Hunter College High School - Argus Yearbook (New York, NY)

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THE ARGUS the runaway horses half an instant before they reach the group of happy children, when I was the football hero who makes the agonizingly necessary touchdown, when I was the strong. silent secret service agent, a terror when roused,-I usually had a mob, and plaudits. I was always interested in science. I had a deep-seated craving to review the ranks of sailors on board some ship, and to stick a pin in the chest of each sailor as I passed him, to see if it would explode. ' Reading produced an important effect on my mind. Con- sider such phrases as these: Colonel Hetherington, do you realize that you are attempting to bribe a bonded representative of the express company? They enflamed me with the ambition to be, some day, a bonded representative of the express com- pany. And if I only had Colonel Hetherington around, I'd show him! And also, Squire Hetherington, think again 'ere you strike this fearful blow. Remember, I am the sole support of my widowed mother. Harm me, and you kill her. And again, Colonel Hetherington, you have done awful deeds in your life, but I forgive you, and I hope you will be a better man. This beautiful speech of forgiveness ennobled my soul. But one cannot always be a trusted representative of the express company. Sometimes smuggled-in literature gave me an intimate knowledge of the fascinating mazes of crime. Then did I revel in such phrases as, 'Bang, bang,' spoke his trusty Colt, and another redskin bit the dust. I proceeded in im- agination to emulate the exploits of the train-robber hero, to exceed them even, to become, in a word, that past master of crime, that glorious wretch, Bloody Blake the Blucoats' Blight. How thrilling it was to hiss in my safe-cracker apprentice's ear, If that bull squeals, plug him full o' holes. Oh unutter- able joy! an -k ar :r The rain has ceased, the picture gone. But what is this! 1 see myself stepping out before a curtain, my arms full of roses, to take my 'steenth bow, and to tell my dear audience that I really can't 'give any more performances of Queen Elizabeth, because I must hurry up and go to Europe to tell seven dukes and the Prince of Wales that I want not marriage, but a Career-and I wonder if I am not still a child! CHARLOTTE H. HOCHMAN. 35

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T H E A R G U S 69:1 fllllg Biztant Qlhilhhnnh It is a rainy evening, and I sit at the table half-heartedly skimming my Latin. Virgil prates cheerily on in language beyond my understanding. I strike a snag, and closing my book, decide to meditate. Very well, but on what am I to meditate? I look up, and begin to hear my little sister dron- ing her sevens beginning with two, and my little brother wrestling with three barrels of apples at four dollars and ninety-eight cents apiece. I am suffused with inspiration- the relentless rhythm of the rain is hasheesh to my mind-I shall meditate on my own distant childhood. I see a tall, thin kid, with longi straight braids and muddy elbows. I particularly remember the elbowsg they were my mother's despair. As for features, they are an indeterminate composite of what I thought I looked like-I believed I was so beautiful that people turned around in the street to look at me-and the homely, gawky agglomeration of angles that a photograph shows. My life was full of glorious amlbitions, romance, and ad- venture. The grand passion did not pass me by. Ah, no! Roseate dreams of marrying a candy-store man filled me with' bliss. I saw myself shooting soda-water into a glass, stirring it officiously and sliding it across 'the counter as if I had slung sodas all my life. And perhaps-perhaps I might even marry a circus owner! Watch the elephants play baseball, watch the monkey give the bear a shave and hair-cut, watch all the Positively Last Performances of Mlle. Petite-every clay-pink lemonade-pop cornr-But this verges almost on the impossible. The child is essentially a lover of the spectacular, and I was no exception to the rule. How often have I seen myself scale impossible walls, almost imperceptible crevices affording secure steps for my nimble feet, the house bursting with Hames, the walls threatening any second to cave in all about me! Thus have I climbed forty-seven-count 'em-forty-seven stories, and, amidst the plaudits of 'the mob, rescued the help- less infant from its cradle. It should be firmly established in the reader's mind that the mob, plaudits and all, is an indis- pensable property. When I was the burly bystander who stops 34

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THE ARGUS A Mhnat Stung All three of us felt mischievous, Delia, Mange, and I. Some- quite exciting enough for do something really thrill- agree upon what we'd do. how, that summer, lthinigs we-.ren't our lively spirits, so we dfe'cided to ing. It didn't take us very long to lt was something we had always talked of, ever since our fam- ilies had begun to make a habit of spending the summers at Stony Creek. And this was our plan. Stony Creek, you see, is a village on Uhe Sound, and there are dozens and dozens of small islands all around, and it was one of these upon which we centered our attention. This particular island was said to be haunted, and it was indeed a hair-raising tale which the natives had to tell of this place. I don't recall the details of the story, exactly, but I do remember that a man who once lived there, killed his wife, and threw her body into the Sound, and then, when his crime was detected, had kille.d himself, and ever since then, anyone who s-tayed in that house over night, would see his ghost roaming through the dese.rted rooms, hear sighs and imoans, and then the report of a pistol !-but no one had ever stayed to hear more than that. Well, we three, Delia, Marge and. I decided to spend a night in that haunted house, and we made our plans accord- ingly. We would go that very niglht-lest our courage fail us 'before another day had passed. We parted soon after to gain consent of our parents, and gieit together a few 'blankets and some food. The latter articles were procured easily enough, but to get the consent of our parents was harder than we had thought. After a good solid hour of coaxing in each home, we had succeeded in making no headway, except to receive the answer- You 'may go, if De1ia's mother lets her go and you may go, if Marge's mother lets her go and so on. But we were not to be daunted, so finally, the thnele of us together, after another hour of combined coaxinig and plead- ing, persuaded 'my mother to say yes and the other two reluctant consents came soon after. Our joy and excitement knew no bounds, and we felt no less triumphant than three Napoleons, after 3 great victory. Our brothers teased, of course, and everyone who heard of our plan looked doubtful - 36