The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-10-02
NOT so.
Children Not
Like Parents
ONLY IN LOOKS.
In All Other Respects
They Go it Alone.

| Inc pnySlcal traits or one generation
are passed on to the next. and beyond
but neither the mental nor the mora
attributes of parents are reproduced II
children and grandchildren to any such
father like SOM merely means that the
child will resemble the parent outward.
ly, oftimes to an interesting degree
But the inner man has ever distinct
individuality no more resembling its
ancestry than it does that of a Hotten-
I tot.
This is wholly against the common
belief and at first thought will be
secuted as the, climax of absurdity
Parental love and human vanity have
ever been alert for every sign of fan
cied resemblance in character on the
part of the child to it's immediate OF
even remote progenitors Every bright
or noteworthy word, thought or actor
| OF the child, youth or man has beer
at once observed as being Just like
fathers or mothers way exactly
with perhaps patronizing allowance
of credit to grandfather or some pros
porous great aunt.
| The convenience of charging I'M the
youngsters deficiencies and i'll doings
to the other side of the family has also
been promptly seized in time by each
parent. He got that from you" is tbs
fathers thought or assertion in any
case OF marked misbehavior, and the
| mother in her turn is quite sure that
the mischief all sprang originally some
| where from the paternal side As fol-
grandmothers one probably never lived
who could not trace the microscopic Bit
of wrongdoing she might be able to see
| in the worst of her grandchildren
straight to her son-inIlaw or daughter
in-law's family. But in truth each
lapse from the right, each step toward
the good, each evidence Of stupidity
and each scintillation Of briliancy is
but the child's own nature working it.
self into view
Environment, however will change
the nature radically and help make or
mar his whole life. He often acts and
talks like his parents and thinks as
they do away into manhood, because
of the powerful influence of their asso-
citation, teaching and example through
the many impressionable years that he
was under their control. But beneath
and controlling all, is his own individ-
uality, the mysterious gifts which con-
stitute his distinct ego and with which
| ancestors had no more to do than the
man in the moon. OF the untold bill
lions who have lived, no two souls and
bodies have been alike, nor ever will
be.
A man may sometimes be pardoned
| FOR claiming that he ought not really
to be blamed for anything he does
he comes into being with no permits
sion OF his own, endowed with attri-
outes, acting strictly under which he
may bring untold misery upon himself
and others, even those who by, kin OF
requirement are the dearest to him
II his environment chances to be main
ly favorable II may modify his origina
attributes, rounding the angles of his
| inherent vfciousness and strength.
ing any Of the good gifts that the fairy
god mothers have bestowed. If the
environment is bad and continues sc
until his character has taken on its
full villainous solidity his eventua.
working out of 1t into the ultimate good
which the optimistic hold is the final
landing place of all, may be a matter
OF few score aeons. And the creature
VINO mas had to go through 1t ali
couldn't help ii either
If we take after our fathers in a
mental and moral way, who will ex-
plain the black sheep in so many es-
Unable families? Out Of three on
four, or dozen children, as the case
may be, why must there so often be
one seemingly predestined for the
devll? They have had equally loving
! parental care and training, but break
ing away at the first chance from the
| wholesome milieu Of home some one
of them will find a congenial environ
ment OF rascality and with his or her
own precious original gifts in the same
direction be on the road to Beelzebuh
IN short order-and usually get there
too.
Genius is proverbially the child OF
mediocrity. Which of his ancestors
ala SHAKESPEARE take after" or Caesar
or Napoleon, or Washington, or the
host of lesser celebrity? They NAV
have resembled In form or gesture SONS
progenitor. near or remote. Indeed. the
/ Napoleonic face and the more easily
acquired Napoleonic pose, was com.
mon enough with his brothers and has
been passed along to nephews AM
grand nephews with an accuracy some
times startling. But there hasn't beer
any more of the Napoleonic ability
among them all, nor will there ever be
any OF 1t among their future descen-
dants than there was in ali the Bona.
parties who preceded him.
Meanwhile the splendid nature which
the mysterious something that we cal
providence, had implanted in him was
developing until the time was rjpt
Tor It's grand environment of statecraft
war, and the undoing of centuries 81
wrong. Supposing him to have had
nan score OF brothers and sisters
would any one of them had a scintilla
OF his grandeur? Yet if children re-
/ semble their parents in a single thing
| except looks, why shouldn't there be
as many Lincolns to such q. family rs
there are offspring?
Orphans who have lost their parents
m INFANCY are often a puzzle to their
other surviving relatives, because they
/ fail to show so few of the attributes al
their parents. HE looks exactly as
his father did, but doesn't act like hin
at all, is the observation of uncIes and
aunts and grandparents
so, too, children taken away from
nome for year by relatives for q, visit
or travel, return to their parents with
new ideas and experiences acquired ir
the outside world, and changed to a de.
gree that sometimes astonishes the
home circle Many mother has beer
astounded at the return of a younf
lady of unexpected graces and attain
ments in place of her little girl whom
she had intrusted to friend or relative
for foreign 1aunt A broader environ
mept has accomplished more in ~
month than all the preceding years ii
the more contracted home life.
Home keeping youths have evel
homely Wits and the brighter the par
ents the happier they are to AFFORD
their children every fair chance to ge
into the spacious outerworld and learr
and see that even the most liberal anC
ample home knowledge is a pinched ant
cramped thing to, the experiences O.
the wider EXISTENCE
Foundlings have attained honor ant
position through their inherent abilities
natural excellence Of character and for
tuitous environment as they were de
veloping into manhood, while amtSs
the sorriest Of raecals who have reach
ed or escaped, the gallows. have beer
the sons of good men and women. The,