Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1885-07-28
HUNTING THEIR FAMILY TREES
spobs Who Are An xious to Find the Eng.
llsh End OF Their Pedigree.
philadelphia Cor Chicago Tribunel

snobs Who Are nxlous to Find the Eng
Ilsh End OF Their Pedigree.
PHILADELPHIA Cor. Chicago Tribunel
My young friend had been abroad
several times, lived in delightful style,
and seen everything that was TO be
seen, and at cost TO himself of practi,
cally nothing He worked a scheme
that was quite unique and satisfactorily
profitable. lie had come from what is
called here in the east good family"
He had taste for the study of lineage.
and by way of occupying his leisure
and tickling his own vanity he
undertook to find out who and what
his people were. Without very much
trouble he discovered, to his own salts
faction, that he was closely related to
some of the modest families in Europe
and was entitled to bear coat OF
arms lie rightly coniectured that
there were lots of his compatriots who
would be delighted TO have a similar
discovery made for them, and would be
willing to pay literally for the work.
lie Immediately set about establishing a
business as hunter.up of buried family
trees, and he has succeeded beyond his
hopes. He has gone abroad every sum
mer since that day in the interest OF
some representative of the nouveau
richie yearning for knowledge Of their
lineage.
The other day bade him good. bye as
he sailed away with the commissions
and the good money of five Philadelphi.
ans in his pocket. If he succeeds in
finding any glory for them he surely
will deserve the $500 fee that each gave
him in advance Two of his clients
made their thousands in the respectable
business Fl selling coal a thiri was
dentist, &other manufactured brown
paper bags, and the fifth founded his
fortune on scent whisky. Still, now
that they are all wealthy, they are
struggling to force their way into what
is called society. The most effective
means of doing it is TO clear a road with
a good coat of armS-none genuine un.
less stamped.
| asked my friend how he proceeded
in his researches. lie explained that il
was simple enough He had studied
the matter so thoroughly that he was
pretty well acquainted with the ramiti.
cations Of lineage of the 500 or 600 great
English families. A client was ex.
pected TO furnish him with all the data
possible, time of the arrival of his
family in this country, inter-marriages,
and so on back as far as memory would
serve. He then would hunt up all the
old records pertinent to any name in
hand that he could find at Somerset
house. and would, besides, look up old
books in parish churches. IL was very
seldom, indeed, that he was not re.
warded by the discovery of an esquire
or baronet. Still he was conscientious,
as he said, and in a few instances he
had been obliged to inform clients thai
they came of race of peasants. | dc
not personally know Of any generous
client who was so Inundated | rather
suspect that they always got what they
paid for.
The yearning for noble lineage,
whether true or counterfeit, has grown
TO be a passion in this town. Family il
much more discussed than art, litera.
ture or science at a Philadelphia recep,
tion or tea. A woman who has a grand
father who will bear talking about never
ceases to turn him over and over in his
tomb for the edifcation of her social
compeers. The many women who have
had grandfathers who would not cut 8
swell fgure in drawing room of to-day
find their yenerated progentors ridi.
culed and jabbe with words of con.
tempt to their own shame and humilia.
ton. Indeed, society at this blessed
moment is intensely interested in
the inquiry, Was Evans logers,
the father of Fairman ogers,
the great Newport swell, mer-
chant always, or was be in his youth
really tailorF Besides, society is
anxious to know whether it is true that
the mother of another great swell was
really milliner before she married the
swell's father Pack of that comes the
grave question. did the swells father
before he struck fortune in a vein OF
coal, really drive a cart at 81 a day"