High School of Commerce - Annual Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

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purse, some eatables and some oil, and then started back. After four weeks of this kind of work we had a sum of about EB30,000. We got things looking as if one had been there for a long time and began our journey for the nearest railway station, Obispo. At Colon on the coast, we deposited all but about a thousand dollars, and got in exchange for the remainder, a draft on a New York bank. We bought some new clothes and started home, We left for New York on Thursday and arrived there on Monday. An old college echum of mine was a mining engineer and I went to him directly and told him of my discovery. He was immediately ready to help us make a success of our find so he was taken into the partnership. With the aid of the capital we now had, we soon had the proper facilities for mining, and found the government glad to sell the land at any price. And now we have been running the mine for ten years, the combined earnings per year being S500,000, with no prospect of running out. How- ever, if it did, I believe that I have enough stored away to keep me the rest of my life and now I still travel with Tommy but in better style than in the old days. WALTER MADIGAN, '10, J- iliannnr 66 ELL, Richard, to me it seems impossible, said the Head, as he looked over his glasses at Dick Masters. Dick left the room, and in the hall he met his teacher, Professor Hadley, who also expressed his doubts as to Dick's passing ability. Slowly Dick walked toward his room with his hands clinched, mutter- ing: I fancy the Head and Hadley are right, I don't see how I can pass the half-term tests unless I cheat, and I couldn't do that. His pleasant dormitory room today had no attractions for him. Throw- ing himself into a chair, only to get up and walk over to the mantel, he scowled at mementos of former good times and bad companions. I wish Haven and his crowd had never shown up ! sighed Dick. But they are gone now, and I'd leave too, if it weren't for mother's tears and father's hot anger. Only two days remained until the tests, and Dick studied hard, and crammed into his head what he should have learned during the past four months. Finally the examination day came. Dick sat far back in the room, next to a ventilator. He received his questions and found that his cramming 85

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there without being suspected? We had no capital to back us and if the government found that we were in possession of this treasure, they would use any means, no matter how unscrupulous, to take it away from us. Then the idea appealed to me that we might do as the others before us had done, smelt the ore ourselves. 3 I know very little of this industry except what I had learned in college chemistry, and that only took in the ways of extracting gold with all modern facilities. I knew that gold was heavier than sand and that by melting the ore the pure gold would sink to the bottom and the sand rise to the top. I began to Study the furnace which was erected in the cave. It was made of rough stones plastered thick with clay. Set down in the top was a small pan made of either iron or steel, so arranged that the fire could reach the sides and bottom. I took it for granted that the pan was to be used to contain the ore. Then over the top of all this a heavy piece of iron was to be placed. From the bottom of the pan through a side of the furnace a small pipe with a spiggot was run for the purpose of drawing off the melted gold. We started work immediately. I dug out a small quantity of the ore, then pounded it as fine as possible and poured it into the pan. We went outside and collected a quantity of dry wood, and with the aid of a little of our extremely precious oil we soon had a roaring fire going. I knew that it would take some time, so we settled back to steady our nerves with a peaceful pipe. I then happened to think that we would need something in which to collect our treasure when the time came. So after firing a plumb line from a piece of cord and a stone, I found the spot exactly below the spiggot. There I made a mold about two inches long, half an inch wide and several inches higher than was necessary to keep the gold from splashing out. When I finished that I turned on the spiggot, and a thin stream Howed out and down into the mold. It Howed but a short time and then stopped, and there we had our first bar of gold. about two inches and a half in length and a half inch thick.. We repeated the process several times and when we had finished for the fourth time we stopped work. The next day we continued our work and at the end of a week we had thirty-one bars in all. The next problem was to dispose of it. We had nothing in which to carry it but we finally got it distributed in our pockets so that although it was heavy, still we could make fairly good time. Neither of us had any money so we closed up the cabin as it was when we found it, and set out on foot. At the towns up through the country we sold the bars two or three at a time. From the thirty-one bars we received S8,150. We bought several necessities, including two satchels, a large leather 84

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enabled him to do all but the two most valuable counts. For the solution to these two elusive ones, he could not think, even of a start. Dick wrote steadily away at the answers he knew and when he reached the end of his knowledge he sat thinking about the two impossible ones. Suddenly his thoughts were broken by whispers. He looked up. No one looked suspicious. But still the whispers continued. Then, suddenly, it dawned upon him that some boys were talking in another part of the building, and their words were transmitted through the ventilator. He listened for a while, and then realized that what he had heard was a partial solution to the two questions. He wondered whether he would be doing right if he took advantage of the information. Dick was anxious to get through, and he wrote until he finished the last question when, looking up, he saw the room nearly vacant. He turned in his papers and left for dinner. After his meal was finished he sat and thought over the mysterious help. New, was it unfair? he wondered. For a week his conscience troubled him. I wonder--. Did I do right in taking that help? Then he determined to tell the Head the whole story. In the office his courage oozed, but after a few helps he told the story. The Head watched Dick's face as the lad spoke, and then, laying his hand on the boy's shoulder said, Richard, owing to your honesty in relating this I will give you a trial in the upper class. You failed, though, because the help you received was wrong. Dick took the trial offered and at the end of the year passed at the head cf his class. He often wondered why the Head took so much interest in him, never dreaming for a moment that his honesty won him notice because Dick thought that Honor is duty. WALTER BANDLOW, 1911. an jaetns iltems June -, 1910. After a meeting lasting till midnight in which a great deal of feeling was shown, the Ecrernmocs voted for the final settlement of the oft-considered motion, whether their president should remain standing or sit during the so- ciety session. Mr. DeForest made the usual motion that the president be seated: Mr. Kirby for the thousandth time seconded the motion. The usual amendment was then offered by the Honorable Walter Madigan and seconded by Mr. Sinek to change the words be seated to remain standing. The amendment and question as amended were then carried unanimously, as usual, and for the thousand and first, and it is to be hoped, for the last time the president was given a standing vote, 86