Ashtabula High School - Dart Yearbook (Ashtabula, OH)

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28 THE DART had been kittens. They came appar- ently to no harm and I was relieved at this and admired their bravery. I looked to see their names—Mildred Scovil, Lempi Rantanen and Lois Prin- dle. A voice in my ear whispered, “Come and see me.” The voice was familiar yet no person was near me. It was several minutes before I discovered that my friend Hilda Gronquist had been trying her ventriloquist powers on me. Hearing cries of, “Right this way; see the strong man !” and “Come and see the Bearded Lady!” I hurried away. The strong man was wonderful. I distinctly saw him lift thirty-four pounds right up from the ground. My amazement at this feat was still great- er when I learned that Frank Powell was the performer. I was standing a few minutes later watching the beard- ed lady, when a shrill voice cried out in my ear, “It’s Daniel Madden, my husband !” The mob was for hanging him on false pretenses, but he related such a pitiful tale of the cruelties of his wife that he was forgiven. Indeed when I left the crowd had already do- nated a huge sum of money to start a Home for Hen-pecked Husbands. A mild-mannered man in a clergyman’s attire was heading the list. Percy Rigden I was told, though I should r.ot have known him. Here Charon appeared on the scene again and told me that a lunch was to be served, and we must be on our way as it was getting late. A bountiful re- past was prepared by the shades of the best cooks in America, Mildred Bottorf, Ethel Coup and Louise Lyons. There were two after-dinner speak- ers of great renown. The first was Vera Corcoran who had an illustrated lecture on, “How to look sleepy, yet be wide awake.” The other speaker was Margaret Cross, whose humor- ous speech was entitled, “A Grave Story.” As the band started to play, Char- on hurried me away. We traveled back over the river Styx by the light of the shade of the moon. Little stacks of dollars Piled all in a row, Are about enough to take A girl to a picture show.

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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

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THE DART 29 Senior Play RUTH DAY May twenty-first signifies paint, furniture, costumes—in short, a little bit of everything, for on this moment- ous night certain seniors will be changed into farmers, others into “so- ciety swells,” and some will even change from Madmoiselle to Madame. But please do not be shocked, it is only for the annual senior play. “Son John,” written by W. A. Stig- ler, will be given this year. This is a comedy in four acts. It is very funny for everyone except the ones who are in the cast. To them it will be a most serious affair. There are sixteen characters in the play. The personnel of the cast is as follows: Hiram Rogers a Southern farmer who has struck oil, Edmund Fitzgerald Lovey Rogers, his wife.......................................Ruth Day John Rogers, their son, an expert violinist.............Robert Jenkins Richard Rogers, their younger son, still green...............Amos Hall Jake Lindsley, their neighbor..........................Joseph Friedell Sofira Lindsley, Jake’s wife and boss.................Winifred Parker Tiny Lindsley, their daughter.............................Agnes Mann Wordna Howard, a friend of the family...........................Berryl Brash Robert Divinney, John’s New York friend...........................Ward Cross Bonnie Burton, Robert’s fiancee..........................Doris Wilcox Geraldine Van Alstyne, John’s promised wife...........Kathleen Bentley Mrs. Van Alstyne, her mother.............................Martha Castle Lena Moore, John’s secretary...........................Pauline Kiester Madamoiselle Meruski, John’s violin teacher...............Olive Smith Waitress in cafe.................................................Helen Momeyer Newsboy.............................................. Harvey Sheppard Director, Miss Orphal In the play, Hiram Rogers, with his wife and son, Dick, leaves the country for “Gay New York,” to visit John Rogers a prominent violinist there. While they are in the city, Mrs. Van Alstyne tries to rob them of their oil money. Geraldine, her daughter, who is engaged to John helps her mother in her little scheme, and various com- plications arise. Of course at the end, the string is all unravelled and every- one lives happily ever after. Hiram and Lovey return to their farm, Dick gets his city girl, John finds that the girl he really loves is Wordna How- ard, and Mrs. Van Alstyne and her daughter are found out before they succeed in their plot to steal the oil money. “Pore Tiny” however does not marry “her Dickinstead she is doomed to find a green, green farmer. And then—the curtain falls.