Bloomington High School - Aepix Yearbook (Bloomington, IL)

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THE AEGIS Again we see Jerry at home, still grumbling about his wife's flopping and his hard luck with his 'fwenturesf' He gets quite eloquent over his supper. And mind you 3 he says to his wife, no games tomorrow! If I as an hon- est tradesman succeed in providing a jinte of meat or two, none of your not touch- ing of it, and sticking to bread. When you go to Rome, do as Rome does. Rome will be an ugly customer to you, if you don't. Fm your Rome, you know. He also atfectingly and delicately indicates that a mother's lirst duty is to blow her boy out.', In France he is nothing but an English bull-dog with no design in his head but to ily at anybody who touches his master. When Carton and Barsad arc playing their strange game of cards, Cruncher suddenly pops up with his spiky hair fwhich Dickens says could not have been more violently on end if it had been that moment dressed by the Cow with the crumpled horn in the house that J ack built,j and confronts Barsad like a ghostly bailiff. It's you that I have got a old grudge again, is it, with your shameful im- positions upon tradesmen. I'd catch hold of your throat and chokle you for half a guinea. He seeemed to think this quite a liberal offer and made rather an ostentatious show of his liberality. When Mr. Lorry endeavors to find out Jerryfs real occupation, the latter gets quite nervous. Dickens says he changed the leg on which he rested as often as if he had fifty of those. limbs, and were trying them all, he examined his finger- nails with a very questionable closeness of attention, and he was taken with that peculiar kind of cough requiring the hollow of a. hand before it, which is seldom, if ever, known to be an inlirmity attendant on perfect openness of character. Jerry is sure Mr. Lorry knows he is a 'KResurrection Man and he as much as tells him so himself, yet he repeatedly says, even if it was so-don't say it is, but even if it was, and tries to make Mr. Lorry think that 'fprewaricatingn is im- possible for him. Again he gets absurdly tangled up when he says: MUpon that there stool, at that there bar, sets that there boy of mine, brought up and growed up to be a man, wot will errand you, message you, general-light-job you, till your heels is where your head is, if such should be your wishes. The last time we see Jerry, he is in quite a noble state of mind. He desires Miss Pross to take notice of two Uwowsy' respecting a. 'ffuture spear o' life. The first, not very clear, that never no more will he dow it, never no more! -sup- posedly that strange trade of his. The second was that never no more will he interfere with Mrs. Cruncherls Hopping, never no morell' So Jerry is useful as well as ornamental, and when the reader has iinished 'CA Tale of Two Citiesl' he feels he can see this singular man from the top of his spiky head to the tips of his muddy boots. A maid with a duster, Once made a great bluster A dusting a bust in the hall, And when it was dusted, The bust it was busted, The bust is now dust, that is all. - Ex. 25

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F , 4. THE AEGIS 1 we see is his spiky hair, 'flocking as if it must tear the sheets to ribbons, as he rolls and surges in his bed. His morning sa.lutation to his wife is, 'tBust me, if she aint at it againlt' Jerry thinks it his great misfortune to have a wife who prays, or flops as he calls it. He insists that she is Hopping agin the business and when she pro- tests that she is not praying against but for him, he says he wont be took the liberty with. He is comically inconsistent, for he violently forbids his wife to pray, putting great faith in the direful things he thinks will result, yet scornfully asks her what she supposes her prayers may be worth. At the breakfast table when poor Mrs. Cruncher asks a blessing, Mr. Cruncher shows his temper and declares he aint ageing to be blessed out of house and home. He won,t have his wittles blest off his table. He fondly calls himself an honest tradesmanw and prides himself on his con- nection with the great Tellson's, a connection which consists merely in sitting out- side waiting for errands. Dickens says that big Jerry and his son, little Jerry, a grisly youth with a head garnished with tenderer spikes than his fa.ther's, as they sat there, bore a considerable resemblance to a pair of monkeys. This was especially so since the elder Jerry kept chewing straw, upon which young Jerry, when his father leaves, entered his reversiona.ry interest, -Dickens, imposing way of saying that little Jerry chewed the other end of the same straw! Mr. Cruncher is always so very sure that he can make misleading remarks that will not cause any suspicion about his nightly occupation,-which at differ- ent times he calls 'ffishingfi 'fscientific business, and that of an f'agricultooral char- acter,',-that it is easy to see he is trying to hide something. When one of the old clerks at Tellson's asks him if he knows Old Bailey, the court, he denies as an honest tradesman,', and is much concerned about the barbarous and quartering fashion of punishing treason. 'flt's hard in the law to spile a man, I think. lt's hard enough to kill him but it's wery hard to spile him, sirf, The night of the thunder storm when Mr. Lorry and Jerry were going home together, Jerry makes another of his deep remarks. f4What a night it has been! Almost a. night, Jerry, said Mr. Lorry, 'fto bring the dead out of their graves. Jerry virtuously replies, I never see the night myself, master,-nor yet I don't expect to,-what would do thatf, Such a pious speech for one whose Khonest businessf' was robbing graves! Je-rry gives a touch of humor to the grim trial of Da.rnay in London, with his curiosity and many questions. Dickens says that when Carton went to tell Darnay of the welfare of Lucy, Jerry followed him, 'fall eyes, ears and spikes. As he sat day after day in front of Tellsonts, Mr. Cruncher derived a. small part of his income from the pilotage of timid women from Tellson's side of the street trafhc to the opposite sidewalk. Dickens, in his long round-about way, says that 'Cbrief as such companionship was in every separate instance, Mr. Cruncher never failed to become so interested in the lady as to express a. strong desire to have the honor of drinking her very good health. And it was from the gifts bestowed upon him towards the execution of this benevolent purpose that he re- cruited his finances. 24

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THE AEGIS THE SAD SOPHOMORES SOLILOQUY MARGARET HAYWARD. fWith abject apologies to William Shakespearej To dig, or not to dig,-that is the question 5 Whether tis better to thrust aside with virtuous hand the merry invitation to the dance, Or gladly take the joy that beams upon our wayward paths, And in so doing fail? To toil,-to moilg- To burn the midnight lamp, and, by our toil, to say we end The dread suspense that waits upon each student ln these classic halls,-'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished. To work,-to delve,- To dig! perchance to Hunk I-Ay, there's the rub! For in that heartless quiz upon the morrow What questions may be sprung Must give us pause. There's the thing That makes calamity of so long cramming 5 But who would bear the shrugs and sneers of 'Csharks, Their haughty mien, their scornful eyes! To think of all our pangs of envy, tears of rage, When we have torn us from our textbooks' gracious anchor And are flung upon uncharted seas of airy questionings With which our smiling tutor doth us enrage! When we might drown our cares 5 toss to the winds our woes, Ay, and to the Majestic go! There, to contemplate The classic dance, and tinkling music, which To our bruised and wounded spirit ministers a soothing balm. Who would bookish burdens bear, To groan and writhe under a weary task, But that the dread of something after school A summons to the Presence so august, from which No luckless Wight returns unscathed, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than Hy to others that We know not of ? Thus, conscience Q?j doth make cowards of us all 5 And thus the native bent to indolence Is sicklied oter with the pale cast of fear 3 And enterprises of great joy and revelry, Do thus, with thoughts of those all-powerful slips,'7 And that unfailing Eye, their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action. 26