WOMAN'S WORLD

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 323, 12 July 1912, Page 6

WOMAN'S WORLD

(Conducted by "Eileen.") WILLS AND WIDOWS PENALTIES ON KE-MARRIAGE. America is discussing with no considerations of reticence the provision 01 Colonel Astor's will, under which his young widow stands to forfeit £1,000,000, as well as the house in Fifth avenue, Xew York, with all its fine furniture and valuable appointments, should she marry again. It would appear that opinions differ materially as to the right and justice manifested towards the girl-wife, for, on the one hand, there are those who contend- that the fortune settled upon her at the time of her marriage will safeguard her against even comparative poverty, and that the sacrifice of property will be a check to any who may be seeking her hand for the sake of her money. On the other, it is urged that no man ought to seek to deprive a woman of the support and comfort that a second marriage might bring her. Those

who take the first point of view recall ] that the late husband was particularly 1 opposed to the idea of his countrywomen being sought by titled but impoverished foreigners; those who take the latter regard it as against public policy that young widows should be tied down by preposterous and humiliating conditions." PERVERSE -BESTOWALS. Human nature reveals itself perhaps more unaccountably in wills than in any other way. Who will ever be able to say definitely what is implied in the bequest of "the second best beds team" of Shakespeare to his wife? Is it not a commonplace that the most perplexing and difficult problems as to the real intentions of a testator arise over the wills of eminent lawyers and counsel, who hare known the practice ef the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court? And everyone, within his or her personal experience, can tell of some strange and unexpected bestowals of property to the detriment of some and the advantage of others in a way that was never anticipated. The nephew cut off with a shilling ,-and the home for necessitous poodles endowed is not a figment of imagination, but a fact that occurs.

It is not everyone, indeed, who brings so kindly a sense of giving pleasure to '' ' - '-■■:!' r-s the late -i , ■.. Lewis, ■>. .;o ~ -,i only remembered all those who had added to her happiness by their musical skill, but left nice sums of money to the road-sweepers and menders whose humble tasks had been performed near her doors. More people appear to manifest a'kind of sardonic humor at the disappointments and the heart-burnings that their perverse bestowal of their property, or their effects, will cause when their wills are read. MOTIVES GOOD AND MEAN. It is, of course, with the best intentions sometimes that a man arranges that his widow shall lose what he lias left 'her in the event of a second marriage. He may honestly fear that she will bo sought merely for her money, or knowing any peculiarities of her temperament, he may dread her being made unhappy or miserable by someone who would not understand her. If there are young children-at-the time he makes 'his will he may think it will be better for them to have the undivided love and attention of their mother. » Whatever may be his line of argument, it may at least be sincere in the belief that what he is doing is for the best.

There can "be, however, the less worthy motive of a kind of jealousy. "Why," thinks he, "should money that I have gathered by my toil and industry go to keep some other man, who may be quite idle, and incapable of doing anything for himself? My wife shall have all the enjoyment she can from it for herself, but she shall not share it with another, even though it would add to her future peace and happiness to do so."

That is a kind of dog-in-the-manger attitude, and yet not quite an inexplicable one.

Some day perhaps a wealthy woman will present the problem from the opposite aspect. Under the Married Woman's Property 'Act she has the right of disposal of her own possessions in money or otherwise. What if she, predeceasing her husband, were to leave him such and such a sharp' of her fortune, conditionally upon his not entering a second time into wedlock . The man would grasp the situation in a new light.

GERMAN EMPEROR'S SON WANTS TO WED AX AMERICAN. ! Count von Elphburg. special correspon- | dent of the New York American, telegraphed from Berlin to that paper on April 20:— The details of the infatuation of Prince Adalbert of Prussia for an American girl (Miss Alma X. Orthwein, of St. Louis), make it appear that the Kaiser's third son will gain the consent of the Emperor to his marriage to her. "Miss Orthwein is described as of rare beauty, with great fascination. The prince motored to Goeningeri Sanitorium, near Augsburg. South Germany, shortly after the Orthweins went there from St. Moritz, where the girl broke her ankle toboganning. He arrived in town in strictest incognito and announced that he was merely passing through en route to a distant destination. He then went on at night to the sanitorium and remained five days as the guest of the girl's father. W. J. Orthwein. His entire occupation was to sit with the invalid girl. The pair were agreeably sheltered from the public gaze bv the large troes in the park. The fourth day he was recognised, and gossip became so persistent that he terminated his visit. The proprietor of the sanitorium then requested his guests not to make the prince an object of gossiping letters to outsiders, but to respect his incognito. He departed ostensibly for Stuttgart, but was traced to Xaumberg. where the Empress, his mother, was in a sanitorium. According to reports in Court circles the Prince's movements were received with astonishment. It is thought he is going to his mother to obtain her support, for the matrimonial alliance. She has longed for his early marriage, and it is believed she will favor an alliance with the America* girl. Whether the Emperor will take the s;une view is doubtful, as also is the idea that the Prince can be induced to dismiss the idea of making the trirl his wife.

William Julius Orthwein is from St. Louis, and the member then! of a wealthy German family of brewers. He married a Xew Orleans girl of a French family, but she was known through the South and since then in Europe as "Alma of the Starry Eyes." They have one daughter. Alma Orthewein. who has just parsed her twenty-first birthday. Last February Mrs. Orthwein gave a birthday party to her daughter, at which Crown Prince Frederick William and Crown Prince.-.* Cecilie were guests of honor. During the 'last 15 years the Orthweins have lived abroad, principally in St. Moritz. mi account of Mrs. Orthwein's health'. After recovering she became a social leader, through the patronage of the German prince.