Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1897-01-21
WIVES OF GERMANS.
AN AMERICAN GIRLS POSITION WHEN
SHE MARRIEs A BARON.

How She Has to Economic 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
test to my foreign experience o15ener
than the familiar: Ought American
girls to marry German men? Are such |
unions happy? Do they turn out welis
What class of men is it that step out
side the beaten track of home matrl-
mony to seek American wives and
TRANSPLANT them into the life Of the ia
therland?" writes Baroness YEA Wedel
in Cosmopolitan.
| In respect to the marriages OF Amerl-
can girls with German men, they ma
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 little sentl-
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 anu
with a purpose selfish enough, as we
NAV assume, to reoompense them Tor
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 concede, If we are 1alr
minded, that they would have been just
as discontented in any other geograph-
zeal 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 nus,
hands and their husbands society ano
) surroundings. However they may vary
in character, they are alike In thell
Americanism, and it is republican prln
ciples which are opposed in them to thu
aristocratic education of the men
their choice
It is a false prejudice to suppose tina
these or the titled gentlemen who TAX
iAmerican wives are mere fortune hunt
ers and degenerated specimens OF nonli
! itv. They are often men, it is true, wh
could not marry women without dow
ries, for gentlemen on the continent. 9
it must be kept continually IN mlno
l. are excluded from the chances OF mai
ing money. !,
# Where cases of dissipation OF tn
great fortunes of American wives occr
= and are duly reported, two or thre
CT things are sometimes overlooked. III
first is that, if the cases were not rar
they would hardly be considered wor1
offering to the public as shocking TACT
The second is that the fortune evident
= was limited The next may surprise u
for it is truth that has not not pe'
i realized by cur home staying countr
men-I mean the fact that forelgne
Law the blame on the American WI
WHY. the relatives ask, did she not bril-
~ more money into the connection!
What they mean, and what they Il
justified by the usages OF their class
I'LL meaning, is that young noblemen
nothing unusual in being extravagal
fv If the consort of such man brlI
~ wealth enough for her to be luxurlol
too, no objection to that IS valid. I
the head of the house is the mem'
who is the representative OF his rank
getber with the munifcence that IS ST
able to it, and where the mutual forSt
is circumscribed it becomes the duty
. the wife to retrench her OUTLAWS III or
u to allow him to continue represent
their station without too much dan
of bankrupting the family means. Y
- man wives economize the more IN
v portion as their husbands spend.
American born wives, On the contTa
have drawn the reputation upon TIT
selves Of being incapable OF this sor
@e sacrifice.
80 have learned to look for the
tragedies among foreign marriages
the silent cases. These women OF CT
IT, acter and ambition, united in tel
Va. temperament, keeping their post
soldiers, are admirable wives often
admirable men, yet they endure the
. slant realization Of the chosen place
~ their thoughts being foreign to the v
- and thoughts Of their husband ana
world about them. There are mot
women of strong and distinct
whose inner principles are supreme
tests against the system OF living W
their marriages unknowingly drew
isfac- into-exlles from the SOIL aho' :"
all, the soil of republicanism.
Arti- Both law ana cus'on, 80 CO. 49, -.
om shorl1 ~ over ar mo1r control into the
:, troll of her husband, and, If she IL
the be widow, into that of her son.
Our girls know theoretically b
marriage that they must be subser'
TO their husbands as German wives
that the obstacles to happiness Il
the path Of wifely independence.
gentle footpath Of submission IS
from hindrarce.