Charlotte High School - Witan Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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THE WITAN THE MYSTERY SOLVED There was a great stir in the little town of Williamsville. Neighbors gossiped over back fences; children hurried home from school to reach the safety of their homes; even the owners of stores or business buildings in the town put extra padlocks on the doors and locked their valuables in safes. Things were mysteriously dis- appearing from the people's homes, yards and clothes lines! No one knew where the things had gone or what had made them go until one night, about a week after the first thing had disappeared. Mrs. Grayson, the wealthiest old lady in the town, had been suddenly wakened in the middle of the night by a great up- roar of screeching and squawking of chickens. She had gone to the win- dow immediately to see what was the matter and, just as she looked out, a dark object appeared at the small window of the chicken coop. The window was open and, as the object passed through, it turned and closed the window, then it sailed right through the trees with a chicken un- der each wing, as Mrs. Grayson ex- plained the next day. Being near- sighted, she was unable to describe the object, but she was sure that it had several long legs or wings and a long, narrow tail that curled at the end. The next day, when examining the chicken-coop, the neighbors found five chickens dead and two missing. It must have been a hawk,” one of the neighbors suggested. “But how could it open the window?” old lady Gray- son asked excitedly, “and, I’m not sure whether it flew or jumped; I was too scared to notice. This made it more of a mystery than ever. Johnny Green, old lady Grayson’s nephew, scoffed at it all, saying that she was “seeing things,” but the very next evening, when he was sitting un- der the magnolia tree with his future wife, something behind snatched his hut off his head. He, thinking it was one of the fellows playing a joke on him, didn’t make any sign that he knew the hat was gone. But, upon glancing upward a little later, he saw his hat hanging on the end of the top branch of a nearby tree. But this wasn’t all—the hat was pinned on with a large safety pin! After this, nothing happened for a few flays beyond thp disappearance of more chickens, or pies set out to cool. The village people had given it up as a bad job and stopped hunting for the mysterious object. Then, one night (it always seemed to come at night), Miss Warner, Johnny Green’s future wife, called him on the telephone and told him to come over as fast as he could. Some- thing was in her room! Johnny hurriedly backed his Ford car out of the driveway and drove to Miss Warner's home. She happened to be alone that evening, as her par- ents had gone to visit friends in a distant town. Being lonesome, she had decided to go to bed early and, upon opening the door of her bed- room and switching on the light, she jumped back in surprise There was something in her bed! Not stopping to look again, she had dashed down to the telephone and called Johnny; then ran out on the porch to wait for him. He reached her home in two minutes and found her wringing her hands and glancing fearfully over her shoulder. She quickly explained why she had called him so hurriedly, and they crept up the stairs quietly. Armed with a small revolver, John- ny carefully opened the bedroom door. Just then. Miss Warner in her nerv- ousness, knocked over a small stand near the head of the stairs and it tumbled and thumped to the bottom, making such a noise as to wake up the thing” on the bed. As Johnny opened the door, the object jumped up from the bed, entirely covered by the white cover that it had crawled under. Johnny dashed in the room and pulled out his revolver, but the object quick- ly jumped through the open window 14

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THE WITAN As this company draws near, tant- alizing odors are wafted to us on the breeze—exotic perfumes, better far than France’s most costly brands; spices of whose richness we have never dreamed; whiffs of frankincense and myrrh. Gold gleams from the robes of the Egyptian royalty; pearls and diamonds flash from their sheaths. The princes with head high and bear- ing erect, their ladies with dusky eyes and hair are as a strange fantasy to us. We have never seen a like troupe in our land. The procession has now passed us, is lost in the distance. The last bent slave with his load has disappeared. Faint exotic odors tempt us no more. From whence is this strange proces- sion come—and whither is it gone? Was it a dream, a fancy—or did it actually pass? Tessie Van Dam, 29. YE OLDE BOOK SHOP Dingy, dusty, musty, was the book shop 1 walked into one day. I looked around me and noticed a skinny little old man peering at me from behind huge eyeglasses. ‘ Good morning ' I said. The little man nodded his head and went back to what he had evidently been doing when 1 came in, arranging books on a dusty old shelf. At the side of the store was a small counter with six or seven shelves be- hind it. All around the small room were more shelves loaded with books he could find me a book by Ibsen. He said he would try, and began to rum- mage on one of the shelves. 1 watched him move quietly from shelf to shelf. He suddenly pounced on a red covered book, and with a gleam in his eye, said, “Here is a beautiful story by the author you mentioned.” I took the book carefully from him and turned inside to find the author’s name. There glaring out at me, shone the letters “By Louisa Alcott.” I looked from the name to the man and said, “But sir, this is not by Ibsen; it’s by Louisa Alcott.” The man looked at me through eyes that flashed like lightning. “Only twenty dollars,” he said, “only twenty dollars. You must take it, you must!” I couldn’t believe he was the same quiet little man of the book shop. He was a raving maniac. I slowly backed away from him and out the door. From then on I ran as I had never run before. 1 can assure you I never went to that place again. E. Raymond, ’32. NOTES OF A NEWSCARRIER Many people get enjoyment from seeing the ever changing movies. About one-twentieth of the same people get an uncertain amount of en- joyment from the greatest of moving pictures, the sky. Before the dawn, the sky is quite dark. Outlines of clouds are hard to of every description; some were travel lore, some were romance, some an- cient history. In fact, every kind of book was there. An old stove standing in the back of the store had evidently done its best to smoke up the room, for the stovepipe was coming apart in places. A stool sat beside the stove and a ladder which could be rolled around stood by the side shelves. When I had finished looking around, I turned to look again at the man who had greeted me and found him staring very impolitely at me. He then said, “Would the lady like a book?” I told him I would greatly appreciate it if see and no light is reflected to the earth. At this time of the year the eastern sky pinkens slowly in an over- spreading patch and when it seems that the sun must come up the follow- ing second, one's gaze is liable to wander. Over the lake thp sky has a yellow tint. To the east it is orange and pink. Over the city it is still grey and to the west it is quite black. One rarely looks above but the sur- prise following is well worth the ven- ture. The clouds above, no matter the size, are always tinted with the richest of pinks and lavenders just be- fore the sunrise. (Continued on Page 5 1) 13

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T H E W I T A N into a near by tree, the white cover still hiding it. Johnny and Miss Warner, thinking it could not get down from the tree very quickly, hurried down the stairs, out of doors, and around the house to the tree in which the object had landed. But there was nothing to be seen except the white cover hanging on high on one of the lower branches. During the next two weeks things disappeared a t different intervals. First, a bracelet belonging to Miss Warner; then, brooms and dustpans, pails, mops, articles of clothing from clothes lines» and other numerous articles. No one had been close enough to see what the “thing” really looked like and no one, although he wouldn't admit it, was quite willing to hunt for it and solve the mystery. Then, one night between six and seven, Johnny and one of the neigh- bor boys were strolling along discuss- ing the events of the day and hap- pened to pass Dr. Brown’s old barn, which had not been in use for several years. Just as they were going to pass on, Johnny spied something bright in the grass near a broken window of the old barn, and, stooping, he picked up a bracelet. It was the one that Miss Warner had said dis- appeared mysteriously a week ago. It suddenly came to him that the old barn was involved in the mystery in some way or another, and he hurried- ly published the news. In less than «an hour, the whole vil- lage, it seemed, armed with knives, revolvers, pitchforks, shovels and axes, surounded the barn and made ready to investigate. Johnny was chosen to open the bain door while the others rushed in; so Johnny crept softly up to the door, unlocked the padlock and threw open the doors. The crowd stepped forward and held their breath. At first, they couldn’t make out anything, hut as their eyes grew accustomed to the dim light of the darkened barn, they saw a dark form lying in the corner on a pile of old hay. Revolvers were drawn, shovels and other weapons raised, and the crowd pressed forward into the barn. Johnny, being at the head, reached the darkened corner first and at one glance he shouted, ‘it's a monkey!” Sure enough, the frightened animal was a monkey It was caught and examined. Around its neck they found a leather collar on which were de- scribed the words: Jip, trick monkey of Bamum’s Circus.” Ida Diehl, ’31. 13