The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1885-07-18
Advice to a Young Man.

q
I ny boy, if you want to be some
/ pony IN this world, you must begin
py being somebody. You must have
Isa'Ai assert an individuality. If your
Eiamlly tree reaches to the stars,
araW your pen through every
name on the record until you come
20 your own and stand sQuarely on
that. A grand old ancestry is spIen-
dld thing to have, and a grandfather
IS something for any man To be proud
OF. But your ancestors won't make
you, my boy, because they are dead,
and the world of to day wants live
me9 Nobody gropes in the grave
y M except medical students.
n u, yen Victoria traces her blood
Eb2Ht to William the Conqueror,
WelAshe can't help it. She ISN'T to
bI4mefor it, nor does she deserve any
pafticu'ar credit for it. Such a wo-
man as Victoria, my boy, reflects
honor upon her ancestors, her pure
WomanhODd would honor them
though she meyer were monarch,
but l can't see that her ancestors do
her any great honor. Why, suppose
you can on trace your ancestry back
to your father, why, your father is a
better man, better Christian, he
wears better clothes, he lives in a
better house, he has more luXuries
and c0nveniences in life than was or
did or had William 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 a lineal descen
dent Of the four Georges ? Certainly
you would not. If you should have
said yes, l should have advised you
to stuff yourself and sell yourself for
a cigar sign. you assert yourself,
my boy, that is all the world asks of
you. If the world has work for you
do it, if it wants you and needs you,
it isn't going to bark up your family
tree.
Who asked about Lincoln's ances-
tors? Who stopped in 1868 to ascer-
tain fGrant's family came over in
the Mayflower? What "old family"
did the American people elect Presi,
dent in 1880? What great-ereat-
grandfather invented the telephone
Tf'c's'Knuws Brigham Young's moth
er-in-laW? God bless your grand
father, my boy. Love his memory
honor his name, revere his teachings.
but don't try to wear his shoes to-
day. You can't run and you can't
climb in them. l tell you your
neighbOr 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 [ hear man talking too
much about his ancestors, 1 begin to
think he needs them very much.
And l always feel sorry for a man
who died before he was born, and
lives only in the deeds and words of
greatgrandfather, 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, whose ancestors would
have been most dismally ashamed of
them.
Pride of ancestry! 1t is dust un-
der your feet compared with pride of
posterity. You never in all your life
felt that pride in your great grand
sire, who fought at Bunker Hill and
shivered at Valley Forge, that you
will feel in your first boy, even when
he is three days old and has nothing
to show but flannel and wrinkles.
When man, on his way to the drug
store for ten cents worth of paregoric
meets the younger man going to the
furniture store to buy IA $35 cab for
his first, he cannot repress the smile
of pleasant pity. that curves his old
lips. But bless you, it doesn't hurt
the young man a particle. He can
stop right there on the street and
give the older neighbor points on
the treatment and culture of chill
dren.
Don't waste your pride on your an
cestors, my boy. Save it for your
pOsterity. They will be in better cir.
cumstances and live in better times.
While your ancestors came over in
the MayhoWer, leaky old tub of Il
vessel that landed the pilgrims and
then went straight away for a cargo
of slaves to land in the West Indies.
your children will 90 across in a