Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1903-05-16

might hesitate before inviting the young
graduate who writes economic ESSAYS.
1t is surprising how many are the
people who consider riches alone the
touchstone to eXclusiveness, as if ii proud
mansion or a fast horse could take the
place of an ancestral portrait. Now we
are too sincerely American to find fault
with riches, but lnaSmuch rs Il man $
capacity to acquire wealth may often he
out of proportion to his real worth, ism t
it a bit idiotic for different grades of
people to mingle simply because they
have the same rating i'll Dun's?
The fact is, that those who have he
come wealthy quickly learn that Il kew
of gold alone will not open this door of
eXclusiveness and many Il one has been
chagrined at his inability to enter the
magic circle, try as he would. Those
who are sensible fall back III their easy
chairs with the consoling satisfaction
that their SONS or sons sons will not
meet with the same indifference.
Because riches or intellectually is not
i'll itself enough to give the privileges is
not the same As saying that either or
both are not useful or even necessary.
Education, indeed, is the nourisher of
family stock without it there cannot be
that development of the powers of OBJ
servation or of the cultivation of artistic
tastes, both of which are SO necessary
for the making of superior minds. And
while extreme wealth is not sine 9"d
NON, yet, unless there be moderate de-
gree of freedom from money maklng,
there cannot ordinarily be that leisure
without which the contemplation OF
what is beautiful and good Is we'll nigh
impossible. When the money getting
business is mans only concern i'll life
often the fact-it becomes Il mind mar
rowing affair: hence, there should be
comfort of being at least well-to-do in
order to secure the greatest amount OF
happiness out of this playful life.
Another set of persons will have Just
little consideration here rather because
of their numbers than because of the
reasonableness of their methods-thoso
persons who hope to gain eminence by
pretensions. Miss Nassar, whose father
has made a million i'll beer and whose
mother wears all sorts of diamonds, says
Il can't help but be snobbish," or con,
must cut people in all likelihood put.
ting a wrong construction upon the
treatment she has herself sometimes re.
ceivCd. Because Miss Familytree fails
to recognize her after they have left the
fashionable private school, she mistakes
the action for Snobbishness, when it Is
merely because Miss Familytree sees the
utter senselessnesS of going about bow
ing right and left to persons whom she
| will perhaps never have occasion to say
two words to in succession. Mr.. Har.
ward, whose father has just retired from
active business, says, with some pom
posity-''we are not in trade as il
there was something criminal about a
business career. 1t is the re-echoing OF
brilliant, if not altogether honorable
English statesman when he said-"it
takes three generations out of trade tc
make gentleman. While trade, as
| this affectatiOn is pleased to call 1t, may
sometimes heap prosperity upon UNI
deserving people, it all the more pays
homage to honorable sentiments, and
education is by no means unwelcome
Miss Vassar and Mr. Harvard are over
cultivated. They have a fondness for
calling those 'parvenus' who moved
into the neighbOrhOOd six months later
and whose fortunes took several wears
less to make. They like to talk about
being biiSp, and because lady friend
lady, should therefore be wiped out of
the dictionary. They like Mr.. Jones be
cause he is so "clever,' and they have
people. There is even danger in too
much cultivation.
Now that we have set the limitations
we may inquire what there is that
makes for family permanence, and
hat har In nh1 I.
in family" pride? And the first sug-
gestion is the established scientific fact
that biology has given us-the law OF
heredlty. Physical strength certainly is
hereditary. The children of robust par
ents are not apt to be delicate and sickly
And the endurance of families is often
traceable to strong men and women who
worked hard with their hands. Both
mental and moral qualities are just as
subject to the law of heredity. The
science would be indeed uncharitable
and discouragimg that established the
transmissibility of insanity and crime
and denied it to truth, honesty and
high ideals. Science is not arbitrary
its conclusions are the results of just
reasoning, and it is truthful when it de-
clares that lofty aspirations live In
posterity. Honor and purity are as
hereditary as baseness. Grace and
charm and gentleness are born i'll peo-
pie, and lifetime of effort cannot give
them to those who are not endowed with
them, however much they may be
learned from association. Many are
intuitively honest, and to be otherwise
We're for them impossible. A thrifty
father is not likely to have shif,less
Concluded ON fourth page.