The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1896-12-09
WIVES OF GERMANS.
AN AMERICAN GIRLS POSITION WHEN
SHE MARRlES A BARON.

SHE MARRlES A BARON.
How She Has to Economic In the Use OF
Her Own .zoncy-An Authority on the
Subject Writes For the Benefit of Young
Women In This Country.
Few questions have been put to me as
test to my foreign experience oftener
thnn the familiar: Ought American
girls to marry German menu Are such
unions happy? Do they turn out welll
What class Of men Is it that step out.
side the beaten track Of home matri.
mony to seek American wives and
transplant them into the life Of the "a
therland?" writes Baroness Won Wedel
In Cosmopolitan.
In respect to the marriages Of Ameri.
can girls with German men. they may
be approved Of safely In the cases Of
practical, worldly minded women and
Of very yourg or Of very gentle temper
ed gizla Wives who possess little senti.
ment or only soft sentiments yield read.
lily to their environment, the latter Civ.
ing way uneonsoiously, and hence with
out pain, the former with foresight and
with = purpose selfish. enough, as we
may assume, to recompense them for
their renuncistions.
As for the class Of w'llful, silly, pre-.
tentious women, they are happy no.
where. German society should not be
called too harshly to account, therefore,
II they are wretched in marrying into
1t. We must concede, If we are fair
minded, that they would have been just
as discontented in any other geogaph.
ical position as in the fatherland.
The inquiry begins with our average
girls. They represent American wives
whose happiness is Influenced by the
specifically foreign traits in their hus.
bands and their husbands society and
surroundings. However they may vary
in character. they are alike in their
Americanism. and it is republican prin-
ciples which are opposed in them to the
! aristocratic education Of the men Of
| their choice.
1t Ia q false prejudice to suppose that
these or the titled gentlemen who take
American wives are mere fortune hunt
ers and degenerated specimens of nohii-
iry. They They are often men, it is true, who
could not marry women without dow
ries, for gentlemen on the continent, as
it must be kept continually in mind,
are excluded from the chances of max
ing money.
Where cases of dissipation of the
great fortunes Of American waves occur
and are duly reported, two or three
things are sometimes overlooked. The
fret is that, if the cases were not rare,
they would hardly be considered worth
offering to the public as shocking facts.
The second is that the fortune evidently
was limited. The next may surprise us,
for it is truth that has rot not been
realized BY our home staying country
men-I mean the fact that foreigners
lay the blame on the American wife,
Why, the relatives ask, did she not bring
more money into the connection?
What they mean. and what they feel
justified by the usages Of their class in
meaning, is that young noblemen do
nothing unusual in being extravagant.
II the consort Of such man brings
wealth enough for her to be luxurious,
too, no objection to that is valid. But
the head of the house is the member
who is the representative Of his rank, to-
gether withthe munifcence that is suit.
able to it, and where the mutual fortune
is circumscribed it becomes the duty of
the wife to retrench her outlays in order
to allow him to continue representing
their station without too much danger
Of bankrupting the family means. Ger.
man wives eoonomiae the more in pro.
portion as their husbands spend.
American born wives, on the contrary,
have drawn the reputation upon them
selves Of being incapable Of this sort Of
sacrifice.
I have learned to look for the real
tragedies among foreign marriages in
the silent cases. These women of char
acter and ambition, united in fervid
temperament, keeping their post like
soldiers, are admirable wives often of
admirable men, yet they endure the con-
slant realization of the chosen places Of
their thoughts being foreign to the ways
and thoughts Of their husband and the
world about them. There are modern
women Of strong and distinct lives
whose inner principles are supreme pro.
tests against the system Of living which
their marriages unknowingly drew them
into-exiles from the soil, and, above
all, the soil Of republioanism.
Both law and custom grant men au.
thority over women. The bride passes
from the parental control into the con.
troll Of her husband, and, If she live to
be widow, into that of her son.
Our girls know theoretically before
marriage that they must be subservient
to their husbands as German wives and
that the obstacles to happiness lie in
the path Of wifely independence. The
gentle footpath Of submission is free
from hindrance.
Philadelphia Chickens.
"The idea that Philadelphia chickens
are the best is not a mere fancy" said
a poultry man. They are really the
boof Thora 10 1o,,,a+h;,,, -, klo .o:1 -