, and that
American men did not all put their feet on
the dinner-table and pick their teeth wit
fork. The better class of English people
have ontgr0wn these delusions, but they
have left little taint behind them, as the
current English novels of the day demon
strate. When Miss Smith of Chicago or
Miss Jones of New York or Miss Brown of
San Francisco is introduced to London So
ciety, the onus of proving that she is
mind the presumption is against her; the
British female is armed against demon
stratiOn which she may make with the Gus
pidOr.
As matter of fact. unbiased censors have
lately been inclined to give the prize OF
breeding to the cultured American girl over
her British sister. The latter rarely over
comes the beefness Of which Hawthorne
complained, her tact is less nice, her deli
cacy less refined. But we cannot expect the
English TO take this view. When the Coun-
tess of Craven appears in London society
she will be received with the Difference due
to her rank. aud with the attention which
| her fine titled and fashionable aunts can
command. But there will be many who
will be surprised that she dresses like other
rich women, and that she makes no attempt
TO swallow the contents of the fnger-bowl.
In her station she can afford to laugh at for
eign ignorance. But if she had been a
plain little American girl marrying a plain
Englishman in her own walk Of life such
misrepresentation might have given her
many an unpleasant quarter of an hour.