Year: 1879

I'll be down in minute" Then she mad
another effort to unite the cord, but that dia
bolical goat gave his head several angry bob
and each time the girl gave cry. OF pain
Again she softly called out in the darkness
"Charlie, if you don't stop jerking that way
I'll not come down at all" She was answer
ed by another savage pull, and the cry Of nm
guish that escaped from her lips brought he
mother in with a look of alright and light
ed lamp. The young lady tainted, the elope
ment was nipped in the bud, and the disap
pointed maiden's big toe was sore for tw'
weeks. The goat escaped.


HAVING GRANDFATHERS.


To pride ones self on the age of ones fam
lily is irrational enough anywhere, but to feel
and particularly to express such in democ
racy like ours, is palpable absurdity. II
the Old World, where artificial distinction
are made in society, where titles are inherited
and rank is carefully perpetuated, antiquity
of family, backed by blood, must necessarily
be conceded, however unreasonably us
claim to distinction. But where rank is dis
allowed, as in this Republic where blood il
regarded merely as the crimson stream which
wears and sustain the common humanity, al
better or worse only as it stirs men and wo
men to kindly thoughts, to noble aims, tt
generous acts, all talk of old family, all as
sumption of its superiority, simply because il
is old, is folly and impertinence. If the
Americans, who plume themselves on the agt
of their families and give themselves conse
quence on this account, had any clear ides
how ridiculous they appear, they would be
modest and reticent on point which furnish
es an exhaustless topic for satire, an ever
present opportunity to expose their silly
weakness.


Many persons here, noticeably in big cities
hold themselves eminent, not because they OF
their progenitors have said or done or been
anything remarkable, but because they car
tell who their grandfathers, perhaps theil
great-grandfathers, were Their grandfather
may have been ignorant, vulgar, sordid, des
picable but the fact that they were grand
fathers, and that they accumulated property
even though by discreditable means, justiGes
them, as they think, in cherishing misera
Bile vanity to which they apply the name Of
pride. They seem to labor under the delu
sion that people who have never taken any
pains to inquire about their grandfathers, OF
who have not cared to remember them, have
been denied those venerable worthless; thai
Nature has made an exception to the law by
producing them spontaneously. They say
with a certain contempt Of man who il
likely to be far worthier than they, "He il
nobody. He cannot tell who bis grandfather
was" He certainly could if he had prac
ticed-if he had only exercised his memory
aidedly his Imagination, half SO much as they
have done. Grandfathers are not in them
selves Objectionable they may be desirable il
they we're meritorious, and if they impar
any virtues to their posterity but if they
simply serve as pegs for their grandchildren
to hang garlands Of selfg glori6cation on, il
were better not to disturb them in theil
graveyard sleep. A grandfather who was
inferior to his descendants, should not be men
toned out of delicacy and charity to his
memory grandfather who was superior te
them should be undisturbed, out Of delicaJ
and charity to themselves.


Persons who make family pretensions art
wont to believe that the occupations of theil
ancestors, although absolutely identical with
those of their contemporaries, are, really
very different Their grandfatbers may have
laid the basis of his fortune by retailing rum
by peddling tinware, or by buying rags; bu1
if their neighbor should have begun in the
same way, they would not be able to receive
him socially under any circumstances. Tc
have been petty trader seventy years since
is, in their judgment, quite another thing from
being petty trader only twenty years ago
The shadow of time deepens and alters al
time lengthens. 1t so combines with the
light of fancy as to render, at remote period
a mean and prosaic object or pursuit honora
BILE and attractive, which, near at hand, woulo
show but its naked self. They who have haG
grandfathers are apt to idealize them il
truth, they can do with them pretty much al
they please, because nobody, save themselves
has any special acquaintance with them, ane
their acquaintance is naturally so limited
that they are tempted-and they generally
yield to temptation supply any defects o
intelligence with the suggestions of thejr wish
es. They are resolved to render their grand
fathers respectable from considerations Of graf
itude, if from no other, because they con
ceive that they have already rendered them
respectable; possession of a grandfather being
to their partial mind, q cognovit Of respecta
bility. If their cherished grandfather were {
wretched usurer on small scale, they woule
he likely to speak of him as banker O.
prominence and high repute. If he kept {
low groggery, he would be trans6gured into s
wine merchant and importer. IT he drove {
cart orcarried hod, he would, in all proba
bility, shine in their conversation as larg'
contractor.


AS rule, people who have ancestors they
have reason to be proud of, and who them
selves possess qualities Of deserving kind
are free from the vanity of dwelling on thei1
lineage. They are content to be what they
are and what their progenitors have made
them, without reference to the past. 1t il
the people who amount to nothing, who mus
be secretly conscious of their own deficiencies
that are continually playing the part of boast
full resurrectionists. Judging by their itera
tions, they have sensibly deteriorated; theil
grandfathers were far in advance Of them
they are literally in the direct line of descent
One might think that they would be ashamed
to advertise their declension as they do, fol
they seem to be merely the shade that rem
ders striking the grand.paternal light. Blu
they must vaunt of something. Having s
barren subject within, they are obliged to g
outside, and they naturally take refuge in {
cemetery, causing their acquaintance to be
lieve that all that was good of them has lone
been buried. Persons rarely brag on thei
grandfathers, unless they feel that very LITTLE
can be said in favor of their grandchildren


LEARN TRAnE=I never look at my ole