Morris High School - Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

Page 17 text:

THE WRENCH The women shuddered, remembering only too well the awful sight of the chemist's battered face. And again, gen'lemen. You 'ave examined the accused. 'Ave you noticed any marks of blood on 'im? You 'ave not! ls it not true that such a blow would cover the striker with blood? And lastly, listen to this. He whipped the week-old paper from his pocket and read: Yesterday night one of the air-raids that are now occuring so frequently, was directed against London. About eight Zep- pelins came over the Channel during a heavy fog, and followed the Horsforth-Hampstead line to London. Misled by the fog, however they did little damage. You see the connection, gentl'mcn? One of the airships, while passing over us, accidently dropped a wrench, and the head, being lighter, was uppermost. The handle hit the un- fort'nit man on the head, and this poor tramp has no more to do with it than I 'ave! And P. C. 22 sat down amid a profound silence. The rest was plain sailing. The judge summed up shortly, and the jury retired, to return in half an hour with the verdict of not guilty. P. C. 22 was the hero of the day. His ruddy face veritably beamed, and on the offer of a sergcantship from one of the London men, it radiated, if that were possible, still more cheeri- ness than before. Only one point troubled him. A At home, he dragged down his one book, a huge encyclo- pedia and dictionary. He looked up the list of abbreviations, and, supremely satisfied with himself, returned to his inter- rupted supper of beef and onions. The abbreviation D. R. was translated by Deutsches Reich. ALBERT RASKIN 25 Q J

Page 16 text:

THE WRENCH The courthouse was full, for the case was one of unusual interest. Apart from the fact that a murder case would have attracted the attendance of every man, woman, and child in the Village anyhow, the Government had sent up two Scotland Yard men to investigate, as Mr. Forster was one of its most skilful chemists, and his loss was a serious one. On this day, the momentous day of his first case, P. C. 22 polished his myriad buttons to a dazzling brightness, brushed his newest blue suit to a speckless state of formality, and went an hour early to court. The preliminaries ended, the clerk came to the real business of the trial, the Witnesses. O 'Malley and Ferguson, representatives of Scotland Yard, London! he called out, and all leaned forward, in hushed attention. Mr. O'Malley, the defending counsel, a government employee, and fully in sympathy with the detectives, began, please state what you have discovered in regard to the case. O'Malley, a gentleman with a heavy face and the extra- ordinary size of shoe which inevitably reveals the ex-policeman, took his place on the witness stand. He spoke of the murder of Forster, a government employee, of the suspicious finding of the accused man near the scene of the crime, of his still more suspicious name, Reinholtz, and of the most suspicious fact of the culprit's initials, D. R., 011 the bloodstained wrench. Circumstances were so incontestably against the man, that it was in mere obedience to the rules of precedent that the judge called for the next witness, and a gasp of pure astonish- ment went up as P. C. 22 pushed his way forward, demanding to be sworn in as a witness for the defense. Mr Judge, he began rather nervously, Your Worship, I was just thinking over the case, an' a few things presented 'emselves to me, so to speak. First, look at that wrench. Have you noticed where the blood is? On the handle! Now is it natural that any man would hold a wrench by the head? Now, here's another thing, he said, warming to his task, ulook at the pris'ner! All turned and looked at the poor cringing fellow in the dock, who was staring wide-eyed at P. C. 22. ' Has that man the strentth to 'andle a wrench like that, so as to knock in poor Mr. Forster 's head at one blow! 24 J- A YY, 7 ,

Page 18 text:

TEM' Gum lflinw 1 ,vm Y the way, how much a li11e do you charge for .Hg N M, lost articles? 'fTen cents. . . Ten cents? Let me see-two lines would be A twenty cents, would11 't it? l guess l can put what if I want to say i11 two lines. And will you write it ' for me, please? I have 111y glove on, and then, you know much better tllilll I, what to say. I have the idea all right in llly mind, but putting it on paper is another matter. lt's a purse I WVELIIAE to advertise-my own. I have lost it somewhere Zllld want to advertise for it in not n1ore than two lines, for there wasn't a great deal in the purse, and it NV0lllll1l 't pay me to spend much in trying to recover it. Still, the purse was a present to me, a11d, on that account I would like to have it back-you know what I want to say about it-f-you might say that the ow11er values the purse more for its associ- ations than for its intrinsic value. I believe that is the way they say it, isn't it? It is really quite a handsome purse, and it has my monogram O11 it. You might put that in-say that the monogram of the owner is o11 the purse, and that it was lost either 011 149th Street or Bergen Avenue, or else over on VVillis Avenue, or somewhere near the Third Avenue Station. I, ea11't say just where, for I didn't miss it until after I had been to all of those places, a11d I know that I had it before I went to Zllly of them. You might say tl1at it is a seal-leather purse with a gold clasp and, as I say, lily nionogram R. P. S. on 0110 side in gold letters, and that it had in it abo11t three dollars in paper and silver. I know that there was a two-dollar bill and quite a little silver 3.116-l a few pennies, and a tiny red pencil, such as tl1ey use on ball progrannnes, and a pearl butto11 that 'I wanted to match, a11d a little verse of poetry entitled 'tRemem- beredw-that I cut out of a paper, and a tiny lock of' n1y babyls hairfbeautiful golden hair it is, just like spu11 silk. You got that? There were other things, but I suppose that is enough of the contents to identify the purse a11d prove that it is 1ninc. The11, I thi11k you'd better say that the finder will receive a suitable reward by leaving the purse at n1y home or at n1y husbandls office, or if the finder will telephone me, I will call for it. My telephone number is 7742, ri11g two, Jackson, and my l1usband's office is 52. You might say that it will do to call up either number, and I think that you'd better add that 26