Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 168, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1912 — ESAUS IN NOBILITY [ARTICLE]

ESAUS IN NOBILITY

German Scions Who Sell Their Birthright. Are Known as “Name Marriages”— One Bold for Ten Marks, a Second-, Hand Bult of Clothes and ' r ; ■’ ' a Supper. •' . ’• Berlin. —Berlin society is again agitated over the question of “name marriages,” a subject which has long been a painful one in the annals of many noble families, making an unpleasant chapter in the history of German morals. Name marriages have recently, become of frequent occurrence owing to the ever increasing large number of scapegoat scions of noble houses who gre quite willing to become modern Esaus, selling their birthright for the modern equivalent of a mess of pottage ... to any ambitious plebeian “Schultz,” “Muller," “Meyer,” etc., who offers, not himself, indeed, hut a certain stipulated sum of money. The case of a Well known Berlin demlmondrtne t Countess Frieda _man. ”S&achwitz7 In her more respectable days employed a masseuse, and who i was murdered about three years ago, was a notable Instance of name marriage. She became a countess at the cheapest price bn record. Her worthless hußband sold himself, together with his name, a crest and a ninepointed grafen crown, to the masseuse for ten htfirks In gold, a second-hand suit of-clothes and a hot supper. " On the other hand, some fair prices are on record. A recent name marriage contracted between a well-to-do Berlin parvenue apd a member of an ancient Brandenburg and Pomeranian family distinguished in war and peace, cost (according to the Neue Gesellschaftlicbe correspondence) the par-

venue wife 10,000 marks, conditioned, of course, on the titled husband disappearing immediately after the wedding and allowing the wife to sue for divorce on the ground of desertion. • V £.*. Name marriages are purely and simply a business affair. —>