Rock Ridge Hall - Rock Ridge Annual (Wellesley Hills, MA)

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as he and his brother Paul had been stud- ents at Rock Ridge so long, Dr. White had made them a present of the school which was now under the supervision of his old friend, Julius Alexander Zinn. Although Zinn had been in charge only for a few years he was now a millionaire, and claimed that he l1ad made all of his fortune honestly through Rock Ridge. Zinn, however, was a hard taskmaster and held the younger boys in dire fear of their lives, but also held the highest respect of the older boys. Again my vision changed and I saw seated on the veranda of a large sanitarium my old schoolmate ff Chuck Wood. It appears while he was in college he strained his heart, and later being disappointed in love, he became a total wreck, but from the expression on his face as he talked to a dozen or so charming nurses, I drew the conclusion that he was anything but un- happy, and as I looked at him I said to myself the old fusser hasn't changed a bit, for he always did like the girls. As I left him in my dreams, I walked towards a large open field from which a number of bird men or aviators were dis- playing their skill. One, the most daring and reckless of them all, proved to be Phil. Curtis. There he sat doing the most startling feats, as he read an old, but still famous edition of the Rock Ridge Bi- Weekly. He flew about in circles for an hour or so, and then turned his huge bird towards Montana. As I stood watching the machine dis- appear in the west, I heard a voice by my side, and turning to see who it's owner was I discovered I was talking to the great comic opera king, but who was no other than Earl Smith. After talking with him for some time I learned that he had started his career as a barker in front of the diving girls stand at Revere Beach. But his ideas turned to a broader field. He had become a chorus man in a Broad- way comedy, and f1'om there worked his way to the front. I was now transported to the heart of darkest Africa, and seated amongst a crowd of coal-black natives, preaching the Gospel, sat my old friend and schoolmate, Harold Felt. A look of sublime happiness and Page Twenty-five. lmrl

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into fields of flowing wheat and orchards of wonderful fruits. In fact, so great was his mind that he had far outclassed Bur- bank by inventing a coreless apple and a barkless tree. But this pleasant picture of prosper- ity soon vanished and again a picture came before my eyes. This time it was of Harris Brearley, the now world-famed re- vivalist. We were at a camp meeting in a small town i11 Ohio and there, standing on a platform, stood my old friend saving souls. It was not as great a shock to us as one might expect. For knowing Brearley in his school days, I always thought of him as being a pious, moral young man. Again the scene changed, and I found myself seated in the New York Metropol- itan Opera House listening to the wonder- ful musician and composer Signor Lambert playing his favorite airs known as the tales of Lambert. He had been discovered in the heart of the famous city of Chelsea and his parents finding in him remarkable talent sent him to the famous school Rock Ridge. Here he obtained great efficiency in the art of ff tickling the ivories 'l as We Page Twenty-four. boys used to say, by playing every morn- ing at chapel. Now I found myselflbeneath the great white lights of Broadway. As I walked by Hammerstein's I came face to face with a large electric sign which read -f Francisco ge Sada, Hijo, the Mysterious Mexican who Mystifies. Recognizing the name of one of my old classmates my curiosity was aroused, so I procured a seat in the front row. As I sat there waiting for the cur- tain to rise, l caught from my neighbors remarks that Sada, the hypnotist, was the greatest hit that Broadway had seen in years. As the curtain arose I heard the Professor shouting at one of his assistants ffthat makes no never minds. Eliot Lovett was now pictured before 1ny mind. He was not the sunny, round' faced lad of old, but had become stoop- shouldered and crabbed in his old age. He was a professor at Harvard where he was looked upon with great respect. He was already the master of the fourth dimension which had stupified the world up to now and had now almost conquered the fifth. During our conversation he told me that, .

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g' ' W ' vw' -'W Y' f --- - 1 ng , innocense was on his face. In his younger days he was always known as a great church goer and I was happy to perceive that he had carried out his noble inten- tions and had become a missionary. I next found myself in the prosper. ous village of No Hope. Here as I sat in the office of the only hotel of the village, after a breakfast of baked beans and brown bread, I got in a conversation with the mayor, the fire chief, the constable and hotel proprietor who proved to be a very talkative fellow. He at once told me of the additions to the town, the new Orph- eum theatre, headed by the famous Jew comedian, Lucian O'Connor. After din- ner I went down to enjoy the continuous performance. I went into the theater a little late and found the comedian in the middle of his act. The audience greatly appreciated the remarkable talent and en- cored time and again. The object of my next vision was Charles Ricker, whom I came upon hoeing potatoes in a large field. He told me that he had tried city life but it was too gay for him and so had gone into scientific farm- Page Twenty-six. ing. He had turned the once famous Poland Spring House into a dairy and was the inventor of a new milk separator. 1 Once more the scene changes and I behold my old friend F. Royal Gammon diligently at work swabbing down the decks of a huge man-of-war, Royal. Even as a youthful student at Rock Ridge he had always been desirous of serving his country. Now his dream had come true and I could see by the evident expression of satisfaction that shone all over his coun- tenance that he was reaping real joy in being able to help make his country one of the greatest powers of the world. Again the curtain fallsg only to rise again and I see another old classmate, James C. McCandless. 'fJlI1'1IT1l6,, had become the owner of a great sugar plantation and was now raising cane in Hawaii. His pros- perous appearance, as he drove a huge car about the plantation, plainly indicated that he had acquired no small portion of the worldly goods, and as he disappeared in a cloud of dust, I could not restrain a feel- ing of satisfaction that the knowledge of his success brought me.