The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1882-12-08
Meektp Corvallis 0azetta.
FRIDAY MORNING, DEC. 8, 1882
Pride of Ancestry.


My boy, if you want to be some
body in this world, you must begin
by being somebody. You must have
and assert an individuality. If you
have family tree that reaches to the
stars, draw your pen through every
name on the record until you come to
your own, and stand squarely-on that.
A grand old ancestry is a splendid
thing to have, and a grandfather is
something for any manto be proud
of. But your ancestors won't make
you, my boy. Because they are dead
and the world of to-day wants live
men. Nobody gropes in graveyards
except the medical students. Queen
Victoria traces her b.ood back to
William the Conqueror. Well she
can't help it. She isn't to blame for
it, nor does she deserve any partlcu-
lar credit for il. Such a woman as
Victoria, my boy reflects honor upon
her ancestors; her pure womanhood
would honor them though she never
were a monarch, but can't see that
her ancestors do her any very great
honor. Why, suppose you can only
trace your ancestry back to your
father; why, your father was a better
man, better Christian, he wears bet
ter clothes, lives in a better house,
has more luxuries and conveniences
in life than was or did or had Will
lam the Conqueror, and so you are
that much ahead of the Queen.
Look me in the eye, Telemachus;
would you feel proud If you could
prove that you were lineal des ,end-
ant of the four Georges? Certainly
you would not. If you should have
said yes, I should have advised you
to stuff yourself and sell yourself for
a cigar store sign. IfYou assert your
self, my boy, that is all tho world
asks of you. If the world has work
for you to do, If it wants
You and needs you, it isn't going to
bark up your family tree. Who ask
ed about Lincoln's ancestors? Who
stopped in 1868 to ascertain if Grant
came over in the "Mayffower''?
What cold family" did the American
people elect President in 1880? What
inveated
the telephone? Whc knows Brigham
Young's mother-in-law? God bless
your grandfather, my boy. Love his
memory, honor his name, revere his
teachings, but don't try to wear his
boots to-day. You can't run, and
you can't climb in them. | tell you,
your neighbcr will question more
closely the pedigree of the blooded
horse or the milch COW you want to
sell him, than he will your own.
When l hear a man talking too
about his ancestors, begin to think
he needs them very much. / always
feel sorry for man who died before
he was born, and live only in the
deeds and words of his great grand
fathers. Don't die out two or three
generations before you begin, my
boy. Live your own life if it kills
you. / have known some men who
were very proud of their ancestors,
those ancestors would have been
most smally ashamed of them.
Pride of ancestry! It is dust un-
der your feet compared with pride of
prosterity. You never in your life
felt that pride in your great-grand-
sire, who fought at Bunker Hill and
shivered at Valley Forge, that you
feel in your first boy, even when he
8 three days old and has nothing to
show for himself but flannel and
When a man, on his way
TO the drug store for ten cents worth
Of paregoric, meets the younger man
On his way to the furniture store to.
buy thirty-dolla; cab for his first,
he. cannot express the pleasant pity
that curvs the older pair of lips
But, bless you it doesn't hurt the
young man a particle. He can stop
right there in the street, and give
Ihe older man points on the treat
ment and culture of children. Don't
waste your pride on your ancestors
my boy. Save it for your posterity.
They will be in better circumstances
and live in better times. While
your ancestors came over in the
'Mayfower" leaky old tub of a |
sailing vessel, that landed the pill
grims and then went straight away
for a cargo of slaves to land in The
West Indies, your children will go
across in Cunarder, first cabin, far
ing sumptuously, and only out ten
days. 1t is enough for you, my boy
to know that your ancestors were
5ood, brave, honest, Woodworking