Emmerich Manual High School - Ivian Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

Page 13 text:

REMINISCENCES (EXPURGATED EDITION) HE place itself was pleasing — scattered all over its three stories with pictures and palms and plaster casts; these were to inspire a love of the beautiful in the Thousand Little Peacocks who lived in the Place. The Thousand Little Pea- cocks were under the charge of a Sedate Lion who wore his white mane pompa- dour. He was very fierce looking, but in reality he was the kindest old Lion that ever lived, and all the Little Peacocks adored him. It was not only on account of his broad shoulders that they admired him, but because he was so just and never took part against them merely because they were Little Peacocks. Way up in the southeast corner of the Place was a Pretty Brown Thrush with a quakerish air, a very clever little Thrush, a very wise little Thrush, far wiser, perhaps, than some of the big animals of the Place. She had an enchanting way of trilling, That ' s sufficient, and the tone of her Exactly so, made the Little Peacocks fall heels over head in love with her. If thrushes could blush, one might be tempted to say she colored up in a most charming manner. In company with the Big Bear across the corridor, she taught the Little Peacocks how to peck away at the mysteries of Nature. The Big Bear wasn ' t bad looking, though he always carried his head to one side. It was darkly hinted that he had been raised on a farm — indeed he occasionally acknowledged it. But the glory of authorship cast a halo ' round his black hair; though it ' s true the book was all about Gravitation and Electricity and Wave Theories — all those things that are so trying to the nerves of the Little Peacocks. Well, the Big Bear was no Chesterfield, but then he was a jolly fellow. On the story below was a Dear Old Dove. Her plumage was scarcely ever ruffled, and when it was, she only said, The good Little Peacocks will look at me; the bad ones needn ' t, gazing severely over her glasses. She taught them about the great Pea- cocks of past ages, and though it was all very delightful, once in a while they half wished they never had had any ancestors, never. 2S134G

Page 12 text:

■a I 1 What memories these things bring. In the Old Attic.

Page 14 text:

Not far from her was a Gray Crane. He wasn ' t a very hand- some bird, but somehow those of the Little Peacocks who got to know him thought a good deal of him. He taught them to see form and combine colors; this he had studied in Paris. The Little Peacocks only learned it incidentally, for he was not given to speaking of himself. From time to time, there wandered through the corridors a Red-Crested Woodpecker who always acted like a gentleman to- ward the Little Peacocks. The girls secretly liked his prefixing Miss to their first names. It helped to wile away the hour of Algebra or Geometry, and gave them a pleasing sense of their age and importance. Near the cage door was a cultured Wolf, a college-bred Wolf, with a mixture of southern and eastern accents. He liked spice and sting in themes, but did not approve of printing pieces of the aforesaid qualities in school papers. (That is why this, which was originally a highly spiked punch, is now a harmless circus lemonade.) He was possessed of a great desire to run the affairs of certain organizations of the Little Peacocks. Sometimes when he met them outside the Place, he would forget to speak to them; which made the Little Peacocks very sad. There were many other animals in the Place — a Bluebird who hovered ' round the cooking rooms was one, and a Fish, whose native element was the Shops, was another. Some the Little Pea- cocks liked, and some they didn ' t, but for four long years the animals were with them in the Place. ex-peacock, June, ' 98. TO CUBA Little isle with all your splendor, And skies so very blue ; With sympathy so pure and tender, Uncle Sam is watching you. JOSEPH GELMAN, Feb., ' 01.