The Washington times., 1901-07-07

Millions OF Lines of Newspapers
writc-Ups A Unique History.
Decked in yellow satin is a big book,
p inches long, "a inches wide. and Il inch
es thick. containing 2ss pages II is a
scrapbook- Its hero is Tob:n, King OF ths
Midway.
The title IS Tobin.
The preface ~ Tobin-
The first chapter is Tobin.
The whole book is Tobin.
The book was written by So writer's.
Some of it's coIlaborators now are great
editors or famous noyelists. Others are
asleep in graveyards ter doze in country
sanctums. There are 1.ls2 chapters in the
book. Some OF the chapters are 5000
words long. Others are 40 words long.
Beside the book is a second volume OF
literary notices OF the hero and the tale.
This second book is 1l6 pages, L inches
square. and 3 inches thick.
The big book is an edition de luxe OF
one copy 1t took ten years to write H.
The task really began twenty-five years
ago, but there was an interval Of fifteen
years prior to the actual work begun In
1891. II Is not an autobiography and II is
far from finished. IN fact. the story is
not half told and the So writer's who al
ready have labored on il viii be followed
by S32 more and even then the word
'Finis'' may be a decade distant Bis
marck had no such volume when he died.
Napoleon could boast of no such history
All the Guizots and Fiskes and Leckys
and Macaulays and Bancrofts and Park
mans who penned and toiled ever gave TO
the eager world a monument like the IN
finished History of Tobin, King and
ITev- 81,
not finished. To king and hero viii be
added poetaster, bard. orator, captain OF
amusements. teller Of tales. the hunter
home from the hills, and many other cpl
thets of excellence and eloquence.
The first chapter reads:
''Born-February %. 1876. Tobin. sur
named Maurice. knight errant and later
and now King. Of paTentage honored and
esteemed, of ancestry noble and original
ly of the families of monarchs when sin
gle tribes needed four kings to rule them
He stands midway between pIutocracy
and peasantry and for thirty years in the
midway viii ne so stand, Grating to the
peasantry. Thereafter he will be a po-
tentate of the utoeraey.-Galesburg Ca
zette"
Then follows chapter after chapter. tale
after tale Tobin had the measles. the
whoopingcOugh, the mumps It IS all
there. He won a prize at spelling bee
II is there. He was almost drowned. It
is there. He visited friends. II is there
Friends visited him. II is there He slept
for three days once II is there He
painted a town BY night. 1t is there
Never was a great mans boyhoOd and
aduIthOod more fully chroRicIed by faith
ful scribes and historians. His wander
ings are told. his great triumphs at Chi
eago. Omaha, Nashville, Atlanta. and
New Orleans; his feastings in Hawaii. his
audiences with Liliuokalani, his strange
power among strange people. Scores OF
his stories, dozens of his orati0ns, his
meetings and hobnobbings with royalty
and greatness are related, yard after
yard.
There are 1.1s2 columns Of these ehron-
icres, each column "a inches long. L
pasted together. they would make line
2S. SOS inches long or a stretch of history
2,2S4 feet long Tobin has enough in his
book to run it up the side of the Electric
Tower, enfold the golden goddess in ii,
run it down the other side, up again,
down again and up again. There is half
a mile Of it. Granted there are / so lines
Of type TO a column q inches long, there
are 2145,6o0 lines of printed matter in
the book. all about Tobin. If each line
is at least 2 inches wide there are l.
291 200 inches of lines. all about Tobin
That is 957 500 feet of lines about Tobin
Figured in miles, it is 67lz miles Of lines
about Tobin. That is the work of So
writers in ten years. for. apart from the
first chapter on the entree of Tobin, the
lines have been written since 1891
Tobla expects TO live to be so. If every
ten years he has 671. miles of history
about himself in three more spans of ten
years each ne will have 2J24z miles to add
to the 671s. making go miles Of chronicles
of '-Tobin, King and Hero"
This, for instance. is another chapter.
Tobin viii have it in the book before
breakfast-Bufalo Express