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Whyßich Min Drexel Prefer; a Continental Marriage
“American Girls Are Dunces in
Matrimony,” Says Miss Drexel,
Crossing Off All That America
Has Thought Made Its Marriage
Better Than the European and
Holding Up European Standards
of Domestic Life as a .Model.
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Mis* Lilis Gilbert, an Heiress Who Ma y Follow Miss Drexel • Example.
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I H
I The American Mauiage is Better than in
I The European Because - IN
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■ '* HE American husband expect ■ no dpwry Si ’gg|
■hOWl wifi his wife - / ' bM
B ' /T'T\ . C? ■ The American rm:’, lag*' i/nlcce BH|
■ ;>>>tOTiktch in most cases. / , N9N
B American husband tieats. hX wife with
BL,i.i ■.; i<™ ore ßeference than the fore'gnof. ‘« ■*.? '■
Bl J,>’-i -1 '• '■' He\pends ail or most of hi/irccime <m his 888
BI X' Z .-.iWlfc and family. /
Bl ••*’'■■'• ‘ He lea\s the contiol ofZi.e •:., : e .'-a. 1 el: ; !' ■
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B • ■'■■ Z A '-r He keeps \t of the all dav aud at ether.. 818
B . ■ times when he isW waited. Bl
B He gives his \ife,/long vacations while he \ BHI
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■ ;.». •W^"« rth ?“ £ i"A e “' V ,' 7 ife- 11:
B AH^A wl u es j re tVL ur n3 ' ,rP II
H . :■,.. equal to thetf husbands, whilk European wives
| . •■ . a? e vassals./ \ |K
B ’ Democratic ideals have.raised marriage to ■S|
B 'W a higher iflane in America than in Em ope, where - 881
B a feudal institution. \ TO Bl
B T wives and husbands have perfect >|B
B in one another and no secrets. BB|
B' 4 X here i ,ar ® n ° caste ruies that coTn P ei a IB
|. ; T ; i V ;.X^W Ie to live in a cei-tain style. ■ .'.„ •.:;.. ■«
| ; / When husband and wife are quite inconi . IM
B , Mif-patible they can get a divorce easily without.,.. N O
| , . porting to” disgraceful conduct, as in Europe. N
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The
Duchess
\ °f
A Marlborough,
\ An
. < American
IP <' '1 l Girl,
Who
' Has
i 'j Been
Left
h 'V. ’ % X by Her
” xk Noble
Husband
Awl ■ ” to Pursue
'X Serious
v ' t Aims.
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A NOVEL view of international mar- Vi
rliges is put before the American
public. It is the view of Miss Alice
Drexel, daughter of those multi-millionaire
members of fashionable society, Mr. and Mrs.
John R. Drexel.
Miss Drexel thinks that European marriages
are preferable to American because they lead
to a more serious, useful, unostentatious,
hard-working life.
This is rather a shock. We have heard a
good deal about the failure of marriages be
tween American heiresses and foreign noble
men on account of the idle and worthless char
acter of the latter. There have been many
facts that prove there are such failures.
But it seems there is something on the
other side of the matter—Miss Drexel’s side.
Our opinion of foreign noblemen is often
formed by comparing the worst specimens of
them with the ordinary, hard-working Ameri
can.
Miss Drexel’s point, however, is that the
rich and fashionable American man com
pares badly w-ith the European man who
occupies a similar social position. Incident
ally, these defects are shared by the fash
ionable American’s fashionable wife.
The American man of this type who is not
in business does nothing but go to the club,
drink drinks and wear clothes and talk horses
and sports. The European man of correspond
ing position has an estate and looks after its
management, occupies some public position
and is interested in politics and public affairs
“* His wife shares in his interests and duties.
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Hence he mat es a much more interesting
husband, and married life in European high
society is a much more worthy and serious
affair than in American fashionable society.
Strange to say, it is Miss Drexel’s state of
’ mind on this subject that has decided her
parents to live abroad. They are going to live
in either France or England until Miss Alice
changes her view point or marries. Therefore
their beautiful Newport estate is to be rented
for a term of years, and their New York man
sion, one of the handsomest in the upper
Fifth avenue section, will be placed on the
market. Before settling on a permanent home
in Europe the Drexels will make a trip around
the world, taking their two sons with them
Miss Drexel has very decided Ideas on th«
limitations placed on the American society
girl, and she is excellently qualified to con
trast the merits of the American girl and her
foreign prototype. She was educated entirely
in Europe, and until she was eighteen her
friends were all girls belonging to the old
nobility of France and England. Her vaca
tions were spent at wonderful chateaus in
France or at great country houses in England.
She did not spend one Summer in Newport
with her parents, and came in contact with
i ' '' \
BE ■ f
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Miss Alice Drexel, the Serious Young Heiress, Who Is Tak
ing Her Family to Live Abroad Because Domestic
Life There Has More Duties.
no American girls of her own class except her
cousin, Margharlta Drexel, who was brought
up in the same way. *
During these important formative years she
lived, therefore, as the girls of these foreign
families lived. She saw her friends trained to
care for great, estates, to care for their ten
antry, to manage large forces of servants, and,
as they grew older, to take an interest in
public affairs.
After eight years of this life Miss Drexel
was brought home and given the usual “com
ing out” of the girl of her class Her parents
spent, perhaps, two hundred thousand dollars
on her first season, and her wealthy relatives,
the Drexels of Philadelphia, spent nearly as
much more to make her debut a brilliant one.
She had balls given for her in Philadelphia
as well as in :w York. Then she had a Lon
don visit, when she was entertained by her
aunt, the handsome Mrs. Tony Drexel. Every
thing was done to make this young heiress
happy and contented with her lot.
Mr. Drexel is a multi-millionaire and a mem
ber of the Morgan firm. Mr. Morgan sent the
lucky debutante a pearl necklace as a coming
out gift. Mrs. Drexel, one of the leaders of
the New York-Newport set. Is a noted hostess,
and she did everything possible to provide
pleasures for her daughter. It would seem as
though the heart of any girl would be satisfied.
But no, Miss Drexel finds that this life of
dancing, dining, motoring and entertaining
generally Is a “no-account” existence
“The average American girl of wealth and
social position is a useless person,” says this
discontented young woman. She has no recog
nized place In the ■world. She has no respon
sibilities, no rules, no traditions to guide her;
in fact, she has no social background. In
England and on the Continent the conditions
are entirely different. There a girl of family
has specified social duties to perform, and she
knows how to perform them. I do not mean
‘calls’ and entertaining, but duties connected
with the family estates and fortune. Over
there a girl has responsibilities that she can
life were not meant for publication and they
only concern the girl of fashionable society.
They were delivered at a luncheon given in
honor of a Newport girl whose engagement
was recently announced and were brought
forth by the sad fact that so few marriages
were occurring among the girls who have
come out within the last five years. For this
tragic state of affairs Miss Drexel blames the
American parent not the girl.
Marriages need not be made in heaven, she
said, but they should be made on earth.
“The continental marriage idea is the right
one. The French girls who were at the con
vent, with me have all married as their
parents wished and they certainly seem to be
happier than the young wives in the Newport
■■■■■■■■■■■
*,Ja ,'* • ''■•&** '• ••
II she Europe.i’i-IBrridge isDetter than
| " The American Because -
I ■ s' T ; ,
II ‘ 'S- ‘' A ' ■
.A ' ;
TN THE wealthy, classes, husband and wue
H -‘ ;1 . 1 have definite duties to the community
fl h. ■ ,^,.7, The marriage is arranged by parents—
| -X .tM &by mature, sensible people.
fl :: It isnot a love match and therefore does
fl not end in divorce so frequently as the Amenchn
■ • marriage; . '■; .
fl ” '• Husband and wife must each bring a reason- :
fl able fortune, so they begin married life with suf
fl ' ■ ficient means and on a financial equality.
fl 'The Continental husband is interested in
fl politics, the welfare of his neighbors, the devel
fl ;T, opment of his estate, sport, and public affairs
I ' s enera -'y . ‘ • ' ’ ■
fl .' .t .' .J' ■: The more interesting life of the Continental
fl ' '.’ husband''extends to his wife, who lias to look
fl ,S'XK • after the.women and children on her estate and
fl aid her husband's political plans
fl '■ . The husband has more knowledge of art and ;
H \ literature, and possesses more of the social
fl .. ■ v/T" graces than the American.
fl He gives much of his time to his wife and i
fl A does not spend all day at business.
fl,?. ■ . ‘ He runs the household, the servants and
fl the children himself to a great extent, thus.real
fl izing the older idea of a home better than the
aS, ■ ' American. s. s
fl Life is simple in well bred European fam
fl ilies, and free from the frantic extravagance of
fl . rich American society.
fl
no more evadd than
she can evade being
born.
“The schoolgirl of
France and England
may be diffident and
gauche, but she knows
her place in the world
Is well defined, that it
was made for her per
haps two hundred
years before she was
born. Her family has
been identified with an
estate, or a county, or
the Government for
many generations. This
condition gives her a
poise, a power that the
American society girl
lacks so often.
"In this country, the
girl who is to inherit a
large fortune seldom
knows anything about
her future possessions,
she has no tenantry to
look after, no parish
duties to perform such
as the poorest ‘lady of
the Manor’ will have
in England or France.
It is this lack of per
sonal interest in her
estate and in the wel
fare of the people who
work on it that char
acterizes the usual
American woman and
makes foreigners mar
vel.”
Miss Drexel not only
censures this butterfly
existence generally, but
she has very emphatic
opinions on the sub
ject of matrimony.
These strictures land
on the American girl's
set are. None of their parents whose mar
riages were also arranged are separated or
divorced and I never hear of any scandals in
their families. Then, too, she added: “There
are no old maids among the girls who went
to school when I did, and their people were
not all wealthy, either.’’
Miss Drexel is very young and very attract
ive. She has been a great favorite in the
Newport set and has undoubtedly been more
feted and courted than any other girl there.
She will celebrate her twenty-first birthday
during the Winter. Her dissatisfaction with
her present social environment may arise
from the fact that she has had too good a
time!
During the Summer this heiress to ten mil
lion dollars was converted to suffrage through
Mrs. Belmont’s work, and this conversion has
added to her indictment against American
society.
“When I marry, I want my husband to hav«
a political career, and’l don’t like American
politics. Just see how much Mrs. Waldorf
Astor has done for her husband. That is
what I want to do. It looks, she added, as
though I should have to marry and English
man!’’
As a first step, toward this marriage Miss
Drexel has decided to be presented at court
Immediately after her return from the pro
posed trip around the world. She is then to
visit her cousin, the Viscountess Maidstone,
whose husband plans to enter upon a seri
ous public career this Winter.
Miss Drexel is the Latest and most inter
esting addition to a long list of philosophers,
psychologists and novelists, who have dis
cussed the intemationl marriage.
Miss Drexel has won a convert to her way
of thinking, in Miss Lilia Bramhall Gilbert,
a nelce of William Gould Brokaw and Mrs.
Preston Satterwhite. Miss Gilbert is one oi
the extremely wealthy heiresses of New
York. She will inherit nearly twenty mil
lions from her mother, Mrs. Bramhall Gil
bert and her several Brokaw aunts anc
uncles. A few months ago Miss Gilbert’s
engagement to Howard Price Renshaw was
announced. Mr Renshaw is an American
business man, a fine manly fellow. Foui
weeks ago. Miss Gilbert, a friend of Miss
Drexel’s broke her engagement to Mr. Ren
shaw and said she had been converted to
Miss Drexel’s opinions about the American
marriage. Miss Gilbert is to spend a yeai
or two in England and on the continent, and
her friends say, that she will undoubtedly
live up to her new convictions by marry
ing a foreigner.
Upon no subject Is there such diversity of
opinion. We were called upon at the same
time to thrill with pride over the splendid
position achieved by Lady Curzon in Eng
land, and boil with Indignation over the
scoundrelly treatment of his wife by Count
de Castellane.
One writer shows that foreign marriages
have made American women the most bril
liant and influential persons In Europe. An
other shows that they have mostly resulted
In unspeakable misery for the American
wives.
Does one brilliant marriage compensate for
the misery suffered by the American wife In
another case? Does the good time enjoyed by
the Countess of Granard, as wife of King
George’s Master of the Horse, make up for
the wrongs of the Countess de la Forest-
Dlvonne, beaten and driven home without her
property?
Paul Bourget, the psychological novelist, of
France, said that the American girl turned
towards a European husband because she had
received more culture than the American
man.
Mrs Emily Post, a clever novelist and mem
ber of New York society, has expressed a
more up-to-date view. She says that if the
American girl is dissatisfied with the Amer
ican man it is because she is not sufficiently
educated. He is a worker noted for doing
things, while she is too often an Idler, without
sound education and serious aims in life.
Hence she falls an easy victim to some worth
less nobleman “whoso social position in
Europe is nil.”