Salina High School - Trail Yearbook (Salina, KS)

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Uhr illiagir illllirrnr. It happened that in the house of an Egyptian sorcerer, far off in the years of the pyramids, a strange thing took place on the face of one of his be- witched mirrors. One day the priestess of the Nile fled from the hall of the entranced mirrors in dismay at the spectacle one of the glasses depicted. On returning to his palace to examine the phenomenon, the magician stood amazed to see the usually dreamy, langorous aspect of the Nile changed to a churning mass of sea foam as it flowed under the window of the hall of the enchanted mirrors. Rightly he attributed the disturbance to the queer pic- tures reflected on the glistening surface of the glass above. The reflections were altogether novel and unheard of. People of an age yet centuries off were acting in the role of instructors in one of the higher schools of a town, the not unmusical name of which the mirror gave as Salina, in a world and place undreamed of. The magician, seizing the chance to make his name for- ever great, wrote out an account of the images reflected, and, to keep it last- ingly intact, he Wrapt it in the velvet draperies of a charmed blanket and packed it in the soft, smothered perfume of the winds of Arabia. He then commanded this bundle to present itself to certain ones of the class over which the pictured teachers were to rule when the required number of ages had passed away. The following is a translation of the ancient manuscript: I, Ramses, the soothsayer of the east, in the third hour of the morning, noted the beginning of an extraordinary series of wonders. Gazing on the polished surface of my mirror, I distinctly saw heap upon heap of what ap- peared to be history outlines. Their author, according to the admiring testi- monials carelessly scattered about, is destined to be one of the future great and original historians. Barely had I begun to reason thus, when the histo- rian himself came in sight, thoughtfully clasping his hands behind him. Oth- erwise his appearance was far from that of a genius. Instead of the burning fire of madness, he possessed such a mild expression that I secretly doubted his powers until a voice whispered in my ear that his looks resembled those of Hawthorne. Now, as I knew Hawthorne was one of the geniuses to be, I no longer had any misgivings. While Iwas vainly trying to decipher the name on the outlines, they quietly rose from their places and disclosed the name 'Crissmanf t f'When, lo! I beheld in the midst of a huge laboratory, fllled with 'ivory flasks of mercury and methylated spirits, a silent and thoughtful man bending over a jar of contending gases. But I looked again-the scene had changed! and the once thoughtful man was now in a school room prancing about in uncontrolled delight at the puzzled looks of the pupils or devouring in undisguised admiration the 'catch' questions which his profound sagacity and ingenuity had compiled for the 'deliciousf entanglement of the students. While I was intently regarding the conduct of this man there was emblazoned on the mirror in letters of flre the name Abdul Hammed, which is, translated in the language to come, 'Lofty.' A confused swirl, as of silken robes, and there evolved from the spirals

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of smoke a woman, tall, and with long tapering fingers-one whom I, the Egyptian sorcerer, judged to be a lute player in the temples of Greece. But she, quite contrary to our sacred customs, began to explain in an inspired way the science of geometry, and before her enthusiasm had begun to waver the boards about her were covered with a bewildering jumble of damp finger marks, chalk scratches and various other signs of unwearied zeal and energy. A rush, and she was gone, but gracefully dancing in the trail of dust and smoke were the betraying letters 'M-o-0-r-e.' So long did the surface of the mirror remain unsullied that I thought the commotion must have ceased. when quietly and unassumingly a conservative- looking man entered and commenced a learned discourse on the politics of the worlds to come. But suddenly to my amazed hearing the queer and as yet unheard of word, fquizz,' went off in such a series of jerks that it seemed as if the surface of the glass must have been broken by the electrified charge of the word. At the same time a rare smile troubled the face of the waters, and in that smile was hidden the word 'Warrenf A clang! a click! and from the glass there shot a thousand rays of light as a thousand jeweled pencils fell on the top of an important looking desk. And from the midst of this brilliancy of diamonds, sapphires and rubies there appeared a small lady with her bright eyes fastened on the costly treasures. Hastily she swooped the pencils out of sight, and, taking a determined stand in front of the desk, thus she spoke to a room full of gaping students: 'Whosoever proves his ownership may have his pencil by calling at the desk, but plain identification is absolutely essentialf In the glare of those tiashing orbs, however, no one ventures. Satisfied with these results, she calmly pro- ceeded to lecture on the value of studying Virgil fa poet unknown to mei, more especially on account of the many helpful maxims it affords. So long did she linger on the phrase, 'ne credite fpaucoj equo, Teucri,' that the jewels in sympathy gleamed forth these admonishing words, and as she gathered them up to depart, the letters 'M-i-l-e-s' shone in their multi-colored beams. The next scene was so sticky in its character that it could scarcely be made out. First, a line of impish-looking lads marched in single Hle to a huge pot of paste and eagerly began to poke their Fingers into the contents. Soon the glass was a daub of paste, and through its murkiness I was barely able to see a man and to faintly distinguish the words 'May I awsk you boys to re- move your fingers from that pot?' Then, to my consternation, two of those paste daubers snatched up as many pieces of cardboard, and, gluing them to the glass left me to view the ruination of my mirror and the peculiar word 'Amyxf But presently I saw that particles of the glue were fiying from the surface, and by the time a sufficient amount had been removed I could dis- cern the same man by some ingenious device of electrical attraction fanother physical fact as yet unknown to humanityj persuading the glue to fall away by degrees. A low murmur now seemed to come from afar off. But nearer and nearer and louder and louder it grew till from its confused sounds I could, here and there, detect hastily spoken words. And these words were extolling the vir- tues of a certain Lady Macbeth. The argument beeame so fierce that the glass trembled, and had it not been for the heat of the contention, which caused the glass to become supple and to bend, the reiiector would have been mercilessly broken by the Herce combat. just then a breeze from the Nile, sweeping over the glass, blended the disordered noises into the one gutteral note 'Gemmill,' and, though I watched for other signs of agitation, they came no more, and the Nile resumed its peaceful, sleepy motion. Ru'1'i1 SWISHER, '07, ADA FLANDERS, 'o7.