The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-30
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsl1IN, Director.
Washington, d. G.
MARRIED HEROES.

MARRIED HEROES.
New York, Dec. 27-The high cost
of living. which makes matrimony
such a hazardous adventure here these
days. has failed to discourage our SOL
diers in Europe from rushing reck-
lessly to the altar. 1t may be that the
war. in developing their vaIor, has
| left them less discreet, or it may have
made the European women more de-
termined. At any rate, judging by the
way war brides continue to arrive in
New York, the whole American army
Of occupation Will be married by the
| time it gets home.
Not only are they getting married
but they are marrying German girls
The last few cargoes of war brides
have been almost solidly German, so
that. despite passport restrictions. the
Teutonic strain in America is receiv-
ing rapid reinforcement.
! In the opinion of Mrs. Harriet NJ
Macdonald. director of the Y. w c.
A. hostess house, which is taking care
| of the war brides during their stay in
New York, matrimony among our SOL
diers is merely a matter of pTopin-
guilty. They marry the nationality
which is nearest to them. In the be-
/ ginning of the war bride offensive, for
! example, when our men were scattered
I all over Europe. brides of twenty
| different nationalities were welcomed
at hostess house.
! Besides the many French, British
/ and Italian girls. there were Czecho-
Slovaks. Serbians Jugo-Slavs, Ru
maniansA Portuguese, Spanish, Swed-
| ish, Norwegian, Finnish and Belgian
girls, as well many Russians of a
superior peasant type. Even at this
| early date, when the armistice had
scarcely been signed, German war
brides began to arrive as result of
| the American occupation of Luxem-
| burg and Alsace-Lorraine.
! At this TIME there was a law for
! bidding American soldiers to marry
| German girls. One so doing was liable
to court martial, unless he obtained
the written consent OF his command
! ing officer. Presumably this law is
still in effect, but if so, the life OF a
commanding officer in the American
army of occupation must be one long
consent.
At first, the Y. W. c. A. hostesses
anticipated certain amount of fric-
ton between the war brides of enemy
nations, but much to their relief they
| have been agreeably disappointed.
French girls and German girls, having
endured the vicissitudes of a lonely
| tedious voyage together, arrive arm
| in arm. the best of friends, while
Jugo-Slavs fraternize sympathetically
with Italians.
Only once, . French girl asked the
room clerk at Hostess House please
not to put her in a room with
boche. Remembering this request,
| the clerk was about to separate a
pretty little Girman girl from her two
French companions. few hours later,
/ when the French damsels insisted that
she be permitted to remain with them.
f'She is all alone" one Of them ex-
planned, land so what you call
dumb. She know nothing of, the
world, and her husband not arrive for
| five days yeti
! Most of the girls are of the Euro
pean peasant type, which formerly
constituted the bulk of our feminine
| immigration. Those who do not come
from the fields. are factory workers.
salesWomen, miIliners, domestics, and
| office workers, Often, If their hus-
bands pay is held up, the brides seek
! jobs here in New York until the fam
! lily excheQuer is once more sta bil1zed,
and the couple has enough money to
( reach the mans home town.
| Much more frequently, however,
/ the brides first act as an American
citizen on Ar erican soil is to reduce
rather than add to her husbands in
come. On the morning after her ar
rival she appears with her hair fresh
! ly curled, an eager look in her eyes,
| and a request for an interpreter. She
| wants, she tells the lady at the desk,
| to ask an important question. The
| interpreter summoned may be a
| French or Italian or Russian Hnguist.
or a Rumanian or Jugo-Slav, but the
| question is always the same. Where,
| the war bride desires to know, do you
| buy silk stockings.
/ American baggage is also in great
demand by the war brides. Their own
baggage, brought from Europe, is most
! curious and inadequate, consisting of
| odd boxes and baskets and even
shawls These may be all right for
! h J-f h
something more modern and less~con-
| spicuous to carry her belongings to
her husbands home.
| Most of the brides stop for only a
! few days, or, at most, a couple of
weeks, at the hostess house, on their
way to the west, the middle west. and
the south; very few of them remain
| ing in New York or the vicinity. Their
/ husbands are chiefly factory workers,
small tradesmen, and petty clerks of
| the same type as their brides, and
since jobs are still uncertainties of the
| future, the men have no resources
| but to take the rirls to the homes of
their parents-in-law. The desire Of
| the bride to make pleasing impress
sion on her husbands parents is
| therefore, very great The desire of
the husband is no less so. A Y. w.
c. A. hostess is often confronted by a
desperate doughboy, who impleres her
to use her influence to make Marie or
Yvonne look more American"
This usually means the leIigthening
of Yvonne's skirts. and the discard
ing of a long black veil. which trails
to the end of them. And Yvonne does
not always approve of this part of
| the Americanization proS ess.
your fashions here declared one
| resentfur Yvonne the other day, 'they
ten years too late Your shoes, they
make the feet of the women appear so
Observation-Disclosures
SThe George NJ