Ashtabula High School - Dart Yearbook (Ashtabula, OH)

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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-

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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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26 THE DART ing of a well-known melody, “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree,” beauti- fully rendered by Jennie Alkula. As she was about to leave the stage, Miss Bentley slipped on the shade of a ban- ana peel, seriously wrenching her ankle. Dr. Ward Cross came to the rescue and Miss Bentley seemed bet- ter immediately. The Dance of the Nymphs was next executed by Olive Smith and her group of graceful dancers. Their names were not announced, but one by one, I recognized Agnes Wittich, Nadine Seibert, Gladys Gillen. Helen Momeyer, Winifred Parker, Pauline Kiester and Angela Kane. A short piece, very humorous, was greatly applauded by the shades. I easily recognized the speaker as Ed- mund Fitzgerald. A tragedy was next staged, entitled “Will Willie Break the Will?” The part of the dying uncle was taken by Endicott Landmesser. His was only a passing part, though. Willie, the hero, beautifully played by A1 Lewis, was indeed a charming character. He was a poor boy, made fabulously rich by the will of his uncle. Yet, by ac- cepting the money, he made paupers of his three cousins, (parts played by Helen Davis, Elizabeth Brock and Swea Sodergren.) It was an unusually sad play, but the comedians, Amos Hall, Harvey Sheppard, and Ralph Sharer, so amused the people that not a shade of a tear was seen in the au- dience. The next hour was given over to the Musical Musicians, Berryl Brash, Lu- cinda Rice, Herbert Harmon, and George Raser. This was extremely in- teresting and the musicians later played at the cabaret scene. The lat- ter act was the hit of the day. “The Montefarte of New York,” had been copied and beautifully reproduced. Howard Mullin was head waiter, Charles Thatcher and Esther Gill were wonderful in their cabaret dance. Although the names of the other patrons were not mentioned, I recognized among them Norman Luke, Lowes HiPyer, Mildred Goodie!, Lyle Fortney, and Mary Farrow. The afternoon’s entertainment wou!d not have been complete without its acrobats. They were far superior to the common run and among their number were Doris Wilcox, Lillian Burton, Genevieve Fortune, Wilford Cox, Francis Farrell, and Burdette Chapman. For those more seriously inclined, a debate was being held during this time on the sbject: “Shou'd Shades be allowed to cast Shadows?’ The af- firmative speakers were Paul Hillier, J. L. Ogden, and Joseph Friedell; neg- ative, Wilmer Brown, Grace Sharpe, and Florence Smith. I did not see this but heard later that the negative won and the shades were so incensed that a fight followed the decision. The last performance was that of the Lightning Artists: Treva Marie Harris, Mabel Davis, Dorothy Hub- bard, Fritz Anderson and Martha Castle. At the close of their marvel- ous demonstration, the company broke up and we wandered around the