Thornburg High School - Orange and Black Yearbook (Thornburg, IA)

Page 26 text:

CLASS PROPHECY I It is my hobby to sit before an imaginary hearth, dressed in robe and slippers, in fact, there is built within my room a hearth in which there is an electric glow. My grandson installed this to meet my whims, for an old woman cannot easily become accustomed to the progress of science. As a girl, to curl up in an easy chair before a hearthfire, was a great pleasure, there was companionship in the glare. Nor does the automatic chemical heat of this day of progress warm my rheumatic joints as a fire would. The good old days of fires and furnace fires are gone. Aside from the old prints and al- most ancient photographs, one no longer sees a comforting chimney from the top of houses. This room, built and equipped along the lines of olden days, is somewhat of a curiosity, I presume, to everyone, but none enjoy it more than my little granddaughter, Zola J ack, Third, and here she sits, at my knee, listing to the garrulous tales I tell her about when I was a girl. Tonight, she dragged from my treasured books, the High School volumes concerning the classes of 1920 and 1921. Both of them are frayed, thumb marked and dimmed with age. In the volume of 1921 appears a prophecy which I wrote of the future of the students of that class and this she discovered. I was showing it to her and also the pictures of the Junior class of 1920. Did they grow up as you said they would? asked the girl. I laughed. They did not. As a prophet, as in many other things in life, I was a dismal failure. The ones I said would be ministers, be- came lawyers, the lawyers, undertakers, the undertakers, mission- aries, and the missionaries, bankers. As a prophet I was far from being a success. She opened the 1921 volume again and looked intently at the Senior pictures. y It was a pretty swell looking bunch of boys and girls, wasn't it, grandma? The swellest that was ever graduated from the Thornburg High School, I answered, with pardonable pride. Who is that angel-faced boy, grandma? she asked. That boy, I answered, was far from being an angel. His name was Cecil Dansdill. He was the class witf' Then pointing to the oth- ers on the picture, I added: These six, with Cecil, were the bane of existence for every teacher that was ever in that school. In some fash- ion they all finished the course, but in getting their diplomas, they ' Ililllluln lllllllllll Twenty two'

Page 25 text:

616,75 mf fl Ei E593 A .JJ X ! gj Q... Qs - X K E X W x Y Q i X K Q ax -V fxKglK . f 3 X NX QQ 1 4 Q PRD HEEY

Page 27 text:

MMM! AA ' must have mesmerized the faculty. Still, said the girl, they were nice looking folks. How long ago was that taken, grandma? Sixty-four years ago, I answered. What became of each of them? Grandma is pretty old to remember such things, but if you will be real quiet, I shall try to tell you exactly the conditions as I found them. I came upon a little wizened-up old woman unexpectedly and through her I found out what each person in the class of 1921 was do- ing. She was bending over a bubbling cauldron and her withered fea- tures were crossed by an expression of joy as she caught sight of me. An uncanny laugh escaped the dry lips, while her long, bony hands kept stirring that foaming substance. Fascinated I drew nearer and threw myself down beside her with my eyes fixed intently on her face. Can you look into the past and the future? I inquired. Yes, I see everything and can tell you all you wish to know,', she replied. Tellme then, I cried, what my classmates have done in the years since we graduated. She looked at me and smiled a rather wierd sort of smile. Watch the ' cauldron? Then my gaze was rivited upon the cauldron, for out of that seething mass of the witch's concoction came the visions of my class- mates of the past. ' As each appeared, when the old hag called them, they gave a brief report. What I have portrayed and told to you was revealed to me as I Watched the familiar forms appear and heard their old voices. Cecil Dansdill! The harsh voice seemed pleased. The mist parted and the face of our popular president appeared. He was the same except that he seemed older and more experienced. Since leaving school I have been constantly working on a trans- lation of Caeser. It is at the present time being published. I hope it will prove beneficial. The Board of Control, of the State Univers- ity of Iowa, promises that, if the work is a success, they will make me head of the Latin Department. How time does change us, I thought. . . llllllllil' lllllllllll lllllllllllllllllll Twenty three