Polytechnic High School - Caerulea Yearbook (Long Beach, CA)

Page 15 text:

' ' Robert ' Givvin ' Clark and found themselves seats on the Var- ious boxes which we1'e .scattered about the floor of the little room. Jim was about to go on with the expression of l1is views, when the door opened and the proprietor entered, followed by a young man whom he introduced as a drummer from the city. He was a good-looking young chap and well-dressed, but he had a i sort of supereilious air about him which l did not make a very good first impres- f sion upon the older men, especially Jim Crawford. Glad to know you, gems, he said in a somewhat jovial tone of voice. Mr, Perkins tells me that you are having your daily con- fab. I suppose that you are eithjer talking about politics or ghosts. Mind if I listen?', Ghosts,,, mused Jim, half to himself. Ghosts The word seemed to set him to thinking deeply. But the young salesman l1ea1'd him. Yes, ghosts. A small town of this sort isnit really alive unless it has at least one family ghost to talk about. You don't mean to tell me that this burg hasn't one? 93 This was a gibe at Bullfrog which pricked Jim Crawfordls civic pride. f'VVell, he replied, before any o11e else could answer, this town ainit so awfully backward. VVe have got a ghost here, an' a mighty lively o11e at that. VVant to hear the story?', 6'Sure, said the young man, let'.s have it. The rest of the men looked st1'angely at Jim Crawford, but said nothing. They knew enough to keep still when Jim was going to tell a story, so they just shifted their quids from one side to the other and looked wise.

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ef GHG 'I' ' of ' LLFRGG T was a dull, dreary afternoon. H ea v y, rain-soaked clouds if lnmg low in the sky, clouds Wir, which, before uigmfaii, will have dampened considerably the few .square miles of territory that, accord- ing to the broken sign on the box-like railway station, was known as Bull- frog. The little back room of Lige Per- p kins, general store held its usual after- ' noon crowd of 'ginfluential citizens of Bullfrogf' and old Jim Crawford, as usual, was doing the talking. g'Yes, sir,', .lim wa.s saying, I maintains that there are times when it is absolutely necessary for a man to lie. A lie can do just as much good as the truth many times an, Iill prove it to you some time. There ainit any occasion fer it now, but I'll prove it. The old 1112111 gave his head a peculiar jerk. It was his strange way of giving a note of assurance and finality to what he had said. '6VVa-al, Jim,', drawled Lem Tucker, mebbe you're right and mebbe youire not. Leastwise it donit do no harm to prove itf' Yep, you gotta show us, Jim, broke in Lige Perkins. HA good 111any people says as how a man's got to be a good liar to get along in business. Now I don't consider myself a liar, but I will say Iim a real pert business man. .lim Crawford smiled at the storekeeper's boastfulness and then spoke again. A good liar, providin' he is good, is all right as long as he lies fer the good of all concerned. Jim was possibly speaking pretty strongly for one of the con- servative members of Bullfrog's elite, but this was not altogether unusual. Une or two more farmers came in from the front of the store

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4 CAERULEA '22 IIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIlllIIIIIIIIIIIIHIIllllIIIIIIIIIIIIllllllllllllllllllllllllllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVIIIlllllllllllllllllllllIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlllIIllIIIIIlllIIIIllllllllIIIIIIIIllllllllIIIIlllllllllllllllllllll I don't suppose, began Jim, .settling himself as comfortably as he could on a soap box, that the most of you boys will be interested in this story. You all heard it many times afore, but this is for the benefit of the young chap heref' And he tendered the others a sly wink. About thirty years ago, when Bullfrog wasn't more'n a tadpole, a man trekked into this place with his family. He appeared to be a mighty nice sort of a fellow, but before long the sheriff got hep that he had a bad record in the East. O' course we didn't want any bad men around Bullfrog but he minded his own business and we let him stay. Well that feller done a lot o' cuttin' up afore he died, but I still maintains that he done a lot o, good too. Well, Abe Hawkins, that was the gent's name, he built himself a house right where the hotel stands now. 0, course there was nothin, strange in that. A good many men has built houses in Bullfrog in past years. Abbe lived real kinda peaceable like for a couple o' years but finally he fell back in the rut and went bad again. It wasnit awful sudden but kinda gradual like. The little tots began to get mis- trated. The poor kids were around whimpering pretty nigh all the time. But that Wasn't the worst of it, fer old Hawkins began to beat hi.s wife. People didn't know about this right away, but one day lNIis' Hawkins came out with a half-broken head and black eye. She tried to say she fell down cellar, but people got wise and their tongues began to wag . Abe's cruelty to his wife wasn't no secret. Well that sort of thing kept up until one day they found the old woman in bed with an empty pizen bottle by her side. It looked like an orniery case o' suicide an' I ain't sayin' it wasn't, but there its some who still persists in sayin' that Hawkins seemed to know a good deal more about the modus operandi of his wife's death than he made out tof' While J im had been narrating, the 1'3.lI1 had begun to fall out- side. The di.stant rumbling of thunder and occasional flashes of lightning bespoke the coming of a severe electrical storm.