The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-03-02
Safe In the Land of the Free.

Safe In the Land of the Free.
: When bluff John Mackay stepped dow
the gangplank of the New York at hel
American pier with his stepdaughter, the
Princess Colonna, on his arm and one o.
her children holding his hand, while be
hind him John Mackay, Jr., stepped
down also, leading the princess othe,
two children, the riddle Of her sudden
and mysterious fight from Paris was
solved. She had come home to the Unit.
ed States with her children and put her
self under the shield of its laws, as well as
under the powerful protection of her
stepfather, knowing that henceforth she
would be safe from the cruelty and per-
secution Of her ''noble" Italian husband.
Well, her fellow countrymen welcome
her. They are glad she had the United
States and John w. Mackay to come to.
No wonder she was cheerful and almost
gay as she set foot in her own land.
Even $175, 900 ayear had not been enough
to pay for the title of mobility" that she
got with the person she married. She
paid his gambling debts for 10 years and
lived with him at Rome. But finally
$14, 500 a month was not sufficient to sat
isfy the noble tastes of the noble Colonna,
and he nagged and sulked till he got
more. Her mother at one time sent the
wife $4,000 0 in addition to her yearly
allowance. The prince became more and
more ugly and yelled louder and louder
for money. Then it was that he got a lit
tie surprise. He came home one fine
evening and found no money, no wife,
no children. only a note saying the prin-
cess had applied for a separation. The
American wife had at last shown him a
Yankee trick.
By the Italian laws and most of the
laws in European countries the wife's
fortune, her children and herself belong
absolutely to her husband. AS long as
she staid at Rome every cent her father
and mother gave her was the property
of her husband. At Paris she was not
much better off. The French courts de-
cided that Colonna should be permitted
to visit his children. She feared he would
kidnap them, so as to make her go back
to Italy, where he could still feed luxu-
on the Mackay wealth, and she
concealed the children. Then the ad-
mirable French judges said that since
she had disobeyed the court she had no
more rights as a woman and a mother,
and that she must give back the children
to their %dissolute, debauched father. He
was their proper guardian. Nice laws,
just judges, those of France!
When this decision was rendered, only
one thing was left for the little American
mother. Her brother helped her, and
she escaped from France, turning her
back forever, it is to be hoped, on her
experiences as the wife of a European
'nobleman." 1t is to be hoped also that
Ter three children will follow the bent
If the good, honest, plain ancestors on
heir mothers side. She is of the peo-
Die, her blood untainted by the vices of
dissolute, gambling nobility.
But we may be permitted to say that
t is past understanding how, with the
many terrible examples before them
hat 'noblesse" does not "oblige," Amer
girls will continue to sell them.
elves to low down European beggars
With a handle to their names In the
curse of a couple of centuries perhaps
'ur girls may discover that the clean
American gentleman who respects wom-
n is the best husband in the world.