City College of New York - Microcosm Yearbook (New York, NY)

Page 32 text:

LEO KLAUBER President of the Student Council; Captain of the 1923 Basketball Team Most Popular

Page 31 text:

The Men of ’23 SING then. 0 Muse, of these far-off half-forgotten things, and battles long ago! Rehearse the glorious deeds and of the olden Titans tell me. that when Eternity Rock shall have mouldered away—yea, e’en after the tribe of Bonncy is no more—children may listen wild-eyed to tales of these mighty men of ’23 . . . Tell how all the domains of King Rcdmikc gave their choicest youth to form the mighty host and how even from the abiding place of the dead. Brook- lyn, beloved of Morpheus, came many men of valor (chief of whom was earth- shaking Shapiro, the cunning teacher of history). With loud acclaim were they welcomed by She, who looketh both up and down: awe-compelling was the greet- ing of brazen-throated Mac, and so fascinating Burchard’s tales that great 1-ouie, 'tis said, for threescore seconds held his peace—a marvel which transcendeth all other deeds of Olympians. Now monsters lived in those days, savage creatures with human form, vul- pine hearts and the heads of wild asses. Sophs” was the name of this ill-favored tribe, with whom heroic '23 waged strife so remorseless that its mere mention appalls the decadent youth of modern times. (Indeed, to this day entering classes enact mimic conflicts in commemoration of these olden bloody battles; but such modern exercises have less substance than consomme which one hath made by boiling the shadow of the wing of a chick that starvation hath killed.) Valiant were the leaders of those days, skilled in the stealing of tables. Men still sing of Herb Gadc and of Marty Jcrkowitz, who, in the course of time, deserted his class and now, within the roped-off square, triumphantly wields the cestus (changed is his name to Mcjcrk). And Johnny Flicgcl there was, leader of the sinuous snake dance. But mightiest of all was the Strong Arm Squad, six men, of whom the slightest exceeded in weight eleven score pounds. Hither and yon they rushed, wherever the battle was thickest, and great was the slaughter riiey wrought. Tell, Muse, of ponderous Shapiro, chief over these tyrannosauri, when alone in the enemy alcove the attack of all '22 he withstood—not only in the alcove remained, but of its hundred occupants cleared it! In Harlem was a temple to Thespis, the “Opera House” men called it. Once did guileful Antovillc, most cunning of all '22 men, speak winged words to the theatre's director, contracting for that evening to furnish skillful amateur actors. Of the flower of ’23 he planned by stealth to seize a dozen, and into galling service to press them. His scheme succeeded—the luckless stammering Fresh- men were thrust ’fore the staring eyes of the audience. Terror seized the men of '23, congealed was the flow of their blood. . . . When lo! through the gates of the theatre poured rescuing hordes of their comrades, vengeful heroes who recked not of the place wherein they were fight- thirty-tWO

Page 33 text:

fi }C 1023 ing. Up the aisles they surged, throwing the house into panic. On the boarded stage itself sought they out Antoville’s followers. Fierce raged the combat that night—loud were the shrieks of the audience (who knew not the cause of this uproar). At last the battle was ended by the blue-coated minions of Redmike, but not till the Sophomores thoroughly knew the taste of rankling defeat. And tell yet another talc, of a struggle more frenzied than that one: Ended was the tug-o’-war, wherein the mighty sinews of '23 had availed not ’gainst fickle Fortune. But though theirs was the coveted victory, the craven Sopho- mores now lied the field in haste, barring themselves from pursuit in the castle whose lord is Woll. Nothing daunted, the Freshmen followed. Vain was their hope to shatter the massive iron gates! Meanwhile the besieged had discovered hoses of large dimensions, with which they shot torrents of water on all who dared to come near them. So great was the rush of the water that, like straw, the burly attackers were torn from their points of vantage and lightly tossed aside. But wise beyond their years were the Freshmen. Through subterranean passages toiled '23, until the crash of falling doors in their rear foretold to the Sophomores their approaching doom. After its own manner of fighting was ’22 attacked—with countless four-inch hoses before whose roaring flood neither Sophomore nor Hygiene Building escaped destruction. Ever higher rose the swirling waters, ever fiercer fought the contending hosts, till, as night began to fall, someone saw the stately anger-shaken form of Bonney swimming through the broken gate. . . . Sing of the wrath of Dean Brownson, of the awful dooms he dispensed! Tragic were the months that followed, full of woeful enforced inactivity which crazed the mind, driving some men even to study. Came a new term, and with it an end to verdant Freshmanhood. Many were the doughty warriors who were now no more. Some had fallen before the thunderbolts which issue from Room 121, some had been lured to ex- tinction in law and mcd. school, some had slipped into that Tartarus which awaits the good and the bad of us alike—that unspeakably loathsome existence called holding down a job.” Conflicts raged again. The presumptuous youths of '24 were taught their abys- mal inferiority, their transgressions were duly punished, and the autumn sun saw strange things done to a group of Frosh named Zukcrnick. Yet sick of heart were our blood-craving heroes, bemoaning the ease of their triumph, for the olden bloody traditions had already begun to fade. Nor knew they then of the dismal worst—that in years to come Albert and Dave and Zuk and count- less more of these striplings would lay unhallowed claim to the title of “ ’23 man”! And once again was Louie made President, man knoweth not how or why. The usual dances were danced, the accustomed banquets were eaten (wild was thirty-four