The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-14
AMERICAN WOMAN SECRET BL ACkLIST
POSSESSES MUCH ITO GUIDE u. S. IN
power IN EUR0PE|ExP0RT EMBARGO
Several Weld Great Power
AS Wives of Leading
Statesmen Abroad.

Prince Bismarck. confident of the
superiority of all that was Prussian,
once declared that a foreign wife
could not possibly be of assistance to
a German. diplematist. William II.
expressed the same conviction. The
late Henri Rochefort, Paris publicist,
complained few years ago that too
many foreign wives had been at the
head of the French government
But foreign wives have continued
to exert an influence ON the public
affairs, not only of Germany and
France, but of many other nations
wives of ENJOYS and of men yet high
err in governmental service. A large
number of European dignitaries have
married American girls
To appear as Nine. la Premiere of
France is no novelty to Nine. Alex
andre Ribot formerly Mary Buch Of
Chicago, for her husband, recently
appointed to that post, had been
Prime Minister also from December,
1892, to March 1898, and again from
June to October, 1895. M. Ribot was
mentioned as a Presidential POSSIBLE
ity in 1919, the year Raymond Po1n-
care was elected.
When Henri Rochefort made his
sighting remark about foreign wives
M. Poincare, whose wife was italian
born, was Premier. But Rochefort
did not refer to then existing condi-
tions only. He instanced Marie An
toinette, the Austrian consort Of Louis
XVI, who, he said, ruined the mon
archy, and Eugene Montijo, the
Spaniard who helped her husband
Napoleon III, to ruin France.
Beside the Premiership, M. Ribot
has held other ministerial posts in
| the course of his long career, and
never has there been the slightest
criticism Of the former Chicago girl
who has been at his side for many
years. Nor has any woman in diplo-
matte circles more friends than Nine
Jules J. Jusserand. wife of the French
Ambassador to the United States. She
was Elsie Richards, and. though borr
in Paris, was the daughter Of an
American banker long resident ir
France.
| The first wife of Lord Curzon OF
Kedleston, lord president Of the Privy
Council of Great Britain and member
of the War Council of five, was Mary
Letter, daughter of the late Levi q
Letter of Chicago and Washington
To Lady Curzon's beauty and charm
was given a large share Of the credit
| for the winning of friends to her nus
band, thus assuring his political sue
cess.
/ 1t has even been said that she sac
Irificed her life to her husband. TIT
Indian climate ruined her health, bu
/ she refused to leave Lord Curzon Il
bear alone the dangers of the no
season in the country over whose des
/ TIMES he presided. He wanted to re
tire at the end of his first term, bu
j the Brttisf1 government insisted that ht
return to India for two years more
LADY eurzon urged him to- respond tt
the call of duty and again accompan
lied him, in defiance of her physician
1 orders. She died shortly after the!
came back to England, Is month
later.
i The marriage Of Miss Ethel Field
Il daughter of the late Marshall Field
took this Chicago girl not into tn
lrealm of diplomacy but to position
which the war has made no less con
spicuous. AS the wife of Vice Ad
4 r,,iraI David Beatty, winner OF tn
memorable naval battle off Hel1go
land in January, 1915, she has bee
called upon to acquiesce In one
4 the greatest sacrifices a woman ca
| make, the Sacr1I1ce, II neeu oe, VI ne
husbands life in public service. Sn
saw Sir David become a Rear Admir-
a; at SO and a Vice Admiral at a.
| Lady Beatty also is making person
al contributions to the cause Of tn
1 Allies. At the start of the war sh
converted her yacht into a hospits
tender, en- which, under her charge
and with excellent surgical and nurs
ling equipment, wounded men may b
conveyed speedily from hospital t
hospital.