The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-02-22
War Brides.

The pretty British brides brought home
by a group of American soldiers from
Oklahoma and Colorado will be vel
coined in those states. Whether the same
number of blooming brides brought to
Massachusetts by solider.lords from this
state would receive as hearty a welcome
here, it is hard to say. Personally they
would beyond doubt be well received,
Whether they would be as welcome to
the Surplus female population of the
! Bay state would remain to be seem At
the latest enumeration, there were in
| Massachusetts, 100 females to every 96.7
females. Naturally the returning soldiers
of this commonwealth would be expected
to find their brides among our large fem
! mime population. But in Colorado, for
every 100 persons of the female sex there
are 1850 males, and in Oklahoma there
Iare 1917 males to every 100 females.
There the case is quite different. Not all
the war brides brought from England,
! Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France and 9th,
er countries cain redress that balance all
at once. Indeed, in the majority OF the
states of the union war brides from
abroad must be welcome, for there are III
the union but FIVE states@M Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, Maryland, North Carolina,
and South Carolina-where the female
population exceeds the male, In certain
! of the mountain and Pacific states, the
disparity the other way is very great.
In Nevada there are l79 men to every
| 100 women; in Wyoming l6S, in Mon
tana 1873, in Washington 1886 in Oregon
! 1873, and in California 1875 A legislative
proposition TO bestow a liberal bounty on
every soldier who brings home a British,
French, or a Belgian bride should be
popular there.
In every war there is certain eX-
change of population in this sort. 1t lie
! the modern equivalent of the ancient cap
ture of women. 1t was for wives that
| the Romans made war on the Sabines,
/ and the fOrcible transfer of these invol.
untary brides from their mountain homes
| to Rome made of the Romans and Sa
bnes one people. In this way wars have
assimilated many races. But our return
| ing American soldiers are not bringing
| brides from the enemy's country, In
stead, they are perpetuating the bond be-
tween America and her European allies;
! or, rather, since Mr. Wilson will not let
us call it an alliance, but insists on the
word Association" the soldiers who are
! bringing home their brides are making
! the association permanent,
Photographs of the war brides brought
from Britain reproduced in the papers,
show these pleasant young women with
! faces wreathed in smiles. Why not
Smiles are proper to brides, and these
women should be particularly happy to
see looming before them the shores of
this country, the paradise of women,
where every man stands in the knightly
relation to every woman. They are hap
Ipy to be Americans. Yet one must be-
speak for these radiant girls the loss of
certain illusions as time goes by--not by
reason of the unkindness of men, we may
! be sure, but because after all this is
| land of serious endeavor and of good
| hard work The brides from Britain will
not find dollars growing on the bushes,
nor milk and honey running in the
streams. In the last analysis, America
| is the Home of Hard Work. The poor
mans wife has many burdens and few
| holidays Never in Oklahoma or in Colo
trade will the bride from England, Wales
| or Ireland hear the clang of the wooden
shoon, or the CHEEKY notes of the pipers,
in the village dance at evening. She will
be much more likely to find herself lone