Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1893-11-24

OAAAX 4En
"Hrockholst, said Professor Hes
keith to me, you smiled when 1 used
the term ''pranks Of heredity,' but had
no intention of trying to amuse you. /
used the expression in all solemnity as
. selfAreepecting scientist" Mature.
my dear boy" continued the professor.
lis not lovab!e in all her moods: but in
the manifestation Of this mysterious
force which we call heredity she plays
such fantastic tricks thai at times |
feel 9 genuine affection for her. To
me she appears In the guise OF dainty
Ariel or 9 tricksy Puck, setting the
brow Of Olympian Jove on Snug the
delicate nose Of Psyche on a tishwife:
er's son, or poet Of baby like Chat
Sappho, or teaching the melody Of a
syren to Patti and tricking her cut
OF q soul-a mere delicious singing
machine; making q monster in mien
Nike Mirabeau as silver-tongued as
cicero or filling q Demosthenes' soul
with eloquence and giving him de-
feet of speech!"
Hesketh and had strolled up to the
Park and taken q seat in the Mall. It
had been delicious MAY dav-a bit of
juno weather come before its time. I
was very proud of Professor Hesketh's
friendship, mere boy that was, a stu
dent in the law school and he assistant
professor OF biology and psychology at
the Polytechnic. l was half inclined to
think that he liked me because 1 was
such good listener, but on this c.
casion rather surprised him by
piping up and saying:
why, Professor, you surely don't
mean to assert that whatever our
natural characteristics may be they
can only come to us through inher-
ttance? May they not be mere acct
dents?"
accidents, my dear Adrian, repeat
ed Hesketh. II don't like the word;
it's distasteful to scientist. There
can be no such thing as an accident,
strictly speaking, in racial develop
ment. If have cowlick, it's because
some one of my ancestors had one.
True, murderer in washing his hands
might leave single red corpuscle un-
derneath his thumb-nail, and be con-
.victed on scientific testimony. That
would be an accident, but the mental
trend of Eugene Aram toward the
taking of human life was not an acct
dent. It came to him by inheritance.
He may have tried to control it, but in
the end it controlled him. The tricksy
Puck may have treasured it up for
generations, for that matter, and finally
dropped it into her kneading-trough
the day she met Aram. But" contin-
ued Hesketh, "in her 'pranks of hered-
ity,' Nature not only creates mute Mil
tons and Cromwells guiltless of their
country's blood, as l have intimated,
but she amuses herself by all sorts of
quaint contrasts and curious conjunc-
tiOns, as, for instance, when she cre-
ates the kleptomaniac, the well-to-do
robbing his poor brother of some trife,
or the wretched miser starving on his
miserable pallet which contains thou
sands of dollars in yellow gold, or when
she lends the Yankee boys jackknife a
cunning that would have put a Phideas
TO shame, or sets burning sapphics on
lips not above the sweetness Of choco-
late caramels:"
l laughed heartily at these quaint
conceits of Hesketh's, and was just con-
graduating myself upon being alone
with him while he was in such happy
vein, when Jack Olney, called Hand
some jack" fellow student and sort
Of chum Of mine, joined us and proposed
to go over to the Casino and get a stein
of cool beer.
EFT would be nectar for the gods on
such a sultry evening as this" urged
Olney, and as 1 knew there would be no
use trying to shake him off, turned to
the Professor and pressed him to join
us, although to be frank about it, l was
not particularly fond OF Olney, and for
the life of me never could see why he
cared to be in my company, for we
were about as unlike as two human be-
in physics that unlikes attract each
other. Twas now nearly "a, and had
been in New York little more than
two years. It was my last year at the
law school. My father, Adrian Brock
hoist, for whom l had been named, had
been thoughtful and studious man,
taking life very seriously, and l grew
to resemble him more and more. 1t
may be that the fact that l had been
left an orphan at an early age and been
confided to the guardianship of maid
en- aunt, Sarah Ann BrOckhOlst, 9
woman OF morbid predictions for the
good opinion OF her fellow creatures,
had tinged my character with a certain
sedateness and tendency to literalness
Conform" had been the one word for.
ever on my aunt's lips, and now as ap'
preached the twenty-fifth year OF my
age l was to be brought face to face
with q very curious problem, and a very
important one, too, for me, inasmuch
rs it meant either conform" or lose q
Quarter-million of dollars.
MY father had made very strange
will. He owed the bulk OF his fortune
to q friend, one Asa Bartlett, who II
early life had made a valuable inven
ton, q machine for rounding the backs
of books, work which until that time
had been performed by hand labor
and, for q small sum, had transferred
to my father half interest in the In
vention. 1t enriched them both, ane
as Bartlett had but one child, daugh
ter, Vera by name, and as l was an on
ly child, my father conceived the ides
OF perpetuating the community OF IN
terest between the two families by
having me marry Vera upon my at
tanning my twenty-ffth year; and SO II
earnest was he about 1t that In ordel
70 whet nv purpose should 1t become