Eastern High School - Punch and Judy Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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Frsruary, 1925 Ghosts properly belong to faded, colonial mansions whose crumbling portals seem to welcome the shades of those who, like them- selves, have only happy days to remember. A haunted bungalow would seem an impossi- bility, an anomaly; but I know of one, the more to be feared because its cheerful appear- ance conceals no hint of the menace that lurks within. It was ill fated from the beginning, for the workmen found the site where it was to be built hidden beneath a dense growth of the sinister beauty of the blue vervain. They still whisper over the evening fire, those few workmen who are yet alive, of how Black Mitchel, the strongest of them all, boasting of his indifference to ‘‘those old wives’ tales of the blue vervain’’ had first uprooted a clump of it. The doctors had said when he was found dead two days later, ‘‘heart failure’’; but his friends knew. Not for nothing had they seen, grasped in his dead hand, that tiny sprig of the fatal flower. They whispered, too, when the house had long been completed and yet still stood va- cant, of how Jim, the night watchman, was killed by a tiny, falling bit of plaster. When the ‘‘Old Un” had picked it up next day, it had crumbled and crumbled in his hand as he examined it; and suddenly he had stared at it in horror and thrown it far away. He would never tell them the reason for his sudden ter- ror; but Steve, who was standing nearest, im- The KASTERNER Blue Vervain Wan Cite) det ON, DS sisted that it was a leaf he had seen in the center of the plaster—a leaf of the blue vervain. But even these whispers could not keep the little house empty forever, and one day Ed- mund Cross, a very young groom, brought home to it his even younger bride. That night as they talked together after all their guests had left, he laughingly told her of the weird tales rumor had woven around their home. “But that’s the good of college, Edna,’’ he said. ‘‘It teaches us the triviality of all that “bunk.” ’” Edna’s laughter was a little uncertain. He went on. “You see blue vervain doesn’t mean evil to me, but home—and you.”’ “Blue vervain,’’ she murmured. “Why, we ought to call our home really, the House of the Blue Vervain,’’ he contin- ued. “Yes, the House of the Blue Vervain,”’ she assented; but as Edmund bade her good night, he heard her repeat that name again with a little catch in her breath—'‘The House of the Blue Vervain.”” (Write your own conclusion to this story, sign it, and drop it into the EAsTERNER Box in the office. Endings must not exceed 500 words, must be written on one side of page, and must be submitted not later than March 2. The best ending will be published in the April issue of THe EasterNer.—Eprror. ) YESTERDAY, TODAY, AND ALWAYS Dororuy E. WALKER, 725. The ashes were falling thick and fast; The soldier at his post heeded them not. He was a Roman; his duty Was to remain at his post. It grew intensely black; only jets of flame Lit up the deep void. The hot ashes filled the streets ; People fell in them, were smothered in them. Others, rushing by, fell over them, ‘All intent only on fleeing from the burning mountain. ‘A woman stops and cries to the soldier, “You fool! run for your life! the mountain’s aflame !”’ He stayed where he was. Almost two thousand years after They found him Dead, at his post.

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or fro So Finy Byed Tom aking at the yy ees om, an inmate of the t wood soon be broken uo ed from his bed Let us leave him x into his char- Day was slowly Bar Ranch. Ranch, saw that i ees. He theirfor jump! s hisself. d let us loo! pea and began to dres thusly engaged an acter. Two-eyed Tom W: bel Bar Ranch. He was m: Lonesome Lizzy, the dawter the Ranch. Now, nobody new that Two-e. 3 Tom luvved Lonsome Lizzy, knot even lin her-own-self, becawz Tom hadent told her at the Dub- adly in luv with of the owner of eyed as a cowboy yet. ” So this morning when Two-eyed Tom WES looking threw the window and adjusting his seven-shooters on his hipps he suddenly saw a scream, a woman »s scream,—low and Ayes ing. He jumped: from his bedroom window which was on the tenth floor of the two-story bilding struck bottom unharmed jest time to see a horse come from behind the pigpen at the rate of 4 miles per hour. There was 2 riders a—man and a lady. Tom seen the streaming red hare of the lady knowed it must be Lizzy. Then evijently Lizzy was being kidnapped. Impossible,—for she was no kid. But wait,—the man was Sneering Sam, the gambler, whose luv had bin refused a millyon times by Lonesome Lizzy. This then was Sam’s revengeance. Tom leaped on his trusty broncho. The self starter dident werk, as the animal was asleep, so Tom applied the spurs, and has- tented in pursuit in high gear. By this time Sneering Sam had a lead of 13 kilagrams, but Rom was steddily gaining. Steddily, and slowly, but shurely. In 217 minutes he was close enough to hear the snorting snorts of Sam’s hoarse and to sea the sneering sneers on Sam’s face. In 2 seconds they will be side by side. Ah-ha, a plan—Tom will seize Lonsome Lizzy’s streaming tresses (vis., her read hare) and pull hisself onto S. Sam’s hoarse with Lizzy and 8. Sam,—3 on 1 hoarse. The HAST m Cowboy to Cowpuncher Joun EB. BowMAN, BPRNER Frruary, ] as 25 “Stop, fowl villin,” erize Tom, “lest Tp) ‘ tis your fowl brane s from beneath your liq.» Vv ‘ Gerees,”’ came the answer, “T shall noy, er ” stop. “Not” 66) F drive straight rm : No, I shall dri ght to yonder ledge and the hoarse and the 3 of us shall be ¢ to destruction in yonder pool. Ah-ha!” ast He turned the steering wheel sharply a the hoarse swerved and jumped from a ledge,—a fall of 24 ft., 31-16 inches, to an parent destruction. Crapter IT (By the Author of Chapter 1) ‘As the hoarse leaped over the cliff Tom ge, to Sneering Sam, “‘Kin yuh Swimt”’ : “No,’’ sez Sam. “phen the joke’s on you, cause I ean swim. I shall save the heroine, namely Lizzy and you shall be drowned.”’ é “Kin you swim ?’” (By this time they fell 11 feet, 21.39 inches.) “Yes,’’ sed Tom cheerily. ‘‘T learnt it in the goldfish bowl at home, and wot’s more [ kin play pool, and that’s lucky, because we will soon all be in the pool.’’ “Cerces,’’ sed Sneering Sam for the 2nd time that day. ‘‘Luck is agin me.”’ He wood of sed more, but at this moment they hit the water. It was a knockout,—for Sam was knocked all around. Tom imme. jitly seezed Lizzy and began to swim to shore, a distance of 10 yards, 4 feet, and be- ing a good swimmer he accomplished this within an hour. Safely on shore at last, Lizzy, with all the charm of her 47 years looked gratefully at Tom. E “My hero,’’ she shrieked softly. “My shero,’’ came the growling response. But they were interrupted by Sneering Sam, who was going down for the 2nd time successfully. (Continued on page 30)

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Joun EB. BowMAN, assroom, said “J pet I'll beat you to the el i as he hurried the Freshman to the Senior, down the corridor. The Senior, of course, W doing so undignified a thing as to run to the room; so he sauntered through the doorway or so after the Freshman. ow,” declared ould not think of a moment “I’m going to open a wind the Rookie. ‘‘It’s too warm in here.” contradicted the wiser one. because you were running to ow that the tempera- Eastern High School t is ab- “ Nonsense,”’ “You’re warm get here. Don’t you kn ture of all the rooms in ig automatically regulated and that i solutely impossible for a room to get too warm or too cold?”’ ‘Well, you may be right about t ature, but how are you going to get fresh air in the rooms if all the windows are closed?” “Presh air? You get all the fresh air you need, and some to spare through that register over there in the wall. Fresh air is constantly being foreed into the room through the regis- ter at the bottom of the wall; and the impure air’ which rises toward the ceiling, js being drawn out through the register at the top of the wall.” ““Then you mean to say,” gasped the little fellow, ‘‘that it would really be best if every window in the building were kept shut?” “Tt certainly would. And I'll give you another chance to show your ignorance. You say, ‘every window in the pbuilding.’ All right; how many windows do you suppose there are in the building?” “Oh, I don’t know—perhaps a hundred.” ‘Wrong, my child. There are exactly one thousand windows.” “‘Gee!’’ exclaimed the green one. “ Would- n’t it be fun to wash all of them!”’ “Tf you stop to figure it out, you will find that, by allowing fifteen minutes for each window, it would take you more than thirty days of eight hours each to get all the win- he temper- dows washed. And by that time the five ones would be ready to be washed again,” 5; «J never realized that there was so mean work to it,”” murmured the Freshman, «And you probably never considered hoy many persons are required to do all this wor, There are Mr. Kirby, who is ehief paniteee Mr. Sheahan and Mr. Kneas, assistant aia. tors, as well as Mr. McQueeney, chief engi. neer; James King, electrician; two assist engineers, 4 gardener, two firemen, two cog] ight laborers, three women laborers, passers, © a nd a night wate man. hat a matron, makes twenty-five altogether.’” “J shouldn’t have thought that there were more than five or six,’’ said his awed listener “Why, my boy,’” continued the intelligent one, ‘‘there js always one person in the build ing at night. If the school is open at night there are eight. And, by the way, it costs from ten to fifteen dollars a night to keep the pbuilding open.”’ “ Zounds, as Shakespeare would say,”’ eom- mented the youngster. “But to get back to the subject of heating,” pursued the other, ““permit me to inform you that from the first of October to the beginning of May, nine or ten tons of coal are Tea daily. That means that as much coal is burned in one day as some families use in an entire winter.” “Yeah, and that would make about 2,000 tons a year,’’ added the Freshie, to show that he knew a thing or two about arithmetic. “« And figuring four pounds to a shovelful,”’ elaborated the Senior, not to be outdone by the other’s knowledge, ‘‘that would mean 1,000,000 shovelfuls!”’ The Freshman absently toyed with the ink- well as he allowed the ‘‘1,000,000 shovelfuls’’ to sink into his brain. ““Ah, yes, the ink!’’ said the Senior. (Continued on page 28)