Butler High School - Magnet Yearbook (Butler, PA)

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SENIOR MAGNET 25 companions and I started on a voyage in an air ship. We set sail all right and our first hundred miles were made at good speed. 1 was not satisfied with the progress we were making so started to put on more speed. Oh, woe to me. That hapless machine let loose and whirled around and around, up and down and every way. It was impossible for me to stop it. For miles and miles we went whirling about. Suddenly it grew dark and dank and black shallows enveloped the sky. A dread-gale arose and drove us faster and fasler. We did not know what miriit would perish. 'Lhen—in that dark moment of de-r I cursed the day that I set sail; I coursed the heavens and the earth, howling winds continued and proceeded farther and farther in manner. Suddenly with a horrible jolt we stopped. We were poised in mid air and that wretched machine refused to move either way. The winds gave way to a violent thunder storm. Lightning Hashed and flamed across the black sk vf and revealed giant oaks and poplars bending below. The jagged lightning struck several trees and sent the bark and twigs high above our heads. Then, oh horrible sight! there below on the ground were wispy figures flitting here and there. These figures were dressed in long filmv white robes and their forms were Th we this invisible. All to be seen was their ghostly pallor. They moaned and gave forth wild blood-curdling yells, mingled with groans. Rusty chains clanked and more figures appeared until the ground was covered with apparitions, apparitions, I say! for they appeared to be ghosts of dead soldiers who had come out to join the mighty conflict that was raging in the angry heavens. They formed in rank and began ascending. Up, up they came until they reached our level. Again they formen in line and the leader cried, “Charge!” With this, that dreadful army, reeking with decay rushed at us. They pointed their long, bony fingers at us in mockery and laughed. It was such a laugh as no human being had ever heard before. Ah, its tone rings in my ears yet! My companions, terrified, fell from the machine, but I, miserable wretch was left to face that spirit horde alone Three times they formed in line and charged at me with their ghastly mockery and wild laugh. At length the leader cried, “Seize him, men, he is ours.” Just then one awful, slimy, creeping hand grasped at my throat. Oh God! 1 found my heart and prayed. Prayed as I had never prayed before. God is merciful! He heard my prayers and those awful forms vanished like mist. 1 knew no more. At last I wakened and found myself in my native land. Now, my son, take warning—Beware of over ambition. THE COWARD BETH REBHUN In the town of West Saxon, near ing back and forth just across that London, England, the excitement of narrow strip of water named “English war reigned supreme. Spring of 1916, Channel.” This little town was almost and still the mighty conflict was surg- drained of men, except those too old

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24 SENIOR MAGNET is goi )g to be an owl and I’m going to be an pared eagle. We have both drinks pre-I will write tomorrow and tell you vfhat we do today. Ilefe the diary ended. I was so sur-priscc at finding such an ending after so in eresting a narrative that I was like t|ie Irishman who looked speech less. Aftfcr I had recovered my bearings I started to explore the rest of the room. I fou id one end to be partitioned off but before I had time to investigate further I heard Uncle Joe call, “Ho! Marse Henry he’as Miss Bessie.’’ I 1 :ft my explorations at once at Uncle Joe’s call for we always left every liing when Miss Bessie came. I told Bessie of my find and we de cided Ito go and ask Mammy Loo. Ma tales an no one ebber heered ob deni since. Fo about ten yars arter dey done gom an ole owl an an eagle used to lib up in dat attik an I declare to goodness dat dey wus the spirits ob dem boys jest hauntin dare old play house. None ob de niggas would shoot dem birds for dey witz afraid ob de ghosts but one day when dat Sherman guy arid his sojers cum along one ob dem low!down white trash shot dat der owl an busted its wing. Well dat eagle jest flew down and grabbed dat owd in his talons an jes done flew up on de roof vif it. Den another sojer done took a pot shot at dat eagle en hit it too but dey didn’t kotch it. “Well, arter dat we niggers done neber saw dose birds again an your grandfatter done nail up dat attik an nmy Loo is the oldest nigger on nobody has eber ben up dere til the plantation, a relic of slavery days, and knows all the war stories and ghost hat a.re told for miles around, so i we asked her if she had ever heard of John and George Hume and when she replie 1. “she did,” we asked her to tell us the story. And this is her story : “Lan sakes chile, whar did you all eber hear ob Marse John and Googe? Doan’ yon eber tell Marse Henry dat I done foie you about dis, or he shore done sell me down de ribber. Dose boys done run off when dey was about fifteen yars old and we hain’t nebber heered ob dem since. “I) 3 used to stay up in dat attik and eber since dey left de place has done been spooked. Dose boys dey done stole ny ole witch book and some ob der dad’s fitrnieture and des disappead mammy came to lib here. Now you all tell Marse Henry dat you coz lie done fobid to ebber ob dem boys agin.” Well, after this narrative Mis Bessie and I went up to the secret room and after again inspecting the diary ventured to look behind the curtain. There we saw two skeletons. I carefully gathered them up and took them to Miss Bessie's father for examination, for he is something of a naturalist. After carefully examining them he pronounced them to be skeletons of an old barred owl and a bald pate eagle, species now nearly extinct. Evidently the experiment had not succeeded. youa doan [ tole speak BEWARE OF AMBITION HELEN FRAZIER T never hear that sound that I am not reminded of my terrible episode. Thus the palsied, old man began hrs narrative. Years ago when I was young, several

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26 SENIOR MAGNET his finger tips as he lessened their speed, when glancing up and across the room as if seeking the latent force that would give him definite motion he met a pair of eyes. They had no color to him. It was only their message he read, which was, “I understand, .but wait.’’ Norm dropped his chisel and the clang as it hit the cement floor yoke him from his revery and again his hands began their sure rapid work and with mechanical regularity ;the shells were finished. All thought exfcept the work at hand had vanished. That night he worked over time, finishing up extra shells that were needed for the shipment the next day; working untiringly. He did not notice anything to fight or too young, and Norm Eslinton. Norm was the subject of ridicule and the principal actor in our story. He had stayed at home now through three years of war, answering no call to the colors and, as everyone thought, feeling no pride, no love, no loyalty to his mother country. The name of “Coward” had been given him, shouted at him with all the vehemence of an old loyal Tory, and it had been his only name fo]r two years. He had worked untiringly and had kept his mother, his only relative, the only one he had to love, and who cherished him with a selfish mother-love that grew with every feeble beat of her old heart. He had kept her as few in those troubled around him, not even the hands that times had been cared for. Spending, and taking pleasure in spending his all on her, he seemed to get his only solace, from the tender smiles of this wasted body, hiss mother. It seemed impossible that this fragile tiny woman of fifty-one could possess, body and soul a boy—no, a man; twenty years old, tall, clear-eyed, not handsome but clean and attractive. But this was so, for Norm idolized his mother. All the sneers, even his name, Coward,” seemed to fade when she smiled. But they came back with the night, and reject them as he would, they rose and taunted him with their truth. A desire filled him to prove them false but with the day light this thought fled, and again he endured the jeers with downcast eyes and worked steadily finishing the shells that his army needed so badly. Today the struggle seemed harder to bear. He must go away. Anything but stay here. Even remembering his mother’s clinging hand and smile only handed the shells to him at the needed moment nor took them away when they were finished. A shell done but the hands did not supply another. He turned impatiently and a low vpice spoke, “That was the last.” Curipus. he glanced up and met the eyes, gray tliey were and steady, but, still greater, their owner was a girl. Norm was bewildered and annoyed What right had she to put him in such an embarrassing position and what should lie say? Then realizing that he must say something he blurted but “Thank you.” “Oh, that’s all right. I knew you were tired and w'orried and the shells weren’t heavy. I saw that you were thinking only of the work and I wouldn’t be noticed so I just had to. help—England. My name is Nellie.” A strange feeling filled Ncrm for these were the first kind words he had received, except from his motier. for so long that, boyishly, he had a big longing to cryr. “It was mighty good of you—ah!—Nellie, but vou see, it seemed to strengthen his purpose. His might place you in an embarrassing po-hands grew clumsy tightening the cop- sit ion because I am known as the per bands. Once the machine scraped ‘Coward.’ ” The last word came as if