Plainfield High School - Hermiad Yearbook (Central Village, CT)

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16 THE HERMIAD On Wednesday, perhaps, he would spend the day very differentlyg but whatever he did on Wednesday was sure to be duplicated on Thursday, down to the smallest detail, while Friday would see commence a new series of actions to be cop- ied the following day. He was an echo, so to speak, of him- self, and many times he was watched to see if he would not make some mistake, but he always duplicated his action to the letter. Besides, he was very shrewd and never did anything which he could not reasonably duplicate the following day. For a man to go about as though his life were a stereo- scopic picture and his soul a stereoscope, that is, to see things double, was considered by many a useless waste of time, energy and money. To fall from his horse on Wednesday at a particular crossing was enough in itself, but to repeat this action at the same place on Thursday was certainly a waste of energy. To lose a half hour on Monday morning while going to the ofiice was sufficient, and to repeat the action on Tuesday wrs surely a waste of time. To drop into the tailor's on Fri- day and order a suit of clothes was what any man Would do, but to repeat the action on Saturday was a waste of money. Naturally a man who paid all of his bills twice would attract attention sooner or later. One morning the attendant at Sumner House, where this remarkable man lived, was summoned to his room and found him dying a strange and unnatural death. For once, the man who did things twice did not repeat his action. FINDING A GHOST WALTER RING THERE once was a small telegraph office in a place called Cemetery Village, in Texas, which was open nights only for the purpose of signaling the midnight express. It hap- pened that this little olfice was the only building within five or six miles. Because of its location in such a lonely place, it was diihcult to get an operator who would work the night trick. Every operator who had ever worked there said the oliice was haunted, and, let me tell you, he had a good reason for it too. But that is what I started to tell you about. Each time the midnight express came in, and for a few minutes after it left the office, a voice was heard from the attic singing a portion ofthe song, When you wore a tulip. and I wore a big red rose, and on Very stormy nights, a sort of squeaking and moaning could be heard distinctly. After an

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THE I-IERMIAD ' 15 me, and, as I hoped, it wasold. just then, as fate seemed to- be with me, the boxes tipped and 1 fell. I stacked them up' again and in my efforts to find them all, I stumbled against something hard and long. Reaching down, I found that it was a kind of iron bar. I mounted on top of the boxes again, taking the bar in one hand and holding onto a beam with the other, and I hit the roof. Again and again I repeated this act until finally I had a hole in the roof large enough for me to crawl through. I did that little thing, and dropped about twelve feet to the ground, whereupon I made good use of my heels with the result that you just witnessed. Thank goolness it wasn't our captain that played that trick, said one ofthe boys. ' Well, what are we going to do about it ? asked another, Stephen, what do you say? asked the coach. As long as I escaped from prison and we won the game, I think it would be best if the people don't know of this, re- plied Stephen, But I do think something should be done to Andrew. Right, said the coach, Let's get the two teams 'to- gether and decide what to do. That would be best. A day or two after, Stephen again told the story, but this time to both teams and to two coaches. Andrew was so sur- prized and frightened that he admitted he had played the trick. Stephen and the Iockford boyssaid that they preferred the affair to be unknown to the people. The other team, after talking with their coach awhile, decided to punish their cap- tain, Andrew, by taking away the captaincy. So, by this game, Iockford won fifty dollars, two cups, an entertainment and supper, but better still, kept its school name spotless, while East Kitemaug learned a good lesson in fair play. THE MAN WHO DID THINGS TWICE - GERTRUDE E. ROBINSON OF commanding figure and soldierly bearing, with deep-set grey eyes, hollow cheeks, and hair of intense black, ,his appearance alone was enough to attract attention 3 but, cou- pled with his singular habits and pointing him out as a re- markable individual, was the fact that he lived in duplicate. That is-if he arose on Monday, breakfasted on coffee, toast and eggs, retired to his room, took lunch, and Went for a ram- ble in the city, going up and down particular streets, and finally home to supper and to bed-on Tuesday he would go through precisely the same action.

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THE HERMIAD 17 operator had heard these mysterious noises a few times, he would give up the job. In time, the chief train despatcher de- cided tliat operators in general had all gone suddenly crazy or were all rank cowards. He became sick and disgusted at these ghost stories, but, not being able to get a new operator, he decided take the trick, himself. Sure enough, the Voice from the attic sang according to rule: Your lips were sweeter than julep When you wore a tulip And I wore a big red rose. The despatcher shook himself with a growl and tried to make himself believe that he had heard so much about the ghost that the voice was only imagination. At any rate, he decided to try it another night. At I2 : I5 the next night, the express came in and the sing- ing began again. The despatcher ascended the attic stairs, gun in hand, and there he saw the ghost. It was a talking machine with a record playing, VVhen you wore a tulip and I wore a big red rose. When the train came in. the vibra- tions of the heavy engineshook the little oliice, thus causing the instrument to play until the vibrations ceased with the pulling out of the train. As for the moaning, that was caused by a tree in the rear which was attached to the ofiice by means of a piece of board for support, The wind made this bracket squeak and moan. This discovery ended the mystery about the haunted telegraph office at Cemetery Village, and the chief despatcher confirmed his idea about the courage of mod- ern operators. PROPHECY OF THE CLASS OF 1922 LOUISA MAGGIA AS I was traveling through France in the year 1932, on my vacation trip, I met an old classmate, Mollie Baxter. We began to talk about our friends and the good old days at Plainfield High. Of course, we could not help remarking about the fine, new, modernly equipped, brick edifice that is now P. H. S., and regretting that we had never shared its advantages :-still we had no regrets over the fun we had in old P. H. S. Not at all! But what we both were most anxious to know was what had happened to the other members of the remarkable class of 1922, and because I know you're all just as. anxious to know, too, I'm going to let you in on our conversation.