Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-04-22
pEREsRIsE WHITES PEOPLE.

Peregrine White was born on the
Naydower He missed being the first
white child born in Massachusetts, by
the distance between the shore and the
spot where the ship anchored after It's
voyage to the new continent.
Not long ago a man killed himself
because he failed to land a good Job
under the government. He left a note
claiming descent from various import
ant personages. declared that he was
. lineal descendant of Peregrine White
and wound up with the question
'.Don't you think l should be entitled
to work for the governments"
Now let some one with talent for
computation get his ready pencil out
an attend to the figures: There were
a ship load of the prolific seed for the
planting of a new nation in that histor-
ic vessel. Will the gentleman with the
pencil do a little compound proportion
and give US the number of lineal de-
scendants who under the plea offered
by the lineal descendant of Peregrine
White are entitled to a soft snap
working for the government" With
all our political talents for making
new jobs it is to be feared that Pere-
CRIME and the other pilgrims who came
over in the Mayf1ower have beaten
us a city block" and that the supply is
away beyond the demand
1t is cold blooded conclusion bu.
one to which experience is concusively
driven, that the world has not lost
much of force in the suicide of Pere-
CRIME Whites lineal descendant. The
man whose strongest claim to distinc-
ton and emolument is that the earliest
wall of his remote ancestor, by acct
dent of birth walked the echoes along
the stern and rockbound coast" of
Massachusetts 800 years ago, was out
of the running in this twentieth CEN
fury. He had nothing to deliver, and
it is essential in this age that we de-
liver the goods. His claim was
outlawed long ago. Charge it off.
And write him off too. He belongs
among the items of loss in the ledger
of the worlds doings.
Don't be a lineal descendant Of
Peregrine White or of any one else.
Be somebody Don't hang about the
pleasure places or sit at home depend
ing on descent from some one who did
amount to something to get you a
living and win you respect. This is a
fierce country. Descent doesn't mean
as much outside the ritual of the sons
and daughters of the American revolu-
ton as it does inside. Many lineal
descendant of great men can't induce
the grocer to trust him for a plug of
tobacco or buy a pair of shoes on thir-
ty days time. The worthless sons and
grandsons of big strong men are
marked objects of contempt. About
the only sentiments they inspire are
contempt for themselves and pity for
the men whose names without their
characters they have inherited.
There are always plenty of Pere-
grimes people about the capitols, the
state houses and the city halls: hang
ing on; pleading the special consider
alton of consanguinity; sorning on the
pity and carelessness of other men
Don't be a "lineal descendant" Be a
man. Meet the world and own it. Say
this is mine and take it. Deserve
what you want. Work for it. Own you,
own soul and "the world is yours
whether Peregrine White was born OF
board the Maylower or stillborr
twenty centuries before the ribs q,
Columbus caravels were laid.