Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-01-12
JOBSoN READS HISTORY

and mental cultivation in this household
| and he cut the Irvine that bound the bum
! die. ripped or the paper and revealed q
| stack of books Of the same color and pat
tern
This thing" he went on. "of doddering
around the house for five or six hours every
night. until bedtime. playing checkers. or
saving on the violin. or listening to you
| pick out a note here and a note there on
the piano. and watching you reading with
| rapt, open-mouthed attention the MARIA
ton Of the extraordinary adventures of
Birdie Juteworks, or The Hapless Maiden
OF the Mill. has got to come to an end. It's
slothful. Improbable, idiotic and miser-
able fashion of frttering away the time"
Here Mr.. Jobson halted and gazed SOL
EMMY at Mrs. Jobson, who wondered what
was coming next.
II have here. Mrs. Jobson," he went on,
IAN immortal historical work, which you
| not have heard Of. 1t is called The De-
cline and Fall Of the Roman Empire and
it was written by Gibbon.''
Quite true" Said Mrs. Jobson, sweetly.
Il read an abrfdgement of 1t when was at
school. and have read the complete work
through twice since we We're married You
Will remember that my Uncle John gave it
to me for birthday present. in eight vol
umes. 1t is in the bookcase now bound in
| morocco, you'll remember"
Mr.. Jobson's countenance fell. but he
promptly recovered and looked incredulous
There's something queer about all this
that's all I've got to say he remarked
however. Il never knew of these books
being In the house. and you must have
been hiding them all these years. I'll bet
You the incest poke bonnet that can be
built for new currency that those volumes
have never seen the inside of the book
case, anyhow-you've probably had them in
the bottom Of one Of the old trunks In the
store room all this time
They've been in the bookcase ever since
| l got them" put in Mrs. Jobson. and Mr..
Jobson. perceiving that he was cornered,
We'll just let that little mystery pass
for the present." he said. IF had known
that there was an edition of this immortal
work around my house dye suppose that
I'd have blown In $2S for this twelve-vol-
ume edition? However, We'll let that pass.
as say. The fact remains that chapter
Of this great historical work Is going to be
| read in this household every night from
now on. and I'm going to be the reader.
We need to have our horizon expanded.
We live too much in the trifling and friv-
olous present. We are too much concerned
spiration, elevation, exaltation. What bet.
ter way of gaining those things than by
barking back, through the medium Of this
masterful work. to the glorious days and
the mighty happenings of imperial Romey'
and Mr.. Jobson was becoming so eloquent
that Mrs. Jobson felt like Ginning in with
Hear! Heart but she didn't care to take
| the chance.
Il think" went on Mr.. Jobson. that 1
started to read this book when I was
young fellow, but I'm not sure. and I'm not
setting up any fictitious claims like some
people / know. Well begin on these read
ings right after dinner. and from this time
| on nothing whatever is going to interfere
with at least one chapter Of Gibbon every
evening. You'll thank me for this later
| on. although 1 can see by your looks now
that you are suffering the miseries of an
anticipatory martydom.
Mrs. Jobson denied the Impeachment. and
said:
"Of course, you know that the chapters
of Gibbons Decline and Fall are very
long, and that"
"Oh. that'Il be all right. too" interrupted
Mr.. Jobsan. 81 don't care II each chapters
as long as the Koran. when I set myself a
certain task. that task l perform in the
face Of every Encouragement. Just hurry
the girl up with dinner SOS we can get a,
the first volume right after dinner
So. Immediately after the evening meal.
Mr. Jobson planted Mrs. Jobson In chair
right opposite himself. SO that he could
watch and see If she yawned or nodded,
and started in to drone chapter l Of vol
ume Of Gibbons Decline and Fall" He
hadn't got through with more than half
page before he struck a number of snags.
By the time he had read four pages he was
in real difficulties. The Latin quotations In
the foot notes first got him going. He
bravely went at them and spluttered them
so that they sounded like mixture of rag
time and Fiji. and he looked out of the tail
of his eye to see whether Mrs. Jobson was
laughing at him. She wasn't laughing out
wardly. however. no matter how much she
might have been inwardly enjoying herself.
The names of the ancient provinces OF the
Roman empire caused Mr.. Jobson to splut-
ter and choke good DEAL too, but he at
tackled them all. and continued to regard
Mrs. JObson slantwise, after misnamtng
long list Of the provinces, to see II she was
giving any exterior manifestations of glee,
which would have afforded him his oppor-
tunity to throw the book down and refuse
to play any more. Mrs. Jobson, however,
preserved her interested exterior.
81 wonder" Mr.. Jobson broke off. after
reading many pages, where the dickens
the hot stuff, so to speak, iii this work be-
Nero. who used to use burning Christian
maidens for torches, and who played on
the fiddle while Rome was burning. and"
Well Interrupted Mrs. Jobson. "you
clude the reign Of Nero. The history be-
gins. believe. with the imperial reign Of
Augustus, and then hurriedly passes on to
the reign of Trajan, where the real story
begins
We'll that'll be about all for the pres
net" said Mr. Jobson, closing the book
with snap. You seem to know the whole
thing anyhow. to hear you tell 1t. How
ever, l shall resume the readings tomorrow
evening. right after dinner
Mr.. Jobson did resume the readings on the
following evening, and he continued them
for four nights until his voice grew hoarse
and husky. He really didn't appear to be
enjoying himself very much.
Immediately after dinner on Thursday
evening he went upstairs, and when he
came down, about half hour later. he
was logged out in his best clothes and
all primped up.
Are you going out?' inquired Mrs. job
son.
do look like I'm on my way down to
the cellar to repair the furnace?" he asked
her.
But" said Mrs. Jobson, "how about the
reading from
'The readings are all off, broke In Mr..
Jobson. IF you think you're going to put
up Job like that and make it stick-bam-
boozling me into reading about million
pages every night Of long winded, dry-as-
dust dead stuff about dead criminals with
purple togas. for the purpose Of keeping me
in the house all the time. you're mixed.
that's all. I'm going down town to play
billiards and take in a variety show. and
IL you want to wade through that Roman
rot, go ahead. There's nobody going to
stop you"
And when he had gone Mrs. Jobson smiled
and smiled
Reported Find of Ambergris.
From the Kansas City Call.