The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1895-01-23
THE FAMILY TREE.

Captain Craik was the proudest man
in America. He had served creditably
in the war of 1912, as his father had in
the Revolution and his grandfather in
the "Old French war"-all captains
who had never received a scratch or
once encountered the vulgar smell of
gunpowder.
That none of his name had ever risen
above the rank of captain was oircum-
stance he not a little plumed himself
upon. Generals and commanders-in-
chief, he was accustomed to say, were
for the most part parvenus, promoted
through luck or for accidental reasons
But q captaincy running in family
for three generations was quite another
affair."
Family pride was the captains spe-
cialty. How far back he could trace his
kindred nobody exactly knew, but it
was popularity believed he could, if SO
minded, produce satisfactory proof that
the Craiks had cruised through the flood
in their own private yacht.
The captain hated the new and wor-
SHIPPED the old. When he went about it
was in an ancient family gig drawn by
an old horse of approved extraction,
now mere pedigree in harness, but in
whose spavins and windgalls the cap
tain took almost as much pride as he
did in the family govt.
Captain Craik was rich, moreover
Time and the natural rise Of property
had made him SO. He would have soorn-
ed thu acquisition of wealth by any less
respectable mode. Trade he looked
upon as plebeian and vulgar. Speoula-
ton was upstartish, and as for petroleum
-faughl
His daughter and only child he had left
to die unforgiven and almost in want
for having married man without
grandfather. The poor girl had besought
his forgiveness while her husband lived,
but ceased to do so after his death,
seeming to look upon such an act as
sort of treason to his memory. Her in
FAINT son, however, soon left motherless
as we'll as fatherless, was taken into ia
vor at last for the sake of the blood that
was in him, and thus it came that Will
lard Spence was brought up i'll his
grandfather's house in way befitting
the heir apparent to the handsomest for
tune within 80 miles.
Captain Craik would have greatly
preferred that his grandson, after fin
fishing at college, should have sat down
in gentlemanly idleness and quietly
awaited his turn at the family success
sion. But Willard Spence had other
views. He was far from sharing his
grandfather's notions on the value of
ancestry, and though too discreet to
openly laugh at them he felt he was
more than likely to run counter to them
some day, as his poor mother had done,
when his own time to marry came. 1t
was for this reason partly and partly be-
cause he had an ambition to be some
thing in his own right that Willard
prevailed upon his grandfather to enter
him as a student in the Office of Mr..
Stiles, the leading lawyer of the county.
1t was with some reluctance that the
old gentleman yielded. He entertained
not very exalted opinion of the bar.
But then it was stepping stone to the
bench, and though the family could
boast Of three successive captains there
had never been chief justice in it. 1t
was this consideration that determined
the captain
If John Stiles was the driest of law
yers, his daughter Mary was the pref
test and most fascinating of girls, and
Willard Spence was not the man to be
slow in finding it out. 1t would be the
old story over to recount the steps of
their falling in love and how deeply
they fell in.
Willard ventured to hint to his grand
father one day, not at the state OF his
feelings, but what a nice, intelligent
young lady Miss Stiles was. The old
gentleman caught like gunpowder. He
had no excuse for putting summary
end to his grandson's legal studies and
packing him off ON foreign tour, for
the young man had said nothing to JUS
tify suspicion of his being in love-
But the captain scented danger afar
and proceeded to read such a homily ON
the sin Of marrying into families with
out lineage and put such disinheriting
look ON that Willard was fain to drop
the subject
If the reader has ever read Blackstone
he will remember, and If he hasn't we
will toll linn, that in the second book
there is folding leaf called '"Table
of Descents," whereon the author illus
trates the mode of computing kindred
by tabular view of the ancestors and
collateral relatives for ten or dozen
generations of a certain fictitious John
Stiles. The names are inclosed in little
circles, with lines uniting those sup
posed to have intermarried, whose names
are further united by other lines to
those Of their Offspring.
II have iti'' was Willard Spence's
exclamation as his eye fell on this leaf
lying lose in the volume he was reading
one day.
That evening it was accidentally drop.
ped in his grandfather way.
whats this?" asked the old gentle
man, picking it up and putting on his
specs.
"a paper found in one of Mr.. Stiles
books" was tho innocent reply.
"Humphl A copy Of the Stiles fam
lily tree, and-.-stop, let me see-running
back, as l live, through more genera
tions than l supposed any man in the
state could count but myself Who'd
have thought that dried up old lawyer
had SO much blood in him?'
mot l certainly" acquiesced Will
lard.
"And see, here's the name of Baker.
My maternal great grandmother mai
den name was Baker. By Jove,
shouldn't wonder if we found ourselves
related YETI
"Nor | either, +" said Willard drily.
"Miss Stiles-is she very handsome2"
inquired the old gentleman.
"Passably, answered the young hyp-
ocrita
Then it occurred to the captain to
lecture his grandson on the impropri-
ETY. Of not having returned the paper to
Mr.. Stiles at once. The young man
defended himself with fib, which the
reader may pardon If he likes. He said