The Central Nevadan. [volume] (Battle Mountain, Nev.) 1885-1907, 1888-04-26


a Jones in this, and in that Robin
son. Here it takes after its grand
father the earl, and there it resembles
lis grandmother the washerwoman,
These traits it derives from the dis
tlnguished De Montporencies, and
those from the family Of the late
lamented Mr. Peace the burglar. But,
on the whole, however diversely and
curiously the various individual pc
cuiarities may be compounded, it is
At bottum a Robinson-Jones, CON-
plex Of all its converging strains, its
diverse noble aud ignoble ancestor
II represents cumulative effect of
aptecedent causes, all of which it
shares equally ON the average with
every one Of its brothers and sisters.
How does it happen, then, suggests
the easy objeetor. that two brothers
or two sisters, born OF the same father
and mother, twins it may even be,
''are often more uiIlike each other in
char.c er ani mental qualities than
any t"o ordinary strangersl' Well,
the answer simply is, it doesn't
happen. Make surs of your facts be-
fore you begin to philosophze upon
them. Children of the same parents
are always very much like one another
IN all essential fundamentals; they
may differ good deal among thea.-
selves. but their differences are really
and truly as nothing compared with
the vast complexity of their resem-
blances. The case ef twins, in fact,
is peculiarly unfortunate one to
allege in this resp set, for Mr.. Galten
has collected All immense mass of
evidence tending to show that Just as
twins usually resemble one another,
almost indis,inguishably in face and
feature. 81 do they resemble one
another almost as narrowly in char
acter and intellect. Still. there is
such thing as idiosyncrasy, and the
reason for its existence is very
simple one. Each separate human
being, 1t is true, is on the average an
eqnal compound Of his father and his
mother, his graDdfathers and grand
mo,hers; hut not necessarily or evsn
probably the same compound. Father
aud mother have each in their being
myriads II traits. both mental and
physical, any one If which may
equally happen to be handed down to
any of their children. And the traits
handed down from each may not
happen to be by any means always the
same in the same family. Though
each child resembles equally on the
average both father and mother, yet
this child may assemble the father in
this, and that child in that; each may
combine in any possible complexity nf
intermixture traits derived from either
at random. Here, for example, are
an English father with light hair and
blue eyes; . Spanish mother with
black locks, an iris dark as night, aud
full olive-cplored southern complex
ion. Clearly, the children may ditf-r
indefinitely in appearances, some
with darker eyes, some with lighter;
some rs men may grow dark brown
boards, aud some may have black
whiskers and hazel eyes, and clear
half-Spanish dusky skin. Oae may
have wavy hair like the mother, yet
almost AS hight ia hue rs the fathers;
another may have 1t rather stri ght,
But dark, Similarly, too with the
features.
1t is Just the same, be sure, in men
tai matter There are family charac
ters and family intelligences, as there
ara family faces and family figures.
Each individual member Of the brood
has his own variety Of this typical
character, but in all its basis is more
or less persistent, though any one
particular trait. even the most marked
may be wanting, or actually replaced
by its exact opposite. Still, viewing
the family idiosyucrasies as n whole,
each member is pretty sure to possess
very considerable number Of pecul-
larltles more or less in common with
all tho remainder. Why is it, then,
that most people woa't admit their own
essential unity and identity of charac-
ter with their brothers and their
sisters, their c.usins and their auntsi
VANITY. vanity, pure human vanity, is
at the bottom Of all their violent re-