The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1896-04-16
A STUDY IN HEREDITY.
By REBA G. PRELAT.

=! "Blood will tell" people said when
thev looked at the Pincllney family.
Some persons called the head OF it gen
eral, some Judge, some senator, and all
represented actual functions, well per-
formed. His eldest son often remarked
that his father was an epitome OF the
United States-"The many in one"
Perhaps their most effective appear
snce was in church, as they walked up
the aisle to the big pew in front, deserv-
ing and approaching the good opinions
bestowed upon them. The judge and
Mrs. Pinckney came first. He was tall
and strong for all his so years, and
without a thread Of gray in his military
mustache; past generations of good
breeding directed every step he took,
and the ancestor who aligned the Decla-
ration Of Independence lived again in
him.
Mrs. Pinckney was also stately, pos
sessing blonde beauty which even in
fading lent her an additional charm;
1T was almost impossible to tell whether
gold or silver predominated in her Dir,
and the result was softened and ex-
quisite halo.
On her features there rested the shad-
ow of past suffering-the indefinable
expression of q woman who has sor-
rowed and been comforted.
The eldest son, Rupert, followed his
parents, and bore the large family
prayer book; it was genuine Church
of England" volume, and had belonged
to the Pinckneys when they prayed for
the king in old Virginia.
Rupert was the embodiment of primo
geniture, for he had caught the pater-
nal essence in it's threefold capacity
the soldierly air of the general, the
solid dignity of tho Judge. the I'M
rufled suavity of the senator. He was
only 81, but the accident of his birth"
had developed him early. The twins,
Courtney and Reginald, walked next,
while the little rosebud sisters, Mary
and Melani, closed the procession.
The moral glory, had never departed
from their house, but outside of the
sanctuary much of it's material splen-
dor had dwindled. They could worship
God in the pew of their fathers, al
though the rooftree that had sheltered
so many of their race was owned by
strangers now.
Just beyond the town stood a stately,
old-fashioned mansion, in which the
Judge had been born. It had the wide
verandas, the massive wooden pillars,
the generous expanse of lawn, charac-
teristic of southern manor houses. The
broad Potomac rolled in front.
It had passed into the hands of
strangers, as a part of the financial
amisfortunes attending the family. To
buy It back again became the Mecca
of their hopes. The crisis Of the civil
war was approaching. and the whole1
land vibrated to the first shocks of the
earthquake. No sermon was preached
that did not bear on the impending is
sue; no family failed to discuss politics
with its Sunday dinner.
After religious services were over for
the day Judge Pincl<ney called his
family together in the library. The
COON itself was not large, but it had
gained an air of Importance from its
contents; the word contents better ex-
chairs, tables and floor coverings made
up the least of its glory. The walls
were adorned with departed Pinck-
neys, their portraits, their swords,
their guns; their framed commissions
I'm time of war, and their framed diplo-
mas in time of peace.
There was an official communication
purporting to be written at the person
al instance of King George the Second,
comforting an order upon one of them
for bravery on a European battlefield.
while a few generations later an auto
graph letter from Gen. Washington
showed that they were taking their
share of starving and freezing at Val
ley Forge.
Besides these documentary orna-
n,ents, there were deer antlers and buf
falo horns, peace pipes and wampums
brought from the frontier, where they
had both fought and traded with tie
Indians. In short, the little apart
ment presented the history of a noble
race which had left behind it all the
traces of generous and simple man.
hood. Under the shadow of these tro-
phies the judge was accustomed to sit,
and tell anecdotes beginning with tie
founding of jamestown and conclud-
ing with his own adventures; history
had personal interest to all the chill
dren, since they were taught to consid-
er that their ancestors had hand in
the making of it. The one element of
sadness in these discussions was the
fact that memory lacked its former ap-
propriate setting; rented house was a
bad background for departed glory.
The judge seemed to have a talent for
everything but the keeping of money;
he made it fast enough. 1t had been ru-
mored that he might have brought
tack . fortune from the Pacific coast
had he not scorned certain questiona-
BILE measures that were both popular
and profitable in that far country; by
. rather indefinite process of reasoning
he seemed to reap honor and lose lucre
in every enterprise in which he en-
barked. He made many warm friends
during the ten years that he remained