Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-23

as they used to be, and II this Ii the case
the wonder is surely not great It seems
pretty raw Tor young man with but q
single stripe to his sleeve to marry today
and to be ordered tomorrow to ship 10, 00C
miles away on a three-year cruise. And
yet this is something that has often hap
pened. 1t Is observed, however, that the
young naval officers who marry nowadays
engage In matrimony, most of them, i'm
mediately upon being detached from ships
on foreign stations and returning to the
United States for their period of shore
duty. They marry the girls they have been
waiting for and settle down to enjoy their
first shore cruise in double harness. But
then, again, there are many young officers
OF the navy who just about finish counting
the girls they want by the time they are
due to be ordered off to the other end of
the world on a long cruise. These young
fellows marry their girls and go and wait
two or three years, as the case may be,
for their honeymoon. Four or five years
ago well-known lieutenant married a
young society woman of San Francisco,
while his ship was, to all intents and pur-
poses, being held in the harbor for the con-
cluson of the ceremony. Within an hour
after the marriage the young wife stood
on the veranda of the Cliff House and
watched the ship upon which her husband
was serving steam past the heads of the
Golden Gate. bound for Yokohama. She
could not go to her husband on account of
an invalid mother in San Francisco, and it
was two years and nine months before the
couple were reunited by the husbands re-
turn from the China station.
Getting Acquainted Again.
9TH have to make my devoirs to my wife
all over again. is the way many Of the
young officers put it who get married I'M
der circumstances similar to this upon
being finally detached from their ships. 1t
has quite often happened that children
have been born to young officers with
in a very few days after their departure
for foreign stations. and there was pretty
incident due to a case of this kind at one
of the railroad stations here not long ago.
An ensign who was ordered, a bit more
than three years ago, to the Mediterranean
station. and then transferred to the Asiatic
station, a month after he had married one
of the pretty girls Of Baltimore, was met
at the station when he returned here by his
wife, prettier than ever, and little chap
by his movements very heavy-weather
and deep-water man. indeed-togged out in
biuejacket rig, with cap ribbon bearing
the name of his fathers last ship. The lit
tie shaver manifested decidedly belliger-
ent attitude when his father, whom he
had of course, never before seen, embraced
officer, now junior lieutenant. able
to couclude terms of peace with the young
one before long.
Living Within Their Incomes.
From the pecuniary point Of view the
young naval officers who marry have to do
considerable scraping in order to make
ends meet. The impression prevails that
young naval officers as a rule, exhibit a
high degree of craftiness in picking out
girls with money of their own, but this
IS decidedly not the case. If they marry
within the service, as perhaps seven in ten
of them do, they know that they are in
for living on their pay, which is not par
ticularly liberal for the daughters of the
older officers very rarely indeed bring dow
RI IN Yhait ht,cl IA, Il 80,
marriages of young naval officers during
the past five years shows that not one In
twenty of them has taken to wife a girl
with money in her own right. During this
period quite a number of young army Off
GERS have married wealthy girls. One of
the young artillery officers married, five
or six years ago, the only daughter of an
immensely wealthy iron manufacturer. and
this girl brought S4,0O0,00O to her husband,
it was said at the time. She stipulated
that her young husband should remain in
the military service, and not as an attache
of an embassy, either. He is still soldier
ing with his battery, but the pair live in
style that no other commander of the
whole United States army, perhaps, is able
to afford.
Keeping Down Expenses.
The young naval officer who gets mar
Tied on his pay is bound to create skinny
time for himself. His personal expense ac-
count must be kept down to the smallest
possible limit, and he is obliged to watch
his mess bills with careful eye to pre-
vent them from running up on him in the
mysterious manner Of mess bills Most OF
the naval officers send fully three-fourths
or their pay home to their families when
they are on sea duty, and it does not re-
quire any great amount of mathematical
genius to figure that the remaining one
quarter young naval officers
monthly pay is small enough in
amount to keep himself in fresh.
spick- and-span uniforms, quit even with
the mess ca terer from month to
month and rig himself out in suitable multi
at frequent intervals for shore visiting, to
say nothing Of entertaining friends on
board in return for shore entertainment.
When the time arrives for the married
naval officer to send his children to school
he simply has to lop off most Of the little
comforts of the mess room and of the
shore, or he will find himself in a very
pinching predicament
There are many United States naval Off
cers-and their number is constantly grow
families within reaching distance no mat
ter in what part of the world they may be
serving. This, of course, is not possible in
the case of large families, but the number
of young wives of naval officers who live
at the headquarters Of the foreign stations
Is considerable. The naval officers have dis
covered. that they can quite well afford
to have their wives near them to have
them remain in the United States during
their absence for several years on foreign
stations and there is a growing disposition
among them to take advantage of the dis
coVery.