Portsmouth Abbey School - Raven Yearbook (Portsmouth, RI)

Page 83 text:

CLASS PROPHECY. . The party had decided to meet in the 'bar at Mike Adams, Oil-Well Run Hotel on 14 French Street in Caracas, Venezuela. They were to chart their course up to the headwaters of the Orinoco River where Edgar Ostendorf had dis- appeared, presumed to have been mistaken for a wild bore', and eaten by the savages. James McAllister Murphy, columnist for the Atlantic Monthly, had organized the party and had sent out invitations six months before it was to meet. Most of them had been accepted, but Michael Mann, gambling boss and socialite clubman, wired that he could not go, because, not only was he unable to find the ship docks in New York, but his mother would not allow him to go. Pierre Lavedan, a missionary photographer in jerusalem, was unable to leave his work. And john Sullivan, restaurateur, was in the midst of buying three new eating places and had to stay behind. Among the more useful people appointed to official positions on the thirty foot barge Caracas Queenn were: Paddy Humphrey Kennedy, ex-pirate, skipper, joe Bizzozero, ship's doctor, Mark Mitchell, of bolo-knife fame, head trail-clearer, Tom Flynn, noted fiction writer, librariang Edward Fitzgerald, who does most of his broadcasting without a microphone, radio man. The boat was laden with supplies and gifts for the natives, who were reputedly ferocious. Fred Switzer, who well knew the tastes of savages, supplied the party with licorice to give to the blacks in case there was any trouble. Eduardo Dominguez sent twenty crates of bananas to help the food situation. The pier was crowded with well-wishers and hecklers . Bill Howenstein and jolly McManus, who had taken the places of Bob and Ray on radio and TV and who were doing a tour of South America, flew in to see the barge off. Eduardo Santos, millionaire revolutionist, stood on the dock surrounded by a horde of Indian henchmen, screaming, You'll never get back, Owen Ryan, in the oil business, stood at the gas pump on the pier to make sure the boat was properly fuelled. Jorge Urrutia loped through the crowd on the way to fame by running around the world in eighty days. Alan Mooney, the consul in Caracas, came down with a cynical sneer on his face and wished the party lots of luck-all badf' As the Queen shoved off, it was noted that George Hammel was missing from the crew. He had fallen asleep on the river bank and missed the boat. They chugged up the river for a hundred miles in peace, until, on the fifth day, the cover was seen rising on the life-boat. Spider Cushing unrav-elled himself onto the deck with an opium pipe in his teeth, and started doing card tricks on the cabin top. Leandro Galban, real-estate broker with an eye for small change, managed to buy up most of the land along the banks from the natives for a total of 32.98 in pennies. The natives liked the shiny coins.

Page 82 text:

Biggest Operator: Anita, Jolyon. Thinks He ls: Murphy. Class Politician: Autocrat Ryan. Most Drag With Faculty: M. Adams. Class Baby: Vicini. Most Likely To Succeed: The Rawefz, J. Sullivan. Biggest Bull Throvver: Cushing, T. Flynn. Most Cynical: Mooney. Most Gullible: Mitchell. Busiest: Urrutia, Mr. White. Most Marriageable: Santos. Most Respected: Murphy. Heaviest Smoker: Mr. White. Most Serious: Dominguez. Smoothest: Remick. Favorite Singer: Mr. Cordero, Walter. Thinks He ls: T. Flynn. Takes Most Privileges: Marylin Monroe. Most Musically Inclined: Cordero 8a Dwyer. Most Artistic: Anderson 81 Beckwith, Mr. Sheldon, Soames Sleepiest: Hammel. Best Build: Ostendorf. Most Popular: Bizzozero. Biggest Moocher: Mann, B. Flynn. Biggest Hayseed: O. Ryan, Cushing.

Page 84 text:

As they forged further into the interior, the barge, leaking like a sieve, began to draw more water than the river had, and depite Walter O'Hearn's valiant efforts to bail it out with his modern mechanized buckets, it ran aground. While Bob Healy, expert canal digger, planned a way to dig the barge off the bottom, Nick Childs, of ornothology fame, travelled into the nearby jungle to study some birds and draw them. When the signal was given that the boat was free, all hands returned, covered with mud and without washing facilities. Sud- denly, a great red ape swung out of the trees with a sack of soap slung over his shoulder, dropped some soap flakes on the deck like manna, and swung away again. Not until he had disappeared did the crew realize that it was Bernie Flynn, returned to his natural habitat. Finally, they reached a clearing in the jungle where there were fields of sugar cane. On the dock, noticeably fatter, was Chief Phil Wakini of the Um- bomboogie Pygmy Tribe. He made the stay very pleasant, even though he did not tell Dr. Murphy where Edgar was. SF SF 56 S6 After their return to Caracas, the party agreed that the expedition had been a success. Fenton Rernick had made some valuable recordings of Voodoo music which he would sell in the U. S., and they knew where Edgar was-Wakini war fatter! A. M. ACKNUWLEDGEMENTS . . To Mr. Henry C. Wilkinson, for his ever- atient attention to su Uestions and his constant dili ence in gb 8 printing both the Yearbook and the Raven. To Miss Margaret Cummings, for assisting the Business Board of the Raven in securing mailing lists. To Mr. John Murray, for his assistance to the Business Board of the Raven in juggling the books. To Fred Switzer, 52, who contributed enormously to the Photography Board without even being on the Yearbook staff.