Waltham High School - Mirror Yearbook (Waltham, MA)

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PROPHECY 0 she wished me to help. and I had hoped that Wlarren Rice, who I knew had made over a million on a scientihc farm in Lincoln, had given us a new City llall. ln this l was disappointed, for Rice, although married to a XYaltham girl, had presented his own town with a Library in memory ol a history test he had failed in once, or some such touching object. So as I turned down Moody street l saw the same old wart that I knew as a school boy. liven it we didn't have a new City llall, we had a good grade crossing. the work of Ralph and Nathan Sanderson, civil engineers. I later learned that an electric car had stalled on the old crossing and that twelve had been hurt. and that llenry Colloton, who l remembered as being fond of civics and government at school and who up to that time was a poli- tician such as Goldsmith describes as onc- VX'ho born for the universe narrows his smind. And to party gave up what was meant tor mankind. Though fraught with all learning, yet straining his throat To persuade Tommy Townsend to lend him his vote. had been elected Mayor the year before on the issue and had seen the job really put through. The old block between the railroad and the river was gone and in its place stood a modern hotel. l had told Edna that I in- tended dining at home. but the neat appear- ance of the hotel made me hesitate. He who hesitates is lost. -lust at that moment who should I see enter but Leonard Tracy. I drew up at the curb and followed him in. lle had just hnished signing up and when he straightened up l saw that he was as well dressed and as good looking as ever. Hello, Tracy. l said, as l tapped him on the shoulder. llow's the boy U hello, Charlie. he replied. with a start, l'm hue. NYhat are you doing so lar l'last?'l Merely taking a vacation and combining it with a High School Graduation, I an- swered. --Xre you going Not so you would notice it, he said, I havent got half enough time as it is. I've got to leave now at six-thirty. XVill you eat with me ? l'pon my mentioning graduation, the manager looked up quickly at me and passed me the register and, as soon as I had Iinished my writing, read the name. Tracy and l passed into the dining room. A small orchestra played in one corner and many waiters, Xliarren Dearborn among them, passed back and forth across the room. jones was the head waiter and he made a very dignihed one: tall, straight, painfully sober, and dressed in a shiny black dress suit. L'nfortunately, Leon's duty re- quired him to look straight aheadg so, al- thought he could see Tracy, I was below his line of vision and I doubt if he knows that I was there at all. He beckoned to Helen Murphy. who could see me all right, and she led us to a table by the window. --Xs soon as we had given our orders, we began to question each other. I learned that he was running a political paper, Demo- cratic. of course. That he had no matri- monial partner, but that XVinnie Vinal helped him in his business. She was neces- sary, he said, to correct the punctuation and to do all the spelling. s .lust as we got to the dessert, a liddle in the orchestra. which up until now had been so regular that I had forgotten it, gave oh. what a squeak, one that sent the biggest shiver the whole length of my spine. I looked to see who was the originator of this chill. There was a violin, a piano, cornet, and a 'eello. I don't know whether it was Ruth Masters on the big liddle, or Carl liristenson on his little one. Seeing Carl there. l looked to see if Elin played the piano. but instead Ruth Spencer did, and she did it well. The girl with the horn I had never seen before. Neither did I recog-

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PROPHECY That night I dreamed of school days. Q such pleasant visions of past junior Ger- man, astronomy, sleigh rides, and leap year socials! Such nightmares of Latin, type- writing, tests, punctuation, spelling, and Mirror notes! And towards morning such crazy prophetic glimpses of a IXliss Sher- man, who made-herself so conspicuous that she was the talk of the town. Of an Edith Fourtin, who failed in German: of a Blil- dred Neil, who knew what ,she wanted to be, and about my friend, Lewie Franklin, who flirted with every girl he met. This last dream was so absurd that it woke me up. Day had arrived and so had New York. I dressed very quickly and so much was my airship that when I upside down, all my hurry to leave the picked up my coat. pencils, pens, diary and one letter fell out. In spite of my hurry it was worth reading again and it was right there that the feeling I first mentioned came over me. I must go back home and I told my face that. as I inspected it in the mirror after shaving. The twenty-third of -Iune found me hurrying home in my auto. I came all the way from New York over the road and I came in good time-such good time that it nearly cost me twenty dollars. As I came sailing down through Roberts a great big fat policeman who had been scolding his stout wife on the front porch of a certain house saw me and I saw him. Leaving his astonished spouse, he came running out into the road, yelling Stop I Hanging from a trolley pole above this man's head was a sign, Stop, Look, Listen. This cop had said, Stop! I gave him one look and I decided that it was best to listen. Now I hope I am not con- sidered tight, but I did hate to pay a twenty dollar line, or even a tive dollar bribe. I had to do neither, fortunately, for that blue- coat's wife, formerly Ilelen Donahue, rec- ognized me. VX7liy it is Charlie Olney, she shouted. beginning to jump np and down as is her manner when excited. And now, she was so glad to see me that the porch seemed to jump up and down with her. I suppose it is mean to make fun of a benefactor, for that is what she was. She wouldn't let that big brute with the brass buttons even look at my license. joe, she said to him. don't you dare touch that man. joe evidently knew the saying, He is a fool who thinks by force or skill, to turn the current of a woman's will Ii' Isle never said another word but disappeared into the house. Iolelen had so loudly proclaimed my name that Edna Wilson must have heard her. At any rate she came, announced by her bugle- like laugh, familiar to the physics IC. Right here I made a bad break. I asked Edna if she had voted at the last election: then I got it for hfteen minutes. They talked the theme of suffrage into me. Such arguments as those two got into among themselves. I never had a chance to say a word until they had run out of breath. Then I told them that I must be going. lint there was nothing doing until I had gone over to Edua's cute little biingalow and tried some fudge she had just made. I was invited to stay to supper, but I took warning from the fudge. I told her that I intended to cat at home and I left as soon as I could. ' CITY IIALI, NUT CIIANGIQIIJ KIUCII IValtham hadn't changed much in the years I had been away. The Library looked just as it had when I left school. Elizabeth Swift had written me a long letter two years before, apparently to tell me that Phil Graham had made a fortune in investments and had given the city the long wanted Iligh School Annex, but in reality to se- cure a contribution to the cause of the local XX'oman's Knot Suffrage. because she had been sort of excommnnicated from their ranks for trying to run everything?-it was a 'xYoman's Yoluntecr Militia, I think, that

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PROPHECY nize the drummer, although it might have been XYilder Covilleg but he went West be- fO1'C I even left I-ligh School.. I tried to catch Carl's eye. but they were all too much embarrassed to look up. Good night! Look what's here, whis- pered Tracy. A most wonderful creation. XVORE UNUSUAL GARB In blew someone. A woman could prob- ably tell you what this person wore very definitely, but to me it was as if someone had taken a heavy band of black. and some kind of netting. I should say gold iiy screen- ing. with small beads pushed through some of the little squares. From the top of this mess a long loop-the-loop feather floated out behind, like joss stick smoke in the light breeze. As for the dress there may have been a waist to the thing, but I couldn't see where. It looked all skirt to me, with jeweled straps over the shoulders to hold it up. It was about tive feet in diameter at the bottom, but came above the tops of the crazy looking strap sandals that she wore. and I should think that it was made of crepe paper but it-well. anyway-as Tracy said before, a wonderful creation. Say, whispered Tracy again, is that Marion Gill, or is it an animated cartoon 7' I gave up right off. but when she laughed then I knew that, alas, alas. it was Marion. Six twenty-eight, said Leonard, lean- ing over and glancing at my wrist watch. I've got to leave right now. Sorry I can't stay and finish the meal with you. Come into the office some time while you are here. And he was gone. As the pie course hadn't come I stayed to wait for it. The manager brought it to me herself, and what's more sat down op- posite me. She politely asked me if I re- membered a Jessie Munroe. I certainly did and I told her so, and soon we were talking rbout parties we had been to, teachers we had had, and subjects of a more recent date. Jessie told nie that she was married and that her husband had built the hotel and the two were running it. and that for a small city they were doing wonderfully well. I interested to learn that Bertie Eaton was the chef. She laughed when I asked her if he ever blew reveille, mess, tatoo, and VVZLS taps. IsIarcllyg, she said, come to think of it, so many mothers didn't raise their boy to be a soldier that there wouldnt be three people in the whole hotel that would know whether it was a railroad train or the Sal- vation .-Xrmy at Hall's Corner. anyway. So what would be the use ? I was by a window that overlooked the Charles and from where I sat the river was unfamiliar. I told Jessie so and she asked me if it wasn't perhaps the absence of the old bath-house by the bridge? She was right, for that was just what was missing. The new bath-house is farther up, she saifl. and it is a modern affair open the year around. Hose Colon taught the boys and Ruth llroderick the girls with great suc- cess last winter. Over two hundred and fifty boys and a hundred and seventy-live girls have been taught to swim. Do you intend to remain long in Hial- tham? 'Upon my answering yes. she told me that if I wanted them I was welcome to a couple of passes to any theatre in town. She thought that I might care to attend the NYaltham Theatre because Florence Perry was the proprictrcss of it now. But wasn't she a Scenic fiend I asked. She was, was the answer. but is no more. Florence told -Iessie herself that she had been in great doubt as to which would be the better purchase, the Scenic or the Rex. and that after much deliberation, she had decided that the XValtham was the best be- cause the other two were not for sale. XYhen I saw on the billboards that the big feature of the show was an original comedy sketch by Anderson and McQuestion, I for-