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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. < it ■ '■ • • ( c*. - Alfe /& '■ ' a"> • p * ./ • ’. M.-. ' * WSSs&c f WwC: \ v > w • WISp '' * >* /fev z raagS?&j* s \ wBOL. >.. ' v . T\ v \ • z <x %; <v - w /life >. - ’.: i .Oj||bi3BM«L... Nj>, ■ ~ _ L:u:. ~ . . — 7 pi K^Mg• < SB : t L NNNT f Wrmt • -J ’<•■■■ ■ &< *<< 1 ,■' . ■■ : v :< • L ;• Jt'O 1 ¥ < % / wMBBk • w A ' ■ # Wgafe WW A f WiSIl : A 1O- J;: ' tfMoii \ ' / wfcw ' : e£2st & r FtWW.CB BwSr wii IHHH I VM |H nfrjnrT Z' »/.•”" . ‘ F • y 9l ij|3Rw - • mw— in , ' .- !'. P~.tO g T - ~if- ~y Mis* Lilis Gilbert, an Heiress Who Ma y Follow Miss Drexel • Example. I ( . V - >: ~ r T' mi 7K-. , I H I The American Mauiage is Better than in I The European Because - IN II , IN ll X. ll ■ '* 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: ; !' ■ B|* 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 BU> ’’ IP B A s h- - II ■ ;.». •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 I ....JI W W tpS 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. . Bw' * IWRI WhSm*. ■ a," x. • ; W X. ' ' 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. •>-bSbf\ > az -L '. jj II 11 p fx 111 Tos f ffeJJ wQ) 'OS 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 w w X " r 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.”