Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-08-15
WHAT ATAVISM is.
A Story of n Chance Meeting That Explains
the Word Quite Lucidly.

A Story of n Chance Meeting That Explains
the Word Quite LucidIy.
Do you know what atavism is? 1t is a
strange and wonderful thing in nature
which governs most of our physical and
mental resemblance. What it is will be
illustrated by the true story which follows
1t was not very long ago that beautiful
young woman of Nantucket whose name
may be called Mary Tilbury, was visiting
friends at Martha's Vineyard. There, it
may be mentioned, lived at the time the
young man to whom Mary Tilbury was be-
trothed. The young man took her to
drive across the island in the vehicle usual
in the place, which has an open space be-
hind the seat.
As the pair were driving homeward along
lonely road they saw the bent figure of
an old woman, who bore upon her back a
burden of some sort, toiling along in ad-
vance of them. AS they overlook her the
young woman proposed that they should
invite her to ride They did SO and were
glad they did, for the old woman was evil
IDENTIFY travel and burden weary and looked
up at them as they stopped by her side
with grateful expression upon her face.
She was extremely old. She might we'll
have been beyond her eightieth year. The
young man helped her into the wagon. She
placed her pack upon the floor of the wagon
in the space behind the seat and sat down
upon it.
The old woman meantime kept looking
hard at Mary Tilbury and shaking her
head, with a faraway expression in her old
eyes. Presently she said: You are the
most beautiful girl ever saw except one,
and that girl looked exactly like you-the
same blue eyes, the same light brown hair,
the same fair complexion, the very same
features, and just exactly that smile and
expression But it was 50-yes more than
6O-years ago that that girl came here" The
old woman wagged her head, lost in the
past, but in few moments her eyes re
turned to Mary Tiibury's face Once more
she began her expression of admiration for
the girls beauty.
1T is wonderful, she said presently, II
must be dreaming, girl; must be dream
ing" Well" said Mary Tilbury, won't
you tell US about this girl long ago that
looked so much like me? Was it here that
you knew herr" Yes, here" answered the
old woman, but this was not her home.
She came here and spent but a couple of
years going TO school, She was older than
II was IA, and she was 20. thought she
was everything that was lovely, and so she
was worshiped the ground she walked
on and treasured up every look and word
Of hers. 1t is astonishing. Your voice is
exactly hers. | should think that Mary
Tilbury was speaking to me againr' The
girl started. My namer she said. What
do you meant" is your name Mary Til
bury" gasped the old woman.
Both told their stories. The cid woman
explained that when she was child a girl
came from Nantucket to Martha's Vine
yard and spent two years at school, as she
had said. This was Mary Tilbury, and the
living girl of that name learned when she
went home that that beautiful girl from
Nantucket was her grandmother
In the fourth generation a woman had
come into the world who was so close a
counterpart of the woman of long ago that
this aged crone was instantly impressed
with the idea that the same Mary Tilburv
had come back again.
And this Is atavism-the temperance of
type or characteristic in a descendant
not nearer than grandchild. We are told
that IN Spain every one is a son of somebody.
1t may be so in Spain, but here every one
is merely the grandson of somebody. In the
way of real governing traits and forms.
ones father does not seem to amount to
much. How many fathers have marveled
that nothing of their own characteristics
was communicated to their sons, whom
they have labored so hard to make all that
they themselves would have been! How
many other sons whose fathers have done
nothing for them or worse have taken on
no trait of an unworthy sire but have de
Veloped quite another and 4 nobler charac-
ter. Grandfather. grandmothers, great
grandfathers, great-grandmothers- some
where in the line stood the man and the
woman who were the real progenitors of
that child.-Boston Transcript.