Euclid Shore High School - Shore Log Yearbook (Euclid, OH)

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It must seem long to you, Al, she answered. Things in America have changed so since the Soviet Revolution that you would be disappointed if you did go back. I havenft seen or heard a thing of Jim, Irene, Eva or any of the others with whom we graduated. I'll tell you what I'll do, Al, in order to find them and see what they're doing. I,et's see, there will be a week between sittings for my portrait, won't there? Yes, I replied, wondering what her plan might be. I have money enough to inHuence the Soviet at Moscow. I will Hy over there tomorrow morning in my Sky-rocket because it will be best to talk to the agent in person. I will have it broad-casted by wireless that I want to know the where-abouts of James Howard, Irene Waters, Eva Smith, Irving Stras- bourger, and Ralph Pfeiffer. The International Guard is scattered all over the world and it will be but a few hours before I have my information. It will be worth the price. donft you think? I,ll say so. Surprising I did not think ofit before. I have wanted to hear about the gang so much. When you know where they are you can easily visit them and have a good talk. Would that I could go with you. But I shall soon start on a portrait of Morewineski, the Soviet chief and I cannot let that go by. I shall ask you to come for your first sitting next week at this time. I-Iere's hoping you will be successful in your effortsf, That's all right with me, Al, next week it shall be. I'll start my search immediately. Goodbye. She closed the door and was gone. From that day until she came for her hrst sitting, I was so impatient and restless that I could not put my mind on my work. The day arrived and Loretta walked in with a triumphant look on her face. I never was so happy in all my life. I told her to relate her experiences at once. Oh Al, she began. I had more success than I hoped for. I got all their addresses in one day and would you believe me AI didn't have to go out of Moscow for .lim I-Iowardf' What, I exclaimed, Jim in Moscow! What is he doing at the world's capitaliu Oh, he is very successful. For one thing he's a favorite, yes, an intimate friend of the Soviet leader. Morewineski and he conducts the Opera Inter- nationale and also the Ballet Commune. If anyone has struck it rich he surely has. I asked him whether he was going back to the U. S. or stay at the capital and he said he was going home for a year or so and then return to Moscow. Is he married? I asked. No, he says that women are too independent these days and he cannot bother about a wife, since his whole heart is absorbed in his work. I think, Loretta, that you have done a good week's work. Anything else you know? I guess not. I attended the Opera and Ballet and it surely was good. Jim is a genius with the baton. Thus Loretta and I talked away while we decided what pose she would take and I made the first preliminary sketches. Soon it was time for her to go again. This time she was to be absent only four days. I' knew little if anything ofher plans or where she was going next and all I could do was kill time until she came once more. The day came. It was Thursday, and she arrived punctually with the same radiant smile on her countenance. Whom did you see now?,' I asked expectantly. You'd never guess. she laughed as she said it. Monday I took a trip to the old U. S. A. Nothing happened much on the way over except that I had to land at Bermuda at one o'clock in the afternoon to hx my rudder on the tail of the Rocket. I arrived at Denver, Colorado, at four in the afternoon. What were you doing in Denver, I,d like to know? I asked since I knew nothing of her plans. The following narrative followed and completes one more incident in our quest for knowledge of our friends, the Seniors of 1922. 22

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Class Prophecy VVAS seated in my studio, they call them atelier in Paris, putting the finishing touches on a canvas which I had just about completed. My thoughts were running in two different channels. I was thinking of the painting and whether it would win the prize at the Paris Salon and whether I should have a rich elaborate frame or a plain simple one. As for the other strain of musing, the painting might again account for it, in fact it did. I was thinking of days gone by, my school days, twenty years past. The subject of my picture was an old gray haired man sitting before an old-fashioned hre- place recalling the days of his youth. I called the painting lVIemories. Recently I often caught myself brooding deeply over things which I knew, if indulged in too much, would make me morbid and dull. Such was the case now and it was with difliculty that I aroused myself when my servant announced that a lady was waiting in the vestibule and wished to come in and speak to me about a portrait. I looked at the card and on it was written eIVIrs. Van- dergould, New York. Ah,', I exclaimed to myself, a lady from my native land, how delightful. Show her in, Lucienf, A moment later I was standing face to face with a woman about thirty-live years of age, but still retaining much of her girlish beauty. Her hair was a wonderful burnished gold, and bobbed, for all the women have their hair bobbed now, young and old. In this well dressed and elegant personage that stood before me I recalled someone I used to know, but who that someone was I could not say just then. I was somewhat startled when she spoke. Why, hello Al, you keep a grand looking place here, don't you? What! don't you remember me?,' At the sound of her voice I knew instantly who she was and I replied eagerly, Hello, yourself, Loretta Dowd, you came just in time. I was going to pack up and take a trip to the U. S. A. again to see the family and also any one else I used to know. By the way, Loretta, you don't look so poorf' Indeed her rich dress and aristocratic air told of wealth. She replied: Well, no. I have money enough to last me I guess. You know when IVIr. Vandergould died he left something like two million for me but of course I had to give a good share of it to the Soviet. Great Scott. Retta, you didn't marry Mr. Vandergould of New York City! I-Ie,s dead you say and you a widow, I exclaimed astonished. Yes,H she nodded and continued, Since the Socialist Revolution he worried himself to death. You know how the Communists preyed on the wealthy. Al, New York today is simply overrun with those terrible Russian Guards. Gf course Paris is full of them too, but New York, well you see we are not used to it over there. Itls the same all over the world I suppose since the Bolsheviks came into power. Don,t I know it though, I replied sadly. The Russians have invaded the world of art as well as politics. It takes all I can do to keep my position. Let me see, you came here to interview me about a portrait didn't you? Xvell I am at your service. Why yes, I did offer that as an excuse to see you. I saw your name on numerous pictures at the Louvre and the Salon and I felt that being here I couldnlt lose this opportunity of coming to visit you. Being here though I think I shall have you do me in oilf' Now, 'Retta, since youlre here and will be coming here for some time. because it will take quite a number of sittings, you know, let's talk of old times and forget the present. I was to have my wish gratified at last. Surely I.oretta would know something about the home folks and the old Shore crowd. I continued: When did you see or hear about jim last? He just seemed to drop right out of my horizon or else I dropped from his when I came to Paris. You realize, Loretta. that I have never returned home since I came here twenty years agof, 21

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The reason for my traveling to Denver is that I discovered Irving Stras- bourger is staying there. You know that Denver is the world wireless center and I suspected Irving to be there. You should have seen him. You wouldnlt recognize him at all. I-Ie has grown a magnificent beard and mustache and he has allowed his curly hair to grow down the hack of his neck in the latest style. I found him hard at work in his laboratory which is the nucleus of the wireless stations. I-Ie is the chief there hy the looks of things. I was especially ini- pressed by his calm and steady manner and the quiet way in which he took the report which had just been brought to him about an earthquake damaging one of his stations in California. But you should have seen him when he received a message from his wife telling him to hurry home because Izzy, Cwhich I was told was his youngestl had come down with the measles. That, unfortunately. ended our interview and I started back to Paris to tell you all about it. Well isn't that the limit. Say, 'Retta, do you know what a big thing you are doing? It surely is interesting to know that some of the fellows are success- ful anyway. Yes, she agreed, tomorrow I am going after one of the girls. I won't tell you which one so you can be wondering until the next time I come, which will be another week. Am I right? I may be able to call on two this time so I'll have alot to talk about next week. I'll have to be careful going across the ocean tomorrow. You know I was caught speeding in the lower level when I left Bermuda and so they are on the lookout for me. I am pretty sure they got my number. I shall take the Southern route on my next trip over. I am going to my hotel now and wonlt see you for a week, so goodbye. I said goodbye and she was gone. I-Iow I envied her. All I saw or heard of the world was very little. Though all the devices and ingenious methods for the spreading of news were employed by all nations yet I had nothing to do with these. When my success proved to be a real and honest to goodness thing then I too would see the world and enjoy myself to the fullest extent. Meanwhile I waited for Loretta's visit and dabbled a little at my work. The day came at last when Loretta was to COID6. On the very hour that she usually arrived in she came, true to her promise. I grasped her hand eagerly. I can see that you were successful again! Oh, of coursef, she assured me. 'CI couldn't help but be. I'll tell you right off the bat whom I saw this time. First I had a good old talk with Eva Smith and then I went over and visited Ralph Pfeiffer. My gracious, but I was surprised at Eva. She is about a foot taller than when I saw her last. She has a wonderful stylish stout figure but it is somewhat overcome by her knickers. She told me that she was professor of chemistry and physics at the big Pfeiffer University at Chicago. I forgot to tell you that she lives in Chicago. She moved there from some little town a year ago, I think it was New York. and settled in Chicago. Strange isn't it that Chicago has grown so. but of course since the St. Lawrence water route was completed it has grown to three times its former size. It now rivals Moscow. As I said before, Eva teaches at the Pfeiffer University and is now one of the world's greatest authorities on science and chemistry. She has separated radium into four different elements and is now experimenting on some new gas. She also has propounded a new theory of sound and vocal vibrations which will upset the old laws and teachings. You say she teaches at the Pfeiffer University? I-Ias Ralph Pfeiffer any connection with it? I asked this because I had been so surprised lately that nothing would be unreasonable to surmise. That was just what I was going to tell you. I drove over to Cleveland from Chicago and I visited Ralph at his city home on the Grand River right near the Lake. It's a beautiful place and Ralph has just oodles of money. The Grand River! Why that's way out in Painesville or Fairport. It can't be his city home you mean his country home. I had thought she was mistaken in her statement but she soon explained it all to me. Why no, Al, it isn't Painesville any more: it isinside the city limits now and is all built up. You wouldn't recognize Ifuclid or Noble either, they're all 23