CHAPTER II 



The Family 



A 



STRONG family likeness runs through our family. 

 My brother Robert looks extraordinarily like our Great- 

 Uncle Robert, for whom he was named. I went into the 

 State House in Richmond one day with my friend, Cotes- 

 worth Pinckney, to see whether there might not be por- 

 traits of James Barbour and Phillip Pendleton Barbour 

 there, since both had been Governors of Virginia long ago. 

 We had barely entered the room when Cotesworth said, 

 "Well, there's one of them all right," and pointed to a 

 picture which turned out to be labeled '']2Lmts Barbour." 

 And yet these were distant kin. 



My three brothers and I present four types. My brother 

 Robert, who is two years younger than I am, is the mathe- 

 matician of the family. His facility with figures is amaz- 

 ing to me, for I am hopelessly incompetent in this respect. 

 He also has marked mechanical ability, coupled with 

 manual dexterity, and even before he went to the School 

 of Mines at Columbia he had a workshop on top of Father's 

 New York house — now the Museum of Modern Art, 

 II West 53rd Street. This workshop was fitted up with 

 lathes and all sorts of mechanical tools. There with David 

 Dows he built an automobile, one of the first in the city, 

 which actually ran when it was lowered into the street. 

 One of the more amusing aspects of that feat was the con- 

 fidence David showed in their combined abihty. He bought 



