Toulon Township High School - Tolo Yearbook (Toulon, IL)

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30 +■ Spring, Nineteen Thirty-two TDniree TTHncDonssimid] +--------------------—■— ------------ One dull, dreary, slushy, hopeless, gray day, which was typical of the spirit of Russia, following the rise of the communists to power, Alexander Marchoski, the hangman of Moscow, clumped his way through filthy, iniquitous streets to a cafe in that city, where nightly a handful of his fellow rebels gathered. In that rude den, stale with tobacco and liquor, he found refuge as twilight came. Roughly and boisterously his companions greeted him. “Well, friend,” as Marchoski slowly lowered his huge frame into a dilapidated chair, “how did your noose go today? Very many aristocrats to stick their proud necks into it?” Marchoski’s livid, puffy features were drawn in a black scowl, but suddenly they broke into a leering grin. “Not so good, and yet not so bad,” he replied in his guttural voice. “My day was saved by an old man —a peasant blacksmith. He used to be considered wealthy before the communists came to power, and while the aristocrats held full sway. I knew him when I was a child. He lived in the same village that I did.” A heart-rending moan of agony turned every face quickly in the direction of Sonia, Marchoski’s wife. She sat apart in a corner from the sotted group of women, who occupied the disagreeable den. Her eyes were frozen with horror to her husband’s face. Falteringly words came from her numb lips. “Alexander, it wasn’t your old friend Paul, the blacksmith ? Your friend and my friend?” “Of course,” came the brief reply. “You hanged him with your hands?” “Yes, my hands. Look, you fool! Look, my hands!” And he thrust his huge hairy, grimy paws under Sonia’s beautiful face. “Tragic, isn’t it? Ha! Ha!” and Marchoski threw back his ragged unkempt head, and laughed like a wild animal, showing his yellow ugly snags, which he called teeth. “Comrade, do any of these condemned people have anything to say before they go to their deaths ?” asked one lean-jawed ragged man. “Oh, once in a while. For instance this old fool just this morning asked me if I didn’t ever hate to hang around twenty men a day. Imagine! Of course you know what my answer was. I laughed in his old, wrinkled face. Then he said that those who are so sure of themselves fall hardest, and he said I would be hangman of Moscow only a year and maybe less. He asked me if I didn’t ever feel any mercy. Mercy, the idea! I don’t know what the word means. I told him it gave me great satisfaction to see them come up and stick their necks in the noose. And you know it is rather amusing to notice how different necks are. Some skinny,

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Spring, Nineteen Thirty-two 29 + Overton—Life of R. L. Stevenson for Boys and Girls. Paine—Boys’ Life of Mark Twain. Richards—Joan of Arc. Richards—Florence Nightingale. “Roosevelt—Letters to His Children. “Trudeau—Autobiography. LEGENDS AND SHORT STORIES “Arabian Nights. “Anderson—Danish Fairy Tales and Legends. Atkinson—Johnny Appleseed. •Bachellor—Keeping up With Lizzie. “Bunyan—Pilgrim’s Progress. “Church—Aeneid. “Church—Odyssey. “Dickens—Christmas Stories. “French—Lance of Kannana. “Hale—Man Without a Country. Harris—Uncle Remus and His Friends. “Hawthorne—Tanglewood Tales. Hawthorne—Wonder World. Judson—Myths and Legends of the Mississippi. Lanier—Boy’s King Arthur. “Pyle—Robin Hood. Riis—Hero Tales of the Far North. “Tarkington—Penrod. “Tarkington—Seventeen. “Tarkington—Penrod and Sam. Van Dyke—The Story of the Other Wise Men. “Yeats—Irish Folk and Fairy Tales. TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE. “Akeley—In Brightest Africa. “Chaillu—Lost in the Jungle. “DeFoe—Robinson Crusoe. “Dana—Two Years Before the Mast. “Dunraven—Hunting in the Yellowstone. “Foster—Adventures of a Tropical Tramp. “Gerould—The Land of The Rainbow. Hawaii. “Grenfell—Tales of the Labrador. Griffith—Brave Little Holland. Huard—My Home in the Field of Honor. Lever—The Dodd Family Abroad. “Mills—Spell of the Rockies. “Nutting—The Track of the Typhoon. Peary—Nearest the North Pole. “Powell—First Through the Grand Canyon. “Rinehart—Through Glacier Park. Smith—A White Umbrella in Mexico. “Swift—Gulliver’s Travels. Tomlinson—Places Young Americans Should Know. “Wallace—The Lure of the Labrador Wild. FICTION Aldrich—Story of a Bad Boy. “Alcott—Little Women. “Burnett—Secret Garden. Burnett—Lost Prince. Barrie—Peter and Windy. “Bennett—Master Skylark. “Canfield—Understood Betsy. “Carroll—Alice in Wonderland. Carroll—Alice Through the Looking Glass. “Clemens, Samuel—Huckleberry Finn. “Clemens, Samuel—Tom Sawyer. Connor—Man From Glengarry. Connor—The Sky Pilot. “Cooper—The Last of the Mohicans. “Cooper—Wing and Wing. Cooper—The Deer Slayer. “Dickens—Oliver Twist. “Dumas—The Three Musketeers. “Duncan—Dr. Luke of the Labrador. “Eggleston—Hoosier School Boy. “Farnol—The Amateur Gentlemen. “Gale—Miss Lulu Bett. Hay—Scally. Hegan—Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. “Heyliger—High Benton. Hough—Mississippi Bubble. “Hughes—Tom Brown’s School Days. Jewett—Betty Leichester. “Kipling—Captain Courageous. “Montgomery—Anne of Green Gables. Morley—Kathleen. “Scott—Kenilworth. “Stevenson—Kidnaped. Stevenson—Black Arrow. “Stockton—Rudder Grange. “Webster—Daddy Long Legs. “Wiggins—Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. “Wright, H. B.—Shepherd of the Hills. Mi«s Oehmke: “Otis, how long did you study your Latin last night?” Otis Brown: “I didn’t study it for an hour. I mean I did.”

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Spring, Nineteen Thirty-two 31 some fat, some short, some long, some round, some oblong, and quite a few of the women’s necks are pretty. Very pretty indeed. “Then the old devil shook his finger in my face and predicted, mind you, predicted that the communist government would fall in ruins and as for me! Well, I would die by the rope also. Because, he said, that I’d die as I lived—by the rope. I told him he was crazy and I promised him I’d hang three thousand people before the end of the year. He laughed in my face and told me I’d never live to do it. Bah!’’ His listeners laughed until they held their sides, at the amusing way Marchoski told the tale. But Sonia bowed her head on her arms and sobbed softly. Sonia, the beautiful, they called her. Even the hardened veterans shook their heads and wondered why she ever married Marchoski, and why she still worshipped him with a dog-like devotion in spite of everything. Finally she arose and staggered out of the hovel. Marchoski did not venture to look up as she passed him. His eyes were glued and narrowed into merciless slits on a handful of greasy cards. After a while he rose too, and sauntered out. In spite of his apparent bravery regarding the old man, the old blacksmith’s prophecy of that morning bothered him. As he mushed through the inky blackness of the street where the blood of thousands of innocent victims still mingled with the wet and mud and a few blades of grass, he was thinking of the threat. He shrugged his shoulders, threw up his head and muttered, trying to throw off the dark thought, “I must be getting childish, letting an old lunatic’s ramblings bother me.” But the next day the thought still persisted, even though he tried to become interested in his prisoners’ expressions as they mounted the scaffold. The cold, drab, and dull winter passed and spring came: then summer. With the summer came stifling heat and famine. Meanwhile the executioner’s victims increased day by day, so that it seemed as if Mar-choski’s vow to the long dead blacksmith was to be fulfilled. Marchoski well deserved the name of the most heartless hangman that Moscow had ever had. The hot relentless summer heat and the long close nights had taken their toll on him. He stood at his post of duty this morning with his huge eyes bloodshot, his thick lips almost purple, and his hair and beard long, matted and unkempt. Clang! Clang! sounded the prison gates and six weary hopeless men stumbled across the court yard toward the gallows. “Six!” shouted Marchoski. “Don’t you see that I must have nine for today? Tomorrow is the last day of grace that is left me to fill my promise. I should have ten tomorrow, but if I am three short today, that means I must have three more tomorrow. You lunkheads, dummies and open-mouthed idiots! Go out and find me three more. Get children if