A Social Study of the Russian German 83 
me twice now and he can just stay where he is until he gets ready 
to support me and the baby.”® O, I felt so ashamed when folks 
asked me where my husband was and I[ didn’t know.” Such 
unfortunate experiences as this have not been infrequent, and the 
divorce court has played so prominent a part in the intermarriages 
of the lower class that all such are looked upon with suspicion and 
doubt. The current opinion upon the subject is expressed by a 
newspaper correspondent who urges the young people to “ marry 
industriously ” but warns the young men “not to remain sitting 
by an English lady, for with them marriage does not usually last 
long.” The correspondent “knows several good German Russian 
boys who made that mistake and were separated within three 
months. That is the way in America, if young folks do not get 
proper instruction.’ 
The rate of intermarriage has varied greatly during different 
periods on account of local conditions, but under normal circum- 
stances it is on the increase. 
Taste XVII. NumBer AND PERCENTAGE OF INTERMARRIAGES BY RUSSIAN 
GERMANS IN PERIODS FROM 1878 TO 1914 
Intermarriages 
Marriages a 
Number Per Cent. 
ROPSHUGOLY ois /g.6 see0ls og a0 66 Dal 13 | 48.1 
MOO 2 WOO Aepeves ais Hel ace tts beanie 66 8 WAS 
SOG TOO Ue mwers gs .35 sere ree 198 24 Wit 
UOOH—UOuAe, 6 5 book neo ae 572 89 15.5 
863 134 15-5 
The average number of mixed marriages during the entire 
period has been 15.5 per cent., varying from 48.1 to 12.1. The 
extremely high rate during the first period is due to the fact previ- 
ously mentioned that many of the first immigrants were young 
single men who had been brought or sent by their families to 
7™ The Nebraska law against wife desertion, passed in 1003, provides 
for imprisonment in the penitentiary for not over one year or in the 
county jail for not over six months, for a husband who abandons his wife 
or refuses to support her. Revised Statutes of Nebraska, 1913, Secs. 
8614-8617. 
77 Dakota Freie Presse, January 28, 1913. 
209 
