(America as regards the life and habits of birds that has ...)
America as regards the life and habits of birds that has led the publishers to urge him to write this biography of a bird lover. Neither is it chiefly the fact that his favorite study has led him into many not well-known parts of the country, where his experiences, personal and scientific, have been curious and interesting. It is rather because Mr. Scott in quite an unusual, perhaps even unique, degree has brought the life of birds nearer to the life of man has established, so to speak, personal relationships with the whole bird kingdom. A visit to Princeton, where Mr. Scott occupies the post of Curator of the Department of Ornithology in the University, and a few hours spent with his remarkable collection of live birds, would show clearly what is meant. Here, in a laboratory forming part of his own house, are in six rooms about five hundred live birds, native and foreign. No small part of the authors time and all the time of an assistant are spent in caring for these birds and in studying them.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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The Right to be Well Born or Horse Breeding in its Relation to Eugenics
(This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.
The Right to Be Well Born: Or, Horse Breeding in Its Relation to Eugenics (1917)
(Originally published in 1917. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1917. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
The Right to Be Well Born: Or, Horse Breeding in Its Relation to Eugenics
(Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We h...)
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.
William Earle Dodge Stokes was an American multimillionaire responsible for developing much of New York's Upper West Side.
Background
William was born on May 22, 1852 in New York City, New York, United States, the son of James Boulter and Caroline (Phelps) Stokes. He was a brother of Anson Phelps Stokes, Caroline Phelps Stokes, and Olivia Egleston Phelps Stokes. One of his grandfathers was London merchant Thomas Stokes, one of the 13 founders of the London Missionary Society, and Anson Stokes later actively supported the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society and the American Peace Society. His other grandfather, Anson Greene Phelps, was a New York merchant, born in Connecticut and descended from an old Massachusetts family
Education
He graduated at Yale in 1874 and became a bank clerk, later entering his father's banking firm, Phelps, Stokes & Company.
Career
Inheriting a fortune said to have amounted to about $1, 000, 000 at his father's death, he retired from the banking business and for a number of years increased his fortune by shrewd real estate transactions in New York City.
Meanwhile he acquired mineral and timber lands in Rockingham County, Virginia, and built the Chesapeake Western Railway, a short railroad, from Elkton, Virginia, through Harrisonburg to these undeveloped lands.
He had begun breeding racing horses on his Patchen Wilkes Farm, Lexington, and he gave thousands of dollars in prizes, mostly to boys and girls in Virginia, to encourage the breeding of the best poultry stocks.
His enthusiasm for good blood later led him to write a book, The Right to Be Well Born (1917), in which he set forth his views on eugenics, based upon his experience in stock-breeding, and urged that the registration of the pedigrees of human beings be required by law.
In 1906-07 he built the Hotel Ansonia, a huge, ornate, and highly successful structure at Broadway, 73rd and 74th Streets, New York City, and operated it until his death. Shortly after it was completed, the City Health Department summoned him to court for keeping hogs and geese, said to be fine blooded stock, on its roof, and forced him to remove them.
That same year, in a quarrel with two chorus girls, he was shot and painfully wounded. At the time of his death in New York City in 1926 there were damage suits pending against him, demanding in all about $8, 000, 000, practically the whole amount of his fortune, but most of these were subsequently dropped.
Achievements
William Earl Dodge Stokes was one of the largest operators in realty in the district west of Central Park and did much to build up that quarter of the city. He was also one of the pioneers in the introduction of asphalt street paving into New York.
(Originally published in 1917. This volume from the Cornel...)
Personality
He grew more and more eccentric with age, and during his latter years his time was largely occupied in litigation.
Connections
On January 5, 1895, in New York City he married Rita Hernandez de Alba de Acosta, a beautiful Cuban heiress, who obtained a divorce in 1900, was re-married and divorced, and later became engaged to Percy Stickney Grant. There was one son by the marriage, who at first remained in his mother's care, but a few years later was returned to his father on the payment to his mother, it is said, of a million dollars.
On February 11, 1911, Stokes married Helen Elwood of Denver, Colorado, by whom he had a son and a daughter.
He brought suit against his second wife for divorce in 1919; she retorted with a counter-suit, and for the better part of four years their complicated actions were in the courts, the sensational charges and testimony furnishing much public entertainment through the newspapers. Because of certain testimony introduced in the case, Stokes was tried for conspiracy and subornation of perjury, but was acquitted. The wife finally obtained a legal separation and a large settlement.
