The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-13
UNION CITY WEDDINGS.
A Martyr to Clubs.

Education, in literature at least. is pain
fully achieved by some people; while others.
it appears. have it mercilessly thrust upon
them.
Keep up with current literature!' ex-
claimed an amiable family man, who had
just been proDed conversationally by an
other man concerning his knowledge Of
modern fiction. 81 should say L do. / keep
up with current literature, ancient litera-
ture, middle-distance literature, and every
other old kind of literature. If 1 wanted to
be ignorant 1 couldn't do it. Education on
many lines is simply showed on me. 1 work
myself to death all day, and then go home
to attend night school every evening. 1t is
enough to kill a man-it really is"
might school? What do you mean?'
asked the other man.
Say" the family man continued, didn't
you ever notice what an unbounded and en-
thusiastic tendency to read aloud women
have? Men s-eldom-almost never-read
aloud to each other from newspapers or
books, but women are always doing it. 1
do recall an exception, however. On a
train one day two men sat behind me and
one of them read aloud from his newspa-
per TO the other man., making ridiculous
oiiQ Sin Clil vi WudI lie TedQ
all the way from Indianapolis to Chicago.
My curiosity to see what two such men
looked like made me turn around to in
spect them. The man who read aloud all
afternoon hadn't any chin worth mention
ing and the man who let him do it had a
head straight up and down in the back.
But to return to the night school. My
wife and two daughters all belong to lit
erary clubs. In the evening when we are
all at home these literary ladies are gen.
orally reading on the line Of the club pa
pers which they are preparing. Now that
is where ] come in. For some occult rea-
son they each have selected me as the tar
get for their REORGANIZATION of literary
information. Probably they think 1 need
1t. and perhaps / do. My wife Laura never
reads aloud to Agnes and Clara. and Clara
and Agnes never read aloud to their mother
or to each other. Oh, no! They all read
aloud to me, and sometimes all at once.
When they do that I ring off and make
them begin again and educate me one at
a time, going by ages, Laura first.
Laura will say: oh, Henry, just listen to
this beautiful, beautiful passage from Mil
ton.' Then 1 nave to drop my newspaper.
/ try to forget politics, and look as If I
understood Milton. In a few seconds Clara
breaks out:
"tOh, papa. wasn't 1t pitiful about Wal
ter Scott? He didn't marry the girl he loved
at all; she married somebody else. Just let
me read you this touching extract from
| L~ockhart's Life-this is the new edition.
Again I drop my paper, and drink in a
| whole lot about the girl Sir Walter Scott
didn't marry.
1T is Agnes's turn next. She has just
read somebody's new essay on Cervantes,
and is making a club paper on Don Quix-
ote. Papa exclaims Agnes, you just
ought to read Don Quixote; it is so fun
ny. Don Quixote went charging all over
the country. fighting windmills and Aocks
of sheep, and Sancho Panza was just kill
| ing. Do let me read you about Marbrino's
helmet So I leave off politics again-a
man has to keep up with politics, you know
and let Agnes read to me about the bar
ber's basin.
Compulsory night school Is educational,
of course" Concluded the amiabIe man,
but 1t Is hard IN the brain In such sud-
| den and miscellaneous broken doses. When
1 get too much L drop off to sleep In my
| chair and snore. Then somebody says-aIl
much vexed because I'm out of reach, as it
were-'Do look at papa; wake him up and
make him go to bed"