South High School - Index Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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CLASS PROPHECY. EVERETT THOMAS HARROP. gym' HE sun shone down on the shining waves and glisten- gz ing sands. I was sitting on the edge of the dock 5: with my feet hanging off and was feeling perfectly happy and self-satisfied, as usual: Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder, and turning, found myself I face to face with my old friend Freddie Munson,-he W of the peaches and cream complexion. As Milton says:- The bloom of rosy innocence Shines out upon his face. And here I might add, with profuse apoligies to Milton:- Uliut if it really does exist That is the only place. Vtlell, anyway, Freddie modestly informed me that his unparal- leled inventive genius and unexcelled mechanical powers had just produced a marvelous creation which he called his submarine In spite of my more vigorous than eloquent protests, Fred insisted that I take a trip in his boat. He assured me it would go down, all right. I told him I didn't doubt it and this hurt his feelings so I had to go, to reinstate myself in his estimation. We climbed into Fred's invention through a little round door in the top. Fred pulled a lever, and down we went. It reminded me of the time I was in the Slater Block elevator with Mildred Duncan and the cable parted at the ninth floor. Darwin's descent of man didn't compare with it at all. Now I'm not a bit seasick when I'm on top of the water but-well, I omit the harrowing details. I was lying with what used to be my head jammed under a seat when the boat grated on something. We put on our raincoats, opened the trap door, and looked around. The shimmering green light glis- tened on a beach of blue pebbles, while on the shore, seated under a tree of coral, was a beautiful mermaid. I immediately decided that I needed some exercise, so I told Fred to wait till I came back and scrambled out. 3 24

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EVERETT THOMAS HARROP

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The mermaid informed me that I was on the Island of Bye-and- Bye, an exact duplicate of the earth twenty years advanced, and directed me toward a path of sea-shells that wound under the trees. This wonderful land interested me intensely and, thinking it might aid me in writing a prophecy, I jotted down some of the changes that I noticed had happened to my friends since I had last seen them. On Mr. Young's recommendation our president, George Dixon paid a visit to Robinson Crusoe's Isle as Theodore Roosevelt's agent. On his return, George founded a girls' seminary, called the Bimkall School. He didnlt make any money out of the scheme, but that was immaterial, it was a girls' seminary, and that was enough for Dickey. He decreed that there should be no reports and four visiting days per week. He was also obliged to exclude advanced mathematics from the curriculum, for whenever a pupil asked him to prove a proposition Dickey would reply, I haven't had time yet to make that one up, just as he used to in Mr. Parker's ifth hour mathematic class. Nevertheless, Georgie was as good-hearted as ever and still retained his happy faculty for making everyone his friend and no one his enemy. The DuBarry, the Gibson, and the Kangaroo all faded into insignificance when society saw Alice Sawyer's abbreviated walk. No one had ever seen anything like it before. At Al's suggestion Gene Powers used his oratorical skill in securing the passage of a bill which increased the standard width of sidewalks to fifteen feet. Two persons afflicted with Al's walk couldn't pass in any space less than that. Al was also a club woman of great celebrity and spent most of her time driving her Stearns runabout. Plaisted and Powers was a commission house selling lots for a cemetery. It was a dead business, but Frankie's silvery tongue and Gene's smiling face overcame that. While waiting for Gene to get orders Frank had written a book entitled The Deception of a History Teacher or How to Recite Without Studying the Lesson, and had made a fortune selling it to the pupils at South High. The President of the New York aereal club was our old friend and classmate Howard Martin. Howard always did want to get up in the world. On one trip Howard took four bottles of-Coca-Cola with him for ballast, and then when he wanted to lighten the balloon he drank the Coca-Cola. What fools we mortals be ! 25