Lataat American Craze

Bruce Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 2957, 3 May 1898, Page 4

Lataat American Craze

There undoubtedly is something in our American temperament that prevents our doing anything in moderation. If we take up an idea it is immediately run into the ground of exaggeration and then abandoned! the nation flying off at a tangent after some new fad. In consequence if Mrs Brown starts anything Mrs Jones, for fear of being left behind} immediately " goes her on* better," to be in turn " raised ,' by Mrs Bobinson. In other lands a reasonable pride of birth has always been one of the bonds holding communities together. It is estimated at its just value and left to one side. We, after having ignored the subject for half a century, suddenly rush to the other extreme and develop an entire forest of genealogical treeß at a sitting. Chagrined probably at the small amount of consideration that their superior birth commanded, a number of aristocratically minded matrons united a few years ago as " Daughters of the Revolution," confining member* ship to women descended from officers of Washington's army. There may have b?en a reason for the formation of this society. We say " may " because it does not seem very clear what its aim was. The originators prob ably imagined they were founding an exclusive circle, but the numbers who clamored for admittance quickly dispelled the foolish illusion. So a email group of the elect withdrew in disgust and banded together under the cognomen of "Colonial Dames.,' The only result of these two movements was to awaken envy, hatred and malice in the hearts of those ex* eluded from the mysterious rites, which to outsiders apparently consisted of blackballing as many aspirants as possible. Some victims of this bad treatment, thirsting for revenge, struck on the happy thought of inaugurating an " Aztec " Society. As that title conveyed absolutely no idea to any one, its members were forced to explain that only descendants of soldiers having fought in Mexico would be received into their circle. What members did when they got into the circle was not specified. The "Social Order of Foreign Wars " was the next creation, its authors evidently considering the Mexican campaign as a document ar •—tide a sort of family squabble. The " Children of 1812 " in turn attracted , attention, both groups having immediate success, indeed, the wgao of these enterprises has generally been in inverse ratio to their usefulness or raison d'etre, hundreds of people being apparently ready to join anything rather than be left out in the cold. Jealous, probably, of seeing women having all the fun, their • husbands and brothers banded together as " Sons of the Bevolution." The women retaliated by instituting the " Grand daughters of . the Bevolution " following with " The Mayflower Order, " the " price of admission "to the latter being descent from some one who crossed in that celebrated ship— whether as crew or passenger is not clear. It is not however, in the American temperament to rest content with such modest beginnings, the national motto being " The best only is good enough for me". So the wind was quicfcly taken out of the Mayflower's sails by " The Royal Order of the Crown, " to which none need apply who were not prepared to prove descent from one or more roAa ancestors. It was not stated in the prospectus whether Irish sovereigns and. Fiji Island kings counted, but it appears that bar sinsters form a class apart, being deprived of the right to vote or hold office. Descent from any old king was, however, not sufficient for the high toned people of our republic. When one comes to think of it, «ocb s circle must be terribly " mixed. " So the founders of the " Circle of Holland Dames of the New Nether- ' lands " drew the line at member* descending from a sovereigo of the I low countries.

The promoters of this enterprise seem nevertheless to have been, fairly successful^ for they gave a fete recently ind crowned ; Miss Lavina Dempee^, as their queen. To be acclaimed their sovereign by a group of people all of royal birth is indeed an honor. [\. ..'_/,'.. ' ';' " ■. ';'■ "_ Bat we am wrong to joke on each a serious subject. For this state of affairs, is becoming ■ really serious* When sane human -beings form a " Baronial Order of Bunnymede," announcing in their prospectus that' only, descendants through the male line from one, or more of the forty nobleman who forced King John to sign the Magna Oharta are what our Washington Mrs Malaprop would call " legible/ 1 the matter attests a a diseased condition of the community. Any one taking the trouble to remember that eight of the original barons died childless, and that the wars of the roses swept away ninetenths of what families the others may have had, and that only one man in England (Lord de Bob) can at the present day prove male descent further back than the eleventh century, must appreciate the absurdity of our compratriots* pretensions. " Bnrke's Peerage" is acknowledged to be the most " faked " volume in the English language, but the descents it gives are like mathematical demonstrations compared to the " trees " that members of this new order climb. This malarial condition of the social atmosphere accounts for the quantity of genealogical quacks that that have taken to Bending type written letters, stating that the interest they take in our private affairs compels them to offer proof of your descent from any crowned head to whom you have taken a fancy. One correspondent only this month assured us that he had papers in bis possession showing beyond a doubt that we might claim a certain King McDougal of Scotland for an ancestor. We have misgivings, however, as to the quality of the royai blood in our veins, for this same gentleman six months ago was equally confident that our people came in direct line from Charlemagne. As we have no desire to "corner" the market in kings, these flattering letters have remained unanswered. Considering the mania that now exists to trace descent from illustrious men, it astonishes us that a Mystic Band, consisting of lineal descendants from the Seven Wise Men of Egypt, has not before now burst upon an astonished world. It has been suggested that if some one wanted to or-ganize a truly restricted circle, The Grand Children of our Tripoli War would be an ex cellent title. So few Americans took part in that conflict, and still fewer care anything about it, that the satisfaction of joining such a society would be immense to exclusively mind' ed people There is only one explanation that seems in any way to account for this vast tomfoolery. A little sentence, printed at the bottom of a prospectus recently sent to us, lets the ambitious cat out of the genealogical bag. It states that" social position is assured to people joining their order." j Thanks to the idiotic habit some j newspapers have of advertising, gratis a number of self-elected society " lead ere," many feeble minded people, with more ambition than^cash, and a larger supply of family papers than brains, have been bitten with a social madness, and enter these traps thinking they are the road to position and honors. Their number is larger than one would have believed possible, if the success of so many "orders," "circler," and commanderies •' was not in evidence to testify to the unending folly of the would-be Bmart.' This last decade of the cen- , tury has brought to light many strange fads and senseless fancies, but the recent craze surpasses them all in inanity. The keepers of insane asylums will tell you one of the most hopeless forms of madness is la folie lea grandeurs. A breath of this delirium seems to be blowing over our country at this moment. Crowns and scepters haunt the dreams of aimpte republican men and women, troubling their slumbers and leading them a will-o'-the-wisp dance back across the centuries. — ' New York Post.'