Lincoln High School - Lincolnian Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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THE LINCOLNIAN 25 chest, and in his once clear, steady, challenging grey eyes had crept a look of 1'I1'd6SCl ibB.fbl6 sadness. Heartisick- ness, lt. was there plain- as day. He had lost his 'pal and the loneliness was dragging him down. It was some time fbefore he recog- nized me. When I inquired for Chas. he winced, tlhen told an-e. 'Bout five years ago, we wuz down in Arizona beatin' fer Frisco. We met up wilt' a punk I knew and he sez -he's been out to sea. end up to Alaska on a explorin' einpeldition. Well, he left us in the desert and after inhalin' -the blamed thing for three weeks we dc- cided a trip to sea imfight be good fer our health. When we got to Frisco we learned there was a ship goin' to Rio de, so we lpacks up at a beanery with all we could lay our mints on and beats it for the dock. I swiped a rowboat and we got on board rat fashion. and ihid in a hatch. In a day or .so she puts out, so me an' Chas. sneaks upp at night and hildes under the canvas in a lifeboat. The captain and his wife come up an' talked near our hangout an' we gathers that the old boiler's goin' to stop a day 'r so at the mouth 0' the Amazon-. When the old boiler stopped I looked out fan' tt looked like a good- kinda country to explore, so that n'ig4l1t ave snu-ck off, sw-ilped half the ship'-s grub an' goes up the river in a canoe. Ye'ver see the Amazon? Wider'n a lake in somelplaces. All full of islands and jungles on 'both sides. VVell, fer two weeks we follered up the Amazon. We seen. 'nother 'branch of water so we went up it. In about four days we di'dn't know where we were g'oin', the darn stream twisted' so much. By this the grub had run pretty low. time owin' to the Pact that twice we had submerged on account of poor been searnanship. Having studied botany in the college of hard knox I thought 'f I went ashore I'd find somepin to eat. Chas. come alongs with me. 'How beautiful the cou'ntry,' he sez. 'Let us rtake our repose ashore tonight! I slposed repose was sleep, so I said, 'Not -by a darn sight? T4hey's snakes 'n bugs razzing around all th-rough this brush at night! 'We're explorers and -must take chancesj he gargles back, so I say, 'all right. Colombus took a clhanlcef When reposin' time came around we dragged our old tub up a ways on shore and began our repose. I remem- ber it was wayxtoward mornin' when I was dreamin' about bein' owner of a beanery, eatin' all kinds of punk an' sand an' mud, an' a. guy just handed me a V and sez, 'go and -have a drink.' VlFhen all of a sudden I heard a. noise, an' when I wen-t to stick out me mitts I couldnftg they was tied to my hoop. I slung my peepers around an' lampedl Chas. tied in the same way. A dozen of the craziest bunch -of savages I ever seen was stanrdin' around mak- in' faces at each other. They rammed us in a water-logged dugout an' started paddlin' away from shore. ' Chas peeps up, 'How come? W-here do we go from here?' They don't savvy him none, so he shuts his face. In 'bout a hour they dumps 'uls as-here au 0ne'u1g hefty half-wit savage packs us 'boult a. half a. mile and into a fhouse. Honest, it was a real house. Then he took off his h-at an' yells out somethin' that would have looked good in Japanese an' might have been fir all I got out of it. Well, some beezer opens a door an' they lead us in to h-is royal highness the King of Wok Wok among the Weedfs. or something like tfhait. A gang of half-breed Indians and low Spaniards were in the room of the slha-ck sittin' on the floor. At the end was an ol-d rockin' chair set with ru- bies of gla-ss, I s'pose, I adn't much of a jooler, an' his royal 'highness himself

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24 THE LINCOLNIAN Cfhe lllanclerlust Down by the railroad tracks was a small fresh water slough known far and wide as the Mud Hole. Farmers cursed its very existence, 'hogs on their way -to the slaughter house bathed 'there .for the last time. Stray ours here got rid of their abundant fleas. But best of all, it was known to the small boys of Hookersville and the hoboes. These Wandering vagabouds stopped in a hollow near the slough and after a swim in the Mud Hole, a doze on the bank, and a meal of mul- 1igan or some other stolen provender they went their merry and purposeless ways. No one knew where they came from or 'wrhere --they went. But they were always there-filling us -boys with tales of other climes, of sudden death of pals, of drunks they had been on. An ill-ass-orted rough-looking bunchg some -almost clean, some sad-eye-i, some dirty to the point of filthinessg a, few fugitives from justice: yet they wfl-t:h their wild life infected us with their own dlisease, or blessing, the Wanderlust. It was thus thalt I first met the two pals, Wrecks and Cfhas. Of course these were not their real namesg those were forgotten long ago. W1'6CkS was shrewd-eyed' ill-kempt, lean, square- jawed, an-d, as he :privately informed me, he had formerly been a crook. With his mighty -body he could 'trassle down any 'bo i.n the outfit. Chas. was different. He had the neatness, the clean-cut perfect Eng- lish, and poise of a college graduate. To look at .him no one could sense that he was not born a tramlp. Unconscious- ly one ffelt xthat at :heart and' in 'breed- ing he was a gentleman. And this voice, a pure young tenor, was as clear and sweet. as the tinkle of a .silver bell. When he sang, lowly, Home, Sweet Home, it made the other hos stop their loud brawling talk-ing and listen silently. It was Chas. who advised us never to .take to the road. You'l1 see things, yes, -but how you'll pay for them. A wan- derer on the face of the earth, without a single friend. Here, when all else is gone, when all the World goes back on you, you've got a hlome. You can always 'go to your hlome. I was going to ask him where his -home was, why he 'had left it, bult the sudden huski- ness of his voice made me refrain from it. The bo -seldom, if ever, uses the same path twice. Though, every day, all through the long, hot, lazy, sum- mer -days the Mud 'Hole was always crowded, there Were very few we saw more than once. Here and there about the country, about the World they went, stopping but a few hours in one spot. A blind, senseless course it seems, fbut they had nothing to guide 'them but that flickering deceitful will 0' the wispt the wanderlu-st.' I saw Wrecks once more six years later, but I 'hardly kn-ew the man. He was alone. 'Dhe head he had carried so high before was now down on his

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26 Tl-IE LIN sat 'there in lordly state. He was an old buck, but good lookin'rn fthe dick- ens. Clean-s-haven face, an' strong nose like in collar ads. Next to hi-m sat the swellest chicken I ever lamped. She musta been half Spanish an' halif ln- dran. T-he old duck was all Spanish. He looks us over an' -barks somethin' at a little runt beside hli-m. The little bird come up an' said to us, 'Why have you come into the sacred forest of .some funny kind of name ?' Chas. says, 'Unloosen me yuh little rat or I'll bust your facel' He untied Chasfs ml-tts and Chas. soaked him in the eye, layin' 'im out colder'n a brick. Then the wfhole pile of heathens lands on us an' we are 'hustled to the ,city hoosegofw. It was a neat little one-story bungalow, a spring right side the window: also qa guard with a bow 'n arrow fbes-ide each door. Couple days after the little rat comes down to the jail with the chick- en. He -says, 'You are sentence to life im-prvlsonment for detllinf the sacred room of some darn funny' name! I didn't understand him much and I had to hold Chas. to prevent a mur- der. Well, after we had been :there 'bout three months I knowed we'd struck a hobo's paradise. Our meals was brought three times a day, we could exercise in the lfront yard an' throw stones at the fence an' rest. I liked it all right the llrst four or live months ann' then I got lonesome. I ,wanted to starve again, to beat it for miles along the ties, to swipe a meal, to be free! I spoke to Chas. but he sed, 'Forget lt. You don't know when you're well ot'f.' Well, I didn't, but I started to iig- of ger on how to get out of this neck the wods. This swel dame -brought in the grub one day an' sed- she 'had to feed us 'cause tihe regular mutt was -in the fritz. When she was there she let a longerin' 'fond glance light on Chas. COLNIAN which he didn't get at all. That gave me a idea. After the dame beats it I sed to Chas., '-My boy, opportunity rings the doorbell bwt once. I crave freedom an-' you are goin' to get -it fer me. With your good lookin' mush you can make this jane fall fer you an' in a. -month 'we'll be freel' Well, he fell for the eye an' sez, 'Awri.', When she comes up with our dinner I beats it out an' leaves t-he kid in there alone with -her. In a cou.pla hours slhe went an' I breemed -in an' axed him how the punk had got along. He peeps, '0h, pretty fair! 'Welh I watched 'him -for nuther week 'r so an I seen he'd settled down to it in earnest. 'He'd the real soft eyes, y' know, an' when he sang a serenade for her after supper one night she fell for him flat, an' when I seen him kiss her g'night I sez to me- sellf, 'Wrec.ks, ol-d gal, the time is ripe. In a few days she got us permish to go down .to the river for a while. Then one night he went out canoein' with her. Wel, I patted myself on the back an' sez, '-goo'hy king, an' all you funny named idols! When Chas. got back he don't look tickled to death over being free again. 'How 'r we ever goin' to get back? We donlt know where we are. Chances we will die try-ing.' 'We're explorersf I utters, 'am' must take chances! Just before I fell -asleep Chas. says, 'Wrecks, I ain't goin' to run away. I love ---! I just tried to play, hut I couldn't help myselfl' I think to myself, ' 'Nuther good guy gone wrong' and barks, 'Aw she's Spanish! In. a couple. years she'll be fat-fat-fat to the point of greaslnessf For which pleasant remark he puts me to sleep with his good right hand. When I come to again- he tells me that it we wait s'he'll get us free and into the gang. Well, I didn't have no cravin' to join a gang of nuts like that, but I