BRITISH PEERS AND AMERICAN HEIRESSES.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 21 March 1901, Page 4

BRITISH PEERS AND AMERICAN HEIRESSES.

The other day we were told by cable that the Duke of Manchester, who was lately married to Miss Zimmerman, an American heiress, was served with a writ for breach of promise on his return from his honeymoon, tho claimant being Miss Portia Knight, an American actress. The following breezy comments by Harper’s Weekly upon His Grace’s marriage arc of interest; — The great American newspaper reading public is always interested in these alliances of American girls with European gentlemen of title. With friendly curiosity wo like to know in what state of repair our noblo brother is, how much he owes, and what prospect there is - that if duly financed he will stay paid up. Wo wonder, too, what tho lady’s family thinks about it, and whether on tho whole, it pays our girls to marry dukes. No case is known of an American father who wanted his daughter to marry a foreign nobleman. The ladies usually arrange these alliances, but the father in the end usually accedes to the inevitable, and does bis part gracefully, taking pains merely that his daughter’s fortune shall

be secured to her benefit and that of her heirs. We don’t know whether Mr Zimmerman is pleased to have a duke for a son-in-law or not, but the duchess’s grandfather, Mr Evans, has been heard from, and he speaks cheerfully of the peer, and is ready to welcome him into the family. Whether he is a good judge of dukes docs not appear, but he has excellent judgemnt about horses, in which ho traded extensively and profitably during the civil war. As to the general question of the expediency of investments in dukes and other peers, and attempts to domesticate them on the American plan, there is of course much to bo said. The personal element is important, but perhaps not quite so comprehensively vital as it is in ordinary marriages, for the reason that if you are a rich girl and marry an ordinary man and he turns out to be worthless you have nothing to show for your money, whereas, if you marry a duke and he ceases after a time to be a domestic comfort, you are still a duchess, and may possibly get some solace out of that condition. In England being a duchess seems to be regarded as a good job. That in itself it should satisfy the heart or the conscience, or the mind of a woman in whom these organs are fairly well developed is not to bo expected, but in minor particulars no doubt it yields a good deal of remuneration. It is like holding office. Yon get to like it. Then there is the alternative to consider. Ohio girls who go to London and go into society there, as many have done, don’t ; want to go back to Ohio. Ohio is not satisfying to ambition in the latter stages of its fruition. It does not hold its own after they are fully grown. Any of us are willing to go and live in Ohio—to be born in Ohio if necessary—until we grow up and are able to do better. But when we get rich enough or famous enough to indulge ourselves, off we go to some place where there arc society and yachting.