Ashtabula High School - Dart Yearbook (Ashtabula, OH)

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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

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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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THE DART 27 grounds for awhile. To my delight I found that the pink lemonade stand was run by my old friends Mary Cur- tis, Marion Wescott and Helen Burch. I was deep in conversation with them, when a very stylish person, who seem- ed strangely familiar, passed us. She was carrying a Pekingese dog, ar.d as she passed us she elevated her nose, and daintily went her way. She did not speak to me and I prob- ably would never have found out who she was had not my friend Lempi Ran- tanen, the great suffragette leader, en- lightened me. She said it was Dale. Shuart, who had married a count, and lived in a castle in France. Reason enough to be stuck up! As I was walking along, wondering what I should do if I were a countess, someone bumped into me, and for an apology said she was in a hurry to se3 the side show. It was Mildred Smith and when she learned that I had not seen the show yet, she asked me to come along with her. To my inquiry as to where she had been the last few years, she replied that she, Agnes Mann and Ruth Metcalf, had sailed three years before, as missionarias to Australia. “But,” said Mildred, “It was a horrible life. We were lost in a jungle and nearly devoured by lions; we were set afloat on the ocean and nearly drowned, and we were tied to stakes and nearly burned. It was too strenuous a life, and at last Agnes and I returned.” “But what of Ruth?” I queried, anx- ious to know to which of these horrible misfortunes she had succumbed. “Oh, she’s all right! The last I knew, she was teaching the young heathen to appreciate the morals de- rived from Horatio Alger’s stories.” By this time we had reached a large building. Mildred informed me that the side show was in here and so we started in. At the entrance two men passed us. They both raised their liats and called me by name. I was surprised to discover that they were two of my classmates, Jay Reed and Cecil Goddard. Both had a prosper- ous look about them. They informed me that they were the business mana- gers of the play, which I had witness- ed earlier in the afternoon. I ex- pressed my approval of their manage- ment and inquired who had construct- ed the marvelous building before which we were standing. The plans, I was told, had been submitted by the great architects Anthony Clement, Clare Burlingham and Charles Swift. The building had been erected by Roy Pearson, whose work along these lines had already won him much fame. The inside of the building was beautifully decorated. Mabel Marro and Ger- trude Maynard had had charge of the work. Great amusement seemed to be pro- voked by the side shows and I hurried along. The first was a Mutt and Jeff comedy staged by Bill MacKenzie and Sidney Russack of the class of ’20. I had no trouble recognizing them, even though they were in disguise. In the next booth or compartment, I was terrified to see three girls hand- ling snakes as unconcerned as if they