Kendallville High School - Kay Aitch Ess Yearbook (Kendallville, IN)

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Prophet bird, I cried, don't fail me. Is there naught that will avail me? But the Raven too was fading-fading through the bedroom door. lust a minute, I implore you! I have one more question for you, Will she ever? Will she never come back to me anymore? This! Oh Raven, is my question: Will she come back anymore? Like a laugh came, Nevermore. Wyndham Brown-Senior. TO GO OR NOT TO GO To go or not to go-that is the question! No, this is not intended as a takeoff on Hamlet, but rather a modern application of that idea, as set down by Shakespeare many years ago. College is the place referred to in the opening sentence. Nowadays, and at about this time of year, the high school Senior is pondering this question. The Post-Graduate is thinking about this, also. Undoubtedly others, too, are giving vent to philosophics along the same line. As long as this vast army is loosing brilliant thoughts on this subject, why should.n't I? Let this group of words be a help to all these in answering their queries, or disregard the whole matter entirely. First, it would be impossible, as well as foolish, for every person who graduates from high school to go to college. Most colleges prefer students for entrance who graduate in the upper part of their class. Then there are some persons who would never care to be any more than ditch diggers anyway. I'm not saying that everybody would not be better off after a period in college, but I repeat that, as harshas it may seem, a certain few in our country are so ultra-reactionary that they can see no gain in becoming as intelligent as possible. But, secondly, everybody who cares enough to ask whether or not to go, I believe, should go. Of course the financial side always rears its ugly head. Finances in college are becoming easier and easier to meet these days. Those of us who are not able to enter some private institution can always look to the State, tuition free, Colleges. Scholarships are always available to those who want them and are willing to work hard for them. At the Uni- versity many jobs, which tend to make the expenses of your education neg- ligible, are now available. There are left those of that class who have never had a care or worry as to where that college education was coming from. They go away to school, enter all social functions, study occasionally, cram when exams come around, finish college or flunk, then live off Dad the rest of their lives. I don't mean that all do this, just that one class. Sometimes our Longs and Townsends pop up with ideas to change all this, but it is human nature and impossible to change. It is a well-known fact some of those who have many opportunities snatch the wrong one, while the one with few chances by dint of hard labor succeeds. Ioe Deal-Senior. Page Z9

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lKR'AI l ll Drinking once I grew quite bleary, thinking of a girl friend cheery, Of a girl friend who had left me, left me not too long before. Soon I nodded, soon was napping, presently I heard a tapping As of wings so gently flapping, flapping at my bedroom door. The canary's out, I muttered, flapping at my bedroom door, Only this and nothing more. Once again I fell to sipping, to my lips the large flask tipping. If the bottle were an apple, I would now have reached the core. I made move to now discard it, I'm afraid I must have jarred it, Fragments of it were now scattered all about the bedroom floor. Of the two I had to start with, one was on the bedroom floor, One was left and nothing more. Then I raised my eyes to doorward, my hair lifted-pointed forward! For a large and terrible raven was now oozing through the door. Was it that I had been boozing? Or my senses I was losing? For the bird now drifted skyward to a frame above the door. In a picture frame it perched and sat above my bedroom door. Perched and sat and nothing more. His dark eyes made me address them, Words could never quite express them. So I told him of my troubles and the girl I'd had before. How I'd felt since she had left me, felt since so much was bereft me, How she'd left me for another that she'd seldom seen before. I was drinking, since she'd left me for a man scarce seen before. Quoth the Raven, One drink more. Since his words were of the soundest, next my drinking was the roundest. For I scarce could see the raven perched above the bedroom door. I glanced downward, hardly daring, for beneath, the floor was tearing! There appeared a host of elephants, elephants rising from the floorl A great herd of colored elephants rising from the bedroom floor! Quoth an elephant, One drink more. Next, there followed dogs and donkeys, cats and rats and bats and monkeys Rabbits, kangaroos, and 'possurns, and a fierce wild old boar. What an odd conglomerationl Animals from every nation! Till I felt like old man Noah and his animals of yore. Felt exactly like old Noah and his coupled beasts of yore! Quoth the chorus, One drink more. Now we sure don't want to grieve you, but we fear that we must leave you,' Said my bedroom zoo to me as they again went through the floor. My menagerie was shrinking as they through the floor were sinking, I was soon left with the raven who still sat above the door. All were gone except the raven who remained above the door. Quoth the Raven, Take one more. No, I said. Bird, do not tempt me, she would never then exempt me I-'rom the class in which she put me, put me not so long before. F or she said I was a drunkard and a good for nothing lunkard, Iust because I drank a little--drank a little-never more. She had no right to chastise me-I take two drinks-never more. I will take just one drink more. Page 28

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PHANTOM HOLLOW Tucked away among the hills of southern Indiana there is a little com- munity where the very air is charged with mystery and where stories that stir the imaginations of the most matter-of-fact visitors still flourish. I learned a few of these stories from a grizzled old settler While riding with him from the nearest railroad station to the isolated community in his horse-drawn buggy. During the course of our ride that evening we had to cross the same winding river three times. As we neared the first bridge, my companion pointed out a mass of charred ruins which, he explained, had once been a large hotel. It had accommodated many guests who came annually to drink the healthful water from the nearbY mineral springs. The dilapidated stables were still standing. He told me a very peculiar story in regard to this. . Thirty years ago, a great celebration was being held at the hotel. Peo- ple from all over the community had come to dance and have a good time. Late in the evening somebody upset a kerosene lamp and almost immedi- ately the whole dance-hall burst into flames... In the mad rush for the doors several people Were knocked down and trampled. Nine people failed to escape and were burned to death. Every night when there is a full moon the agonized whispers of the nine ghosts can be heard as they search among the ruins for their ashes. As We approached the second bridge, I heard a faint but clearly hideous scream, then a sickening, shuddering laugh which made my hair stand on end. The old man explained that one day not long after the big hotel fire, a young lad and his sister who lived about a quarter mile back from the road, had crossed the creek, then spanned by a covered bridge, to go down to the scene of the hotel fire. They stayed until dusk, starting home just as darkness was falling. They started through the covered bridge, when, com- ing from the opposite end toward them they saw what appeared to be a bear. Stricken with horror, they screamed and ran, the bear following closely behind. The fright had been so severe that the girl went violently insane. To this daY her horrified screams can be heard. She still is living. Investigation revealed that the bear was a man, intending no harm at all. About a mile beyond this bridge, we stopped to tighten some harness. In the quiet dusk I heard the sound of someone approaching on foot. My companion jumped and whispered nervously, lt's himl Who? I asked, looking up and down the road but seeing no one. Ice Whiffet's ghost! he replied tersely. Then I noticed the steps, plainly audible now, were getting closer. Still l saw no one. A clanking sound, as if the approaching person carried a heavy chain, was also noticeable. Now the steps seemed to come abreast of us, then slowly they faded in the distance. My companion told me that years ago Ioe Whiffet had been hung by a mob for setting an old widow's house on fire and fatally burning her. Later 1t Was found that he had not been guilty. Ever since then, Ioe's ghost has haunted his lynchers until now, most of them are dead too. Within a quarter mile of the town, I noticed thewremains of a large house which had burned some time before. Years ago, I was told, an old man and his family had lived there. The old man was good hearted, but he had an outrageous temper. As his sons grew older, one by one he drove them Page 30 u X..-4.,,,, .-