East High School - Exodus Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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THE BLUE and odds at the track would be about twenty to one. Pretty soon we got to talkin' money, an' that led to the question as to who was to do our p1acin'. Just then in comes Cy Brady. Cy was our printer. He 's some- wheres between thirty and sixty, can look either, and admits both. The only time there 's any hair on his head is when he puts a brush on it. But then overlookin' a few faults, Cy is a good sport. X Cy wanted to know what the mass meet- ing was about, and after Eddy had ex- plained it over again, Cy admitted it read well. Slip me the roll, says Cy, Nan' I'll do the rest. ' So we a.greed to pass the word around and meet at the Arcade that night with all the money we could raise. About eight, the boys began to come in, and in about a half hour the crowd was there, and Cy had his pencil and pad ready to keep track of what he took in. The boys had looked up the field pretty well and felt that at least they had a fightin' chance. There was Deadwood, May First,, The Snail, No Hope, and The Beetle, not a very hard field for our dark horse. Shorty started the ball a rollin' with fifty plunks. He said he had to pawn his watch and tip the boss for an advance, afore he could raise the dough. Ef I lose, says Shorty, the only thing between me an' the grave is the ride in the hearse, so here 's hopin' I Finally we got Cy started on the eleven o'clock with plenty of advice and instructions, not to set in on any poker games, easy shell guessin' or the likes of them. 4 The races was to be at San Juan, just over the line, and Jimmy Benz who was on the track wire, agreed to send us word A N D G O L D 11 as the race progressed, and Eddy was to get it on the phone from the office. That afternoon was a long one. James XVhit- eomb Schaefer, the brunette porter, went around with onlyfthe whites of his eyes showing. He had ive on the nose. Jus' like the old NVor1d's Series, says Eddy. Nothin' but class to us. Shorty said that his weak heart was going to have an awful strain, but Eddy told him Non-Skid could win with only one bellows. Finally Cy Benz called and we all clustered around the phone. They'rcl oiflu shouts Eddy. Wl1o, the operator? says Shorty. Skid's ahead an' No Hope pressin', shouts Ed. - Non-Skid two lengths ahead at the quarter, was the next news. P, I hope she's a long horse, says Shorty. Three lengths ahead at the half, bubbled Eddyg There's nothin' to do but hall in th' shecklesf' Just as easy as a potato race, says Shorty. No Hope is closin' in, says Eddy. That's more like nature, says Shorty, any time I bet, No Hope is sure to win. This is a horse, ya fool, says Pete Blair. i . Aw, I thought it was a new drink. Skid all alone at the three-quarters. James, you coon, get me a two bit cigar! Don' count yo eggs afore no hen lays, was James IfVhitcomb's breathless reply. ' After a report that the best bet was safe and strong on the home stretch, there was a lull, The man at the office said that he had lost the connection, but would get it again in a jiify. We thought that Cy must have had some money up too, and that he had left the phone in his excitement.

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im, 10 EAST HIGH SCHOOL The last of the pile splashed into the seaf Bang! Every man went Hat like buckwheat before a storm. The ship rolled heavily. The sea was strewn with splintered wood. John, said the captain, we're all mighty thankful to you. Well, I wish I were home, John re- marked. , A CHANGE IN LUCK. By Earl W. Tite. ' Shorty Lewis is through, and I don't blame him. I say that when a man gets uncertain about death and taxes, it's time to hunt the way out, and that 's what Shorty has done. They 's some fellows as can roll a dol- lar down the street and it will come rollin' back with five or six more little iron men. Not so with Shorty. If Shorty was to bet it would snow in Alaska next winter, men would drop dead from the heat on Janu- ary first in Nome. Why, with Shorty's luck, John D. could lose his pile in twenty minutes, matching pennies. I dropped into the Tonsorial Arcade about a month ago, and there sat the usually smiling Shorty with his lower lip hanging down like a catcheris chest pro- tector. He that usually was so smiley was a life size picture of Gloomy Gus. The Arcade is across from our news- paper office. Sam Black, the owner, de- pends on the boys from the ofdce for his trade, and in turn offers a convenient hang-out. A . 'Shorty is the star barber of the place, and when he ain't pushing some feller's whiskers back in his face he 's tendin' the pool table or pushin' dried, rope over the counter in the back part of the shack. Outside o' that Shorty's as busy as an undertaker in a cannibal settlement. No woman never fought to prepare three squares a day for Shorty, so Shorty donated his money to chance. He played the worst game of poker I ever see, he was unlucky at craps, and if he 'bet on a horse, the old harness-rack would pull a Russian retreat on the home stretch. How- ever, Shorty managed to wear a face as bright as a Mexican's shirt with all his natural hard luck. Trouble', wasn't part of Shorty 's vocabulary, and that is why his gloom was so noticeable. Shorty said he was sick, but when I said I guessed the pain was mostly in his pocket-book, he admitted it. He said l16,d got to the' point where a dollar was something like a ghost, a thing you could see but not feel. Upon inquiry he said he hadn't been robbed. No, he said, I sat into a poker game with them eggs in th' press room once too many times. Since I been puddlin' in that game, I been broke more times 'n your speed laws. Last night was the end of the world. I was Belgium and them six guys was Germany. Say, with their luck I could sell submarines to the Swiss government. 'N now I'm in debt, too. ' We was still figgerin' how we could pull him out of that hole when in comes Eddy Blake, with excitement stickin' out on him like tags on a ten dollar suit. After some hemmin' and stallin' We found out that he had a sure tip on Non- skid. Eddy and his sure thing didn't create much of a stir at Hrst, but after awhile-we started to listen to his ceaseless chatter. It seemed that the book-makers were oiering about fifteen to one odds,

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12 EAST HIGH SCHOOL Boys, says Shorty, my old alarum clock is goin, to ring in a minit an' tell me I bin drean1in'. This is a fact, says Ed, Non-Skid was six lengths ahead on the home stretch an' going strong. We kin start countin' now, I reckon. I like to hear th' jingle when I counts, says Shorty. About an hour later a telegram came from Cy. , Eddy tore it open, read it, to himself, then started on it again. Well, says Shorty, can't ya figger out how much ya Won or is it Writ in Spanish? . Ed gave it to Sam to read. Sam thought that the luck was too much for Eddy, so he started in. Here goes, says he. A H 'Vile took a big chance. General Santy Voono had his roll on No Hope, an' when he seen Skid hit tha' home stretch in the lead, he pulled his daily revolution,'an' Skid got shot in the scrape. No Hope dragged in first. We made quite a mis- take.-Cy.' Mistake, howled Shorty, man, it's a calamity. ,N l1e spoke fur us all. DEPARTURE Four years no-w withifn- thy portals H ave we spent in work and play 5 Har-el it is for us to leave you, H ard to turn our diifferefnt ways. Many are the friends 'we've found here, Many, too, the happy hours: And in seeking after knowledge, Pleasure, 'profit have been ours. Yet the day 'is to as beckoning: Time has come when we must part, Each to take his separate byway, Each 'upon L'ife's work to start. S'o it is with Smile and Sorrow, So it is -we turn away 3 Smile for Clays of pleasure spent here, Sorrow that we can--not stay. NIELVILLE M. GREIG. - EAST HIGH SCHOOL. P Class of June, 1918. Classical Joseph N. Abrahams Leola M. Benninghoft Helen Marie Clobitz Martha Castleberry Cooke Eila Caroline Davis Laura Bell Froggett ' Ruth Goldreich' John P. Hart Marion Hart Georgiana D. Holmes Robert Harold Koehler George Frederick Lamprecht Carl F. Lauster Course. Hugo A. Maerlender Erie Louise Munsie Raymond Pomeroy Lucy Louisa Roofe Catherine Rose Ryan Kenmore Schweitzer Josephine Sloan Beatrice Josephine Sprague Helen Gertrude Toland Margaret Norris Waite William Henry Watkins Kurt M. Zorn A 1