Washington High School Cadets - Adjutant Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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nette edition of Wallace Reed. Old enough and vain enough to realize the advantage ac- cruing, Dick had taken it and himself seriously, posing up. It would have been Alas, poor Dick if Mike hadn't jerked him out of the clouds to just plain earth again. Now, it was a funny memory, but it escaped being sad. The trailer rasping of a throaty command, clipped and slurred to unintelligibility for mili- tary effect, Wafted through the grandstands. On and off the stage, everybody was enduring the at ease made tense by the usual excru- ciatingly long deliberations of the judges. Grumph-umph! Uh-tensh-hun! The Cadet Colonel knew the decision and was informing the Brigade Adjutant. Heart action acceler- ated from high to speeding. Myron gazed on dully and bitterly. VVhich- ever captain should win would be realizing Mike's own impossible ambition. He swam decently with his handicapg he'd have been a real athlete. Perhaps, even now, he'dt be the captain destined to glorify his school, his com- pany, and himself with first place honors, if-! If not for the biggest little word in the world! Bringing the good news from Ghent to Aix may have been more dashing to witness, but it couldn't have been more dramatic in sus- pense. From Adjutant to Adjutant-Brigade, regimental, battalion-traveled the word. A final swaying, the trick relished by that official, and the hoarse cheerleaders in Myron's section were having their moment. VVith more pan- tomine direction they were getting thunder- claps of sound out of the ecstatic crowd. All for D and Dick Darby! Along with the rest, Myron's emotions stam- peded. He found himself standing up, his body suddenly refreshed, shouting himself to a sore throat. Dick. DICK! HIS Dick! Hike! Hike! Hike! Heralded by its school band, the winning company began its trium- phal march around to the judges and the school and public dignitaries grouped straight down in front of Mike's section. Mites of red ribbon Haunted the victory on every man's chest. Proud bewildered grins, forced out of repression, spread over the faces of the little conquering privates. Unrelaxed as steel was Dick's expression as he set the pace for his retinue of faithful who had labored well and profitably under his leadership. Myron watched his pal's Mussolini aplomb and experienced a qualm. Dick was now a fatal combination for girls, fiappers or other- wise: hero, really, by virtue of this drill, and almost reely, by curse of his collar and looks. And once already Dick had succumbed to van- ity induced by the vain and flattering. Would he bow under this greater pressure and be- come a lady's man, probably for good? Dick and Company D were fast approach- ing 5 only twenty feet separated them from the judges and acclamation. Myron searched the countenance of Richard Darby, captain of the winning company of the 1927 Inter-High Com- petitive Drill of the Washington, District of Columbia, High School Cadets, and turned away disgusted and wistful. joyous pandemonium inspired his part of the audience. Dick Darby and D, D. C. The school cheerleaders appreciated the eu- phony of the phrase and the wild outcries of their schoolfellows equalled their enthusiasm. Hike, halt ! Dick's curt, distinct Stento- rian cut a gash in the heart of his friend. It would be all off between them. He couldn't bear to see him present arms and accept hon- ors With that same condescending hauteur, that despicable egoism. Laden with disillu- sionment, he glanced upon Stella's vivacious head. That was a worthy goal to be reached by some one, never by him. 'He clenched his fists disconsolately. The disappointment and forlornness he felt were unbearable. The atmosphere ridden with hur- rahs for Dick Darby was too much. In that two-by-four chair, there was no way he could vent his feelings. Still, he was certain he'd roar if he would stay in it much longer. Slowly, although it was his fastest, he lifted himself out of the green seat and manipulated one foot into the adjacent aisle. Suddenly he felt himself glared at, the cynosure of all eyes. Fumbling with his hat, he stood embarrassed, and the directions being rehearsed from the baby elaphantine megaphone floated into his consciousness. Mike Morgan, now-a loco- motive. Into it, everybody! Let's go: one- two-three- During the ensuing applause sensibility re- turned. He tapped the arm of the glory-filled freshman girl beside him. How come? he managed to ask her 5 and for once was grateful for the concise volubility of slang. Oh, she replied with adoring naivette, Dick asked for that cheer when he was get- ting the cup and the handshake and the camera, and Colonel Craig said 'yes.' Couldn't you tell ?'f As Myron looked ati Dick, beaming up at him in a bursting show of brotherly love which was reflected in lesser degree by the ranks of synthetic Darby juniors standing erectly strained behind him, he couldn't imag- ine how he ever could have doubted him. Now he divined that Dick's aloofness of five minutes ago was merely the mask of a soldier acting his role in the face of achievement. Both of them exchanged prideful glances mutually full of the recognition of friendship repaid and justified. j Since he understood, Myron was proud of the fibre in Dick that enabled him to reassume that same expression and conduct his men off the field as strictly military as he had mar- shalled them on. He listened eagerly for the

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nies to him. It was plagiarism with the ap- proval of the plagiarized. Now, in his mental revolt against the cause of his pain and gloom, and the humiliation of ground-floor conveniences, Myron struck the left leg inadvertently below the knee. It bounded forward with the reflex action and reminded him of its humanness, after all. Corking good corkers, he amended. The catastrophe from which he had recov- ered sooner than his parents had thought he would, brought one silver lining. Dick's father, an eye witness to the horror, had stifled his little son's cries andl had rushed the un- conscious mangled body to a nearby hospital. Ever since, Myron and Dick had been a living emulation of Damon and Pythias. Together they had played sitting or crawling games as tots. Later on Mike's invincible will to do what others did had made Dick his watchful partner in chinning on the shower curtain's pole and, later yet, in swimming at the school pool. Now deadened to the exclamations of those hypernoisy younger schoolmates engulfinghim 3 blind to the Iris of colors darting from posts and wandsg oblivious to the Adjutant auto- graphing, the hot dog and candy munching, pop sipping and ice cream eating on every side of him, Myron Morgan was yielding to captivating reminiscence. The stars and the str-ipes for-ev-er Roused from his reverie by the blatant fervor of the Sousa march, Mike shifted his position ever so slightly. Dick and Company D must be hiking it very near the gates of the arena right then. - He bent forward to tie a loosened shoe lace. Queer for his shoes to get untied! Strangers always admired his good-looking Oxfords and collegiate socks, until he began to walk in them. Then they sympathized. Darn sym- pathy, and pity! On the way up again, his eyes encountered the back of a girl sitting six rows down to the left, a girl with an attractive, well-poised back, Stella Belmont. Myron knew that from a front view she was pretty as a more expen- sive calendar picture, almost. She would draw attention in a drawing roomy but a country scene-a sea of any blue Spring flow- ers-would form the best background for her. Her heavy chestnut hair rippled back from a a side part to coil voluptuously at the nape of her neck. It was too bad a portrait couldn't transmit her fascinating Southern drawl and manners, as it could mirror her aliveness, the rare violet of her long lash-framed eyes, and the allure of her complexion and teeth. But he despised girls. He'd hated them from childhoodg it was a manly boyish trait elaborately to evade their presence. Stella had gone through grammar school with him. She had the habit of giving him Heet smiles with her eyes and lips that conveyed more frank friendliness than embarrassing pity. She still dispensed the same variety of greeting when they met in history, or when she saw him embarking in the freight elevator, his especial privilege, to scale to the higher flights of the school building. No, he still abhorred contemporary females 3 even Stella. What was the use of liking any girl, or her? A cripple made such an ineffec- tual love-, liker. The chestnut head in the sixth row down to the left turned and looked up to the sixth row right, as if it knew the route from previous excursions. Clashing for a second with unexpected brown eyes, those other brown eyes quickly retraced their journey. I hate,- Myron repeated. But the exclamation had lost some force. Hike, hike, hike. The word implied in the motion didn't rankle quite so much now. Dick and company entered the prize ring with a flourish, it seemed to Mike. They look like Dutch Cleanser dirt chasers, he thought, Dick the biggest and most determined. Carefully and appraisingly he followed their drill maneuvers and inspection by the army officer judges. Like West Pointers, he breathed. The squads received the awaited orders to charge on the enemyg in other words, they meant the War game with the bill-board as ad- versary. The men fell to, bobbed up, squat- ted, and fired in obedience to surreptitious signals. While cute little, dumb little girls bawled insistently, I don't see how they see with those caps way down on their noses. Mike prayed that those caps 'way down on their noses would stay just there. Cold sweat trickled down his anxious spine. It let up only after he ascertained there were two bare-headed soldiers in Company D at the conclusion of hostilities. He sighed relievedly. That was rather a record. During the remaining demonstrations before the judges' decision, interest palled for Myron and time lay heavy upon him. The humidity of a typical drill day in June, which Lowell overlooked in creating his gem, depressed. Rampant outbursts of racket settled down to conscientious loyal party rooting. There was time to contemplate the head so near him, yet so remote. There was time to reliect and then to retract his soaring cocksure assertions and feelings concerning Company D. His eyes had of course been too prejudiced to see aright. Any- way, Dick was a dandy nowg even if once he'd slumped to a slacker and had to be cooerced into the Cadet Corps by Myron's continued urging. Something was responsible for Dick's for- mer attitude. Five years back, in Junior High, the girls had discovered that Dick was a bru-

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undertone of the regular hike, hike, hike, click- ing the beat for the tramping feet. I Pardon me, please. A drawling Southern voice sent Myron's nervous system back on duty more that the stumble over his protrud- ing foot. Excuse me, he corrected autornatically'as he drew in the limb he had completely forgot. He knew that it had tripped Stella on her way out. Then it dawned on him that she had hes- itated by him for a second, smiling discon- certingly. And then he realized that he didn't want her to go out of his sight immediately. He was a little bit dazed as he grasped her cool hand. Stella, he said dreamily, urging her back the few steps' difference between them, I wonder if you'd mind sitting out some of the Cadet Dance with me tonight. Because he didn't understand the catch in her breath or the light that came to her eyes, he hastened on. I'd see that Dick 'hiked' to any number of jazz pieces with you, he as- sured her with a valiant attempt at humor. He wondered desperately how he would carry off her certain tactful negative. All his present fears and some of his abiding complex paled into the past when she R. S. V. P.'d his invitation. I'd love to, Myron, she drawled in her inimitable way, even just to sit out. , L.A'Wf1x.J lFreckles A ONE-ACT PLAY IN TWO SCENES By Dorothea J. Lewis and Frederic .L Haskin, Jr. CHARACTERS: JANE-the girl. JIM-the boy. THEODORE BUTLER-known as Ted, the twin with the freckles. EDWARD BUTLER-known as Ed, the twin with no freckles. fThe scene is a box at the Annual ,Competitive Drill. The field 'wherethe drilling is taking place cannot be seen, but the music of the band and the sound of laughter and talk ,can be heard of stage. The time is a brief intermis- sion just before the Exhibition Companies come onto drill. The two young people are seated in the box,' a girl, peppy, pretty, and in love 'with all uniforms, the boy, peppy, hand- some, and in love with most girls, but particu- larly so with the girl at his side. Both .lane and fim are ardent supporters of good old N orthton Highj SCENE I JIM-fStudying the schedule of companies in Rank and File, the Cadet year-book and pro- gramj Gee! That's funny. JANE-What's funny? JIM-Ted Butler was the captain of the com- pany that just drilledp JANE-They put up a fine drill, and I think 'Ted is awfully good-looking. What's so amus- ing about that? JIM-Oh, I mean funny-peculiar, not funny-ha- ha. l JANE-Well, that doesn't alter my opinion about Theodore Butler. He is handsome. JIM-There you go again! You think every captain is handsomer than the one before. CGloomilyj You're like all girls, crazy over uniforms! Q A JANE-fS'weetlyj It takes a man to fill a uni- form, jim. JIM-fWincing under the blowj You can just bet I'll join the Cadets next year. JANE-f5'till more sweetlyj Do you suppose they will let you? JIM-Gee, you're disagreeable. JANE-Tell me, what was so queer about Ted Butler? JIM-There's nothing queer about him except that the captain of the next company to drill, our exhibition company, is Ed Butler, his twin brother. JANE-Twin? JIM-Twin. JANE-Is he as good-looking as Ted? JIM-Gee! JANE-Well, is he? JIM-There isn't much difference, except that Ted has freckles on his nose. JANE-I never noticed any freckles. JIM-You wouldrx't. No one does except when they are together. It's really the only way to tell them apart. JANE-CLaughingj The judges will think they are seeing double. JIM-Yes, they will think Ted is doing double time fNo doubt .lim thinks this is funnyj JANE-f C omplacentlyj A pun is the lowest form of wit. JIM-fThis took quick thinkingj Howdy, Pun! fwhich served her rightj JANE-Thanks. Oh, look, Jim! Speaking of the devil-here comes Ted Butler himself. He looks worried. fTed enters the boxj JIM-Hi, Ted. That was a swell drill your boys put up. TED-Hello, Jimmy. Thanks. Say, have you seen my brother Ed? He is supposed to go on in five minutes.