Waterbury Democrat., 1901-09-16
LAW 6 O F HEREDITY
By AMELIA PAIN
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had dabbled in the subject, on and off, ever since his attainment to years of discretion (and indiscretions); the bookcase over his mantelpiece con- tained quite a number of works on Heredity, into which he had dipped and dived at odd moments in his usual unscholarly and characteristic man. ner; but of late he had really become tiresome on the subject.
 He was one of those half-artistlc, wholly cratic men whose business 1t apparently is to puzzle their fellow creatures and defy classification. His pug-like face, his jerky manner, his unpardonable clothes, the cursedness of his hair, the atmosphere of this room of his, above everything his mad dening theories, all tended to mark him out from the common herd with out allotting him any definite place of his own, unless it were the general one of "crank."
 Perhaps Loreton understood him as well as anyone because he had long ago given up the effort to define him, and, for the sake of his good points, bore with his peculiarities as a mother bears with the teasings of her first born.
 It was without shade of surprise that he saw Orridse jump up to greet him now with the exclamation: five got another!"
 Have you?" was all that Loreton would say in the calmest of tones.
 "Clear as day,' continued Orridge, clapping to the old diary in which he had been reading, and passing long fingers through his hair, as was usual with him under excitement.
 "Come on out" said Loreton, utterly unimpressed.
 "Out be ,darnedi" And Orridge threw himself into chair before the fire. i've been looking through my fathers diaries again." he went on. ''Fascinating work, I tell you. You know my weakness for savories ?" Loreton nodded. And my dislike to raw fruit? ?" Another nod. Well, there it is. Listen to this" He reopened the diary, turned the yellow pages with nervous rapidity, and read out: But this is the last picnic that I shall go to. The inclemency of the weather, the frivolity of the company and the char acter of the viands, consisting chiefly -as they will on these occasions-of raw fruit and cakes, to the exclusion of the more savory and civilized dishes that are alone worth eating *' and so on. There you are. Another case firmly established"
 ''I suppose so," said Loreton, inward ly deploring the fact that he should have walked into the middle of one of Orridge's fits, as he termed these plunges into the hereditary ques- tion.
 That's the second discovery this week." continued Orridge, too deep in his subject to care how far outside of it the other might be sitting. "I showed you my Aunt Gregory's photo graph, didn't I?''
 "Yes," lied Loreton, suavely.
 Orridge took up the photograph from the mantelpiece, where it fig ured among many others-not of the order usually to be counted on ill a young mans den, but all represent ing types of the elderly relative in varying degrees of severity and repel- lance. "See that mouth?' he said. And that chin? Afine-line for Ene. That's where I get my temper from. But I'll root her out yet"
 ''Pity you didn't inherit one of her good points, if any," suggested Lore ton.
 ''That's just the devil of it." snapped Orridge. We can't cho ose. It's horrible. Don't you see the hor- TOT of it2 And the crying necessity for combating this awful thing? We think of ourselves, each of us, as a great, independent unit. We think that this, that and the other quality which goes to the making up Of our personalities is ours, our very own, evolved by our own distinctive indi- viduality. And behold, we need only look skin-deep into the matter to find that we are nothing, more nor less, than disgusting hash of rela- tives and ancestors, within and with outI The without, of course, we can't help; we recognize that we have the nose of a tippling grandfather, the eyelid of sanctimonious uncle, the teeth of an aunt, the figure of convict ancestor; but that's unalter- able. It's revoltihg and humiliating, but it must be borne. But the other thing, the within-that, I say, need not and should not be borne. Whats to prevent me from stamping out my grandfather's untruthfulness or my mothers timidity, or my Aunt Greg ory's temper?" He hurled the pho- tograph violently across the room. "And I will, too. You'll see. By dint of careful research into the family annals, and hard work at myself, l I shall end by becoming the perfect, Independent human being, instead of the bundle of rotten inheritances that now ann" He rang the bell. From this day forth, for one thing, I feed chiefly on raw fruit, and abjure every sort of savory or made dish. Halter" ito the man who answered his bell sI shall take fruit for breakfast to- morrow morning. Only fruit. See that there's plenty of it, different sorts. That's alb
 It was soon after II that Loreton rose to go. He had tried to induce Orridge to come away with him on his projected travels, which were to end with a walking tour in Switzer- land-blt in vain.
 On his return, after eight months. |