Ogden Evening Standard | 1912-01-13 | Page 5 | Ancestors to Order

ANCESTORS TO ORDER. f I The most tragic form of snobborv H I In a country placo is that wliich con'r 1 t corns Itself with the tracing of a ped- f igree. In my travels I came upon a (ff' man who confessed that ho had made a thousands of pounds out of tho con- g celt and snobbishness of people liv- W ing in country places, and especially 'Sm people who happened to possess Ml names of a high-sounding character. g ! His method of work was slmplo, and fLj only the ultra-snob could hj taken in i M by It. I i He would glance through a local j V S directory and select a few names of II the Flt7.TBIank style. A short visit ! - I to the town would help him to de- j I termlne tho character of the norson i 3 a snob is easily distinguished and ' I ij . he would return to his placo and ' I Si write that ho hnd come Into the pos- ' I 1 session of a portrait which he had f m every reason to believe was tha of III ah ancestor of Mr. Fitz-Blank. ft 5 I There would be a few quaint hlero- j - glyphlcs on the back of the canvas j "'m showing that the original was a na- i 'L tlve of the town in which Mr. Fitz- 1 ?1 Blank was residing In nine cases ; " j out of ten that picture sold at a price I which meant a profit of 100 per cent 1 to the dealer after he had paid the Jl little Italian artist, who turned out t the pictures by tho dozen. In manv 'jj a country house today there is a flno old full-length portrait ot an ances- J tor which was painted in a murky H studio somewhero down Whitechapel jH way. Margaret Ballantyne in London H Saturday Journal. H oo H