ROMANCE IS DEAD.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13523, 3 November 1911, Page 6

ROMANCE IS DEAD.

ENGLISH NOBLEWOMAN CRITICISES. MODERN DIVORCE METHODS. 1 * Value of Small Families. ) Australians' will remember that the Countess of Dudley, and Adeline Duchess of Bedford, ivifeTahdsistefi respectively of Lord. Dudley i Aifitil recently.GoyernorGsneral of Australia, returned home by way, of America; Ah exchange from that country publishes the .following:-p. . ■ The Duchess: of Bedford saw American shores for the first time when they landed at Vancouver. .They came directly acrpssj- making a stop at Niagara before arriving ih New York; , . ; , “Niagara is marvellous —but what >;a; great throbbing life one finds in New; ■Tofik!” said the Duchess. “It is truly impressive, and its buildings fill one with awo.” .; ’ . ... The Duchess keeps in touch with all .world, eyents, and has an intimate knowledge’ of America and Americans, many of whom she has met in the* social life in London. “American women are not marrying so mu’ch now in England now as formerly. The fad • has worn out its little day, I should say, 1 don’t think English women object to the infusion of American blood into their old families, but, of course, in a country like ours, where there are so many more women than men, we cannot but feel that it were wiser for our young men to marry at home. It’s better for our girls, you see. , “Families are GRADUALLY GETTING SMALLER, the Duchess continued. “However, there is some advantage iii having srhaller families find bettefi families, for it is an impossibility fbfi mothers to keep up the physical strength necessary to make each succeeding child as strong as the preceding one) and in large families it is quite likely to happen that the older children arc stronger and finer human specimens than the younger ones. “It is this fact, perhaps, that has influenced the decrease in the size of Englishfamilies, hut, of course, among the middle and other classes economic reasons may govern.” Commenting on the frequency ,of divorce; the Duchess said that it was one of the most unhappy sighs of the times. “The okLtime sentiment, the flower pf poinanco, seems to have been crushed, and people rush into matrimony for so many reasons other than those that make marriage the sacred, Beautiful thing it was intended to be, “The quick remarriage of divorced persons, especially here where it is looked upon rather lightly,-is shocking indeed. ; ; Yvhon one reads of a man divorced within ■’a year, with growihup children, about to launch into matrimony again, and this time to a debuntc—a girl little more than r, a> childrr-and it is heralded as a grefit ‘•social;event, it gives one pause, doesn’t it ? The Only reasons parents .would sacrifice a young girl like that would be .. simply m’oney oiies, I suppose. It seems cruel, does it not?” • ~; .