Bloomington High School - Aepix Yearbook (Bloomington, IL)

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THE AEGIS 15 With deft and perhaps a trifle hasty fingers the city editor opened the envelope. From it fell four closely-written sheets of paper, and a picture. For a long minute Jim gazed at the pretty face that smiled back at him from the card, which bore the inscription, Ever yours, Marian. Presently he laid the picture on the edge of the desk and began to read the letter. Of course it 's a well-known fact that such letters will bear re-reading, that they even become more interesting each time, as one constantly discovers new and hidden beauties of style. Thus it happened that Jim was reading the scented missive for the third-or was it the fourth 1?-time, when a suppressed snieker from the Ex- change Editor's desk brought him back to earth with a start. A guilty flush spread over the young man 's face as he gathered up letter and photograph in hasty confusion and jammed them into his pocket. The blue pencil was travelling at top speed over sheet after sheet of type- written paper, when Ted oozed up to the desk. Any copy? Yes, Ted, responded the city editor, without glancing up from a heart rending obituary notice, jerking a thumb at the Madame Alondra story, Take that stuff to the typo, and that picture up to the engraving room. And tell the engraver to be sure to do a good job, it's a front page article. Yes sir! responded the willing Ted, as he gathered up the picture and papers and ambled toward the door. Jim's pencil was still exceeding the speed limit when Ted returned twenty minutes later. U if i 1 I' if if if 'Il 1 Jim Worth yawned. He laid his book on the center table of his neat bachelor apartment, tossed his cigar into 'the grate and yawned again. His watch informed him that it was half past one, and time for his beauty sleep. lle had left the office soo11 after midnight, having finished his editorial duties and having left the newspaper to the tender mercies of the proof-reader. Now, as he slowly divested himself of his coat, he reflected that he really deserved a rest. Suddenly a thought Hashed upon him. To be sure! He had forgotten all about Marian's picture and letter in his pocket. He would read the letter onee more, and put the picture in the little silver frame on the maiitle. He fumbled in the eoat pocket a moment. Yes, there it was, the letter and the picture. As he unfolded onee more the sheets of the letter, he glanced at the picture. The glance froze into a stare. J im 's eyes became glassy and his jaw dropped. Was he losing his eyesight or his mind? He wondered vaguely whether he was per- fectly sane, as he gazed with fascination at the broad and world-famous features of Madame Alondra. J im 's first and only remark was one that no self-respecting family magazine would repeat. Then he struggled i11to his coat a11d was off down the street at a run. The Main Street lights were turned off, and the street ears had long since stopped running. A startled policeman awoke from his snooze beside the signal box long enough to wonder who could have kicked him on the shi11, when there was no one in sight except a young man two blocks away travelling like a steamer whose captain has just sighted a periseope.

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14 THE AEGIS PICTURES AND PICTURES A MEMBER or B. H. S. The clock on the dingy wall of the city room of the Morning Star would have struck five, if it had been a striking clock. Being unendowed with a voice, it merely pointed a warning hand at the figure five and ticked solemnly on. The city room at five in the afternoon was always a busy place. Half a dozen typewriters beat a brisk tattoo while the half dozen reporters who manned them contemplatively chewed frazzled cigars. A diminutive copy-boy slouched insolently from desk to desk, collecting the copy that the machines had ground out. Enthroned behind his large and hopelessly littered desk in one corner sat young Jim Worth, city editor. Jim was efficient, twenty-five, and busy. Beyond that there was nothing unusual about him, for we must not have too much description in a fifteen hundred word story. Before him lay a heap of copy which he was revising and supplying with headings. He had just read a very lengthy and very uninteresting article by the dramatic and musical critic of the Star, and his blue pencil hovered in the air a moment as he thought over the heading. Then he wrote: H MADAME ALONDRA TO SING HERE Famous Metropolitan Opera Soprano Will Give a Concert at the Chatterton Opera House Tonight. EXTRAOEDINAEY SEAT SALE He paused to read over the heading and then picked up from the desk a photograph which portrayed the expansive and rather buxom features of the aforesaid prima donna. For a moment Jim critically inspected her, then marked off a blue square on the copy sheet, with the inscription Insert cut here. Pushing aside the uninteresting article together with the equally unin- teresting picture of the singer, he picked up the next story, and plunged into a gruelling account of a family feud in Forty Acres. Ted, the trained office boy clumped across the room. He slapped a bundle of mail on Jim Worth 's desk and continued on his blithe road. Jim finished reading his gory tale, made a few marks with his dictatorial blue pencil and began to sort the mail. Most of it received only a glance from him and then travelled via the air route to the Exchange Editor at the adjoining desk. Of the few letters which he kept, Jim singled out a bulky, square envelope, which was addressed to Mr. James Worth, fpersonalj and which exhaled a faint odor of sandalwood.

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16 THE AEGIS Jim Worth turned the last corner and almost skidded through a plate glass window. By J ove! The office was dark, as he had feared. The paper was off the press. As he crossed the street, he noted the coldly malicious stare with which the greasy windows reflected the moonlight. Jim turned the key, and a moment later stood in the press room, where the papers lay, neatly stacked for the carriers. The lights flashed on, and by their merciless glare the unfortunate young editor recognized on the front page of the paper, till limp from the press, a familiar, smiling face and the inscription, Ever yours, Marian. With a groan Jim Worth peeled off his coat, found a pair of shears and set to work. Two hours later the startled policeman awoke from his snooze long enough to watch a suspicious looking character with a queer bundle under his arm, slowly trudge along Main Street. It was a tired young city editor who walked into the office of the Star on the next afternoon and gave surly answers to all inquiries. And it was an irate lot of subscribers who kept the phones jangling all day, to find out why the upper right hand corner of their papers was missing. They never received any definite information on that topic. But in the bottom of Jim Worth 's trunk lies a great heap of printed repro- ductions of the smiling face of a certain young lady who signs herself Marian, and for some unknown reason Jim gets all his personal mail at home. A PLEA JUx,1A HENNINGIQR Of all the torments, all the cares, With which our lives are cursedg Of all the plagues a student bears, The finals are the worst! ' ' Misery loves company, ' ' Said a wise man long ago. In finals, too, we joy to find Companions in our woe. O Teacher, surely you can see That fears do wrack my breast. I beg that you will favor me, E'en tho' you slight the rest. How great 0 e'er your rigors are With them alone I'd cope, I can 't endure my own despair And see another's hope.