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diff --git a/old/51288.txt b/old/51288.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8b87208..0000000 --- a/old/51288.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,661 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Man of Distinction, by Michael Shaara - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Man of Distinction - -Author: Michael Shaara - -Release Date: February 23, 2016 [EBook #51288] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAN OF DISTINCTION *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - MAN OF DISTINCTION - - By MICHAEL SHAARA - - Illustrated By DICK FRANCIS - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction October 1956. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - Being unique is a matter of pride--but being - a complete mathematical impossibility? - - -The remarkable distinction of Thatcher Blitt did not come to the -attention of a bemused world until late in the year 2180. Although -Thatcher Blitt was, by the standards of his time, an extremely -successful man financially, this was not considered _real_ distinction. -Unfortunately for Blitt, it never has been. - -The history books do not record the names of the most successful -merchants of the past unless they happened by chance to have been -connected with famous men of the time. Thus Croesus is remembered -largely for his contributions to famous Romans and successful armies. -And Haym Solomon, a similarly wealthy man, would have been long -forgotten had he not also been a financial mainstay of the American -Revolution and consorted with famous, if impoverished, statesmen. - -So if Thatcher Blitt was distinct among men, the distinction was not -immediately apparent. He was a small, gaunt, fragile man who had the -kind of face and bearing that are perfect for movie crowd scenes. -Absolutely forgettable. Yet Thatcher Blitt was one of the foremost -businessmen of his time. For he was president and founder of that noble -institution, Genealogy, Inc. - -Thatcher Blitt was not yet 25 when he made the discovery which was to -make him among the richest men of his time. His discovery was, like all -great ones, obvious yet profound. He observed that every person had a -father. - - * * * * * - -Carrying on with this thought, it followed inevitably that every father -had a father, and so on. In fact, thought Blitt, when you considered -the matter rightly, everyone alive was the direct descendant of untold -numbers of fathers, down through the ages, all descending, one after -another, father to son. And so backward, unquestionably, into the -unrecognizable and perhaps simian fathers of the past. - -This thought, on the face of it not particularly profound, struck -young Blitt like a blow. He saw that since each man had a father, and -so on and so on, it ought to be possible to construct the genealogy of -every person now alive. In short, it should be possible to trace your -family back, father by father, to the beginning of time. - -And of course it was. For that was the era of the time scanner. And -with a time scanner, it would be possible to document your family tree -with perfect accuracy. You could find out exactly from whom you had -sprung. - -And so Thatcher Blitt made his fortune. He saw clearly at the beginning -what most of us see only now, and he patented it. He was aware not only -of the deep-rooted sense of snobbishness that exists in many people, -but also of the simple yet profound force of curiosity. Who exactly, -one says to oneself, _was_ my forty-times-great-great-grandfather? A -Roman Legionary? A Viking? A pyramid builder? One of Xenophon's Ten -Thousand? Or was he, perhaps (for it is always possible), Alexander the -Great? - -Thatcher Blitt had a product to sell. And sell he did, for other -reasons that he alone had noted at the beginning. The races of mankind -have twisted and turned with incredible complexity over the years; the -numbers of people have been enormous. - -With thirty thousand years in which to work, it was impossible that -there was not, somewhere along the line, a famous ancestor for -everybody. A minor king would often suffice, or even a general in some -forgotten army. And if these direct ancestors were not enough, it was -fairly simple to establish close blood kinship with famous men. The -blood lines of Man, you see, begin with a very few people. In all of -ancient Greece, in the time of Pericles, there were only a few thousand -families. - -Seeing all this, Thatcher Blitt became a busy man. It was necessary not -only to patent his idea, but to produce the enormous capital needed -to found a large organization. The cost of the time scanner was at -first prohibitive, but gradually that obstacle was overcome, only for -Thatcher to find that the government for many years prevented him from -using it. Yet Blitt was indomitable. And eventually, after years of -heart-rending waiting, Genealogy, Inc., began operations. - - * * * * * - -It was a tremendous success. Within months, the very name of the -company and its taut slogan, "An Ancestor for Everybody," became -household words. There was but one immediate drawback. It soon became -apparent that, without going back very far into the past, it was -sometimes impossible to tell who was really the next father in line. -The mothers were certain, but the fathers were something else again. -This was a ponderable point. - -But Blitt refused to be discouraged. He set various electronic -engineers to work on the impasse and a solution was found. An ingenious -device which tested blood electronically through the scanner--based -on the different sine waves of the blood groups--saved the day. That -invention was the last push Genealogy, Inc., was ever to need. It -rolled on to become one of the richest and, for a long while, most -exclusive corporations in the world. - -Yet it was still many years before Thatcher Blitt himself had time to -rest. There were patent infringements to be fought, new developments -in the labs to be watched, new ways to be found to make the long and -arduous task of father-tracing easier and more economical. Hence he was -well past sixty when he at last had time to begin considering himself. - -He had become by this time a moderately offensive man. Surrounded as -he had been all these years by pomp and luxury, by impressive names -and extraordinary family trees, he had succumbed at last. He became -unbearably name-conscious. - -He began by regrouping his friends according to their ancestries. His -infrequent parties were characterized by his almost Parliamentarian -system of seating. No doubt, all this had been in Thatcher Blitt to -begin with--it may well be, in perhaps varying quantities, in all of -us--but it grew with him, prospered with him. Yet in all those years he -never once inspected his own forebears. - -You may well ask, was he afraid? One answers, one does not know. But at -any rate, the fact remains that Thatcher Blitt, at the age of 67, was -one of the few rich men in the world who did not know who exactly their -ancestors had been. - - * * * * * - -And so, at last, we come to the day when Thatcher Blitt was sitting -alone in his office, one languid hand draped vacantly over his brow, -listening with deep satisfaction to the hum and click of the enormous -operations which were going on in the building around him. - -What moved him that day remains uncertain. Perhaps it was that, from -where he was sitting, he could see row upon row of action pictures of -famous men which had been taken from his time scanners. Or perhaps it -was simply that this profound question had been gnawing at him all -these years, deeper and deeper, and on this day broke out into the -light. - -But whatever the reason, at 11:02 that morning, he leaped vitally from -his chair. He summoned Cathcart, his chief assistant, and gave him the -immortal command. - -"Cathcart!" he grated, stung to the core of his being. "Who am I?" - -Cathcart rushed off to find out. - -There followed some of the most taut and fateful days in the brilliant -history of Genealogy, Inc. Father-tracing is, of course, a painstaking -business. But it was not long before word had begun to filter out to -interested people. - -The first interesting discovery made was a man called Blott, in -eighteenth century England. (No explanation was ever given for the -name's alteration from Blott to Blitt. Certain snide individuals -took this to mean that the name had been changed as a means to avoid -prosecution, or some such, and immediately began making light remarks -about the Blotts on old Blitt's escutcheon.) This Blott had the -distinction of having been a wineseller of considerable funds. - -This reputedly did not sit well with Thatcher Blitt. Merchants, he -snapped, however successful, are not worthy of note. He wanted empire -builders. He wanted, at the very least, a name he had heard about. A -name that appeared in the histories. - -His workers furiously scanned back into the past. - -Months went by before the next name appeared. In 9th century England, -there was a wandering minstrel named John (last name unprintable) who -achieved considerable notoriety as a ballad singer, before dying an -unnatural death in the boudoir of a lady of high fashion. Although -the details of this man's life were of extreme interest, they did -not impress the old man. He was, on the contrary, rather shaken. A -minstrel. And a rogue to boot. - -There were shakeups in Genealogy, Inc. Cathcart was replaced by a man -named Jukes, a highly competent man despite his interesting family -name. Jukes forged ahead full steam past the birth of Christ (no -relation). But he was well into ancient Egypt before the search began -to take on the nature of a crisis. - - * * * * * - -Up until then, there was simply nobody. Or to be more precise, nobody -but _nobodies_. It was incredible, all the laws of chance were against -it, but there was, actually, not a single ancestor of note. And no -way of faking one, for Thatcher Blitt couldn't be fooled by his own -methods. What there was was simply an unending line of peasants, -serfs, an occasional foot soldier or leather worker. Past John the -ballad-singer, there was no one at all worth reporting to the old man. - -This situation would not continue, of course. There were so few -families for men to spring from. The entire Gallic nation, for example, -a great section of present-day France, sprang from the family of one -lone man in the north of France in the days before Christ. Every native -Frenchman, therefore, was at least the son of a king. It was impossible -for Thatcher Blitt to be less. - -So the hunt went on from day to day, past ancient Greece, past -Jarmo, past the wheel and metals and farming and on even past all -civilization, outward and backward into the cold primordial wastes of -northern Germany. - -And still there was nothing. Though Jukes lived in daily fear of losing -his job, there was nothing to do but press on. In Germany, he reduced -Blitt's ancestor to a slovenly little man who was one of only three -men in the entire tribe, or family, one of three in an area which now -contains millions. But Blitt's ancestor, true to form, was simply a -member of the tribe. As was his father before him. - -Yet onward it went. Westward back into the French caves, southward -into Spain and across the unrecognizable Mediterranean into a verdant -North Africa, backward in time past even the Cro-Magnons, and yet ever -backward, 30,000 years, 35,000, with old Blitt reduced now practically -to gibbering and still never an exceptional forebear. - -There came a time when Jukes had at last, inevitably, to face the old -man. He had scanned back as far as he could. The latest ancestor he had -unearthed for Blitt was a hairy creature who did not walk erect. And -yet, even here, Blitt refused to concede. - -"It may be," he howled, "it _must_ be that my ancestor _was_ the first -man to walk erect or light a fire--to do _something_." - -It was not until Jukes pointed out that all those things had been -already examined and found hopeless that Blitt finally gave in. Blitt -was a relative, of course, of the first man to stand erect, the man -with the first human brain. But so was everybody else on the face of -the Earth. There was truly nowhere else to explore. What would be found -now would be only the common history of mankind. - -Blitt retired to his chambers and refused to be seen. - - * * * * * - -The story went the rounds, as such stories will. And it was then -at last, after 40,000 years of insignificance, that the name of -Blitt found everlasting distinction. The story was picked up, fully -documented, by psychologists and geneticists of the time, and inserted -into textbooks as a profound commentary on the forces of heredity. The -name of Thatcher Blitt in particular has become famous, has persisted -until this day. For he is the only man yet discovered, or ever likely -to be discovered, with this particular distinction. - -In 40,000 years of scanner-recorded history, the blood line of Blitt -(or Blott) never once produced an exceptional man. - -That record is unsurpassed. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Man of Distinction, by Michael Shaara - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAN OF DISTINCTION *** - -***** This file should be named 51288.txt or 51288.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/2/8/51288/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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