Evening journal., 1896-11-30
WIVES OF GERMANS.
IN AMERICAN GIRLS POSITION WHEN
SHE MARRlES A BARON.

How She Has to Economize In the Use of
Her own Money-An Authority on the
Subject Writes For the Benefit of Young
Women In This Country.
Few questions have been put to me as
a test to my foreign experience oftener |
than the familiar: Ought American |
Girls TO marry German men? Are such |
unions happy? Do they turn out we'll? |
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 IA
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
practioal, worldly minded women and
of very young or of very gentle temper
ed girls. Wives who possess little senti-
ment or only soft sentiments yield read
| lily to their environment, the latter Civ
ing way unconsciously, and hence with
out pain, the former with foresight and
with purpose selfish enough, as we
may assume, to recompense them for
their renunciations
As for the class Of willful, silly, pre-
tentious women, they are happy no
where. German society should not be
called too harshly TO account, therefore,
if they are wretched in marrying into
it. We must concode, il we are fair
minded, that they would have been just
as discontented in any other geograph-
ical position as in the fatherland.
The inquiry begins with our average
girls. They represent American wives
( whose happiness is influenced by the
S 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 is false prejudice to suppose that
these or the titled gentlemen who take
American wives are mere fortune hunt
ers and degenerated specimens of nohil-
ity. 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
e ing money.
s Where cases Of dissipation of the
great fortunes of American wives occur
and are duly reported, two or three
, things are sometimes overlooked The
first is that, if the cases were not rare
they would hardly be considered wortE
g Offering to the public as shocking facts
d The second is that the fortune evidently
n was limited. The next may surprise us
g for it is a truth that has not not beer
u realized by our home staying country
2 men-I mean the fact that foreigner
lay the blame on the American wife
!. Why, the relatives ask, did she not brinl
more money into the connection?
C What they mean, and what they fee
ls justified by the usages of their class il
70 meaning is that young noblemen d
% nothing unusual in being extravagant
l. If the consort of such a man bring
y wealth enough for her to be luxuriou:
n too, no objection to that is valid. Bu
4 the head of the house is the membe
who is the representative of his rank, tC
gether with the munificence that is suit
able to it, and where the mutual fortun
l. is circumscribed it becomes the duty @
the wife to retrenoh her outlays in orde
TO allow him to continue representin
y their station without too much DANCE
" Of bankrupting the family means. Gel
IS man wives ecOnOmizc the more in PIC
al portion as their husbands spend.
ls American born wives, on the contrary
&c have drawn the reputation upon then
b selves Of being incapable Of this sort {
n. sacrifice.
1e / have learned to look for the re'
a. tragedies among foreign marriages
E. the silent cases. These women of cha
al acter and ambition, united in fervi
s. temperament, keeping their post liz
ne soldiers, are admirable wives often
~ admirable men, yet they endure the col
=, slant realization of the chosen places
~. their thoughts being foreign to the wa,
eh and thoughts of their husband and IL
iy world about them. There are modeI
at women Of strong and distinct live
whose inner principles are supreme pr
nc tests against the system of living whic
IN IN their marriages unknowingly drew thei
~ into-exiles from the soil, and, abo'
10, all, the soil of republicanism.
ID. Both law and custom grant men al
raj thority over women. The bride pass
Try from the parental control into the col
troll of her husband, and, if she live
ere be a widow, into that of her son.
ley Our girls know theoretically befo
s 'u marriage that they must be subserviel
-0U to their husbands as German wives al
that the obstacles TO happiness lie
the path Of wifely independence. III
ru- gentle footpath Of submission is fr
Dps from hindrance.
at
tic phrado,nbia Chickens.