The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1913-09-11
Countess Says Daughters of Ar
istocracy Can't Marry.
Complains Because Their Brothers
Wed Actresses and Rich American
Girls, While They Are Limit
ed to Professional Men,

A well-known, but unnamed count
ess. writing in a London publication,
un6urdens her mind as follows: Social
tendencies of today make it a handicap
for girl to be the daughter of peer
unless he is enormously rich.
What do we see? Most of our
young men of title, if they are not
choosing their wives from the variety
stage or from musical comedy, are
going to America for them.
But does one ever hear of an actor
marrying a girl of title? Does one
ever hear of an American gentleman
marrying an English girl of title?
l know of only one instance. She
is the daughter of an earl and had
the misfortune. to lose her American
husband few years after marriage.
Occasionally a self-made English
man shows a tendency to marry into
the aristocracy, but it frequently hap
pens in such cases that the wooer is
not acceptable to the young lady at
whom he sets his cap. He is generally
very much older, perhaps old enough
to be her father, and he has spent his
best years in making his pile
The English girl accepts the rivalry
of the American girl with the best
grace possible. The American GER
tainly brings money with her, and
money has always been a recognized
eapon in the fight for marriage, But
she is, to put it quite frankly, just a
little resentful of these stage mar
riages.
OF course we have always had peers
marrying actresses since actresses
first made their appearance on the
boards in the time of Charles ii. There
was the marriage of the twelfth Lord
Derby to Eliza Farren, from whom
Lord Wilton is descended.
Later on the first earl of Craven, to
mention but one other instance, mar
ried Louisa Brunton, the great-grand-
mother of the present Lord Craven.
But in all these instances the ac-
tress was famous in her profession
cutie apart from her marriage to a
peer Nowadays, however, it is not
always absolutely necessary to be a
first-rate or even second-rate actress
to catch an old title.
No wonder our girls, my own among
them, are thinking that the surest
way to matrimony is to go on the
stage. What commotion there would
be if one morning it were announced
that Lady Rose - the daughter of
tie earl CT - were engaged to Mr..
Brown, the third-rate actor? Yet why,
for if her brother puts coronet on
the head of Miss Prown, the third-rate
actress, nobody is shocked?
1t will come to this, that our girls,
many of them, will have to make up
their minds to accept middle-class pro-
fessional men. Already a fair number
Of them are married to doctors, solic-
itors, architects and parsons. At one
time it would have been looked upon
as a dreadful mesalliance for the
daughter of an earl to wed a solicitor
or a doctor.
Officers of the army and navy, bar
listers and clergymen were regarded
as of higher social rank, but even
with the clergy, at least those of the
lower grade, there was a time when
they were held to be suitably matched
if they paired off with the lady's
maids.
Because our young men of title will
Lave their own way and marry out Of
their order, their sisters will be- COM
PEELED to look lower for their own hus-
bands. - a+
Many of my peerless friends have
found no difficulty in marrying their
daughters in their own station of life,
but | know other cases where whole
families of five, six or seven girls are
ION the shelf" Some turn to nursing,
some take up philanthropic work, some
are ardent suffragists. But if they
we're quite frank about it they would
confess that they would sooner be
wives.