The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-29
AMERICAN GIRLS ABROAD.
SOCIAL HARDsaIPs AND FOREIGN
TITLES.

Court Ball.
Berlin Letter in San Francisco Argonaus.
For some time 1 have noticed. by a
perusal Of American papers. that the sub
ject Of American girls marrying foreign
ers is one OF growing interest. Rightly
so. I think Not only from the point of
view that. In the aggregate, large sums
of money earned in America are lost 10
the country, although that seems to be
the chief consideration for many writer's,
but also because the annual loss Of a
number Of the most desirable and highly
cultured American women and their
amalgamation with foreign nationalities
cannot be matter of Indifference to the
nation at large. Pardon me, therefore.
If l venture to add my mite Of insorms-
ton and advice as TO this theme.
must preface, however, that my views
and statements cannot by any means be
taken as authoritative or conclusive.
There are, it seems, no reliable statis-
tics on the matter Cbut / am inclined TO
think that the number Of such marriages
is larger than is generally imagined in
America, for in the majority of cases
they escape attention over there, con-
corning persons not of sufficient promi-
hence TO figure in the accounts of the
daily pressJ, ana conditions and facts
d'her so much in individual cases that
IL Is hard to strike something like
general balance. Since / have, how
ever, en1oYed somewhat exceptional IA
Cllities in becoming acqua inted with cases
OF the aforementioned kind. 1 think /
may Ialriy claim that my opinion Will he
worth about as much as that of another
individual observer. Let me first gen
eIalize and group a few observations.
The American girl or young widow as a
mafflageaDle person has come to be APP
preciated in Europe as much, nay more,
on the continent than in England. There
are several reasons for this, one being that
the average American girl is handsOmer
IMAM the average European girl; another
being that sheer her papa or guardian
Is supposed TO have, and often does have,
more money than her European sister;
ana stil another, though not so potent
factor, being that the American girl is in
teilectually more gifted, brighter. a more
interesting creature than is her European
sister, on an average. The above three
Iacts have just. begun to be generally
known IN those European circles coming
here under consideration; hence it Is prob
able that the marrying and giving in mar
rage of the American girl TO well-connect-
ed young Europeans, will increase, ins tead
OF decreasing. hereafter
In most Instances American girls, when
marrying Europeans do so for two rea-
sons, one being that they wish 10 spend
AhFAI lives III ulEIiN cultured more OF less
aristocratic and exclusive society, and the
other being that they believe the life OF
this society in Europe to be a more enjoy
a BILE one than would be the case in Amer
1ca and with an American husband, other
things being equal. In this two-fold sup
position the American girl is often quite
wrong, rarely quite right. If she mar
ries, for instance, into a family belonging
10 the privileged classes, she is regarded
to the last in the light of an interlOper.
And this, no matter what she or her hus-
band, or even the whole family may do to
the contrary, caste spirit in Europe being
100 strong and too insurmountable to be
overcome even by a very smart" Ameri-
can girl. Again, where she escapes, by
her European marriage, a number of pc
culiarly American annoyances she ex-
changes them for as many, or more pc
culiarly European ones. The whole life
of the upper classes here is, just to men
ton one thing, so highly artificial and so
full Of the minutest care to be taken at
every step, that few American-born wo-
men, even after a long training grow ac-
customed to it or learn to accommodate
themselves thoroughly to II all There
are, of course, eXceptions-I personally
know of some-but the above is the rule
even If the girl, on marrying, be still
young and impressionable. Again Euro
peans of both sexes, but more especially
the women, do not like the independent
unoeremonious ways of the American wo-
man, and they never forgive her for exer-
cising more freedom of speech and man
ner and motion than they themselves are
by the custom of a thousand years. per-
mitted to enjoy.
A recent incident at one of the court
balls in Dresden comes to my mind to il
lustrate this. The young American girl in
question is the daughter of wealthy and
distinguished Baltimoreans, and she, be-
ing very pretty besides, and highly gifted
IN mind as WELL found no great difficulty
in obtaining an invitation to the festivity
that night court rules and etiquette be-
ing often somewhat relaxed on the con-
tinent notably at the smaller courts. for
the pleasure of receiving some charming
little Americaine). Her costume that
night was, of course, above reproach; Of
that she had taken good care, and at
first she was much admired; and she had
also an irreproachable chaperone with her.
but her manner-b-r-rl Without intending
to do So without being aware of 1t, she
transgressed that evening nearly every
paragraph in the code of behavior, until
she was, when supper time arrived, fairly
tabooed and ostracized. Her final faux
pas-She said, rather audibly, though in
English, that the truffied pheasant on her
plate was not as good as an American
canvas-back duck, and said this just when
a royal prince, nephew of the king, con-
Versed within her hearing-broke her neck
so to speak. At any rate, she was
stunned by all the rest of the evening,
and the king personally requested the
court marshal to be little more careful
in the matter of invitations for the future.
All this was simply due to the fact that
the girl was not USED TO SuCu a nlB0ly ar
tifcial atmosphere as obtains at courts,
and probably never could get used to 1t,
her very blood, her training, her mode Of
thought, being against it.
But imagine, for the moment, that a
full-grown American girl of wealth and
position, and corresponding bringing up,
was married to a European Of more or
less aristocratic family. 1t is true that
such girls often possess that fiexibility
and adaptabtlity of mind necessary to
conform to the new surroundings, to the
novel way of looking upon life and ones
feliow-beings. If she does not adapt her
self to these altered circumstances, she
ceases, and must cease, to be an Ameri-
can in all essential respects. She must,
above all, bow down to that grand Euro
pean fetish-caste spirit-and observe in
all minute details those rules of dividing
and sub-dividing classes and species of
mankind which her own forefathers in
1776 successfully levelled in the young re-
public. Nearly all American girls, how
ever, are unable TO so completely Euro
peanize themselves, and hence their life
is an unbroken series of compromises be-
tween their conscienceS, their minds; and
the demands of their new home.
1t may be well to state here, though
that While it Is true that when a Euro