HER ROMANTIC ENGLISH.

Shannon News, 20 November 1925, Page 2

HER ROMANTIC ENGLISH.

DOWERT.ESS BRIDES. . Are Englishwomen spoiled? Any foreigner—-if lie told .you the truth—would say "Yes!" Ens-land is the only country in Europe .where a moderately attractive > girl penniless and by no means cUp. able, can be moderately sure ot marrying, and probably marrying \-o]\ (states a writer in She does not require, a dowry, she does not need to be able -• to copk or sew or manage a house. Some young men, only ,iust capable only making ends meet for himself, is . only too enchanted to, do the same ihing for her. She runs hint up Ircss bills, makes him eat. ai restaurants makes a shilling do the work of .sixpence, -and he bears it with •.equanimity. ' - If he cannot keep her entirely and , she has to earn a little pocket-money for herself., the thing, is considered a slur on him. The Continental ieda—that of the wife's dowry being -hand--,... ed unconditionally over to the husband who therupon generously gives her an allowance out of it—would be regarded as unthinkable by an Eng. lish.'girl. She lays claim to no useful qualities on capacities as a wife. She i. 3 simply herself —and she thinks that ought to be enough!.,.- And she has induced the Englishman to agree with her. • -

Frenchmen, together with,all other Latin races, are' full of charming mannerisms. Every pretty .woman ikes to have-her hand kissed with courtliness, to hear an . aptly turned compliment, to receive tne Impression—subtly conveyed and entirely erroneous—that she is considered a creature too bright and fragile for human nature's daily use. "*,. , A solid Englishman never manages to convey this impression to the wo. man he admires. But he is always at hand when she wants masculine help. ,'ln matter.of-fact fashion he will give up,his - seat in* a railway car. riage on a journey of many hours, ho will bestir himself to find porters, to id her luggage through the Customs. His purse, hi s arm, his caiv—all are at the service, not merely of the woman of his heart, but of any other with whom he finds himself in contact. Whereas the Frenchman, having bowed low from the waist and presented his homage, will never dreaju of "looking after any woman but his own wife.*- Nor would he believe that the Englishman's only i-eward for" half his trouble is a curt but charm, ing 'Thank you .so much!" We hear of the beauty of Spanish women, the wit of Frenchwomen, the domesticity of the Scandinavians,, the temperament of the Slavonic beauties but is there another country in Eu.-ope where a penniless girl can marry Avith no other qualification h,ut her charm This is the one land where the love.match,"romantic and poverty-stricken, is the rule and- not the exception. " -