Kin-folks or Relations?

by Mrs. A. J. Wilder. Mansfield, Missouri.

"I do like to have you say kin-folks. It seems to mean so much more than relations or relatives," writes my sister from the North. They do not say kin-folks in the North. It is a Southern expression.

This remark was enough to start me on a line of thought that led me far a-field. Kin-folks! They are such homey sounding words and strong, too, and sweet. Folks who are akin- why they need not even be relatives or "blood kin." What vista that opens up! They are scattered all over the world, these kin-folks of ours and we will find them wherever we go, folks who are akin to us in thought and belief, in aspirations and ideas, tho our relatives may be far away. Not but what those of our own family may be akin to us also, tho sometimes they are not.

Old Mr. Weeks died last winter. His will left the fine farm to his youngest son, subject to providing a home for his mother so long as she lived. A comparatively small sum of money was left each of the seven other children who were scattered in other states. And now a strange thing happened! We always expect to hear of trouble and quarreling among the heirs, over a will and an estate and in this case we were not disappointed. There was trouble, serious trouble and disagreement. The surprising thing was in the form it took. The youngest son refused flatly to abide by his father's will. He would not take that whole farm for himself! "It was not fair to the others!"

His brothers and sisters refused absolutely to take any share of the farm. "It would not be right," they said, when their brother had made the farm what it was by staying at home and working on it, while they had gone away on their own affairs. Lawyers were even called into the case, not to fight for a larger share for their clients, but to persuade the other party to take more of the property than he wished to take. There is nothing new under the sun we are told, but if anything like this ever happened before it has not been my good fortune to hear of it. The members of this family were surely kin-folks as well as relatives.

Two sisters, Mabel and Kate, were left orphans when 18 and 20 years old. There was very little for their support, so as they would be obliged to add to their income in some way they went into a little business of ladies' furnishing goods. All the responsibility was left with Mabel altho they were equal partners and she also did most of the work. Kate seemed to have no sense of honor in business nor of the difference between right and wrong in her dealings with her sister. At last Mabel had a nervous breakdown under the strain and the shock of the sudden death of her finance. While Mabel was thus out of the way, Kate sold the business, married and left town, and when Mabel was recovered she found that the business and her sister were gone, that the account at the bank was overdrawn and a note was about due which had been given by the firm and to which her own name had been forged. Because of the confidence which her honor and honesty had inspired, Mabel was able to get credit and make a fresh start. She has paid the debt and is becoming prosperous once more.

Were Mabel and Kate kin-folks? Oh, no, merely relatives!

Mrs. A. J. Wilder. "Kin-folks or Relations?" Missouri Ruralist,  (August  5, 1916), page 9.

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