Illinois State Normal University - Index Yearbook (Normal, IL)

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The Index pressing hard upon sixty. He wrote dramas in which it was my rare pleasure to star. How he ever did it was a mystery. He had a room with the janitor in the basement of the Normal School building, for in those primitive days the professor of dust and ashes was given quarters in the lower regions as a partial compensation for his services. This fact, by the way, was frequently announced by the unmistakable odors of sauerkraut that came up to us all from below. But this is of no matter now and has nothing to do with the phonograph. It was in one of those cavernous apartments that Gene's genius exercised itself and composed his laughable comedies between the setting of the sun on Friday and the rising thereof on the next day. His vein of dramatic capacity had a sudden pull-up, however, proving it to be a pocket after all, and so he betook himself to sundry other devices for the delectation of the beloved society. And thus it was that the Weekly program on a certain Friday was the sensation of the term. It was announced that the long-hoped-for speaking machine had at last material- ized and would appear in several of its choicest acts at the Wrightonian Society on the suc- ceeding Saturday evening. Expectation was on tip-toe. In those days there was a large bookcase on the north side of the partition between the two old society halls, and under it a large and not altogether uncomfortable closet. In front of the case, on the momentous Satur- day evening, stood a box mounted on four legs and hidden by a curtain. After an introduc- tory address, in which Gene retailed his frequent disappointments in endeavoring to perfect a speaking machine, he declared that he had at last been -successful and that it was his peculiar pleasure to demonstrate the fact to an expectant world. He drew the curtain, re- vealed the box, turned a crank, the operation being accompanied by a terrific clatter, and touched a spring. And the thing actually began to talk. Such a craning of necks and clamor of applause! Its speech was brief, the curtain was drawn and the scene was ended. Who was doubled up in the closet talking through the auger hole? The next time you visit Peoria and drop into the editorial rooms of the Ezfenfzzg' Slar, ask Gene. JOHN W. COOK.

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The Index JOHN W. C0014 189099

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The Index Board of Education STATE GF ILLINOIS HON. WILLIAM H. GREEN, - Cairo, President Enoch A. Castman, Decatur Charles L. Capen, Bloomington Mrs. Ella F. Young, Chicago L. Philipp Wolfe, Peoria Hon. E. R. E. Kimbrough, Danville Peleg R. Walker, Rockford Charles D. Bent, Morris Forrest F. Cook, Galesburg Jacob L. Baily, Macomb George B. Harrington, Princeton M. W. Shanahan, Chicago William H. Haniline, Macomb Wm. R. Sanclham, Wyoming F. D. Marquis, Bloomington, Treasurer Alfred Bayliss, Springfield, Ex-Officio Member and Secretary