Gettysburg College - Spectrum Yearbook (Gettysburg, PA)

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List of Illustrations 1. What a Serious Step. 2. We Should Never Sleep. 3. He Radiated Assurance and Polish. A. The Doggoned Hyenas. 5. The Charms of All the Co-Eds. 6. A Glaring Sign Near the Cate Post. 7. He Kicked it High and Far. 8. He Decided to Become a Minister. 9. A Good Deal of Ink Had Been Spilled. 10. The Cream of the College. 11. A Fair Frail Flower. 12. A Rather Mystic Conception. 13. He Could Hit the High Notes. 14. The Alarm Clock Barely Woke Him. 15. The Crave Was Shallow Enough. 9

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Chapter I In Which the Hero Enters Nearing the suburbs of Gettysburg, the Harrisburg bullet, hardly forty minutes late shrieked triumphantly and lurched ahead, swaying like a tired runner in his final burst of speed. It was the night liefore the opening of Pennsylvania College for the school year of 1920-1921. and the train was crowded with students. These were busily gathering to- gether their belongings and crowding excitedly toward the doors. One of them, however, a sandy haired youth with a cowlick, mild blue eyes, and a propensity for chewing straw, sat unmoved by the bustle about him. Horace was systematically checking over his liaggagc. ami was annoyed to discover that his favorite tooth brush had l»ccu left behind To many this would have seemed an insuperable dif- ficulty, but after a moment’s thought. Horace disposed of it by deciding to buy a new- brush. This suggests the fact that Horace, although really not much to look at, was a re- markable youth. When he smiled hr had a fine open face fitted with alxmt the usual number of teeth He hail a solid, dependable Ux k, inherited from generations of paper hangers before him who were renowned in the community as stickers. An air of ”je nc sais pas quoi” in his bearing indicated that the hours spent over mail order catalogues had sophisticated but not embittered him. Horace was a nun with a purjiose, even if he was not absolutely sure what it might 1«. With one last culminating lurch, the bullet came to a stop in iettysburg's main station Horace gathered together his suitcase, the remains of his lunch, neatly pre- served in the “Corner Courier, ami his ukulele, and followed the jostling crowd out of the coach. The platform was crowrled with old ami new students. There were widc-cycd tlaisykickcrs from the tall grass, arrayed in mail order clothes, mingling with the more sophisticated natives of Williamsjxirt, Kenovo. Harrisburg, Bloomsbtirg. and other teem- ing centers of |xipulation. Most of them seemed to have friends or to lie nuking them, but Horace was alone. The dignity of his licaring seemed to hold him aloof from the vulgarity of a crowd. He was recalling with emotion his |urents’ admonitions, and feel- ing in his right breast pocket to see if the safety pin which protected his modest capital was still secure, when lie was approached by a | olite. kliaki-clad individual who offered to show him about the Imttlefield. Horace was suspicious of this oily stranger, and avoided his offer by inquiring the way to the College. He was given the necessary directions, ami. in a moment or two. or at most three. Horace stood liefore the College Gates. Other pedestrians were coming and going, lmt Horace stopjied and stood silent liefore those | ortals, wrapficd in heavy thought and a knit throat warmer This seemed to him a big moment—a serious crisis. His mood was one of lofty exaltation not iitunixcd by the same reluctance be lud felt when, in tones suggestive of dire |K ssibilirics. his father had mentioned the woodshed. ’‘What a serious step is this,” he soliloquized. “And how my new yellow shoes pinch. Tan shoes always did give me corns. Oh dear.” He was rapidly becoming blue, or if not blue a sort of dissatisfied mauve, when his reverie was interrupted by the tor- Ktous approach of what, in a moment of genuine enthusiasm, might have b.-en called a motorcar, seemingly in the last paroxysms of miliary tuberculosis. The car was lilieti with some boisterous persons, who Horace jutlgcd to be students, ringing a song. Horace could nuke out only the w ords “ h Gettysburg.” The car stopped licside Horace and one of the occupants whom his companions calleri “Freddie,” leaner! out ami cxjicvto- 11