Life, 1906-11-29 · page 12 of 28
Life — November 29, 1906 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes international marriages, particularly between American heiresses and European nobility. The main cartoon depicts a shabby, older European gentleman with a young girl—illustrating the article's theme that wealthy American women marry titled but impoverished European men. The text critiques this practice, noting that while European aristocrats may have prestigious titles, many lack character or financial stability. The article argues American women shouldn't marry merely for titles, especially when unsuitable matches occur. A secondary joke, "A Short Cut," depicts a woman sterilizing baby bottles as her husband suggests this prevents germs from entering the baby—misunderstanding the actual purpose. The satire targets both the superficiality of transatlantic matrimonial arrangements and gender-based assumptions about women's knowledge.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
* LIFE: Matrimonial Welshers HE international marriage i: more than commonly ex- posed, just now, to public con- templation. An American count- ess has got a divorce in the French courts; a young American duchess [IF has teen constrained to apply to British lawyers for a separation from her husband. In the first case the noble husband has always been understood to be a preposterous freak, but somehow he managed to interest his wife and she has keen very long-suffering, and did not give him up until years after he had abundantly demonstrated that he was impossible. The revolt of the young duchess has come with more of a shock. She is known as a charming lady and comes of a family that is a good deal respected at home. Her hus- band’s title, too, is one of the most renowned in Europe, and has been borne by an unusual number of men of brains. Unhappily, though the title was good, the husband wasn’t. She married him at seventeen or thereabouts, an age when the judgment is not very ripe. She bore him two children, and her fortune repaired his historic dwelling and reduced or obliter- ated his inherited mortgages. But, sad to say, the young duke turned out to be ill be- haved, and was prone (rumor says) 10 be nude to his wife's American friends, and was careless (rumor says) about bring- ing his mistresses to the notice of his wife. These be very evil manners, and our young countrywoman has finally found them intolerable and moved out of the historic pile. Lire would like to know what is the honest opinion of our smart society on this marriage. Is it to be counted a failure or only a speculation with unfortunate features? How much is it worth to a woman of refinement to be a duchess and the mother of a prospective duke, with a detached and unworthy ducal husband? It is probably worth something if one likes it —a great deal of money, for instance, if money is plentiful— but is it a good investment for a woman’s life? If our smart society thinks that it isa good investment, it is welcome, surely, toall the investments of that sort that it wishes to put its money and its daughters into. Common human sympathy for beauty in distress must-make LveRy TORK Wart iis Day’? “THEY ARE VERY PRETTY; AND WHO ARE THEY 1 THEY ARE FOR YOU, AND ONE 1S A HEART THAT'S BLEEDING AND THE OTHER 15 A DON'T-YOU-TORGET-ME-NoT.”” decent people sorry that the Duke of Marlborough has turned out to be a matrimonial welsher. But while there will be sympathy for the young wife, there will be little for the makers of marriage. Very likely they need no sympathy. Very likely they are satisfied—not perfectly, but measurably—and consider that on the whole the job has paid. American girls of fortune are not the only sufferers from ambitious marriages. An English princess has just determined to quit her royal Swedish husband because he is a greater brute than even an English woman can stand. Such cases and worse ones are very common in royal families in Europe. But European women of royal birth are by custom very restricted in their matrimonial choices, and have to take men of suitable rank. Our girls, even the richest of them, are free to marry the best white man that offers. Any of them that is personally worth a good man ought somehow to find him. Of course, it is horribly hazardous to marryan extremely rich girl, and the chance that the husband, if he is poor, may have to give his whole life in part payment for his maintenance is terrifying. But there are bold young men who are decent men who will také the risk if it is put to them gently and with proper consideration for their self-respect. There is no real necessity for any nice American heiress to marry a degenerate peer. MAN’S future with credits at the ban! A Short Cut “NAMA, what’s the use of putting all those things for the baby in that sterilizing machine?” ie, so that no bad germs will enter hi: “That's what I thought. But I know an easier way. “What's that?” “Why, while you were out I sterilized the baby gilded at twenty, with skirts ; at forty, t sixty, with a dige: comicbooks.com