Cloverdale Union High School - Spectator Yearbook (Cloverdale, CA)

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pressure. In an hour after leaving New York it lands you on the other side of what may now well be termed the big pond. As soon as I was settled and had taken some slight cognizance of my surroundings I looked around to find Melvyn. The first knowledge 1 had of his presence was a grip on the shoulder and a hearty handshake. “Hello, old fellow. How are you? Where have you been all the time? What have you been doing?” He had changed a great deal since I last saw him. He was taller and looked more like a football athlete. His voice had taken on a deep bass tone. The curly locks of former days had been completely subdued and a severe pompadour installed in their stead. We sought a comfortable seat and began talking over the old school days and what had happened since. Nothing would do but I must tell my own story first, and since it could be made short, I complied. After graduating I studied engineering and became an operator of a bi-plane, after which I enlisted in the army. I was then sent to France where I was placed in command of a flying squadron. After being there for some time, I was wounded and sent to a hospital. While recuperating 1 learned wireless telegraphy. I have been employed by the United Press Correspond¬ ence Bureau for some time. Right now let me say, Melvyn, that you need not tell me about your¬ self, for yesterday I saw your name in big headlines in the National Eagle, and the interesting article which followed told some very fine things about you; how you went to the University of California and gained such a reputa¬ tion as a comedian and impersonator that you received a flattering offer to act for the movies at five hundred dollars a week. This was certainly a temptation, but you still clung to the conviction that you could serve your country better with your pen, and so you took a position in a small news¬ paper office. A year later you became a reporter for The American Globe. Last summer you were appointed reporter of European affairs for the United Press Correspondence Bureau. About two weeks ago a letter came stating that you were to go to The Hague. This was a most delightful surprise, for your wife is a native of Belgium and is overjoyed at the opportunity of visiting once more the dear home land from which, as a little child, she had been forced to flee during the terrible world war of 1915-17. But all this is not news to you, so we will leave it until later. “Do you know what has become of all our classmates?” “Yes. Erminie has married one of the world’s greatest inventors. Many people are indebted to his ingenuity for a mechanical contrivance which enables an automobile or flying machine to be controlled without having to keep the hands on the steering wheel. This is said to be a very great im¬ provement, as it allows the driver the free use of his hands without endan¬ gering the lives of others. I heard that when he proposed to her, she told him that if he would invent something that would be of benefit to the world, within one year from that time, she would marry him. Its benefit to the world is doubted by some, but I am told that she regards it as the greatest thing ever thought of.” “By the way,” said Melvyn, “whom do you think I saw in the city yester¬ day? I was registering in the Astor Hotel when I ran across Pauline. She is the same excepting that she has grown more dignified, and is a little more quiet; but her eyes are as fascinating as ever and she still looks young. She has just returned from Greece where she has been superintending extensive excavations to find the birthplace of Homer. While teaching Greek in Vas- sar College she became so enamoured of this wonderful poet that she spurned all the flattering offers of devoted suitors and decided to give her life to the work of erecting, in his native village, a monument to this bard of an- 18

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The Spectator has been so fortunate as to secure the services of a re¬ porter who can decipher accurately messages of events that may come to pass fifteen years from now. So far as we know, every other news agency has been limited in its accounts to events that occur, at the very most four or five days in the future, or to those that do not occur at all. We publish here a radio- telegram dated in nineteen hundred thirty-two. Chicago, Ill., May 28, 1932. Mr. Rolland Harter, Washington, D. C. My Dear Mr. Harter: You are to accompany Mr. E. M. Hall, our United Press Correspondent, as private wireless telegrapher to The Hague. Mr. Hall will leave on the Lightning Express from New York, June 1st, at one o clock P. M. A radio- telegram informs him of your appointment. Yours truly, JAMES GRAY, Manager of the United Press Bureau. The privilege of going to The Hague as private wireless operator gave me great pleasure. The fact that I was to accompany one of my high school classmates whom 1 had not seen for fifteen years, added great anticipations. I was so eager to have the opportunity of talking with him about old times and finding out all I could of the other members of the class that the two intervening days dragged along all too slowly. The appointed hour found me aboard the Lightning Express. This is no misnomer, for it certainly is the swiftest conveyance that this world has ever seen. A hermetically sealed car, containing its own light and air supply, is made to radiate an electric force that destroys all friction and nullifies air 17

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tiquity. Her task is surely a sublime one, but is as difficult as it is sublime, for, to all appearances, she will have to dig up the greater part of that precious country before she finds the spot for which she is looking.” ‘‘How 1 wish that I could have met her, too. It would have been great to have talked over the fortunes of the rest of the class. I suppose she told you about some of them.” “Yes, she gave me quite a budget of news. Ethel went to France as a Red Cross nurse. She became so devoted to her profession that she de¬ clared she was wedded to it. Nevertheless, a few years later a brilliant young physician persuaded her to change her mind. She and her husband are now living in Chin-chau, China, where he is a medical missionary. “Christine, too, is married. After a brilliant career in politics. Her hus¬ band, a former resident of Cloverdale, is one of the most successful mer¬ chants in Santa Rosa. Pauline says that she is not only a society leader, but that she is also very active in all civic improvement work, for which she is exceptionally well qualified. You have heard, I suppose, that she studied law and later, as special envoy from the United States, succeeded in so settling affairs in Mexico that there has been no uproar or strife for ten years.” ‘‘Alas, the unexpected will happen. Truth is stranger than fiction. What do you suppose has become of our Romeo and Juliet? Well, I must tell you. While Harold was preparing himself to become a civil engineer, Lois was attending a conservatory of music, hoping to become an opera singer. After making good in his work Harold received an appointment in the en¬ gineering department in the Canal Zone. He was now in a position to marry, but Lois, fascinated by her success, refused to give up her brilliant career. Vowing that he could marry no other, he sought consolation by entering the priesthood. Lois, afterwards repented of her decision, became a nun, and is now teaching music in a convent.” “That certainly would be a great plot for a novel, and oh, that reminds me, have you heard about Raymond? Inspired by his own happy experi¬ ence, he has written a book called A Successful Courtship. The royalty from the sales paid his expenses while he was studying dentistry at college, and enabled him to establish a fine office in San Francisco. But where is Theron Seits? Do you know anything about him?” “Yes,” replied Melvyn. “A year ago I had occasion to go to the United States of Russia. While there I heard of a great and influential man by the name of Theron Seits. I immediately searched him out, and found him to be our old O. V. L. President and tennis expert. At college he made a specialty of agriculture. He obtained a government position in his line of work, and through civil service was rapidly promoted. He has far ex¬ celled his famous countryman, Luther Burbank. The edible spineless cactus, he has so improved that it tastes like cream and sugar on luscious straw¬ berries and at the same time is as digestible and nourishing as the Irish potato, the onion and the beefsteak, which were such staples of diet when we were young, before the war. Had it not been for his invention, a large part of the world’s population would have starved to death; for, as you know, meat and potatoes became so expensive that only millionaires could afford to eat them. No general and no statesman, not even the great Woodrow Wilson himself, will be as famous in history as will this classmate of ours. But here we are at our destination. I will tell you more about him tomorrow. While we had been chatting the little contrivance into which we had been shut for an hour had sped noiselessly on, annihilating space at the rate of a hundred miles a minute, and doing it as easily as you would raise your hand, because it had learned to master the laws of nature by obeying them. 19