Germantown High School - Record Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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THE CLIVEDEN terrifying creatures but he always came through unharmed. Iack finally found a haven of refuge on top of a large mass of rocks. He was perched there for several hours and was becoming sleepy when a faint humming noise aroused him from his lethargy. lxlaybe it was a rescue plane. No, it could not bel Looking upward, another danger confronted him. Coming down at him was a huge, ferocious looking bird of the prehistoric type. Down off the rocks came Iack and away he went at full speed. This time the shoe was on the other foot. The bird had the advantage. Iack ran darting and swerving like a mouse try- ing to avoid an owl. Still the bird gained. Would he escape this time? It looked like it. There was another chasm, smaller than the first, and on the other side was a dark hole, probably a cave. The bird was closer now than ever. Looking back in desperation, lack strove to go faster. Only about three hundred yards to the chasm now. The bird's beak then snapped about two feet in back of his head. Frantically, he increased his pace. He was in a state of collapse. Once more he looked back to see if he had gained any. At that moment his foot hit a rock. lack went head over heels. He rolled over and over. Abruptly he was out in space falling down, down, down. He brought up with a sudden, sickening jar. Was this heaven? Breathing painfully, he opened his eyes. A huge shape was swooping down on him. An awful shock-and then everything grew darker -darker-oblivion. LTIIIHIHIUIEB lIl?llRllE5413lIE5lIlD6lllflll11fDllNll GDI? EVIL FLORENCE B. SILBER AVE you ever wondered how you can picture in your mind such intangible perceptions as emo- tions ot good and evil? Somehow, it seems to me, when we wish to think of these, we involuntarily personify par- ticular emotions and visualize charac- ters, actual or imaginary, whose face seems to us expressive of those thoughts. As soon as the thought of anger comes to nie, a vivid picture glows in my imagina- tion. I see a man, a powerful man with mighty straining muscles. His hands are clenched, taut, as though he were about to bend a bar of strongest steel. Nevertheless it is his face which is clearest, largest, in my consciousness. His lips are drawn back, snarling, and revealing sharp white fangs and an underjaw somewhat protruding. Eye- brows lifted, veins swollen, eyes flashing, all these characteristics go to make up my personification of anger. This is, of course, purely an imagina- tive character. There is, on the other hand, that character which is drawn from life and which presents to us, a perfect personification of an emotion. It is with the latter that I am now going to deal. Indelibly traced in my mind is a character-my personification of sordid evil. I was walking down a small street- a narrow filthy street, in a section of the slums seldom used by casual pedestrians or vehicles. A shiver of fear and a premonition of evil seemed to combine and weigh on me. I hardly knew where I was-just dimly aware that I was near the corner of an intersecting street. Another chill passed over me. Then came an awareness, an intuition of some- -01119110-

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U THE CLIVEDEN p Again lack was dismayed and unac- countably disturbed by finding out that the grass was a curious yellow color. It's appearance was far different from the ordinary grass, because at the top of each blade a small leaflet grew. Looking around once more he noticed that there appeared to be no trees in the country. As far as he could see there lay nothing but bushes of a dead-looking, reddish brown color. The land itself consisted mostly of rocks of some sparkling and glittering substance-probably mica. He could see no sign of human habitation- a fact which struck him as decidedly queer. By this time the sun had begun to go down. In all of his thirty years of experiences, Iack had never seen a sunset that could compare with this one. It seemed to be a vivid combination of the Aurora Borealis, a western desert sunset, and huge geysers of various vividly- colored gases. It had a weird and fantastic effect on the country around him. The bushes seemed to writhe and dance, the whole of the land seemed to be shivering and shaking, and even the rocks seemed to be living masses of stone which crawled and twisted in all direc- tions. All of the landscape was bathed in a curious mixture of colors, of which black soon began to predominate. The coming of the darkness made Iack realize that he would have to camp there for the night, so he began to hunt wood for a camp tire. This job was not hard, because even if there were no trees, there was plenty of brush. Yvhen he had completed this task, he felt in his pocket for a match. To his dismay he had none. After about ten minutes of utter dejection and confusion, he thought of an old Indian method he had learned when he was a boy. It was the bow and drill methods. Using his shoe lace as a bow string and two pieces of brush as bow and drill he soon had his equipment ready. After half an hours' tedious work, he managed to get a spark, and by careful nursing soon had a large camp- fire burning. Iackithen proceeded to make himself as comfortable as possible. He relaxed his tired muscles and lay flat on his stomach watching the sparks rise and soar upward. His attention was at- tracted by a vivid, green spark which did not move. It seemed strangely familiar to lack but he could not place what it resembled. Suddenly its identity burst upon him like a bomb and left aboutthe same effects behind it. XVith his mind in chaos, he tried to consider his plight in a sensible and calm manner. Out of fuel and alone on a strange planet, for the green spark was the earth he thought he was on. His thoughts of his predica- ment were suddenly and rudely inter- rupted by a hair-raising sound on the other side of the fire. His startled eyes met a huge apparition bearing down on him. Yvith a frightened gasp, lack sprang from his resting place and dashed madly away from the monster. The fact that he was able to travel five times as fast as he was accustomed to, gave him an advantage over the beast. In spite of this he was compelled to turn and twist to escape this menace. After several close shaves, his muscles began to tire. NVas there no escape? Yes, there wasl Before him a wide chasm yawned. He ran to the very edge and gave a tremendous leap. After what seemed to be endless minutes he landed on the other side with a painful jar. All during the next five minutes Iack was getting his breath back and congratulat- ing himself on his lucky escape. Hardly had he done this when he was menaced by another monster. During the next four hours he was compelled to flee from five of these

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THE CLIVEDEN thing approaching-something very near -and yet I could see nothing, so close was the darkness. It was a weird and creepy feeling-that awareness. Sud- denly over my shoulder flashed a brilliant white light and revealed to my staring eyes-IT! It was, in all probability, a man, but somehow I can not seem to reconcile myself to that thought. It seemed to me more like a vampire or some such thing of evil. Because of that I shall use the impersonal pronoun to indicate it. It was clothed in black-a scrawny, stoop-shouldered thing-and wore a black high hat. But its face I will never forget. It was milky white, and the light coming from a point lower down, lit it up in a fashion ghastly and terrible, leaving the shadows very black and the illumina ted parts very wl ite. Its lips seemed to be paralyzed into a position, part driveling, part sneering, and revealed an occasional yellow fang. Its eyes were fearful. One was a big, round, staring blue, the other small black and squinting. . But it was its nose that made it so revolting. It was entirely missing and a livid dent and two black holes, the nostrils, were the only signs to mark the place where it had been. Oh, the horror of it all! Oh, the ghastly, nauseatin g horror! It was so close when I Saw it. I felt its rank breath on my facep there were only two or three inches separating us. The automobile, which had been the source of illumination passed on, leaving me again in total darkness. Sick, im- measurably sick, I turned on my heels and ran, until I reached light and at lea st temporary safety. O: :O QIIFHIIIEB FESTIVAL GDR? GIHIHIIE- NIGHT FLORENCE B. SILBER Night steals upon an unsuspecting world. Birdlings sleep in their feathered nests. The purple shadows deepen- the silence becomes more acute. At last! The world is at rest. The tranquility L the peace - the beauty. The babbling brook plays an accompaniment to the rustling of the leaves. Higher and higher climbs the moon. Her shimmering shadow on the gurgling brook is a beauty to behold! The tiny pebbles become living things -the gurgling a real song. Humanity is asleep-and now nature awakes. The inanimate objects become tiny elfin creatures. The trees sway and dip to music so sad and sweet. Tiny legs scamper amid the green foliage of the forests-all nature is at play. The moon sinks lower and lower and softer is the music-more slowly the trees sway-fainter the scamper of elfin feet. The dawn-cold and gray. Then the sun-beautiful-glorious - tints of gold and rose ornament the sky-deeper and deeper they become-forming a frame for the golden sun which slowly slides up into its casing. 412011:-