Butler High School - Magnet Yearbook (Butler, PA)

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2S vsr THE SENIOR MAGNET “(Laugh and the World (Laughs With you John R. Scblicbt I met him first at a Hallowe’en party, and he was laughing then. I became better acquainted with him at college, and there, he was always laughing. Years later, I ran across him again in New York, and he was still laughing. Herein lies our story—the story of a man who laughed and expected the world to laugh with him. His name was Ted Gannon, and we became great friends. In fact, we boarded together in New York. Although Ted was never a great hand at talking about himself, I gradually gathered the entire story of his life. He was a very likeable chap; perhaps the continual smile that played about his lips helped with that. One day I remarked on this perpetual smile. Bill,” he told me, I have it all figured out. If, when I come to die, I can say that I have gone through life with a smile, then I shall consider my life a success.” I must admit that he went through life with a smile, but whether or not he was a success is for you, dear reader, to decide. We had been rooming to-gether for some months and were getting along famously. I was a confirmed bachelor, but Ted was deeply in love. Finally one June evening, Ted dressed himself with unusual care, fussing and fretting at every trifle. After he was attired according to the latest fashion ads, he handed me a clothes brush and sheepishly asked me to dust off his coat. With cigar in one hand and clothes brush in the other, I complied. Where to, Ted?” said I. You act like a man who is to be married for the first time.” You’re not far wrong,” he told me. This evening, I am to give her this.” He showed me a beautiful diamond ring and hurried out of the room. I was just getting to the climax of a magazine story, when lagging footsteps sounded along the hallway. What !” thought I. Is the gay Lothario suddenly stricken with hardening of the heart?” The door slowly opened and in came Ted with a dazed look on his face; but the smile was still there. What’s wrong, Ted?” I asked. Mary threw me over,” he said simply, and went to his room, with the smile still struggling to keep its place. Ted’s first business venture was in the clothing business. A ready smile drew trade and trade brought money. Fortune flirted with Ted, smile for smile. Then, just as he thought she was within his grasp, the phantom shape disappeared, and in its stead, Ted found himself staring into the glittering eyes of Failure. For his partner had lost money heavily, by gambling, and had used the store’s name on check after check. There was the usual crowd of inane sympathizers. Laugh,” Ted told them stubbornly, and the world laughs with you.” The world saw the smile, but I saw the anger gnawing at his heart.

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CLASS OF JANUARY, 1932 27 I worked. Each morning I started out with fresh ideas of where to look and drove the five miles from the town where I was staying, only to return in the evening, tired, dirty, and discouraged. I had rapped on walls until my fingers ached, trying to discover secret hiding holes. By each fireplace I spent at least two hours. I investigated under every rafter composing the floor of the attic. I even pulled boards out of the floor, only to be disappointed. I took a flashlight and went up the back passage, kicking holes in the rotted wood, still finding nothing. From the front hall, under the staircase, a door opened to the cellar; I investigated that, but it contained only a couple of house snakes and I hurriedly evacuated that place. There was only one place left to try and that was the broken front porch. So, on my hands and knees, I tore away still more of the rotting boards to see if I could find any evidence. There was nothing. As I stepped down off the porch onto the stone slab, I suddenly thought that the money might have been hidden under the slab. I began to dig, and was going at it vigorously when I stopped short. The date wasn’t 1773” at all ! It was 1873”! That meant that the owner couldn’t have possibly had his home taken from him after the Revolutionary War. It hadn’t been built until long after that ! What was the idea? Was the man, too, deceived by the indistinct 8” which looked like a 7”. Sick at heart, I determined to stop work and started home. About three miles from the house, I stopped at a farm house and inquired of the lady living there what she knew about the place. Oh, that thar old stone house, you mean? Oh—that b’longs to the state penitentiary. Ya’see, they take their prisoners over thar to the stream for swimmin’. Thar ain’t much water ’round these here parts, and the boys ain’t got nothin’ much to do for exercise, an’ no place to swim but here, so they jest walk ’em over once a week. Yeah, the penitentiary is ’bout four miles ’cross country, that way right thar, an’ a mighty fine place it be, lady. What say? Air the men allowed t’ roam ’bout. Sure e’nuf; the trusties” often go up ’bout that thar old stone house; an’ if I was you, I wouldn’t be a foolin’ around thar much. Ain’t right, I sez to Jim, ’cause thar’s one fellow who’s sorta baffy. They say he ain’t goin’ to hurt nobody ’cause thar ain’t never nobody ’round them parts anyhow. All the time he’s a-thinkin’ he discovered some valuable papers goin’ way back to Revolutionary Days. He used t’ be some history teacher, they sez, and he killed somebody an’ then went crazy. He ain’t never found no sech papers. He couldn’t hev, ’cause Clem Adams used t’ live in the old stone house, and Jiis oF pap built the place. What say? Thanks? Oh, tha’s all right ! G’bye, lady !”

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CLASS OF JANUARY, 1932 29 Soon afterwards, Ted secured a position as a bank cashier, and was bidding fair to rise, due mainly, of course, to his smile. Again Fortune lured him on, and again she slipped away from him. A supposed friend of several years’ standing framed him, because of jealousy. Ted came home and told me about it. He smiled still, and it angered me. Ted,” I exclaimed, how can you smile when your deepest feelings are outraged?” He looked at me for a moment, then answered slowly: I’ll smile no matter what happens. I’ve been brought up on smiles, and now it’s too late to change my mode of attacking the world.” And all the time his fingers were straining to be at the throat of the Judas who had betrayed him and black despair raged in his heart. You’d better come with me,” I told him, and walk off some of that surplus feeling.” We walked for an hour or more. Once we stopped at a trick store for cigarettes. There happened to be a revolver lying on the showcase. Ted took one look at the gun, and his whole body stiffened with a jerk. His eyes stared fixedly. With deep anxiety I watched him. His hands crept slowly towards the gun, oh, so slowly, as though they were trying to reach their goal without wakening their master. But a smile suddenly spread over his countenance and the hands went back to their respective pockets. And so his life went on. Success after success seemed almost within his grasp, then suddenly faded away and left bitter disappointment and anguish— and a smile. At the age of forty-two, Ted was broken in body and spirit; once straight rhoulders were stooped and sagging, and his fingers constantly played around his lips. His poor heart was burned and withered by the heat of the anger, the resentment, the depair which had been pent up in his heart, but his lips still curved in a semblance of a smile. Finally Ted died—with a smile. I bent over to hear his dying words; they were: 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you.’ I’ve smiled all my life, Bill, but if I had it to do over again-----who knows? Perhaps I would rage every once in a while.” And as he fell back into his last untroubled sleep, these words again stumbled from his lips: 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you.’ A sort of fury possessed me. Laugh, indeed,” thought I, when the very soul within you is crying out in anguish against injustice and disappointment. Laugh, laugh, laugh ! and let the world laugh with you. Then turn your back and listen to the world laugh at you. Why should the world laugh with you? Will that help you any? Does a successful life come from the hypocritical smile worn to please the world, or from deep courage and peace within a man’s heart? Do the millions of smiles in the world today make up for the millions of despairing hearts underneath these smiles or atone for the sins which in so many cases have caused that despair? Laugh, clown, laugh,” the world says. It is right? I think not.