Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-02-24
surface Mr.. Warner considers the best
background for pictures.
THE RAGE YoR RAMPANT LION

thority that the London College OF
Heralds draws large part OF its profits
from Americans.
A few New York families are entitled
to the use OF arms, bat the majority who
use them have adopted them according
10 fancy. A fashionable statIoner says
that he has engraved the same device for
ten different families. He says that ram
pant lions ere very popular, and that he
has copied the Morris coat OF arms,
which has two upon il, for six persons in
no wise related. This matches the old
story OF the British Ambassador
at Washington. who sent his car
riage to a factory for repair, aud
when he afterwards visited the place
found his coat OF arms emblazoned on
every vehicle in the shop. But what is
to be done The -Four Hundred say it
is high time American Aristocracy had
some sign other than the almighty dol
lar, and some foundation less vulgar than
filthy lucre, and that family arms are the
proper thing, besides being quite Eng
lish. you know aud so what are Tom,
Dick, and Harry to do but to follow suit
and blazon somebody's heraldic device,
if not their own, upon their trappings
VERY NUMEROUS.
II you will stand on the Fifth-avenue
curb any fine afternoon you may OBJ
serve that at least two out Of svery six
carriages bear coats or crests on their
door panels. The occupant Of fine
turnout is not as proud of her matched
BAYS and their golden harness as she is
OF this little bit Of blszonry which signi-
fees an aristocratic desce6t and distin-
glishes her carriage from all the others
in the throng. II you are posted in
heraldry it is not necessary to glance in
side to see who my lady is. Those elab-
orately-quartered arms yonder for in
stance, belong only to the Liyingstones,
and | know that tue beautiful Miss
Clarice is within taking the air prepare
tory to another night of dissipation
and triumph this carriage bearing the
gold cross on red field, which marks
descent from the crusaders, is the Van
Rensselaers. The Publishers Appleton
are OF Puritan lienage their carriage
bears three apples on a silver shield !;
John jays has two poppinisys In the
device; the M@ris coat OF quartered
arms is one OF those most noted, and the
plain but accomplished Miss Morris,
whose debut ball last season cost her
father 500, 900, is as proud OF her descent
as an English girl would be if the
daughter OF a hundred Esrls. In the
matter of pedigree these and other New
York families are able to look down
upon certain of the acknowledged
leaders of fashion.
The Yanderbilts have searched in
vain they have been able to find no ar
mortal bearings to which they are enti-
tied, and q simple monogram adorns
their carriage doors. 1t IS the same with
the Astors. In quiet way this family
have tried 10 trace their ancestry back
TO some distinction, but beyond tue
grandfathers of the first American Astor,
who was q middle-class tngishman,
they are not able to go. And 20 where
in other houses the silver plate is covered
with heraldic ensigns in the Yanderoilts
and Astors there are blank spaces. This
is the Achilles tendon OF the money
princes, their one vulnerable point
Money will not buy ancestry, and con-
servatiye New York still classes them
among the nOuUe0u richie.
Jay Gould has a coat-of-arms, but he
makes no display Of it, and his dangh-
ter Helen has not even a monogram
upon her carriage. Secretary Bayard,
on the contrary, is very proud OF his.
He has Just had family memorial win
dow made for church in Wilmington,
Del, the entire design OF which IS fami-
" arms. He is descended from the IA
nous Chevalier. ..
MISTAKES. cu
II is hardly to be expected that all
Americans who pretend TO follow the
fashion are up in rules, argents, crests,
and bars sinister, and An occasional mis-
take, such as in adopting device which
does not fit with the ancestry claimed, is
no more than TO be looked for. IN this
light it is heartless to laugh at the posi-
ton in which a certain family of wealth
here, whom l could name. recently
found themselves They have been using
a coat of-arms which proves to be Scotch
and claiming at tue same time a
Dutch ancestry. Some one posted in
heraldry came along the other day and
pointed out the discrepancy. In the di-
lemma the family concluded to drop the
Dutch ancestry, as they could not, with
out much awkwardness, erase the blazon-
~, 30 familiar to their acquaintance, from
their belongings. This is a true story,
and if any one chances to meet in Cen
trail Park a carriage sporting on It's panels
device having a Scotch buckle across
the shield and three feathers and blue
bells in the crest he may find out who
the family is to whom l refer.
Some Of the old New York families OF
Huguenot descent are in the terrible
predicament OF not knowing what their
real names are. 1t seems that among
the Huguenot refugees driven into Hol-
land were many families Of children
whose parents had been executed. They
were accompanied by some faithful
servant, who, afraid to give the names
of the children. registered them under
their own. The search for pedigrees
has revealed to many proud people that
they are bearing the servants name, and
have no idea what their own is.
SKELETONS.
The men who make it their business
to search for pedigrees are important
personages, for they have the chrome
logical history of every family Of note ut
their tongues end. One New York an
tiquarian possesses copies of Dutch regis
try-books that go back TO the year 1900,
and has been TO Europe twenty six times
to rummage the mouldy past for broken
links to ancestral chains. His den fairly
grins with skeletons of tho past. desks
stuffed full OF pedigrees, aud furniture
which has had the wear OF ages. One Of
the curious things about the business is
the way heirlooms are traced out AMI re-
covered. After family has established
its ancestry and it's coat-oI-arms it be-
gins to banker after heiflooms, and old