River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-01-02

a good thing if some Hambletcn had
embarked in trade, since in that case
they might have been saved from de-
voting themselves exclusively to an
Illustration of polite poverty. She
was never forgiven, and died without
being reconciled to the family. AS
to the spelling of the name, the fam
i lily claimed ancestral authority as far
back as King Fergus the First. Mrs
Van Camp, relative by MARRIAGE
woman considered by the best Ham
bletons as far too frank and worldly
| minded-informed the family that
King Fergus was as much myth as
Dido, and innocently brought forth
printed facts to corroborate her state
ment. One of the ladies Hambleton
crushed Mrs. Van Camp by stating,
in a tone of deep personal conviction,
with her cap awry, 80 much the
worse for Didoi"
A salient strength persisted in the
Hambletons-a strength which re-
| tanned it's character in spite OF cross
| currents. The Hambleton tone and
| the Hambleton ideas retained their
| family color and became, whether
worthily or not, part OF the Ham
bleton pride. More than one son had
| lost his health or entire fortune,
which was apt not to be large, in at
tempts to carry on a country place.
"a Hambleton traiti" they chuckled,
with as much satisfaction as they con-
sidered it good form to exhibit. In
! Lynn. where family pride did not
| bring in large returns, this phrase be-
came almost synonymous with genteel
| foolishness.
The Van Camp fortune, which came
near but never actually into the fam
ily was generally understood to have
been made in shoes, though in reality
it was drugs.
People say shoes the minute they
| hear the word Lynn, and I'm tired of
| explaining" Mrs. Van Camp put it.
| She was third in line from the sue
Cassful druggist, and could afford, If
toward trade. But she wasn't, even
after twenty years of somewhat rest
less submission to the Hambleton
yoke. And it was she who, during
her last visit to the family strong
hold, help up before the young James
the advantages of a commercial ca
reer
you're a nice boy, Jimsy, and
can't see you turned into a. poor law
| yer. You're not hard-headed enough
to be good one AS for being a min
lister, well-no. Go into business dear
boy, something substantial, and you'll
live to thank your stars"
Jimsy received this advice at the
time with small enthusiasm, and a res.
ervation of criticism that was credit
to his manners, at least. But tho
time came when he leaned on it,
Her own child, however, Mrs. Van
Camp encouraged to profession from
the first. "Aleck isn't smart enough
for business, but he ma" do some
thing as a student" was Mrs. Van
Camps somewhat trying explanation;
and Aleck did do something as a stu
dent. Extremely impatient with any
exhibition of laziness, the mother de-
manded good accounting of her sons
time. Aleck and Jim, who we're born
in the same year, ran more or less
side by side until the end of college.
They struggled together in sports
and in arguments, rushed the same
girl in turn or simultaneously and
spent their long vacations cruising
up and down the Maine coast in
| thirty-foot sailboat Once they made
more ambitious journey all the way
to Yarmouth and the Bay Of Fundy in
a good-sized fishing-smack
But when college was done, their
ways separated Mrs. Van Camp, in
the prime of her unusual faculties,
having decorated the Hambleton
| 'scutcheon like a gay Cockade stuck
airily up into the breeze. She had
no part nor lot in the family pride,
but understood it. perhaps, better
| than the Hambletons themselves. Hef
crime was that she played with it.
Aleck a full-fedged biologist, went
to the Little Hebrides to work out
| his fresh and salad theory concern.
| ing the nerve system of the clam.
James, third son of John and Edith
| Hambleton of Lynn, had his eyes
| thoroughly opened in the three months
after Commencement by considera.
| ton of the family situation. 1t seemed
| to him that from babyhood he had
been burningly conscious Of the pinch.
! ing and skimping necessary to main.
| tain the family pride. The two older
| brothers were exempt from the
scorching process, the eldest being
the family darling and the second a
| genius. Neither one could nationally
be expected, Just at present" to
take up the family accounts and make
| the income square up with even
decently generous outgo. And there
were the girls yet to be educated.
Jim had no special talent to bless
himself with, either in art or science.
He was inordinately fond of the sea,
| but that did not help him in choosing
| a career. He had good taste in books
and some little skill in music He
was, indeed, thrall to the human voice,
| especially to the low voice in woman,
and he was that best of all critics,
as well as his greatest charm, lay in
| spirit Of invincible youth; but he
was no genius, no one perceived that
more clearly than himself.
CTO EE CONTINUED
N Joe Miller