Southern standard. [volume] (Columbus, Miss.) 1851-1856, 1853-02-05
THE JONES FAMILY;
Or. the Estimate Of Money.

the world. Enough OF this theoTy was FeIlncu IA
the Jones family. Jacob Jones was poor, thrift |
less man, with large family, who were put to
great straits to get along decenty, and everybody
knew it i; yet nobody knew anything against them
but their poverty. He was sensible man, well
versed in politics, and could make as handsome a
speech as Squire Driver, in any town meeting id
Freehold; but then it was only Jake Jones, the
man who want worth cent in the world He
might have held important Offices in the militia, or
been one of the Selectmen, but he was SO poor, he
was entirely overlooked.
Besides, this poverty was great disadvantage
to the family. The girls were always held below
par, in consequence Of their being brought up in
an obscure way; and Mrs Jones, their mother,
never attained to any Office in the sewing circle,
or any charitable fair, simply because she could
not mingle with aristocracy. Yet she was ac-
knowledged to be sensible woman, and every
one pided her because she was so poor.
The Jones girls never had fair position in So
cety, or they would have appeared well as
many Others They were rather marked as "slab-
sided, gawky girls with whom mothers evident
ly preferred their daughters should have but lit
tie intercourse, and they more especially feared
lest their sons should be attracted by their faces,
for they were pretty notwithstanding their poverty;
and Mrs. Driver herself declared ''if they only
had money, they would appear we'll any la
dies in the town; - but, it was, they only
known as "Jake Jones' daughters, who lived in
the small red house under the HILL"
But Mrs. Jones was descended from an English
stock. She used to say if she only had money to
travel, she had no doubt but she could find out
her pedigree but this all went for "smart talk
until one day the public journal announced that
'sthe heirs of Lucretia Selden, if living, might
hear something to their advantage by call at -
street, No. 81
Mrs Jones was Seldeh, and her mothers name
was Lucretia-if SO, property OF tco huudred
thousand dollars was her due from bachelor I'M
Gle, as bequest to the heir of his sister; and
Mrs. Jones was her only child 1t was hers, with
out mistake.
1t would have been curious chapter TO have
noted down the sayings of their old reconnaissance
when 1t was nosed abroad that the Joneses had
such a fortune.
Mrs Smith said she "alwqys thought that there
was something above the commohsty in Mrs.
Jones for her part, she had always been social
with her, and treated her lady-ke.''
''But, mo her,' said Sophia, ''you did warn me
against associating with her daughters You know
you said they awkward, uncouth girls"
But, my dear, it is not so--ihey are, in reality,
very gen,ee accomplished young ladies, and |
have no objection at all to your visiting them es-
pecally as such good fortune has happened to
Jhem.''
Jacob Jones soon set up a princely style of liv-
ing. He built elegant house, kept his carriage,
hired servants, received commission from the
Governor Justice Of the Peace; the next year
was first Selectman of the town; and DR.. Bond
eloquently urged his claim as Representative to
our General Court, affirming, with great emphasis,
that he ''knew man in town better calculated
to represent its interests than Squire jones'
This was the same man who bolted out of meet
ing rather than hear ''old Jake Jones talk"
| little more than year ago.
And how the society of the Misses Jones was
courcd Thomas, Richard, Henry the mo-
ther used to say, ''if you going to concert
or to lecture, why don't you invite Garry or So
phia Jones to go with you? They are sweet pref
ty girls, and you would do well if you could push
your way there. The squire, they say, is worth
full two hundred thousand, and that divided makes
every child entirely independent
They were no longer the slab sided greenies, but
the tall, graceful, handsome girls who were dress
ed beautifully and conversed SO sensby Didn't
the Joneses laugh behind the door as they con-
trasted the past with the present! Then there was
Micajah Jones, who used to play the big fiddle in
the church, known only in those days as Gage,
the fiddler but since he had procured hand
some house organ, and had contributed large
sum for one in the church, he had assumed the
cognomen of "Mr. Jones, our exquisite performer
and organst-son of Squire Jones, the gentleman
who received such large property from England +"
The girls were all ready to sit in the choir now
without crying-the organist noble-hearted
fellow, and wasn't it a treat to borrow his quiz
zing glass to look at the strangers who happened
to enter church?
By-and-by, there was a new event talked about,
for the affairs of the Joneses were the all engross-
ing topic. Sophia was thought to be engaged to
Mr.. Tymphony, the village storekeeper Nobody
was certain of the fact, yet every one knew it
would come out an engagement; and it was
thou ht his variety store was enlarged with that
view of the SquIres purse, when suddenly, Mr.
Blnker from the South, wealthy cotton planter,
carried her away at ten days notice. where slaves
come at her beck and call, to do as she bids
Another was soon after married to Spectator,
who lived like nabob, gave large entertainments,
bought a summer residence in Freehold, and made
| it perfect paradise. Every one of the daughters
married WELL as the phrase is, and never wanted
for the warmest friends and admirers
The Squire and his lady now occupy the broad
aisle OF The Episcopal church, and the bishop and
rector always consult him respecting the church
matters He is father of the town, and marries
more couples than the minister because people are
pleased To have the knot Tied in such elegant draw
1ng-rooms and Mrs. Jones invariably orders glass
| OF vine and a basket of cakes at the ceremony
a Cloyes, the barber, lives rent free in the small
red house they occupied in the days of their pow
! erty. The Squire remembers he used to shave
him for nothing when his pockets were empty,
and he follows the golden rule. Mrs. Jones has
made several donations to her former milliner and
! a poor woman who used to help her, spring and
I fall, In her sewing: and not one of the family