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American Girls' Rage For Titles

American Girls' Rage For Titles image
Parent Issue
Day
21
Month
May
Year
1880
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

TVhnt is richcst and most uncultiratod of American girlhood, drifts towaitl the Faubourg St. Germain, and then o;ists anchor. The American bollo who has not been "raised" in Virginia, or in thit Athena of tho North, Boston, imagines thnt untitlcd EuYopoima are tras h y whitos. Slic wou ld pive overy cent sho hopea to inhorlt ft-o in lier father in exchange for t!ic right to waar a "Countesa' comb." A notion has somehow taken root in fashionablc yanng ladies' academies in the States tliat it is feloiiioos tbr a woman whose lluSband's nobility is not genuine to havo a coronet on her st:itioinry and backcolub. Tiiis notion is attendod -vith the happiest eonsequences for tho aristooracy of Franco, which h:is been 'warded 'n to ld by American hciresscs and widows tor the services .-endured to Washington and lus confedurates. The law re-eetablishing tillen, pasaed undor the Knapn, is-yet in toree; hut, practic:üly, any one who picases can malee himWltai' herself noblo. Mlle. C - P 1 is a "Baroness" at her place near the source of the Iioire. She borrowod the title tïoin the Baron who transtbn-ed to her his proprietary rights ; uid, what is more noteworthy, every t'riend of hors who has since gone on a visit there assumes during his 6ojourn tlio primal owner's name and title. I huard no less a personage than the late Bishop of Orleans lament this desecration otan ancien t nobiliary title. A hemisphoric beauty, who can all'ord to have c irriages and horses in her mews, is noarly ahvays, ifshe is not on the stage, "Madame la Comtesso" .with lier poner and the tradespeople with whom she deals. Nor are mstances wuiiüir of woinen in the monde comme üfuut eunoMing themselves.though thcir husbands reniain simple bourgeois. I know of a remarkftbly pretty American, the wife of an artist of talent, tlie son of a simple miller, who has had "L,a Comteaw -V " ingci-ibed on her cards. In point of ïicw blood, that which flows froin tlie United Suites into the veins of French nobility is the best. It lias, at loast, vigor in it, and it goes with cheerful il' nJt reflned manners. It liso xoea with better moráis, tliougii ome of our fair tricada trom oeros the Atlantic soon lcarn in l'arié to do as Paris does. There are in noble circles Uere soine learfuily objeelionabls Englishwotnen. 1 have niet one at a lieni-i Quimiuist celebration who uxprossed nionai-chical seiUinunls with a LLainlets accent. An heiress, iet her be tVoui Chicago, Lambech, or the B.irbican, wlio puya a great, BUin to a good-fbr-uothina noble lor tiie right to be calied "Madame la Marquise," values her rank acuording to the aaiount ot' money it cost her to obtain it, aiut to the sacriiicc she made in rejeetum' asiutor with wliom she oould luwe JÏved more happily than with the Marquis. Tlie airs the assuines is laken very seriously by Frcnehwomen wlio liave no coroncts to stick on their backcombs anii yocket-handkerchieis; and ihey have a protbudiy imbitina etlecL on Parisiau bourgooises, wlio buconie too angry to bo amused at tho absurdity of the ennobled lady's preteiuioos.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Argus