French Girl Inspects 20 U.S. Suitors

1920

Frankly Admits She Is Here to Hunt Husband — Has Discarded Eighty as Unsuitable

NEW YORK, N.Y. — Twenty times Mlle. Susanne Boitard watched an American officer get down on his knees before her and heard him propose marriage to her.

And just twenty times the chic French girl answered, "Oh, Monsieur, but you must wait! When the war is over we shall see. It may be ——"

All this happened in the battle-scarred days of 1918 at Mlle. Boitard's magnificent home near Amiens, France, wherein many Yank officers were quartered during the war. And now she is in the United States looking over her score of prospective husbands, and has already discarded eight as unsuitable. Mademoiselle frankly admits that she is hunting a mate and that she believes marriage is the greatest ambition that a woman can achieve.

"So why shouldn't I come to America to pick the best one of the twenty who have asked my hand in marriage?" demands the French girl.

Is Pretty, Rich, Educated

It cannot be denied that Mlle. Boitard has qualifications for marriage. She is pretty, perfumed and excessively feminine. She is 24, rich and well educated. She is brilliant and vivacious. She is the picture of health and beauty.

"And I want the best husband in the world!" Calmly announces Mlle. Boitard.

On the subject of husbands, and American husbands in particular, she admits that her U.S. suitors were great fighters, but she has some objections to them as prospective mates. They spend too much, she avers, and they are poor — ah, oui! — very poor judges of good wine.

"All these men who proposed marriage to me," declares mademoiselle, in her charming English, with a trace of French accent, "lived at our chateau near Amiens. They drank our wine and they ate at our table. They were very enthusiastic over the chateau at Amiens and our home in Paris, for they had every possible luxury there. Now isn't it entirely possible that some of these twenty officers may have loved my luxurious home more than they did me?

"It is only reasonable that I should want to see how my American suitors live in their own homes. I do not want to be too critical about them, but I find some faults in the American national character.

"What has displeased me about American men more than any other one thing is that they are so stupid and reckless about spending money. They eat and drink and tip in expensive places as if they were millionaires. I find it very unpleasant. They want to appear rich, and that surprises and disappoints me.

Poor Judges of Wine

"And I do not like the American way of drinking. The men I know seemed to drink just for the sake of drinking, without the least appreciation of good wine. With one of them I am sure that it would have been all the same to him if he was drinking perfume.

"The American business man works too hard. He doesn't take any time for his wife and his home. I want my husband to work, but I also want him to make time for theaters, art, horses and charity affairs. I don't want to have to think in the dollar sign."

Back in New York from one inspection tour, Mlle. Boitard seemed a trifle disillusioned. She had seen and discarded eight of the twenty who wanted to marry her.

"There is one chance in particular, and maybe two or three others, that I may yet marry an American man, in spite of the eight I have discarded," says the French girl, dreamily. "I am thinking of one officer from Kentucky and another from St. Louis. But I will visit these cities and will find out for myself."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, page 1.