The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-15

during their first few seasons, or, failing
in that take the best that offers in the
way of a husband. In continental
Europe, however, the case is far diff
ferent. The daughters of the family as
well as the sons are considered. and the
marriage dowry is an established Gus
tom even among the lower. classS., it
being thought, very reasonably, IVfair
as is demanded of the American hus-
band. This idea that t@ husband
should furnish not only the Iosition but
the money to sustain it, is so firmly
fixed in this country, and we have so
far lost sight of the idea that a wife
should be a helpmeet that we are even
inclined to jeer at a union where the
responsibilities are equally divided or
side by reason of the wife's owning the
fortune. We like to say that every
American girl is princess, but how far
from royal is the treatment she fire.
Quently receives from those who owe her
the greatest consideration, her parents,
as in the not uncommon case of the
daughter of a wealthy family who mar
r1eS poor man, goes from a luxurious
home to humble if not mean one and
receives no share of her fathers money
until Eis death. Such a situation is I'M
heard of in Europe. but it is of usual
occurrence here, even when there is
the girls choice. Not that Amer
lean parents are not the most
generous and indulgent in the world.
The marriage dowry is simply not
custom among We call it 'un-Ameri
can and refuse to see how fair and Just
the practice is, and how, far from lower
ing a womans dignity, it increases it. A
proud, fair-rninded independent girl ought
to be ashamed to go 20 her husband with
nothing more than her trousseau, leaving
him to furnish everything for the estab-
1ishment of their menage as well as its
support. 1t would increase her respect #
she could feel that her parents had taken
some thought for her future, not merely
provided for her temporary needs while
she was seeking her fortune matrimonial
", and let her go penniless to rev
home. as If glad to be relieved OF the re-
sponsIhility Of ber further support.
Grant Allen was nearly right when he
said that economical liberty was the first
step in the ca use of woman-thar she
could never be free socially and politically
until she was economically Independent.
The women reforners who have so much
to say about a Wife's. right to a separate
pOcketbook and fair share of her hus-
bands earnings might, with better reason.
agitate the daughters right to Il marriage
portion in order that she might go to her
husband with the feeling of self-respect
that comes with the sense of having done
ones part
Talk about the mercenary attitude of
his bridet What could be more mercenary
thar the motives bred in the average
American girl by her position of DEEPEN
dence upon her men friends for all these
favors that go to make her, under sucn
a system, a social success? If her situa
ton and the condition in the society in
which she moves do not develop the most
soFdid designs in her it is because the
American girl is really, in spite OF adverse
circumstances. much more OF a princes IS
royal than her equivocal and unenviable
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