Evening star., 1920-01-25

to the station. Shorty" says she, "and
see what Hobbs is doing with it. He's
had It nearly a MONTH"
III you'll make 1t on my way home
tonight" says l, I'll give him a try.
Better plan to have dinner a little
late, too. You know Hobbs"
From which you might gather that
MT. Hobbs wasn't a party who could
be rushed. And that only half states
the case. I've seen people who wasn't
much bothered by what they did with
their time. from hoboes on q park
bench to Johnnies In the club win
dows, but I don't think I ever ran
across one that spent it as free and
reckless as r. Hobbs Seemed to mean
no more to him than water runnin'
over u dam. Didn't do q bit Of good
to tell him you We're in hurry, had
to catch train, or get to directors
meetin. When he started in on one
of his ng-winded spiels there was
no stoppin' him until he was through,
Course. you might back through the
door and leave him talkin' but some
how you didn't just feel like doing
that. Not to Tobias Hobbs. No.
can't say just why, either. Unless
maybe you knew that was some-
thing he wouldn't do to you. And he
was such polite, gentle hammered
Gink that you'd feel sort of cheap
pullin' any rough stuff on him. You
wouldn't want to hurt his feelins.
For Mr.. T. Hobbs, jeweler. was an
entirely different proposition from
most Of what Mrs. Boomer-Day al
ways spoke of as ''the village trades
people," You couldn't class him in
with Schwartz, the butcher, or Pratt
& Miller, the grocers, or p. Glutz, the
plumber, or even Phillips, who ran
the stationery and book store and
wore shiny froek coat and was on
the board of education.
Not that Mr.. Hobbs tried to put on
any highbrow legs or made any stabs
at being social favorite. He lived
quiet and modest in a little tenement
over the store. always dressed kind
OF shabby, and never tried to break
into public affairs. Kind of a thin,
spindly little man. r. Hobbs, with weak
eyes helped out by pair of thick spec
tacles, and skinny Vandyke beard.
But in his way he was sort of dignified,
even when he had one OF them single
barreled magnifyin' glasses screwed into
one eye as he inspected the inside of a
nickel alarm clock. He'd have almost as
much to tell you. with the Ansonia relic
as an excuse, as he would If you'd
brought In II thousa md dollar grand
fathers clock. Talk! Say, that was his
OF, Ia f,,,,
Converse, o. No trouble for him to
find a topic. He was a self-starter.
From simple request to put new
crystal in your watch or to fit you to
Eew front collar button, he'd branch out
into a monoiogue on the great wall of
China, who built 1t and why and what
effect 1t had on the Chinese of today;
or else he'd tell you how in Jamaica
they cut down their banana trees every
year and raised new ones that produced
only a single bunch.
Must have been a great reader. Mr..
Hobbs, though | never could see where
he found time. But l expect when he
had nobody to talk to he went at it
strong. Books and magazines about
travels in foreign parts was his speciality
and he was better posted on how they
gathered the rice crop in Japan than he
was on what Long Island eggs was
fetchin' or why the coal strike petered
out. He was always sayin' how he'd
like to take trip to this place or that
Spain or India or Peru or Madagascar
and why. He'd even go SO far as to
write for pamphlets of steamer trips and
get rates on these round the world ex-
cursions.
And yet in the half dozen or more
years I've lived out here in Rockhurst-
on-the-S Sound never knew of his get
tin as far away as Coney Island. Why
! don't believe he went into town more n
two or three times year. Near as |
could figure, Hobbs was born in Rock
hurst. had always lived there, and prob
ably always would, His father had
opened clock and watch garage way
back in the early days when Rockharst
was a real country village on the old
post road So Tobias had been brought
up in the business They say he could
tinker up timepiece, specially these
old antiques with wooden works and
ships painted on their faces. But you
had to give him month or so on every
. Job and listen to him about so long
when you took In the work and when