Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-04-19
Environment W.. Heredity.


Environment W.. Heredity.
whats bred in the bone can't be
beaten out Of the flesh.''
Aunt Polly used to say that, and it
applied pretty we'll in her day. But
things have changed since Aunt Polly
died.
1t was Aunt Polly, also, who re-
marked laconically, when assured that
the young man who was to marry a
neighbours daughter was an exemplary
youth, had not a single bad habit:
We'll, there now, amt that nice!
But has he any good ones?'
But to go back to the bred in tho
bone" conviction Of three generations
ago, We don't beat it out" nowadays:
We go about it in different manner.
The modern understanding is that en-
vironment is stronger than heredity.
Children Of doubtful parentage and de-
PRAYED conception are adopted into
good homes and become useful citi-
zens.
Love is the best card in the deck.
1t takes" any combination, if played
by brains and heart. We don't beat"
tendencies out Of tender human shoots,
but set about turning the sunlight on
the shoot and bending it that way by
the power Of light and warmth.
In the Pictorial Review for May we
find the following:
A short time before the Civil War a
New York policeman took in charge a
ten-year-old boy whom he had noticed
lettering about the streets and sleep
ing on park benches. The little fellow
was a typical waif OF the slums, bear
ing the marks Of neglect ill usage, and
deplorable family history. Investi-
CATION showed that he had no home,
his mother being dead. and his father,
a degenerate neer- do well, having
deserted him.
so lar as the authorities could as
certain. the boy himself, an under
sized, shrewd-looking youngster, had
not as yet developed any criminal or
seriously vicious traits. But the facts
Of his pedigree seemed to tell heavily
IN his disfavor forecasting the day
"hen he would become in some sort an
onender against society. The i'm
mediate problem was how to dispose of
MIN, and this was solved by turning
him over to a. charitable organization.
IL so happened that about this time
an Indiana farmer and his wife deter
mined to adopt a boy. Chance-or
PROVIDENCE, as l prefer to put it
brought together the farmer and an
agent Tor the society that then had the
deserted ten-year- old boy in its keep
ing. The upshot Of their meeting was
that John Brady found a home with
Mr.. and Mrs John Green Of Upton. In
diana.
Great was the establishment in the
nelgnoorhood when people learned
what the Greens had done. Even the
most optimistic agreed that they were
taking big chance" while not q few
Sioomlly predicted that they would rue
the day when they ha6 taken into their
mouse New York street urchin of
dubious ancestry. But Mr.. and Mrs
Green, refusing to be terrorized bv the
bogey OF heredity. devoted themselves
10 the upbringing Of the little John.
Ifey gave him love and they gave him
dlsclpline; through the work of the
farm and the power of good examn,e
they trained him to be useful. dilieent
ana emcient, and they sent him to the
req schoolhouse at the crossroads tn
gain the elementary education he
should have received while a child in
New York.
At nineteen he struck ont for h,,,-
seif' beginning his life-work by teach
ing school. Three years later. having
practised the most rigid self denial tn
save the necessary funds, he returned
East to become a student at Yale
working his way through Yale ba
then entered Union Theological, Senoi-
nary from which he was ordained IN
the Presbyterian ministry at the 900
of thirty. 90
Meantime he had set his heart m j.
project inspired by gratitude for tho
loving care his foster parents had law
isheo on MIN. He would establish in
!exas a farm colony for boys who like
nimseif' had been born and reared in
the slums. 1t was splendid scheme.
nut alas, he found that it required more
capital than he could raise. Still in
spired with the ideal of helping others
ne now took ship to Alaska. to begin
among the native tribes a missionary
enterprise that included social service
OF a high order. In 1897. just twenty
years after he had first gone to sitko
his labors were signally rewarded
when President Mckinley appointed
him Governor Of Alaska, a post to
which he was reappointed by President
Roosevelt, and Which, he retained until
five years ago.