The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-02-14
THE NEWS FROM LONDON
BY HENRY pEvKREAux.


London, February 1s.-4Truth prints a
letter from gentleman In New York,
defending the American girls who have
married into the peerage, The writer
says; In a paragraph which appeared In
your issue of November 20 In regard to
the American girls who have married
into the Peerage, you deplore the vul-
garising influence they have exerted up
on the higher circle of English society,
and In consequence upon English society
In general For the past few years this
has become a sort of parrot-cry among all
the social failures. the slipshop and flap
flop that hang on the fringe of good So
ciety, the would-be smart people, who
have to fight for recognition, the pseudo
fashionable lady novelists, who describe
with exceeding familiarity a class with
which they have no acquaince. ct i'd genus
omne. Do not lend yourself to this ex-
tremely unfair charge-a charge which
cannot be borne out by facts, and which
is almost the exact contrary or the truth.
In the first place, quite as many Of my
compatriots have married abroad who
those who have been thiclly silded. Per-
haps more. And the Englishmen who
have married the former have therefore
been actuated by some other motive than
the mere desire to annex dollars. Again,
there have been great heresses here who
have refused British peers and married at
home. If others have married into great
English families 1 have yet to learn that
in these cases the aggressiveness In the
o1i linn IN IF fba q
on the heiress-s part. would also point
out that, unless your theory be that
British peer per Sc is an utterly repulsive
person, and only to be endured In order
to sure a title, charity suggests that at
least some of these girls had a feeling
of affection for the wooer as well as for
the coronet. That English society
has grown alarmingly vulgar, unscrupu-
lously luxurious, brilliant, and unprinci-
pied. /, for one, who have been seeing
great deal of II for the past twenty years,
most heartily agree. But can this be
laid entirely. or even In part, to the ex-
ample given by American-born peeresses?
l think not. There is not one of them in
the set that is vulgarizing and demoraliz-
ing London. They are devoted to their
new responsibilities. Please don't con-
found them with the South Africans, the
Australians, the Levantnes, and two or
peeresses) who have Joined the band of
English men and women who rule the So
cial roost in the London of today.
Who are the "Hooligans" in the smart
set? Who are the women who sell them
selves for the price of string of pearls
and a receipted miliners bill? Who are
those who will back any entertainment
however, rowdy, or sponsor any foreign
man or woman, however shady, for an
30 Of hi
pence? Are these the American-born
peeresses? Finally. ask the British peers
who have married American girls wheth-
er they repent of their choice, and are
ashamed of the mothers they have given
their children, the women they have
brought into their families. These peers
or some of them at least-must be men
of sense, feeling, and sound British up
bringing. They must know, from tradi-
ton, at least, what society among their
order formerly was. Before ballyragging
their wives so dscourteously and so
groundlessly, let the writer's on this sub
ject get few facts from them.
The truth, in q nutshell. is that the ma
jority of English people object to the
heads of great local families seeking wives
outside the United Kingdom. This is a
natural sentiment, and one which L can
both understand and approve of. But
ance frankly and fully. Do not resort to
such unworthy subterfuges as attacks
upon the personal characteristics of AM
ericap girls, or the present American peer
esses; and, above all, don't make the lat
ter scapegoats for the disreputable among
their British sisters
To this tart communication Labouchere
makes amiable reply as follows: 81 might
r y II. IL
not think any American need be appre-
hensive of attacks upon the personal
characteristics of American girls on this
side of the water. The prevailing ten
dency seems rather to be to eugolise this
young lady with ferrous calculated to
Great jealousy among her British sis
tiers. At any rate, my own feeling is that
the American girl deserves all she gets.
I have seen a good deal of her, not only
in England but on the Continent. She
VARIES like the offspring of all rationale
ties; and 1t may be said of her, as of the
little girl the nursery rhyme, that when
she is bad she is horrid." But, at her
best, she seems to me to eclipse the dam
sells of all other nations. l don't quite
know how she does 1t, and not being a
poet / could not describe the process If
i did. 1t is not that she is exceptionally
beautiful But she has such an irresistible
way with ner; sne is Sucn an auept IN
the art of looking nice; she is so witty
and good-humored and she enjoys life SO !
thoroughly. In short, had to decide. like
Paris, between the rival charms of a bevy
of modern beauties, ! think an American
girl would probably take the apple Con-
sequently rather envy the British peers
whether or not personally repulsive-
who are able to only find American brides
but handsome wodries thrown In
The death OF Lord Braybrooke is deep
ly regretted at Cambridge, where he had
been Master of Magdalene College for over