Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1913-03-18
6be
Archaeologist
He Preferred Digging In the
Ground to Money
Making
By F. A. mitchell

When Henry Robson lost his wife he
was left with one son. Louis, fourteen
years old. Robson was Of very prac
teal mold regarding the production
and accumulation Of wealth, the chief
end of man. Having made fortune,
this ambition was succeeded by simi-
lar object. He would bring up his son
70 take lis place ut the head OF the
great manufacturing concern OF which
he WIS the principal owner and man.
aser. He preferred that Louis should
not 70 to college, entering instead into
busiuesS ut that age when young men
enter Upon a university career. but he
did not insist upon this, arguing that
While what boy learned at college
wa< mGs:!y worthless lie lived there In
u ,h:.l.nnHi!! which waS preparation
Ter The larger world which he was
later TO enter.
Rut before Louis was prepared to
enter ,ulie.e his father married again.
His second wife was widow with a
daughncr eleven years old or three
years younger than her Stepbrother. No
so0npr i.ad the marriage taken place
than the wife began to study how she
could divert her husbands fortune
from Louis to her daughter. She could
only think OF it. however, for her hus-
band was bent on his fortune passing
from his hands to those Of his son.
She worried her daughter with her
schemes till the poor child was quite
worn out with them. 1t was Edith,
why did you go to bed last night with
out kissing your father good nightT
or You naughty child, to speak as
saucily to your father as you did to-
day! You deserve that he should leave
you nothing in his will"
Tie girl knew well that this refer
ence to the will was the upshot OF the
whole matter. and since she was too
young 10 think in mercenary way OF
the future she did not enter into her
mothers plans. But by not doing so
she unintenlionally helped the matter.
for her siepfather saw through her
rlot hers plan from the first. and 1t was
piain to him that Edith was disturbed
by ii. Moreover. he took naturally to
The child who was Of lovely disposi-
ton. and when Louis went away to
boarding school she, In measure,
dropped into his place with her father.
Then came that which tended to
brin. about Mrs. Robson's schemes.
Louis developed tastes antagonistic to
business. Instead Of being interested
In the mechS mic arts he must needs be-
come infatuated with those people who
lived couple OF thousand years ago
the Greeks and RomanS-whom most
children wish had never lived at all.
Louis tastes ran also to languages, and
In the Latin and the Greek he read
about Roman cOnquests and Athenian
intellectual triumphs. The boy had
not been long in college when his
knowledge of Greek and Latin litera-
ture was the talk of the students and
the surprise of the professors.
All this was disappointing to Mr..
Robson. He regarded the Greeks and
Romans as absolutely dead and unpro-
liuctive. The Roman forum was to
him simply n show for Americans and
only valuable for the liras taken IN as
gate money. But even this he consid
cred wasted because 1t was being used
for further excavations. He regretted
that the barbarians who had demO-
lshed Rome had not made wilderness
Of it so that its site might have been
lost forever. Constantinople he thought
might have become valuable on ac-
count Of its location had not the Turks
gone In and spoiled it for a center OF
trade. Had it not been for this the
Bosporus might have become as I'm
portant rs the Chicago river.
"But, papa" Edith would say, lust
think-the ancients called the Bospo-
rus the Hellespont. and Leander swan
1t to visit Hero"
Spoken like the dear little girl you
are," was the reply to this. You are
at an age when girls are much better
fitted 10 discern romance than site
for real estate speculation"
A crisis came in the family when
Louis was graduated. An expedition
was TO be sent out by his alma mater
to dig for the site Of an ancient city.
md he was invited to be a member OF
The party. His father, who had been
waiting for four years to begin to pre-
bare his son to take his place In his
business, was furious. Edith placated
him as best she could. holding out the
hone that Louis would tire Of hunting
lor old bones, flint arrowheads, pot
ery and trinkets buried fifty feet un-
foreground, but Mr.. Robson knew that
such tastes instead Of improving the
Investigator only tended to ruin hir
Such persons" he averred. "are born
with their heels In the air instead OF
their heads and branch out toward the
enter Of the earth"
Louis insisted on going with the ex-
pedition. his expenses being paid from
the college fund appropriated for the
purpose. His father offered to give
him an enormous salary II instead he
would enter his factory and as soon az
L., h,1 io,rn..1 how m manage IL he