The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-02-23


When bluff John Maciay stepped down
the gangplank of the New York at her
American pier with his stepdaughter, the
Princess Colonna, on his arm and n of
her children holding his hand, while be
hind him John Mackay, Jr., stepped
down also, leading the princess other
two children, the riddle of her sudden
and mysterious flight from Paris was
solved. She had come home to the Unit
ed States with her children and put her.
self under the shield of it's 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 W land.
Even $l75, 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 5000, 900 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-
riously on the Mackay wealth, and sine
concealed the children. Then the adj
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 absolute, 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
her three children will follow the bent
of the good, honest, plain ancestors on
their mothers side. She is of the peo-
Pile, her blood untainted by the vices of
a dissolute, gambling nobility.
But we may be permitted to say that
it is past understanding how, with the
many terrible examples before them
that ''noblesse" does not "oblige," Amer
lean girls will continue to sell them
selves to low down European beggars
with a handle to their names. In the
course of a couple of centuries perhaps
our girls may discover that the clean
American gentleman who respects wom-
en- is the best husband in the world.