Arnold College - Fall In Yearbook (Milford, CT)

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lliiilliiiigl. yan im, just large enough to fill my mouth. I ate my way 'through the coarser and meagre morsels to this delicious tidbit. A little sip of cordial or wine, just enough to moisten my lips, would be a further reward. And this was a daily performance. My grandfather would talk to me like a man and I would be held down to all the courtesies and politenesses of a most strict etiquette in dealing with him. No childish prattle or least of all, slang would be allowed at 'this time. Thus it is I still see him before me. Atother times, in his workshop, he would be the master tailor, the jovial companion and even my playmate without any restraint, but at these times, he would be the Polish grandee of the strictest observance. He must undoubtedly have left his native coun- try without much schooling, but with the help of my grandmother, he had learned to read and write German perfectly and he spoke German without any accent whatsoever. I take it then, that my linguistic abilities are in a measure, hereditary, the Poles being acknowledged linguists, at one time their polite language among the upper classes being Latin. I trace my frugality under ordinary circumstances, my saving up for the greater and finer joys of life to his teaching and influence. Of his quick and violent temper, I have written before in the pages of FALL IN. This I undoubtedly inherit from him. My mother though not of violent temper was of exceedingly lively and restless temperament and it is not difficult to trace that in me. My love for the arts, all of them, undoubtedly is a hereditary trait of my French ancestors. That both the French and Polish emigres should have been liberals is only natural, and that with such antecedents and my paternal influence tending the same way, I have always and shall always be a liberal follows as a mat- ter of course. A The hereditary influences of both strains of the family in my brothers and sisters average themselves pretty well according to schedule. The eld- est, a girl, altogether an Orzakowskyg I, the second, a mixture of Arnold and Orzakowsky heritage. The third, a girl, a Miller and Violg the fourth, a girl, althogether an Arnold, the fifth, a girl, an Arnold-Orzakowsky- Miller typeg the sixth, a boy, Arnold type, the seventh, a boy, pure Orza- kowsky type, the eighth, a boy, Arnold-Orzakowsky type. In physical make-up, in facial mold, in temperament and talents, the hereditary traits as indicated are well marked indeed. One of the peculiarities is the script, all of the Arnold type writing practically the same hand, all of the Orza- kowsky type writing the same kind of a hand, though their schooling was not received throughout at the same school, nor by the same teachers. So here we are as we are, to some extent, inevitably predestined by heredity. L1Z ,gy K K 1- I20l

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receding French Wave from Russian Poland, he with the second Wave, was carried from Danzig Where he had been apprenticed to a tailor, into middle Germany and found himself in Weimar. He was small of stature and limb. How handsome of face he might have been, I cannot tell. His was a very characteristic, sharply-cut face. There was one thing about him. He was a great, indefatiguable dancer. He cut a Wide swath at Weimar With his dancing, for he Was a master of the Polish dances just coming in. Natur- ally he was much sought after and somehow or another captured my grand- mother's heart. The marriage was consummated and as a result my maternal great grandfather promptly disowned his daughter for he would have no mixture of blood and no marriage that was not sanctioned by the family. With our peasant families then and even now, marriage was not a matter of love, but of family dictate. You could have your love affairs, that was your affair, but Whom you would marry, that was the family's business. They selected your husband and you married him and if you did not, the family promptly disowned you. That was the fate of my grand- mother. She never saw her father alive again and as the rule extended beyond his death, for being disowned, none of the family property came in her possession. The couple had four children, all girls, of which my mother was the oldest. All these girls resembled their father. They were small of stature and limb, all of quick temper, excitable nature, except the second Who Was of the slow, stolid kind of the peasant type, though in exterior, she resem- bled her father. My grandfather, though he struggled with poverty for a good many years, though he was a foreigner and under the ban of his Wife's family, was a man of great dignity which at times on account of his small stature and lively disposition, sat rather comically upon him. But he Was a master tailor and a master in these times in a guild was a person of importance in the community. It is said that every other Pole is a noble- man and I have hardly any doubt my grandfather Was. For him people Worthy of his notice began with the male sex, Women generally speaking were of no account and at times even my grandmother, great stately matron that she Was, had no entry to his presence, While I, the four-year old first born son of his eldest was evidently the heir apparent and as such entitled to notice at his hands. His second breakfast was the great ceremonial of the day. He then sat in the best room in the house all by his lonesome at a little table and with exceedingly fine table manners, partook of his many times small fare. It Was at these times that I was admitted to his august presence and all females except for the purpose of Waiting, were excluded, Here he incul- cated manners at table and the first elements of thrift. He Would cut my bread and cheese or sausage or cold meat, Whatever Went with the break- fast in little squares and we would play the game of Sheep and Shepherd. The lambs Were bare bread. The mother sheep were streakd with butter, but rams had small specks of cheese or meat, the dogs larger pieces, but then came the crowning piece of epicurean delight, the shepherd, a Hne piece of bread spread Well With butter and entirely covered by the viands, E193

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