A Social Study of the Russian German 57 
result of forces without as much as of forces within; for when 
the people come to America, they succumb in a certain degree to 
a lower standard because of the removal of restraints. Here it 
is easy for the young man to “skip out” as soon as trouble 
overtakes him. In this intention he is seldom hindered, and once 
in a while an innocent victim is forced by the law, or through fear 
of it, to pay the price another owed. As a rule, however, 
marriage results, as is shown by the fact that in fifteen years, only 
two illegitimate births among Russian German girls have been 
reported. But in all too many cases a birth record follows too 
soon after a marriage license. The fact that marriage in America 
is a civil ceremony and that it can be performed without the 
guilty subjecting themselves to the searching eye of the minister, 
furnishes a way of escaping one result of their misdeeds. For 
this reason there is always suspicion among the Russian Germans 
attaching to those who resort to the civil authorities for marriage. 
One of the worst features in connection with these cases in 
America is the ease with which they can escape the consequences 
of their sin by appealing to unscrupulous physicians. Instead of 
advising immediate marriage, the girl is instructed in the art of 
murder and if she takes this advice she is quite as effectively dis- 
‘graced in the eyes of her people as though she had born a child 
out of wedlock. Moreover, the responsibility of the couple for 
their misdeeds is so lightly thrown off in this way that instead 
of being warned for the future, they are made more reckless. It 
is impossible for the best informed persons to tell exactly how 
many of such cases occur in the Russian German settlements ; for 
sometimes the true nature of the illness is concealed or, again, 
imaginative neighbors saddle their suspicions upon an innocent 
girl. But the fact is that girls are here thrown out into industry 
and meet temptations of which they have never been warned 
because their mothers know nothing of them. Naturally, some 
of them go astray; the larger per cent. of these marry; a few of 
the remainder hide their shame in our state institution, but more 
seek release through the aid of unprincipled doctors. 
183 
