Smyrna times., 1871-06-28
Who Was Your Grandfather 2

WIN w DIS 1Uur Urduu1dLu6f
There are so many men of insignificant and
uncertain origin rising into notoriety and sue
cess, that fathers and mothers really respecta-
BILE and moral besides being well descended,
are beginning to look at the pedigree of those
who propose to their daughters, and of the
damsels Of whom their cons become enamored.
Wealth is won by such INSCRIPTIONS means, by
such cunning, such impudcnce, and such bra
zen audacity, it is held with so much miscrly
stinginess and mean spirited parSimony, its ac-
QUESTION being so often the means of belittng
souls naturally dwarfsh, its possession being as
often damage as profit to the owner, its en-
plOyment being dictated by Fearless calcula-
tlons OF the greatest gain, it being so often the
reward which men, naturally perverse, get for
being bad and acting without scruple, there
being nothing vulgar attached to the winning
of treasure by the deceptions of speculation
that those parents who have inherited respec-
liability through unbrOken lines of gentee an
cestry are beginning to look at the pedigree of
the wealthy suitOrs of their daughters and of
the wealthy objects of their sons esteem.
Gold plated medocrity is at discount, while
good pedigree efOutweighs stores, lands, shares,
mines and ships. Blood will manifest itself
for good or i'll. A sordid taint or tinge, intro
/ duced by marriage of mOmentary cOnve-
/ ulCuSC Will uOt UC lOSL IUT SUtl6 ReUeTaLlOuS.
The old trunk and roots of the family tree are
worth more than the later branches.
"Who was your grandfather may well be
asked in these days of bigamy, elopements, di-
vorces and illicit arrangements. AS things go
on there will soon be q hideous fraction of
Americans who cannot trace their lineage
otherwise than through doubtful stages There
will in thirty years be many thousands of the
nearly adult grandchildren Of fathers and
mothers who have been divorced and re mar
ried before the present date. Children who
gree will not mate with those who cannot men
ton their grandtathers without shame.
An Italian barber's wife, very poor, refused
the hand of her daughter to a German prince
In answer to an Engshman, who reminded
her OF her daughters poverty and who won
dered at the refusal of an offer from a very
wealthy sr'tor, which she ought to have re-
joiced at she said: Rejoice in uniting her
to f0reigner-a barbarian No And were
my daughter capable of cherishing so disgrace
ful an idea, | should not scruple to plunge a
dagger 10 her heart" Such is the story told
, by the Percys, in illustration Of the family
pride of the Romans, as shown even among
their modern descendants, the Italians Such
, pride Is carried to excess and becomes a vice
I but good degree of it is needed to preserve
the purity OF blood and as a motive to the lv
ing to act for the qualification and well-beinI
r of their remote posterity
J, The very looseness and immortality now pre-
valing will have its reaction. "Who wa
your grandfather ?" is going to be the slogan
of the war upon the most serious social anC
: domestic iolles of the day There is fashiul
. in vice, and there is fashion in morality also
The fashionable drunkenness of one era goe
i down through imtators to dramshops Will
. . temperance becomes popular and fashiOnabl
: for a season. A period of fashionable irreip
i Il ion is succeeded BY period of almost geners
3 observance of religious habits. SO we may al
- ticipate that an era will come when famlie
= will not make pretensions to gentility, couple
u with immoral lives and based on a spurou
pedigree. "Who was your grandfather
=, will then have terrible significance.