ask for your help!

1.Highish birth and a smooth network of appropriate connection like a tea service written into the will.
"a tea service written into the will", is there a similarity between the will and highish birth & network of connection? paraphrase this sentence in easy-understanding way, please!

ELEGANT AND EXPENSIVE SILVER TEA SERVICES WERE OWNED BY RICH PEOPLE. (THEY PROBABLY STILL ARE.) THEY WERE HIGHLY VALUED AND WOULD BE SOMETHING THAT SOMEONE PASSED ON FROM ONE GENERATION TO THE NEXT--LIKE IN A WILL.
2.Set to go off, my good looks and intelligence, yet exceptional still, take away my mouthful of silver spoon and lapful of luxury. Something my own, not passed on or handed down, something seized, wrested?-my good character, hopefully, my taste perhaps. What's mine, what's mine? Say taste?-the soul's harmless appetite.

"set to go off",means what in this context? need not to take my good looks and intelligence into account? I'M NOT SURE WHAT THIS MEANS THE WRITING STYLE IS VERY STILTED.

"yet exceptional still,take away my mouthful.........of luxury" does it mean"if or suppose my fortune and highish position were taken away"?

I THINK THIS MEANS THAT EVEN IF YOU TAKE AWAY THE WEALTH, THIS PERSON WOULD STILL HAVE GOOD LOOKS AND INTELLIGENCE.

"Something my own, not passed on or handed down, something seized, wrested?-my good character, hopefully, my taste perhaps."----paraphrase:My success comes from some good qualities of my own, which couldnot passed on or handed down.I hold these characters firmly.These characters may be my taste. NOT EXACTLY. THE NARRATOR IS SAYING THAT HE DIDN'T INHERIT THESE QUALITIES. THEY'RE PART OF WHO HE IS.

say taste.----what does say mean here? it expresses possibility? or anything else? THE QUALITIES HE'S TALKING ABOUT MAKE UP HIS TASTE.

taste-the soul's harmless appetite.-----Is there harmful appetite of soul in the world? THERE CAN BE. BUT THAT'S NOT WHAT'S SUGGESTED HERE. ALL THAT THE CHARACTER IS SAYING IS REFERRING TO WHAT HE LIKES--WHAT HIS PREFERENCES ARE.

3.I've money, I am rich.The heir to four fortunes.
as I see, "I've money""I am rich"indicate the sameness. also, lacking a conjunction.what's the ralation between these two parts?"I've money,"so"I am rich"? or "I've money" WRITING, ESPECIALLY WRITING IN A WORK OF FICTION OR SOMETHING THAT'S PERSONAL, DOES NOT ALWAYS CONFORM TO THE NORMS OF GRAMMAR. YES, I'VE MONEY, I'M RICH ARE SAYING THE SAME THING (ALTHOUGH BEING RICH AND HAVING MONEY ARE NOT ALWAYS THE SAME THING. PEOPLE CAN BE RICH IN OTHER WAYS BESIDES MONEY.)

furthernore,I have a lot of money.

The heir to four fortunes. this is not a complete sentence, but a fragment followed by a period. what's the relation of it and the former sentences? can you paraphrase them for me? YES, IT'S A SENTENCE FRAGMENT. IT MEANS THAT THIS PERSON WILL INHERIT MONEY (OR HAS INHERITED MONEY) FROM FOUR DIFFERENT SOURCES. MAYBE A RICH UNCLE, A GRANDFATHER ON ONE SIDE OF THE FAMILY, PARENTS, ETC.

4.Grandmother on Father's side was a Salts, whose bottled mineral water, once available only through prescription and believed indispensable in the cure of all fevers, was the first product ever to be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, a famous and controversial case. The government found it to contain nothing that was actually detrimental

to human beings, and it went public, so to speak.

----to be reviewed, review means check, right? IN A WAY. THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION INVESTIGATES THE SAFETY OF PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET. why does the word detrimental typing in italic?is there a specific purpose for the author by doing this? YES. IT SUGGESTS THAT THE WATER DIDN'T HURT ANYBODY, BUT LIKELY DIDN'T HELP ANYBODY EITHER.
----it went public.means:it was reviewed harmless to human being so it was allowed to sell in public places? or "It came into the market"?
----so to speak. means"it is said so"? Am I right?THE WATER WAS ORIGINALLY SOLD AS A PRESCRIPTION. ONCE IT WAS INVESTIGATED AND FOUND TO BE NOT HARMFUL, IT WAS SOLD WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION--TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

WRITING, ESPECIALLY WRITING IN A WORK OF FICTION OR SOMETHING THAT'S PERSONAL, DOES NOT ALWAYS CONFORM TO THE NORMS OF GRAMMAR.

Set to go off may mean "at its peak" or "about to reach its use by date."

but Father's company had the message on its matchbooks before his competitors even knew what was happening), removed the hazard from book matches and turned the industry and Father's firm particularly into a flaming success overnight?-Father's joke, not mine.

flaming success---flaming is used as a pun?NOT SO MUCH A PUN AS A PLAY ON WORDS. here the narrator's father own a matchbook company and obviously achieve great success. flaming means great fire, I think!

thank you, roberta, it's a great help! go on with the next one,please!
I come of good stock?-real estate, mineral water, oxygen, matchbooks: earth, water, air and fire, the old elementals of the material universe, a bellybutton economics, a linchpin one.
real estate, mineral water, oxygen, matchbooks: earth, water, air and fire---these four are matched with those four, something his father, his grandmother on his mother's side, his grandfather,and his grandmother on his father's side. but what's a bellybutton economics? it's abstract to understand for me. it's related to economics?

Apres
"
He's a flamin great idoit. His flamin' dog bit me. roberta is a flamin great mental case.

thank you roberta,thank you dadpad!
1. open hearth? what is a open heart? please describe for me!A HEARTH (NOT A WORD OFTEN USED ANYMORE) CAN BE EITHER A FIREPLACE OR THE AREA IN FRONT OF A FIREPLACE. IN THE OLDEN DAYS, PEOPLE USED TO COOK OVER AN OPEN HEARTH.

2. they scandalize amongst themselves in whispers.?'Imagine', they say,?'saved from ruin because of some cornball sentiment available in every bar and grill and truck stop in the country. It's not, not...'
they say means someone said that....?
explain this sentence for me, please!"THEY SAY" MEANS PEOPLE SAY. IT'S AN EXPRESSION USED TO SUGGEST THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE AGREE WITH THE STATEMENT (USUALLY AN OPINION). FOR EXAMPLE, THEY SAY THAT ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT.

3.I come of good stock?-real estate, mineral water, oxygen, matchbooks: earth, water, air and fire, the old elementals of the material universe, a bellybutton economics, a linchpin one.

what is a bellybutton economics??
sorry to bother you!

2. they scandalize amongst themselves in whispers.?'Imagine', they say,?'[being] saved from ruin because of some cornball sentiment available in every bar and grill and truck stop in the country. It's not, not...'
they say means someone said that....?
explain this sentence for me, please!

3. I come of good stock?-real estate, mineral water, oxygen, matchbooks: earth, water, air and fire, the old elementals of the material universe, a bellybutton economics, a linchpin one.

Phooey on the First Families. On railroad, steel mill, automotive, public utility, banking and shipping fortunes, on all hermetic legacy, morganatic and blockbuster blood-lines that change the maps and landscapes and alter the mobility patterns, your jungle wheeling and downtown dealing a stone's throw from warfare.