The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-08
AMER ER|CAN WOMEN GROWING WARY IF. PENN|LESS TITLES
International Match Makers Not Doing Thriving Busi-
 ness In Europe

BERLIN, July T-(By Associated Press. ss.)-International matchmakers the men and women who used to do thpiving business marrying off titles and high social position to wealthy pleblans, have been hard hit by the war and the resultant financial distress. Marriage among increased under tho distress, but not so with the leaders of fashion.
 Juno, tho month of weddings, has not produced the large number of so- ciety weddings which always charao-, terised the month in pre-war days. This Is especially noticeable in cen-' tral Europe. Fashionable churches, hotels, cafes, dressmaking shops. jewelry shops and flower shops do not show the Cld-time June activity. Tourists Are Scarce.
 Foreign tourists are not visiting central Europe in largo numbers, and the residents of central Europe arc not travelling abroad. The romances which used to begin on ocean trips are fewer and fewer. American and English women with comfortable fortunes are net wandering about as they did in old times. Travel is not 50 inviting as it used to be, and fami- lies from the lands of good exchange apparently have little desire to ex- pose their daughters to tho sort of tragedies which have grown out of many international marriages re- gently. Titles which carry with them bankrupt estates arc apparently at q great discount. The uncertainty of titles to baronial possessions makes ambitious mothers hesitate. They | have seen too many penniless princes and counts and barons rattling about Paris and other European capitals, trying to market their family tree. | But the professional mRtchmakers have net given up hope and are still active. Vienna has Q number of such matrimonial agents who are hard at work, and with the revival of Vienna which has come about as the result of foreign assistance, their oppor- tunities are improving Vienna's old gayety Is coming back. Its fashions attract foreign women. and music lovers flock tC its opera. Tourists who visit Italy also go to Austria in large numbers.
 Have Hard Time.
 | In Berlin comm ercial mAtchmak CTS are having a harder time. The decline in travel and upset political condi- tions work against them to 8 greater degree than in any of the other European capitals, and the failure of war hatreds to pass away makes it difficult to do anything with princi- pals who were enemies in the great struggle.
 One professional marriage agent a titled woman who was once a great success in her profession, IS con- stantly seen about the prominent hotels in Berlin, and she has not lost her ability to meet nearly all promising visitors. But she has col lected a commission tnly once in the last twelve months.
 The agencies which advertise ex- tensively and arrange marriages on . strictly business basis, without so- cial trimmings, are faring far better than the agents who specalize in aristocrats. Throughout central Europe tho daily papers arc filled with ths advertisements of marriage agencies which describe their clients In great detail, give their financial status and requirements, leaving only the names unmentioned.