Who is Clarence Jacobs?

Interesting Title huh? Who is Clarence Jacobs and what did he do with his homework? As I've mentioned previously I was able to make two purchases within my original $3 budget. The first was the Roger Staubach MNF Computerized game. The second was far more interesting. Being an avid reader I've always been a fan of old books. Fortunately I've also been very curious. My wife and mother might say too curious for my own good, but that is a story for a different day. At the second auction I attended last Thurs. I came across a stash of old books. None that I could tell of any special value, but as I said my curiosity served me well in this case. In looking through the stack of books, and what I really mean is looking through the books in the stack. Yes that is the secret. Look through the book. I mean inside the books. People really haven't changed over the years, so you never know what you may find inside the book. I came across an interesting looking book. "The Mill on the Floss" by george Eliot. Having been an English teacher for many years it fascinated me. For those of you who don't know, George Eliot was the pen name for Mary Ann Evans. She used a male pen name, she said, to ensure that her works were taken seriously. Female authors published freely under their own names, but Eliot wanted to ensure that she was not seen as merely a writer of romances. An additional factor may have been a desire to shield her private life from public scrutiny and to prevent scandals attending her relationship with the married George Henry Lewes.
Anyway the book has an inscription on the inside cover that indicates it was presented to Lois and Clarence Jacobs in 1923. I'm assuming from the other discoveries that they were brother and sister. Since George Eliot died in Dec. of 1880 this is obviously not an original edition. As a matter of fact it is a student edition of the book that was obviously used in high school literature classes. The book is in OK condition. All of the pages are intact and does show some signs of aging that you would expect in an 85 year old book. With that said the book itself is not the thing of value in my mind. Inside the book I found a hand written homework assignment that Clarence Jacobs did for his History IV class on April 16, 1926. It was folded and placed in the latter pages of the book. It is quite legible and is a project entitled "Political or Home Rule". Proving that kids never change, it appears that Clarence never turned the project in. It is not marked or graded. Apparently Clarence forgot that he had left his history assignment in his English book. No the dog didn't eat it but, it has remained lost in the pages of "The Mill on the Floss" for the past 82 years. The corners are tattered, but the writing is quite legible. I have some difficulty reading Clarence's cursive handwriting, but it appears that he was a student at Tanney, Fanney or Favney High School. I will bring you up to date as I attempt to find out more about Clarence and Lois. In the mean time I am offering the book and the manuscript on Ebay. you can find the auction by going to my EBay search box at the bottom of this blog and type in: Item #260316984205 . You can also view pictures of these items here on the blog. In my next post I will reveal an even more interesting discovery in the pages of this book.