Page 19 - The Legacy of Abraham Rothstein - text

Preface

future, it is not the great ones alone who have contributed to
civilization. The mass of people created the technical knowledge,
performed the acts of bravery, and experienced the joys and sorrows
which form the basis of our humanity. Many sacrifices are made by
average men; they may be of interest not to the general public, but to
a man’s immediate relatives and his future descendants. A dry
enumeration of my own family members would be a matter soon
forgotten by my grandchildren and their children. Therefore, at the
age of seventy I am putting down certain of my life’s experiences for
the benefit of my progeny.
To hold the interest of the reader I will have to mark down many
episodes and occurrences which had an influence on my character,
habits, and inclinations, including the habits of the townspeople—
especially the youth I associated with—and the character of my close
relatives. All these characteristics and habit-forming acts are
transmitted to the fourth generation; it is well to understand them in
judging oneself. I do not intend to write in an imaginative style, only
to record things which happened to impress my mind and formed
those habits I can see in myself today, some good and some that
deformed my mind and left me mentally crippled. But neither do I
mean to write a confession, as I am not looking for repentance to
ease my mind. This is just a picture of an ordinary man, which is
amusing to look at.
In the old world, before the Machine Age, when the horse
provided the only conveyance, men were anchored to the place of
their birth. Generation after generation were born and buried in the
same town for centuries; one could see on those old tombstones in
the cemetery names two hundred years old. But it never came to my
mind when I was young to ask my father or mother about their
grandparents; my children have asked many times about their great-
grandparents, and it is disappointing to me not to know the name of
my father’s grandmother. Had there been a record kept of the family
history, I would have known her name.
It would also have been of the greatest interest to me to know the
history of my father’s youth. I more or less acted in my youth like my
father, either from inheritance or some outside influence. But I
cannot compare my actions with his in his youth. I do not know of
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