Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1899 — MARRYING FOR TITLES. [ARTICLE]

MARRYING FOR TITLES.

The Adaptability of American. Women Aida Them Vastly. It is well understood in Europe that if a man marries into an untitled family it is better for him to marry an American than a woman of any other nationality, for the same reason that Napoleon gave for making choice of a Spaniard—she had no family in France to be enriched and ennobled. Europeans don’t trouble themselves much about American social distinctions and can’t understand the difference between a fortune made in 1796 and one made in the same way in 1897. Many of the diplomatic corps have married Americans; there have been several marriages of Washington girls to secretaries of legations and attaches within the last year, and a large proportion of them have turned out well. American women are natural diplomats. A European woman is born and bred’ in a certain, rank of life, and although she may be transported to another rank she takes with her the stamp of the grade to which she belongs. Not so with an American woman. As the wife of the premier of Great Britain she would put Lady Clare Vere de Vere to shame by her quick adoption of most of the characteristics of the daughters of a hundred earls. There is less risk in an American girl marrying a diplomat than any other sort of a foreigner, for a diplomat is under bonds to behave himself. But if she is ambitions and desires to make a really brilliant match she ought to marry a citizen of the United States. —Illustrated American.