The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-01-20
WIVES OF GERMANS.
AN AMERICAN GIRLS POSITION WHEN
SIZE MARRiss 4 BARON.

AN AMERICAN GIRLS POSITION WHEN
SIZE MARRiss 4 BARON.
How She has to Ecororaire 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
q test to my foreign experience oftener
than the familiar: Ought American
girls TO marry German men? Are such
unions happy? Do they turn ont we'll?
What class OF men is il that step out
side the beaten track of home matri-
mony 10 seek American wives and
transplant them into the life of the fa-
thorlandg'' writes Baroness Won Wedel
in Cosmopolitsn.
II 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 young or of very gentle temper
ed girls. Wives who possess lite senti-
ment or only soft sentiments yield read
ily TO their environment, the latter CIV
ing way unconsciously, and hence with
out pain, the former with foresight and
with a 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 sbould not be
called too harshly TO account, therefore,
if they are wretched in marrying into
il. We must conoede, if we are fair
minded, that they would have been just
as 6iscontented in any other geograph-
ical position as in the fatherlend.
The inquiry begins with cur 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 il Is republican prin-
ciples which are opposed IN them to the
aristocratic education of the men Of
their choice
1t is a false prejudice to suppose that
these or the titled gentlemen who take
American wives are mere fortune hunt
els and degonorated 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
1t 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 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 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 not not been
realized by our home staying country
men-I mean tie fact that foreigners
lay the blame on the American wife.
Why, tbo relatives ask, did she not bring
more money into The connection?
What trey mean, and what they feel
justified by the usages Of their class in
meaning, is that young nOblemen do
nothing unusual il being extravagant.
If the consort Of such a man brings
wealth enough for her TO be luxurious,
too, no objection to that is valid. But
the head Of the house is the men Der
who Is the representative Of his rank, to-
gether with the nunifcenoe that is suit
is circumscribed il becomes the duty of
the wife 70 retrench her outlays in order
10 allow Eim 10 continue representing
their station without too much danger
of bankrupting the family means. Ger
man wives economic 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.
/ have learned 20 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-
stant 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 unknOwiHciy drew them
into-exiles from the soil, and, above
all, the soil Of repnblieanism.
Both Law and custom giant 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 a widow, into that of her son.
Oar girls know theoretically before
marriage that they must be sabservient
to their husbands Us German wives and
that the obstacles to happiness lie in
the path Of wifely independence. The
gentle footpath Of submission is free
from hinGrance