Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1896-05-16


Washington, milked the cows and
churned butter and spun fax and wove
cloth. But these gentle ladies would
be shocked if such facts were now pre-
sented to them.
We have q society of Daughters of the
Revolution, and they are forming an
exclusive aristocratic set in this capital
city of the republic; right here at the
seat of the government of the people.
for the people and by the people. Are
they better, more refined, more virtu-
Gus, more comnendable than the wom-
en- of the farm and fireside who darn
stockings, sew on buttons and patch
the. boys trousers? At any rate they
think so, and their assumptions are be-
coming fagrantly annoying to plain
work-a-day men and women who pay
their debts and say their prayers at
home and in church.
A society is being formed in New Eng
land composed exclusively of descend
ants of the Mayfiower. These gentle
ladies are tracing their lineage to the
foundation of the new world, and are
proud of being descended from the peo-
pie who burned witches. The society
of the sturdy yeomanry of modern
New England consists of better men
and women than those who came over
| in the Mayf1ower. This is not said in
/ disparagement of the Mayf1ower peo-
pie. They were good in their day and
| generation. But the world is growing
more intelligent, and better every way.
! OF the Mayfower people it may be said
| as it is said of Samson. That terrible
| fellow was butcher of thousands, and
| fell because of his association with an
evil woman. But he was the best man
OF his age, and was trying to serve God
I in TO iS fa6 Oh
wants to trace ancestry to Samson.
Why should anyone want to trace an
cestry to the witch burners?
1t seems that when men and women
accumulate wealth and do not have to
earn their daily bread, they assume vir-
! tues which they do not possess. Then
they fall victims to the delusions which
bring in their train desire to demon
strate superior ancestry. Jay Gould
was never such fool. He was too
busy. Cornelius Vanderbilt never had
time to make a family tree Abraham
Lincoln never sought to establish line
age of lordlings. He was too big a
man to look for bigger in the former
| Lincolns. The search of ancestry is
usually carried on by small people, who
thereby acknowledge their own insig-
1 nificance by seeking superior an
cesrry.
Confucius, Buddha, Zoroaster, Alex
ander, Caesar, Napoleon, Wolsey, Crom-
well, Washngton-thosem men sought no
ancestral strength to bolster them up
and add to their 1aurels. Luther, Cal
vim, Knox, Wesley, Campbell did not
point with pride" to ancestors who had
done something. They We're too busy
doing and achieving things 10 engage in
such nonsense. Instead of being proud
of their families they were making their
families proud of them.
The best family tree that ever saw
was printed many years ago by Josh
Billings. He snid that inasmuch as
other people We're having family trees
he had looked up his own, and found
it to consist of a pair of upright wooden
pillars with a cross-tree over them, and
a rope dangling down. He said that
out of respect to- the lamented deceased
he would not give particulars of their
achievements. He added: This is sar-
kasm."
In a comic opera, which was popular
a few years ago, there was n mai jor gen
eral who purchased an ancient castle
and said that he had bought his an
cestors with the property. That also
was sarcasm, and the people who heard
the opera enjoyed it. The fact of the
matter is, that these descendants of the
Mayfiower, Colonial Danes, and other
ancestral societies do not need ancestry
SO much as they need good hard work.
If the millionaires and money king:
in other cities have time and inclination
for nothing better, for themselves anC
the ladies of their families, let then
spend their exertions in proving So
perior ancestry. But here in the IA
tional capital. such proceedings are
} out of place. The society leaders o.
to-day will soon pass away. Their hus
bands will not remain in congress, no,
in the executive departments. They
will go out of office. and become clam
agents or lobbyists, just as their pre-
decessors haze done. We can endure
an occasional epidemic of American
aristocracy better anywhere else thar
in this city.
Unless this folly is checked by plai1
and vigorous public opinion, we sha'
have another race before our grand
, | children are grown; a race of chump
! who will form societies of the Daugh
ters of the Civil War. And many O.
, them will be descendants of deserter,
. and bounty-jumpers, suffers or camp
followers. The men who fought be
tween 1861 and 1865 were not fighting t.
establish an ancestry of idiots. The,
were fighting to preserve the union
! The men of the south were not fighting
!, to set up an ancestry of lazzaroni- TheJ
believed that they were establishing
new republic. Their descendants mus
. not establish an Order of Jefferson
; Davis; or Society of Robert f. Lee
| oil ha n