Ashtabula High School - Dart Yearbook (Ashtabula, OH)

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24 THE DART Class Prophecy ELIZABETH BLAKEST.EE Charon, the ferryman of renown, was slowly cruising along the river Styx, when hearing my call, he pilot- ed his boat toward the shore and in- vited me to ride. I had lately left the realm above. Since I was curious to visit the countries of the Underworld, Pluto had given me a pass. As it happened, I was the only passenger and Charon was inclined to be talk- ative. “Ha!” he chuckled, “I’ve had some curious passengers today. Why, early this morning a —but perhaps you are not interested?” he broke off. Hating to spoil his pleasure, and finding the scenery along the way very much like that of the Upper- world, except of course for the reddish tint, I urged him to continue. “Well,” Charon began, “Early this morning a gay young man, in a striped suit boarded my boat. He had the pre- sumption of Bob Jenkins in English Class! Slapping me on the back he announced in loud tones that he was Harry Castle. I gathered from his conversation that he, of all men in the United States had been chosen for his great powers of oratory, to sell books in the Underworld. He tried to sell me a set of ‘Funeral Orations’ in twen- ty-six volumes. I did not buy them however for—” Here the narrative was interrupted by a strange sound which reached our ears. It seemed to come from the shore, and after a hurried glance, I perceived a girl walking along the shore. Upon nearer approach she proved to be Ruth Day, who, like De- mosthenes of old, was trying to hear herself talk above the roar of the waves of the sea. As Styx is a calm river this was not difficult. It seems she was preparing for a welcome home speech, to be given on the oc- casion of Richard Syler’s inauguration as President of the United States. “At the next point of punishment,” continued Charon after our curiosity about Ruth’s activities had been satis- fied, “four people came aboard. They all seemed to be talking at once, and for several moments I could make no- thing of their conversation. At last, when I did get a word in edgewise, I inquired their names and their busi- ness. They were respectively: Lempi Johnson, George Manteli, Carolyn Frabutt, and John Frary. They were arguing the momentous question as to whether or not a Bolshevik can al- ways be distinguished by his beard. This discussion proved most interest- ing, but suddenly my attention was distracted from the argument by a book which had been dropped by one of the passengers. I picked it up and began to read. The title was ‘If The

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THE DART 23 log, the Dart, during this last period, and tried hard to make it a success, though the work was tremendous af- ter the loss of our faithful friend and advisor, Mrs. Morton. Two athletic banners were added to the number in the ship’s trophy room, by teams com- posed largely of our boys and girls. We had a party in the spring with much dancing and feasting. The Jun- ior Petty Officers entertained us at a party in May, which was greatly en- joyed by all who attended. Now as we are nearing the end of our four years, and Commencement time is ap- proaching, when we will receive our commissions, we can look back and feel that we have done our duty to our ship and to ourselves, and in doing it we have had some of the most pleas- ant experiences of our lives. Friends Under a bright and starry sky, Two old friends wandered on their way, Talking of good times, all gone by, When they were happy, carefree and gay. One was a man well known to all, The other his friend, not known at all, Both had started together in school, Where they had learned the golden rule. Their thoughts went back to the old swimming hole, Of their barefoot days, with rod and pole, Oh! those were the days when health held sway, And happy hours were whiled away. —C. A. M.

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THE DART 25 World Is Round How Can It Come to an End?’ by Frederick Reed. It was a book of great logic and interest. The book was dedicated, I noted, to Agnes Quigley, captain of the Pink Sox Baseball Team. It described some wonderful experiments and observa- tions made by two famous scientists. Roy Weaver and Ned Walrath. “A paper had fallen out of the uook, and I picked it up and examined it. It was a neat advertisement put out by Clark Cheney, to the effect that at last a wonderful powder had been concocted, called ‘Stammer Stopper,’ that did all that its name implies. Quite a useful powder, I thought, one that would be greatly appreciated by English students in their Literary Di- gest work.” Here Charon seemed to become lost in thought. I waited a few minutes and after a little prompting he con- tinued : “Then I had one other pass- enger this morning, a fellow who call- ed himself Lion Jenkins. I distinctly remember that when he journeyed with me once before, he called himself Bob Jenkins, and was a good sport. It seems, however, that his brother dis- covered the formula of an intoxicating drink, made without alcohol, and the family has since became famous. Lion is quite fat, and is engaged, I under- stand, to the daughter of a rich cheese manufacturer.” “How interesting!” I exclaimed, “I used to know Bob. But do tell me of some of your other passengers.” “Well,” responded Charon, “Of course if you’re interested. I find my job amusing at times. For instance, yesterday, I carried on the same trip Lawrence Watrous andMildred Carl- son. It seems that young Watrous learned of a new language used by the natives of an island off the coast of Chile. He translated a few of our best novels into this language. The natives were so thankful for some light reading that they made Lawrence one of their gods, and would have put him on a pedestal and made sacrifices to him, had he not fled to the Under- world for safety. “Mildred Carlson, who, I hear, is giving Spencer a hard race for his hon- ors in writing, was interested in Pro- fessor Watrous’ accomplishment and the two were deep in a debate as to which of them was doing the nobler work for the betterment of mankind. It was exciting, I can tell you. “But say!” Charon interrupted his story, “I had forgoten something.” The shades have imported some hu- mans to put on a show for their amuse- ment this afternooon. What say we go?” I was delighted. This promised to be even more amusing than Charon’s story telling. We soon reached the Amusement Park for Well-behaved Shades. There was a large company gathered here, and we were ’way back. Shades are transparent how- ever, so we had little difficulty in see- ing what was going on. The first number of the program was a speech entitled, “There are Shades and Shades.” This was spoken by Kathleen Bentley, to the soft play-