Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-06-01
A COMPOSITION.

Oh, my:
A CoMPos1rIoN.
There was very little in John Jebb.
Esq. but what there was his friends
objected to. While he was only
moderately rich they hung aloof from
him, but when he became a million
aire, of course, that course of con
duct became impossible. 1t is
contrary to human nature to ignore a
man who has twenty thousand a year.
especially if he doesn't spend it. He
had few distant relatives, but there's
always chance of mans not dying
intestate, and John Jebb, although
be was not old, was stout and had a
short throat. For my own part, l
have known men not nearly so rich
and not more disagreeable. He was
good natured in doing things that
gave him no trouble, and generous
with his advice when it did not take
money out of his pocket. In all
matters of expenditure connected
with himself he was more than liberal
he was lavish-and he had no hest
tation in telling you SO. l never
knew any one who shone so-with
self compiacency-at the head of his
dining table. THAT champagne, my
dear fellow, will not hurt you. 1t is
not sort of thing. l do assure you.
that you get at home As soon as l
am assured of its being a good year
I always secure the whole brand"
Jebb could not be said to be of a
reverent habit of mind, but some
things were sacred to him. For ex
ample, his Madeira. He would speak
of It with a hushed voice, as of the
unforgctten dead. The bottle used
to be brought out and exhibited be-
fore it was opened. Look at the cob
webs" he would murmur plaintively.
as though he were quoting
"Look at her garments, clinging
like cerements."
He would watch it being placed in
its cradle as a mother might hang
over her dead baby, and he didn't
like jokes about it any more than she
would have done.
Young Binks of the Stock Ex-
change discovered that. I need not
say-for otherwise he would not have
been guest of Jebb's-that he was
q well connected young fellow (son of
Sir Gilbert Binks, member for Down
shire,) but he had fallen into the
habits in the city and became a wag.
THAT last bottle of yours was
eorked, Jebb," he had once the
audacity to say.
"Corked? My Madeira colked!"
I really thought Jebb would have
choked with indignation. He looked
30 red as we'll as angry. that Binks,
who had taken quite as much wine as
was good for him, was sobered in an
instant.
II only meant" he said. with a
sickly smile, that it was corked be-
fore it was drawn"
It was not very good joke, but it
cost Binks five hundred year; for
Jebb never gave him any business
afterward.
Cyrus Plush, the Royal Academi-
clan, was betrayed into a similar
indiscretion. Jebb was a great patron
of art, and was acknowledged by
Plush, for reasons not inexplicable,
to have very good judgment in
modern painting. His country resi-
dence, Fresco Castelar, historic
mansion of great size and strength
was furnished in the most artistic
manner, as all his visitors had cause
to know. On the morning after your
arrival, Jebb always took you over
his little place." as he humorously
termed it, end eulogized everything
to that extent, that, had one not felt
certain from what one knew of
Jebb's habits of caution) that it was
insured, it would have suggested
arson. 1t is bad enough to be taken
over a mans stables after breakfast
why, oh why, does your host in this
country always do his?-but forced
inspection of whole mansion, as if
one was an auctioneer or appraiser, is
q little too much. The ceilings of
Fresco Castle are splendidly illus
trated and if you lay on your back on
the floor might no doubt repay peru
sal, but nothing in the way Of allegory
can in my opinion compensate for a
crick in the neck.
The nymphs and delties thus por-
trayed were hateful to Plush, who
dates the true dawn of art no further
back than the year in which he, him
self. began to flourish" and he
showed great impotence during the
terrible ordeal.
In the great drawing room. where,
overhead, Venus is apparently being
dipped, in the sea in very made
quate bathing gown, by Neptune and
other marine assistants, Jebb is al
ways especially eloquent.
"Now you would never imagine
Mr.. Plush, that exquisite painting
left the hand of Celnetto more than
three centuries ago; the tints, the
tones, the colors are as bright as
ever"
"What PITY exclaimed Plush.
He conldn't resist it (''canvas could
hardly have stood it." as he after
wards said, much less flesh and
bloody but, just as in the case of
poor Binks, Jebb never gave him an
other commission.
Perhaps it was his rupture with
Plush that turned Jebb from paint
ing to its sister art, but certainly of
late years he has decidedly gone in
more for sculpture; or, as Plush dis
painfully terms it. taken to marbles ~
A statue of himself, considerably
over ife-size, adorns the great stair
case at Fresco: he is represented
making his great speech in Parlia-
ment (about shutting the window, J
and since it manifestly portrays a
stout parsonage in the act of speak
ing, it is no wonder Though he
doesn't like it, that strangers exclaim,
Fox, Of course"
Rnt what he Drided himself most