--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Dobson, Joseph H. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 11 published: 1921-09 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Joseph H. Dobson, "Joseph H. Dobson, D. D. D.," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 11 (September 1921): 983–991.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24011unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera24011unse start_page: 983 end_page: 991 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-09) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera24011unse publication_year: 1921 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Joseph H. Dobson, D. D. D. Joseph H. Dobson, D. D. D. (Written for the Improvement Era.) The door flew shut with a rousing bang, and Joe's rubber- soled Gym" shoes struck the porch floor just twice, before his soft foot-falls died away in a lively run down the path. To be sure, he was in a great hurry, but the closing door had empha- sized more than haste. His sister Nora was in a tearful rage that he had upset a chair loaded with some of her newly-ironed finery, and little Jim and Sammy howled loudly that his reckless foot had upset their stately blockhouse. Joe had left the supper table abruptly in order to be on time for some special affair at the gymnasium, and after getting into hot water with nearly every member of the household, about his suit, his cap, and other matters of dress or fancy, had decided no one cared a cent for his rights, and shifting the dignity of his seventeen years into high gear, had driven straight over everything and everybody to his object, and left the house in high dudgeon. But high dudgeon had come to be the popular rage in the Dobson home, and now Nora was using it to telling purpose in preparing herself for a party. Little Jim caught the spirit and threw a block at Sammy, though he had suffered a brisk spank- ing for this very offense not an hour before. Eliza had been in a tiff with her Ma in the pantry, from which she came forth in an ugly mood, and Pa Dobson sat back with his newspaper in a corner, too disgusted with the bedlam to know or care what he read. This bedlam story was of long standing. He and Ma had worried about it and tried to formulate a plan to correct it, but it grew worse and not better. Of course, it may be that right now he should have been assisting Mrs. Dobson with work in the kitchen, and taking more of a hand in making matters go peace- fully, but he was tired, only half well, and worried to death about things in general. The noisy unpleasantries of this same bedlam had died away behind him when he went to work in the morning, it had greeted him at his approach for dinner, and had been the main thing all evening. Of course, Joe had been the one to stir matters up to a high pitch tonight, but every member was able and in practice, and Pa Dobson recalled times when he had given the signal for the 984 IMPROVEMENT ERA daily fuss. Twice when he had thought to make a general clean up with a keen willow, it threw matters unduly out of poise for three days thereafter. Several times he had even had sharp words with Ma, and she had learned with the years to give him as good as he offered. He shrugged his shoulders, and dropping his paper saw the two little brothers fighting fiercely on the carpet. He would hold the spirit of the fight out of his own soul, he would be calm with the belligerents, and pacify them with persuasion, but when little Jim hit the other a vicious lick in the eye, Pa sprang from his chair and delivered half a dozen resounding flat licks on a pair of tight-fitting small trousers, before his ideals of calm- ness had time to mature. Settling back in his chair, he listened to one son cry with pain, while the other looked on and re- joiced. "Pa Dobson," he said to himself, "you're the author of all this confusion, and the stupidest old fool in the family." Joe returned late in the evening to find his father sitting alone by the fire, not reading, but simply looking pensively into the dying embers. "Anything I can do for you?" asked the boy feeling sure something had slipped out of joint. "I'm afraid not, son," and his father betrayed his discour- agement, in spite of his kindness. "Anything I can do to help you?" There was something Pa could do for Joe, though this might not be the time and place to mention it. Still he muct know what the trouble might be. "Well, yes, there is some- thing you might do for me," he faltered, "though you may be too much taken up with your affairs just now to consider it." "What is it," Pa asked, still in kindly tones. "Was you in real earnest when you said school isn't worth the trouble? Is this really my last year? I'm mighty anxious to go some more; in fact, I won't ever be satisfied without going to college and getting a degree." Pa scratched his head — this school business had been an- other bone of contention, and he had resolved when Joe went out of the door this very evening that it was settled once and for all. But there must be no more unpleasantness tonight. He looked at the coals and Joe waited in silence. "I'll tell you, son," he broke forth, "I want something, too, and like you, I want it mighty bad. If you'll give what I want, I'll give you what you want." "I want a scholarship and a degree," bubbled the high school boy in a burst of hope, forgetting for the moment ev- erything but his cherished hope, and forgetting, too, how im- possible it might be to pay the price in question. But as a more JOSEPH H. DOBSON, D. D. D. 985 conservative thought, and growing curious again, "What is the thing you want?" he asked. "I want peace in this home. If you'll tell how to make things go, and keep going here, as smoothly and sweetly and lovingly as they go over there at Johnson's, your free scholar- ship and your degree is assured." It was Joe's turn to stare at the fire, and he gave vent to a low whistle of surprised defeat. He wouldn't undertake it — his father had already foreseen that. But as Joe started for bed he stopped at the door and said, with a trace of resolution, "I'll think about it." A week passed in the Dobson home much the same as other weeks had passed with bitter words and general hard feelings over trivial things. But more alarming than usual, Nora had a sharp collision with her mother, and another with Eliza, and then announced her intention of leaving home. Yet Pa, in his distress and discouragement, cherished the belief that there was a little change for the better in Joe. One evening the big high school boy sat still at his books while the quarreling factions moved off to the stairs, and he continued quietly there until the contentions over pillows, gowns and other matters, died away in the upper rooms. "Say, Pa," he broke forth, turning to his parents with a tone which caught their attention, "are you in earnest about that offer you made the other night?" "What's that?" asked Mrs. Dobson, and when Pa explained it, somewhat to her surprise, she considered it a minute in si- lence. "Well, I should say he does mean it," she broke forth in ecstasy. "If your father made any such promise to you, he'll surely keep it — we'll both keep it." "You bet we will, son," Dobson added, still feeling per- fectly safe. "And the degree, too?" "Yes, by George, I'll see that you get a better degree than anybody holds in town." That some powerful pull was active to keep Joe along with his aspiring class, was perfectly clear to Pa Dobson, and at first he made sure it was the influence of George Reed and Bill Brown, Joe's bosom companions. In his eagerness to accom- plish the strange feat and win the coveted scholarship, Jo- would sit long minutes at a time simply studying the vexing home problem, and then he would go over to Johnson's, seem- ingly to study the desired ideal. But as the winter wore away, he seemed to spend more time at Johnson's than at home, and stranger still, Leah Johnson was about the only member of the family he looked to for inspiration. f86 IMPROVEMENT ERA His studies at school and his big problem at home seemed one and the same thing, and he buried himself in their general substance, with his favorite subject of mechanics and machin- ery, seemingly at the very bottom of all of them. The system and persistence with which he pursued his studios at school, con- sidered conditions at home and then at Johnsons, indicated he had called his father's bluff in dead earnest. His father had re- garded it only as a bluff, safe and sure in its nature, but the safety of the thing seemed somehow to be failing. And twice Joe had concealed a handful of notes in such a way as to set Pa Dobson's curiosity in a perfect ferment. And whenever Joe came from Johnson's, he had Leah's kindly tones and winning accents so pronounced in his voice, that his arrival meant oil on the troubled waters. His use of these things at first had been somewhat of a laughable misfit, but they soon became perfectly natural, and the earnestness with which he used them, cheated him out of knowing the real fury with which life was lived in his home when he was away. Sometimes Leah herself came over, and everything grew calm and sweet as if in the presence of an angel. "Say, do you realize that boy's taxing his brain and his wits to the limit on the strength of your offer?" asked Mrs. Dobson, when she and Pa were together one evening. "You bet I do," he answered, shaking his head in pleased perplexity, "and if I'm any judge, Leah Johnson is conspiring with him to put the deal over." "Well, what if he makes it?" "Oh, I — hardly think he can. If he does, I'll have to come across with my part of the contract, even if I have to sell some land." "What about the degree?" Pa scratched his head and frowned, "I'll have to hatch on something along that line, too," he admitted. Somehow Joe became more and more an object of cu- riosity, and even reverence as the game proceeded, and somehow Pa and Ma waxed almost too curious to wait and see what sort of move their son would make next. He steered out of most all unpleasantness at home, unless it were to act as pacifier, though he took his part of the work more willingly than ever before, and he persuaded Nora to give up the notion of leav- ing home. Several times his face flushed at what he heard, but he maintained his composure, even though he had to retreat to Johnson's. The power of this aspiring school boy would have revolu- tionized that household in time, even without any further step to better plans, but the two older Dob sons felt sure he would make greater strides yet, and they waited eagerly. Their curi- JOSEPH H. DOBSON, D. D. D. *87 osity was excited to a great pitch when he betrayed an impulse to say something unusual, just after they had taken part in one of the wordy "free for alls," still common with the Dobsons, but he refrained, as if awaiting opportunity. Spring came and school was soon to be out, when Joe asked his father, one morning, "Will you have faith in my plan to let it apply to you and Ma?" Dobson had all but said, "Sure thing," when the impropriety of promising obedience to his son struck hard on his pride. "Well now, son, when it comes to telling me and your mother what to do, there's a — " "Your arrangement admits there is something wrong, and that you don't know how to correct it. I can't prove my cure without being allowed to apply it." To Pa it was an unlooked for phase of the question, and it might have ridiculous consequences. "I'll keep my part of this contract," he affirmed, trying to look perfectly just, but feeling decidedly disturbed, and Joe departed dejectedly to join Leah Johnson on her way to school. "I've been amused at Joe's efforts," Pa declared, when he found Mrs. Dobson in the kitchen, "but I'm afraid he's going to expect something we can't give." "Why, how so?" she demanded in surprise. "He seems to think we should do as he says while he proves some theory of his." "Oh, well, we don't need to be alarmed, he's too nearly right on this question to ask anything wrong, and he mustn't get the idea that we're weakening on this contract when it has come to mean so much to him. I actually believe it is the only thing he and Leah ever talk about, and I am delighted with the success of their efforts." "His demands may not be exactly wrong, and yet he may get us into a ridiculous position." Ma still felt assured it would turn out well, but Pa had his doubts, and was relieved in his feelings that afternoon when Joe asked if they would listen three evenings later to a few things he had written. During those three days, something akin to peace seemed to have arrived at the Dobson home; and, on the evening ap- pointed, the children were induced to retire early, and Joe found his two listeners ready and alone at eight. "This mustn't be judged for its literary worth," he apolo- gized, "I've simply tried to get a few things down clearly enough to be understood. I was afraid I couldn't tell it, so I've written it, and I'd like to ask that if you have any serious objections to offer, you wait with them till some other time." 988 IMPROVEMENT ERA "Ways to Prevent Grating Contact and to Soften Hard Col- lisions." As he read the headline, his listeners strained their at- tention: "Everything which is to work continuously, must work smoothly; if the parts grate on one another, or come into sharp collision, they will break or wear out and go to pieces. Where two hard surfaces are to come against each other, their contact must be softened with pads or springs. If they are to pass closely by each other, oil should be provided to prevent fric- tion. "The most smooth-running machinery, is propelled by the most steady, easy power. The gentle pull of electricity is easier than the pounding power of steam on machinery. "And if a knuckle or cylinder becomes heated, we modify that heat with something cool, not with something hot. "If a surface becomes lacerated and jagged, from rough contact with another surface, it will cut every surface it touches until it becomes smooth. These things must be watched for and treated before they ruin a whole valuable machine. "A great train is switched from one track to another, simply by shifting a small frog at the forks of the road ahead, and the turn is made gently and gradually without a jar. "The springs, the pads and the oil are necessary in all suc- cessful human intercourse, and the fine frog in the forks of their track from one line to another, must be handled with care. There must be the cooling lotion for the hot places, and the power which propels it must by all means be smooth and steady, like an electric current. "Nations get along peacefully with one another only by the wise use of these means, and this is all that holds business to- gether, and makes it run smoothly. Without it, men could not live in peace together in towns and cities. "Business concerns and even nations sometimes make great compromises to avoid a hard collision. "In the family with no springs to soften the collision, no oil to prevent one part from wearing another, the family organ- ization soon wears out and falls to pieces. And the hot place in the family cannot be cooled with heat, no more than the fast train can be made to jump straight over from one track to an- other without a wreck. The family machine, like any other machine, runs more smoothly and effectively with the steady pull of electricity, than with the pounding power of steam." Pa Dobson stared at the fire and heard every word, regard- ing himself as an engine, instead of a magnet, and not looking up to answer the glances of his wife. JOSEPH H. DOBSON, D. D. D. 989 "The springs, the pads and the oil in the family," Joe read on, "cannot be described, they are intangible, — they are in the gesture, in the look and the tone, but they fit best in words like these: Sure thing; well, I'm awful sorry; if you please; would I be asking too much — " He continued with a long list in which Leah Johnson was always too plainly heard to leave anyone in doubt as to where he got his inspiration, and Pa Dobson reflected that in the Johnson home there were no sharp collisions, and no one part wearing unduly on another. "In words like these," Joe proceeded, "there are no springs, no oil; the collision is a sad crash, and the two rough bodies grate by each other with a rasping sound: Get out of the way; I won't do anything of the sort; Do for goodness sake shut up a little while; I'm always asked to do more than my share; No sir, I won't wait a minute, you must go right now." The lopg list of similar things were from the D«bson home and from nowhere else. The paper was finished. It could have been made more clear and complete, but Pa had supplemented it with many ideas of his own, and he was still building on it and looking at the fire when Joe folded the precious sheet and bade them, good night. "He's perfectly right," declared Dobson, as soon a3 they were alone nodding his head with decision, and the two sat there till a late hour, talking and planning and confessing as they had never done before. Still fearful, Joe might want to tell him how and where to begin on the new plan, Pa hastened in the early morning to his son's room. "Well son," he began, with unconcealed approval, "I must say I like your idea, and I'd like full latitude to en- force it until — " "May be it would be better applied than enforced," Joe suggested, when his father paused. "Yes, that's right — I apply it and you have the scholarship just the same." "And the degree?" "Well — er — yes, sure." When the Dobson swarm came out of bed, the usual din, now somewhat modified, began to rend the air, but Pa and Ma, by solemn resolution and premeditated plan, moved among them with a magic they had never exercised before. Then Nora, stopping in the midst of her work, looked in surprise from her father to her mother. "Why, Ma!" she asked in a hoarse whisper, "has somebody died in the night?" "Why do you ask that?" her mother questioned in surprise. 990 IMPROVEMENT ERA "You and Pa have heard something," she insisted, all but bursting into tears. Ma didn't deny they had "heard something," but she paci- fic 1 Nora with some good natured pleasantry, and everyone in the house began to show symptoms of the new order. Pa took account of the magic change, and resolved to "apply" the new method, with more diligence than he had enforced the steam power all these years. The anniversary of Joe's birthday arrived late in May, and when he reached the big front room in the evening, behold a surprise party. George and Bill, in fact the whole class were present, and better still, all of the Johnsons. They had music and games and ice cream, just the kind of time to be remem- bered always, but the most wonderful feature of the party, was the great love of the whole family for Joe, and his tender regard for everyone of them, as shown in some strange way by every exercise of the evening. The young folks departed at eleven o'clock, but the John- sons stayed, Leah with them, for Pa had arranged a little desert affair, and when quiet prevailed again, he brought out what seemed to be a diploma, on stiff classy paper, and tied with a delicate ribbon. He read it himself, and it began: "Degree of Merit. This certifies that Joseph H. Dobson is entitled to the degree of Doctor of Domestic Diplomacy. This degree is granted by the whole Dobson family, with their love and gratitude and best wishes for a successful school career." It was signed by each member of the family able to write, and by the scrawling crosses of little Jim and Sammy. Joe hardly understood why he should sit there and sniff like a baby, but Ma and the girls were sniffing, too, in a way hardly intended for company, and Pa came so near choking up, as he read, that he had to turn it off by relating a joke or two of his own. "Leah, when I come to think about it," he said, "we ought by all means to have had you in on this degree." "I had no idea what he was doing," she declared, "he never once mentioned it to me," and the sympathy of her genial voice all but started the tears again. She seemed to know all about it now, in fact Pa and Ma had explained the nature of the party, and the "Johnsonses" and "Dobsonses," had drawn wonderfully near together in their sympathies. It is now somewhat more than six years since that birthday party at Dobson's, where Joe received his first degree. The machinery of the Dobson household has been supplied with springs and pads and oil, with frogs at every switch, with cool- ing lotion for the hot places, and with the steady, even, per- JOSEPH H. DOBSON, D. D. D. 991 suasive power at the head, so that all the different parts articulate with one another in perfect time. As a result, it has been easy to keep Joe and Nora in school, and they have been climbing, climbing. Joe's latest letter says, "I shall receive my B. S. A. on the fifteenth, but it will never be as dear to me as my D. D. D. Another thing which I know will be of interest to all of you, Leah receives her B. P. E. at the same time." When they read this the Dobsons clapped their hands with delight, for a neat little home has been completed down the street, and it is to be occupied by Joe and Leah as soon as they return from school. Monticello, Utah