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Show Scheming Ar? to BIame ,for International Mammae Marriages By nOOTIl TAUK1NGTON. Author. - - ea,BI''l Tin1 intermit loim I marriage between an Amori- I : IBS vm gjr 0f wealth and a foreigner of title is usually 5J n motft deplorable failure. I do not deny that there Jk are rare exceptions, when the love motive is pre-ein- C' inently strong ; we have some examples of it among SiAi Anu'rienn titled women abroad to-day. The exeep- jt tion, however, does not prove the rule, which I m iL ' convinced is one of utter failure in the great majority H ' 'u '''n"u' w't'1 "l0 socially ambitious Amor- j If l-Rffl KUiifflH 'cnn 1110"lor W'IH n8ts upon her daughter's mar- I'll lFuiililrittlll wll'ljl r'nSe 11 fru'K11 nobleman, because she aspires to l (lUrfflMfll 80C'nl prominence, one might almost describe it as i IQjQ social notoriety. The climbers in American society ' mJ nre women; the money makers are men. If the American aristocracy were more jealous of its birth- right there would be fewer sacrifices of the sort we arc familiar with, i The bride in these international marriages scarcely realizes the underlying under-lying significance of the event, I am afraid. Tho glamour of tho occasion, of which she is the central figure, dazzles and delights her, and the seem- , ing moral support of her mother is a strong incentive to her happiness. Of course, the manner and charm of these foreign gentlemen of leisure, who spend so much time on their adornment and their attractions, is indisputably in-disputably in their favor, in tho preliminary interest they arouse in the Directions of a susceptible girl. There's no doubt that some of them are irresistibly handsome, cultured, delightful men ; but, if they had to work, an accomplishment which they disdain, their perception of the ridiculous ri-diculous would be more vivid than . is. We arc not compelled to accept the European stundard, whatever it is, and because we do so is not usually due to any sinister intention of tho American girl herself, but because her American mother, entirely aware of the false conditions under which she launches her "daughter's happiness," is cruelly responsible for the result. Doubtless the training to which the American girl is subjected in her social sacrifices by these ambitious mothers is tho reason that she submits as gracefully as she does, i 1 haveseen so many unhappy marriages among these international af- 1 fairs so brilliantly started that have made me desperately sorry for the I girls themselves. Jn France the marriage dot is an' institution, quite as sacred in their own social relations as when they make an American al- liance. It is significant, however, that they marry women of their own country for far less money than they sell to the American girl. |