Topic 51 
ON HEREDITY

ONCE, when Colonel Roosevelt declared that Richard Derby (now Colonel), who married his youngest daughter, Ethel, was "a fine fellow" of whom he was "as proud as I am of my blood sons," I remarked that Dr.  Derby came from a splendid family — the Derbys of old Salem, in Massachusetts.

"Yes, I know," he replied; "it is as you say, a splendid family.  I do not care what any man says, and I'm no ancestor worshipper either, blood will tell in a man, a horse, or a dog.  In either case you will have culls at times and throw backs, but in the long run and on the average you will find the blooded animal wins.

"Take our immigrant stock.  You will find, I am sure, if you could go back into the history of the immigrant that rises above his fellows, that back of him there was some superior stock; that a father, grandfather, or some remote ancestor was eminent above his fellows in the home land, wherever that might have been.

" It is so with our American negroes.  Take my boy, Charlie Lee, for example.  Charlie came to me from Captain Fitzhugh Lee, whose boy he had been.  Charlie is a first class citizen, careful, industrious, cleanly, thrifty — a better man than the average run of whites.  Charlie's father was General Robert E.  Lee's body servant; Charlie takes his name from the Lee family.  The father was a superior negro.  Doubtless if we could go back, we'd find that his father's father, and beyond, were well above the average of slaves.

" Charlie inherits his good points from his parents, from those people I Ve been talking about.  He is as loyal as a bulldog, perfectly attached to the family and devoted to the children.  If it was the life of any one of them or Charlie's, Charlie would not hesitate one second.  If he were lucky enough to escape himself, he would not think he had done anything out of the ordinary, and he would probably resent being told that he had."

Charlie had an equally high opinion of his adored Colonel.

"Colonel Roosevelt has been splendid to me," he said one day.  "He's more like a father to us all than an employer.  You just be up at the house if one of those Irish girls is sick! The Colonel and Mrs.  Roosevelt are just as worried as though she was one of the children and she would n't get any better care if she was one of the children.

"But," laughed Charlie at the conclusion of this — for him — very long speech, "what's the use of talking? Quality folks are quality folks wherever you find them."

The Colonel grinned when I one day repeated Charlie's speech to him.

"It's about what you should expect of Charlie," said he.  " If he were to leave me for any reason, you would find him looking about for some family he felt he could with honor attach himself to and he’d serve it as loyally and as proudly as he now serves mine.  Mere money would not get him if what he terms ' quality' were not there.  And if I make myself clear, Charlie would honor any family he might go with.  If I did not know anything else about it, the fact that Charlie had put his O.K.  on it would tell me its members were worth while people.

"But Charlie won't go.  He'll stay with Mrs.  Roosevelt and me as long as we live, and then, in all probability, go with one of the children.  It will be one of those things everybody will take for granted — Charlie's going with Ted or Ethel or one of the others."