Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1886-05-21
ANCIENT PLoDDERs.
How Their Labors Procured Social Stand
ing for Their Descendants.

ing for Their Descendants.
OF all the forms of social suppersti-
ton, that of old family is the most prev
alent aud the most deeply rooted. It
has existed from time immcmorial, and
is as strong to-day as ever. just why
the fact that belonging to an old family
should lend distinction and confer mys-
terious honor, IL is impossible to say;
but that It does there is no manner Of
doubt. The single statement that a
man or woman is a member of an old
family silences cavil and criticism as TO
his or her claim to recognition by good
society. 1t matters little what the FAM
lily is, or may have been, provided they
are old. They may have been old fools,
old vulgarians, old rascals; their fool
ishness, vulgarity or rascality weighs as
nothing against their age. If they had
been noted for wisdom, culture, rciine-
ment, bcnevolcncc, enterprise, integrity
for any kind of force or virtuc-their
oldncss would be commcndable, since
it would denote hereditary tendency and
the likelihood of continuation of
those desirable qualities. But, as a
rule, an old family has little or nothing
else in its favor. 1t has not been in any
manner conspicuous either for good or
evil. 1t has simply had the power of
perpetuity, and for this it is esteemed
and exalted.
In this city many of the old families
are rich, their riches having come in the
main from the great advance of land
originally purchased by their founders
for what now seems an Insignificant
sum. Those founders were remarkable
for tenacity, apt to be a characteristic
of dull, commonplace folk. Hav-
ing bought farms in what was then
the country, they held these until
their death, bequeathing them to their
nearest of kin, who held them in turn
until they had become, by the rapid en-
pansion of the municipal limits, very
valuable for building lots. Some of the
largest fortunes here have been derived
from broad acres for which hundred
years or more ago heavy, plodding
Knickerbockcrs paid few hundred dol
lars, and which are to-day worth mill
lions. Their descendants have display
cd neither foresight nor energy, neither
mind nor management. They have
simply lived and money, froN invest
ments in which they had no part, has
steadily fallen to their undcserved lot
1t is they who form what are considered
our first social circles. They have been
fashionable through several generations
of wealth, which insures leisure and
ample opportunity for the study of
manners. They are seldom original,
individual or brilliant, but they are
well bred, in the conventional sense;
they know how to dress, behave and
entertain. In a word, they understand
current etiquette they are fully apprised
of the latest forms of doing things.
What more should be asked or expect
ed? Society and fashion deal with
manners, with cxternals and proper
usages only. They wholly discourage
individuality and brilliancy. They have
no place for these. They conduct every
thing after a prescribed routine and
deep adherence of change or inno-
walton. Consequently the aflluent de-
scendants of the ancient plodders, who
had no social ambition, and no care
save for material comfort, are the right
full representatives of contcmporancous
socicty.-M T. Cor. San Francisco
Chronicle.