Florida Agricultural College - Pinakidia Yearbook (Lake City, FL)

Page 87 text:

But on this Friday afternoon the clouds hung low and threatening, and he kept looking anxiously at them. and, thrusting his hands deep down into his pockets, as if he were searching for the dollar which wasn't ther'-. As the afternoon advanced the rain began to fall slowly, but steadily, like the earth on a cofiin where are buried our dead hopes. a As can be imagined, the young man was at a loss what to do. He went to the 'phone and rang up the proprietor of the livery stable, intending to hire a carriage again on credit, only to receive the encouraging news that he had a bill there of several month's standing, and no carriage could come without the money in advance. People who are familiar with the lives of our college boys will readily see that there was only one course left, and it was astonishing to see how rapidly he changed after he discovered that there was no hope of procuring a carriage. In less than ten minutes he was suiiering from sick headache, dyspepsia, rheumatism, sore eyes, sore throat and several other diseases of a similar nature, any one of which would, he felt sure, cause his death before Monday. He borrowed a pen, ink and paper and carefully worded the following' note: DEAREST ALICIA :- It is with a sorrowful heart, as well as a pen and ink. that I write you this short note. I had thought to be by your side again to-night, and to enjoy the exquisite delight of feeling the touch of your dainty fingers on my coat sleeve as we zmlkfd together down the street. But fortune has robbed me of my pleasure. I have been threatened all the week with pneumonia, and this afternoon I was taken down by a chill directly after the time for drill formation, and now I have a high fever. 'YVords cannot express to you my grief at being zuzablc to be with you this evening. I am told the play will be Hne, but it is not for the play that I care. I am always supremely happy when I am in your presence, and it seems baud, oh, so hard, that I must be so disappointed this evening. Ever yours, EVERETT. The cadet was on the sick list until the following Wednesday. 76

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Woe is cl lk HE time was Friday evening, and the place was all over the campus and through all the barracks. For the truth ot the matter was our herowl suppose we will have to call him a hero, though To use the ordinary language of the ordinary boy, he was broke. He was not only short of money, but, to make matters worse, he was in debt. His laundry bill for the past month was unpaid, his incidental fees for the terni were due, his board bill was staring him in the face, and he owed every one of his friends so much that he could not see how he was ever to pay them before comniencenient. But this was not the end of his troubles-he was in love, and so desperately so was he I qs ny , rf N . I , I r fu z L K If I N ,I he has never done anything like Dewey has-but, as I said, our hero was in a desperate strait. M N -' 9 . . I Q Q x u Cl 1 5l . - . - . f - . ' that he did not think he could exist away from the fair object of his adoration, and it was L utterl ' ini ossible for hini to solve the robleui of how he could art from her after coinnience- , 5 P P P 5 ment. But just now the present uiiseries had driven away all thought of the future troubles. As I have said. it was Friday nightg there was to be an opera in town and he was broke. He had spent his last dollar the night before in purchasing seats for himself and his lady, and, having a few cents left, he decided to buy some candy to tickle the palate of his beautiful fairy. COh, girls, what troubles you do bring your admirers i11to sonietinies !J The only candy he could find to suit his purse was some peanut candy and some striped stick candy, so he purchased a nickel's worth of each and wanded his way toward the barracks, happy in the thought that for one ti111e he could treat his creditors all alike. 75

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i6Much Ado About Nothing. HE average cadet of our college is an easy-going fellow wl1o does not pay very much attention to the slurs C that are thrown at l1i111 by the envious students of our other State institutions, who, jealous of our SQLDCQ growth in numbers and inliuence during the last few years, strive in very mean ways some times to throw mud on our fair name. But sometimes it happens that one of our boys awakens to anger, and when such is the case the sun is very apt to Go down on his wrath, unless he gets angry before chapel in the morning. Gne little article, from a Gainesville paper, of course, came to our notice some time since. It was a description of the victory of the East Florida Seminary at Jacksonville during the Convention of the Daughters of the Confederacy last January. The article closed with these wholly uncalled-for words: VVe are sorry the Lake City cadets were not present to see our boys drill. They might have learned something about the artf' Had this been said by one ol the Gainesville cadets in the presence of one of our students, that same East Florida Seminary cadet would probably have been sent home on a stretcher or in a long black box. Gainesville claims to be the Hrst in rank of the military colleges of the State, and says that she holds the championship. VVe observe that she has never strained her eyes looking for an opportunity to drill against us. Our reasons for 1lOt drilling against them can be soon stated. XVe organized a picked company in October to drill anything in the State, expecting the contest to come off some time in December. After we had drilled three weeks Lieutenant Cox, our worthy conimandant, received word that the Convention was postponed indefinitely, and so disbanded our company. Then he received word about the Ist of January, or during the last days of the Christmas examinations, that the competitive drill would come off on the rzth ofjanuary, thus giving us less than two weeks in which to organize, equip and drill a company to go up against companies that had been drilling steadily for several nionths. 77