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

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his forehead. Look at the audience--all the eyebrows are adorn- ing the middle of foreheads. Ioseph's undecided blue eyes have taken on a new air of amazement and mild reproach. Look about you-all the eyes are amazed and mildly reproachful. Brother takes in a deep breath-the audience follows suit. He blows, they blow, a noble tone emanates, and they sigh in relief. One, two-again! Another good tone, finel One, two-Oh! A horrible discord re- sounds through the apartment. Ioseph looks up sheepishly and the members of the audience eye each other apologetically. They have not noticed that Ioseph is not playing a melody, that he is merely blowing notes at random, with no rhythm at all. When he played the piano, occasionally, frarely, 'tis truel an especially bold little melody would poke out its head for the space of a moment or two, but when he played the clarionet, never! Now the farnily's highest ambition is the avoidance of these discords. Well-one, two, ouch! My dear brother flushes, sighs and then suddenly- hiccupsl Saved! Ioseph has the hiccups and he can't play any more. The guests wipe their brows, wet with honest toil, and nod to each other in sincere admiration of such accomplishment. And so it goes, Every Sunday my brother drags out his clarionet and entertains us with a series of rare discords and heart- breaking whines, and then stows the instrument away again. How long is this to continue? 0n Seeing A Cat Carved From Wood There he stood Straight and slim, Hewn from wood, But very trim. By his side, Two black balls, As are seen In feline halls. Charlotte Fraser twenty-three

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instrument had not all the respect which was its due. Happily the Armenian had little or no sense of humor, and so he merely glanced once at it askance and then ignored it, humiliatingly- crushingly. Poor Mr. Tsutzl He had so many afflictions visited on him by nature-how cruel of my brother to have tortured him more! I can remember how he would enter the living-room and how his shoulders would sag miserably as soon as he caught sight of young Ioseph, perched perilously on top of the stool. The Armenian would unwrap himself hurriedly, find a corner as far from the piano as possible, clench his teeth and tell my dear brother to begin. Now my brother actually displayed originality in playing the piano. ln the first place, he would invariably play the right hand alone for the space of two or three measures, and then join in with the left hand, with which he would begin at the beginning! Imagine the horror it brought to a musician's soul, in realizing that his pupil's right hand has just finished the fifth measure and his left is but commencing the third! Nor was this all. My dear brother had another custom peculiar to himself. He would commence his piece in a rollicking, jolly rhythm, would suddenly swing into a whirlwind speed and then just as suddenly settle back into a mov- ing, funeral crawl. This metamorphosis would occur approx- imately five to six times during each rendition, and Mr. Tsutz's color would change as often. Another faculty which my dear brother possessed, and which l could never cease admiring, was that of starting a piece in waltz time and ending in march rhythm. Now Mr. Tsutz, needy as he was, was too much of a musician to stand such flagrancies for any fee. And so, having delicately informed our parents that Ioseph was not making all the progress that might have been expected, he quite abruptly left. This did not end my dear brother's musical career. After heated debating and fiery orations, it was decided that the sum of fifty dollars was to be sunk in the purchase of that far nobler in- strument, the clarionet. l seldom heard him practice, since that occupation was for- bidden him by our parents when the family was about. Whenever company came Ioseph must play. So, dutifully he would dig up his long black instrument and trot into the living room. Standing in the middle of the room he would place it to his lips-and now watch his face! The eyebrows move gently up to the middle of twenty-two

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TWO Of A Kind in-4 i -angr. 41 L --Sf? f '5 A girl-back-home appears to be ln every universityg In every young collegiate heart She plays the most appealing part- At least it seems that way to me. For, When I spy with ecstasy The man who's surely meant for me, He has, you offer to impart, A girl-back-home. You say that all my Witchery Cannot convert his constancy Since he has given away his heart: Yet Why should I begrudge her art? Am l not just the same as she, A girl-back-home? Alice Wren twenty-four