Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 225, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1917 — MANY AMERICAN WOMEN ARE THE NATION’S ENEMIES BY MARRIAGE [ARTICLE]

MANY AMERICAN WOMEN ARE THE NATION’S ENEMIES BY MARRIAGE

Among the Most Prominent of These Is Gladys Vanderbilt Who Has Been an Angel of Mercy in Austria-Hungary and Who Now Finds Herself Arrayed Against Home —X ■ Land and Family.

London. American women who have been expatriated through their marriage to foreigners have a pathetic rple, indeed, to play during these days that try the souls of humankind. Expatriation, always bitter to the patriot, becomes an overwhelming burden to the American inthese times when their country, the noblest of them all, is about to strike the most tremendous and majestic blow ever struck by a nation at war. Even to be expatriated to a friendly ally may well prove rankling to an American who possesses a full measure of patriotic pride, and to be marooned from the civilized world in the ranks of our enemy is proving as bitter as hemlock to numbers of true Americans at heart. Among .these the most poignant sufferers are the erstwhile American girls, now the wives of enemy aliens, who, in their distress, have, almost to a woman, identified themselves with the Red Cross of their husbands’ countries. They feel that, at least In this one respect, they may conscientiously quiet their broken’hearts with k the thought that they do a work which the great United in its honest myriads of hearts will heartily approve. Among the more prominent of those who suffer thus appears the former Gladys Vanderbilt, who has been an angel of mercy in Austria-Hungary and who now finds herself unwittingly arrayed against her home land and family. * Her husband Is a staff captain with General Dankl in toa£ dangerous Galician region where the Russians once hoped to make the critical drive of the war. Her brother, Col. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Is now In the field in the United States with the Twenty-second engineers, preparing to seek the European battlefields too, where it is within the realm of possibility that he will find himself directly and personally opposed to the dashing young man who married his sister. So there is a sad young woman over in the far land, laboring for the Red Cross, the wounded and for a cause That Is not that of her family and the friends of her childhood. Indeed, it was the death of her own brother, Alfred G. Vanderbilt, that had as much to do with molding American sentiment against the Teutonic powers as any one incident of the war. Whatever may be the fact of the real cause of the underlying break, the public mind holds most prominently the sinking of the Lusitania as an item of resentment, and the most prominent victim of that ocean disaster was her own brother, sent to a watery grave by a torpedo that came from a U-boat. One brother dead a» a noiicombatant victim of war, another In khaki ready to fight, a couple of nephews wearing the uniform of America and scores of relatives and friends either In the ranks or in the councils of the republic, the position of this unfortunate young woman is Indeed one of the most pathetic stories of the whole cataclysm that Is shaking the world. While she is by reason of these queer international complications the most striking figure in the marital horrors of Cupid, she does not stand alone. A score of titled women, a few hundreds without titles, but still wom--6n with hearts and loves, are in the same boat. And the most pitiful phase of the whole situation is that their adopted countries do not trust them, in spite of any sacrifice they may make. Studying the records of ages,- one finds that time and again some woman of high place and mind has cast to the winds love, personal wishes and even life itself to serve her own land. There is a higher law that is not defined that says to every man and every woman that personal ties are secondary to the grand duty of patrlotism, and it is this higher Jaw that makes the officials of tfk Central military powers fear and distrust any wife whose land is not their own. Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, put the thought into concrete form when he issued an order that no German diplomat In the service of his country might marry a foreigner. The order fell into disregard when the kaiser took the reins completely In his own hands until shortly before the European war, when it was revived. In the meantime there had crept into the German and Austrian diplomatic society a number of brilliant American women who are now under the ban of the old military law and who are alien enemies of their native land without being trusted friends of the one .to which Cupid led them. r , Thus it was Lillian May Langham, a beauty of Louisville, Ky., came to be the bride of the late ambassador to Washington, Speck von Sternburg, and likewise through the hiatus there came to Count Johann Heinrich von Bernshis successor In this country, Jdlsq Jeanne Luckmeyer, one of the fairest of the daughters of New York. And Miss Constance Hoyt was another of the rich Americans whqjyent to the diplomatic court of Gerurany through her wedding to Baron yon Stumin. In many cases American girls with money and without married into the derman army set and into the leading business circles of the country.

Germany, before the war, treated the American woman who came to her arms with great consideration. The touch of business did not rankle at the imperial court because the kaiser himself embarked In trade and was as proud of his pottery as he was of a hewregimetit. ■ But there was a sadly different story to be told in Austria, all of which adds to the predicament of the talented and beautiful women who‘are now forced by love to salute a flag that is arrayed against their own. Under the rules of the Austrian court no person could be presented unless eight generations of nobility could be shown as a condition precedent. Coming from America, where titles of nobility are not recognized, these women found the Imperial gate closed, or half-closed to them, while anything with the required armorial bearings might slide through the chink. Notable among them was the Countess Sigray, who was Miss Harriet Daly, daughter of the late Marcus Daly. Her sister is Mrs, James W. Gerard, wife of the former ambassador of the United States to Germany. She married Count Anton Sigray, who had held many important posts in the service of the empire and whose position at the court was beyond any possible question. Love and the law also took hyr from the land of her birth and from the friends and relatives who are cheering for Old Glory while she nurses the sick and seeks the wounded under the Imperial banner. She has given a private hospital to the Austrian forces, and, with New York enterprise, has seen to It that the government also had a first-class X-ray outfit for the treatment of the wounded. Making up more of the notable list

ofrnarooaod Americans there is the beautiful Mabel Wright, now the Countess Zichy. She was one of the most striking beauties of this country and her* face brought her fortune where many rich women of less charm failed. •—“ A famous Italian sculptor used her as the model for a magnificent figure of an angel, and It is said that the Austrian emperor himself bought the work of art. • And among the women who must think of’the Stars'and Stripes as they regard' their noble surroundings Is Nora Iselin, now the Countess Colle-redo-Mansfield. She is the daughter of C. Oliver Iselin, once one of the best-known millionaires In this country. His patronage of yachting and other sports made him famous. Her husband has held the secretarial post at the Rome embassy, one of the places t hat an Austrian nobleman covets most of all. -22. From one of the oldest Virginia families there comes Miss Agnes Carroll, who married Count Anton Heussenstamm. The daughter of the late John A. Stewart, Gladys Virginia Stewart, is the wife of Count Julius Apponyi, who is captain of hussars in the Austrian army. There is the case. Dan Cupid, the traitor, has been convicted of betraying American girls to the enemy. He ought to be shot at sunrise.