Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1883 — Going Backward. [ARTICLE]

Going Backward.

Beal Yankee wit is about as good as the staple article in any other country. We are a people who look forward and not backward, and take more delight in what we have made ourselves than in what onr grandfathers were. When we do gaze into the past we are apt to follow the course of the gentleman who said: “There ain’t many men in th© country who could go back two generations without breaking their necks over a lapstone or an . anvil. Now, I have taken a great deal of pains to trace out our family line, and the only way I could do it was to skip all the mechanics and farmers, jest touch lightly on the merchants, lawyers and ministers, but to dwell purty particularly hard on them that lived high and did nothing.” In this way most men might be able to get a coat of arms that would be satisfactory.