Newark post., 1911-08-02
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES FO!OF-OT
; IMPRESSIONS
OF NEWARK

" llSi NSll,t idi VI sodelSd lililSo
| The Old Shipton Town Crier
should not roast him and her OF
the same spit.
! Roger Birkett, who had become
a Philadelphia newspaper man,
with a great zeal for Old Ship
tons literary taste had brought
about a University Extension
class. Professor Jumbo of the u,
P. was the star performer of this
all too brief reign of intellect in
Old Shipton. The Lister Birketts,
who were as democratic in some
things as they were aristocratic in
others, had not only invited every
body who could conceivably read
Thackeray or Miss Yonge with
intelligence, but had even gone
out into the highways and hedges
to compel them to come in.
Marian abhorred papers" read
by trembling ladies with their bon
nets on, and avoided them, for her
own part as she would the Plague.
Better fifty years Of snash-up
than cycle Of dull calm. She
:ancied that the ideas expressed
by those trembling ladies ratified
as loosely in their brains as did
, the written pages in their hands.
! She preferred incendiary senti-
ments OF the most explosive char
acter rather than the platitudes
which Old Shipton as a mass
brought forth on these occasions.
Compared with the Literary
Club, the University Extension
class was composed of motley
throng, urged to draw what nour-
ishment it could from SO great an
opportunity. Even Lister Birkett
/ sometimes came and stood in the
doorway, eyeing the multitude
with a smile "for all the world like
Mephistopheles in Faust" Mar
ian said.
Mrs. We're de We're and Mrs. Up
ton engaged the services of their
husbands in advance to read their
papers for them; Mrs. We're de
We're having once rashly attempt
ed to read her own with such pal
pitations and sleeplessness sue
ceedlng that she never again at
tempted the feat.
OF course all this was long, long
before the Old Shipton New Cen
tury Club, where feminine savoir-
faire is the order of the day.
Professor Jumbo had given out
an exercise of the intellect by way
Of a synopsis OF one o: George
Ellot's novels, and at this very
first stage Of progress Old Ship
ton mind athletes began to show
weakness.
1t was barely a quorum that
gathered to display its prowess
with papers in hand. Where WAS
that shining throng that had so
gally consented to join the Uni
versity Extension Class?
Even Marian, usually fervent in
such schemes was not present
when George Eliot's champions
convened. Though an artist in
aim she had not yet gone beyond
the five finger exercises of literary
Skill, and it was long past the hour
when she entered the college reci-
tatlon room appointed for these
Spartan games of the mind.
Professor Jumbo sat on the
platform, apparently at a loss for
subject matter OF discussion, while
his pupils had arranged ther-
selves more or less conspicuously
around and under long black
stove-pipe that crossed the arena
of exploits.
Everybody seemed to have sur
vlved his or her performance, and
wore that air so familiar to nm
who enters at the last cue; an air
oS mingled relief and expectation.
This was broken by an outcry
from Mrs. Lister Birkett, who
would have been as informal at
the Council of Trent as she was at
any Old Shipton gathering.
Here she comes!' exclaimed
she, as Marian entered suictIv
measuring the stove-pipe and its
probable capacity for concealing
her. Nov you can tell her, your
self, Professor Jumbo"
Mrs. Lister Burkitt never My
Deared her favorites, for which
Marian always blessed her, but
she had ways of appreciating them
that were flatterinp TO those who