360 
by this means as by the more univer- 
sally recognized means of education. 
INHERITANCE OF ABILITIES 
Concluding this article is a genetic 
classification of American strains. The 
families already considered in papers II 
and III of this series belong to classes 
having low and mediate social worth. It 
is now proposed to consider certain 
American families of superior and super- 
lative worth and the part which inheri- 
tance played in making such worth 
possible. 
If we take up the genealogy of any 
family whose name suggests eminence 
in some lines, we are struck by the re- 
currence in successive generations of 
similar abilities, or at least of occupa- 
tions which would imply similar abili- 
ties. While the majority of persons 
described are more or less obscure, 
still we are apt to find here and there 
what might be termed concentrations 
of various types of ability. Thus we 
find one line remaining tillers of the 
soil, another given to merchandizing, 
while still another shows several ex- 
amples of artistic gifts. In the latter 
case the artistic ability may in certain 
branches ‘“‘shade off’? into a_ well- 
marked artisan group. Again, we 
find a decided altruistic bent for sev- 
eral generations, this evincing itself 
in the selection of the ministry as a 
life-work and the preference for the 
teaching profession. Often the occur- 
rence of a name standing for pre-emi- 
nence of a particular kind is heralded by 
a number of lesser lights whose tastes 
and occupations give evidence of simi- 
larity of endowment. Many of the 
most interesting cases are where a gift 
which remained the avocation or pas- 
time in a father becomes in the son the 
supreme endowment. 
We have a fine example of this in the 
late E. A. Abbey. Asked how he got 
his first great commission, he gravely 
replied: ‘“Through my grandfather.”’ 
To the further question: ‘‘You are go- 
ing to decorate the Capitol of Pennsyl- 
vania; did your grandfather get you 
that commission too?’’ he said: “Tf I 
The Journal of Heredity 
’ 
do the work, he will be the cause.’ 
This grandfather was a wealthy mer- 
chant and type-founder of Philadel- 
phia, whose happiest days were spent 
at his easel. It is said his only brother 
had much artistic talent, though he was 
an artisan, a painter by trade, with a 
son who was likewise a painter. This 
merchant’s cousins were artisans, too, 
with some artistic gifts—one, a jew- 
eler, was also a fine musician and intel- 
ligent florist, with a son who became 
a well-known dramatic manager. Ab- 
bey’s father was, like his father, a mer- 
chant, though inheriting the gift for 
painting, while his brother was an artist 
and followed the profession of law. 
The Abbeys are described as a race 
of soldiers, path-finders and pioneer 
settlers. From their first homes in 
Connecticut, they pushed up the Con- 
necticut Valley, turning westward with 
the tide of exploration and settlement 
through New York, then into Ohio and 
Michigan and eventually across the 
continent. Nor were their most illus- 
trious examples of pioneering found in 
the West. Cleveland Abbe possessed 
pioneering instinct in abundance with 
daring imagination, courage and en- 
thusiastic urge in pursuit of a new idea. 
These abilities conceived and carried 
to success the multitudinous daily obser- 
vations on which depend our National 
Weather Service, which has no parallel 
in similar undertakings. His brother 
was known for his original work in the 
application of radium to medicine, a 
line which is also followed by his son, 
while another son is a geographer con- 
tinuing in the same type of work as his 
father. 
Of the inheritance of mechanical and 
inventive skill, the Fairbanks and the 
Pomeroy families have long been 
known as splendid examples. James 
Fairbanks married Phoebe Paddock 
whose two brothers were iron-workers. 
Erastus Fairbanks, their son, manu- 
factured stoves and plows, while Thad- 
deus, his brother, invented the platform 
scales. Erastus married Lois Crosman 
and had two sons, the elder with much 
inventive ability and love of natural 
