West Side High School - Legenda Yearbook (Saginaw, MI)

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low will bring a crisis in the placid life of her home. Tomorrow ' s events will decide whether or not her son can continue his college course. Tomorrow her son ' s life will be endangered, perhaps lost, but she must be brave for there is no other way. And the little mother resumes her sewing, only to be again interrupted by thots of her son. All huddle up in the big arm chair across the room is little Mary, and little Mary is silently weeping. She had pictured in her mind a great race track and an automobile race. There is a wreck and she sees her brother carried from the track. Then Mary weeps for fear. But again she pictures the end of the race. She sees her brother cross the line in the lead. She sees her brother the victor, and then little Mary weeps for joy. She sits all unnoticed in the big arm chair weeping for her brother. Presently the sounds of footsteps is heard and a young man en- ters the room. The cry of little Mary disturbs the thots of the father and mother, and the son is welcomed home. Well, father , he says, everything is ready for the morrow. Jim Fowler is ill and cannot race tomorrow and I am going to drive his car. It is such a splendid car mother, a Mercides racer. It runs just perfect. Thomas, my son, savs the father, we wish you success with all our hearts, but we wish there had been some other way for you to get the money for your last year in college. Yes , my boy, please do be careful pleads the mother. But Thomas is enthusiastic, he does not realize the danger, he is eager for the race. Father, says Thomas, Hugh Wandeman and the others are racing for honor, while I shall race for money. I have beaten Wandeman once, I must win again. It means five hundred dollars to me. 4. The afternoon of the fourth has come, and everywhere the peo- ple are going to the race track.

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which grows blacker with each toast, to the man who has never been beaten. At length the time has arrived for Wandeman to reply and he rises to the occasion. Gentlemen he says, you do me an honor which I cannot re- pay. The occasion demands of me an explanation, the cause of which I thought was known. Two years ago when I was a Junior at Yale I became a con- testant in an automobile race. There was among the contestants, a sophomore, named Thomas Elberts. Gentlemen, Mr. Elberts was studying Mechanical Engineering ,and was a brilliant student. There was among the notable racers of the day, one named Jim Fowler, but Fowler, for some reason or other withdrew and lent his car to Mr. Elberts. Gentlemen, Mr. Elberts won that race, and won it fairly. That, gentlemen was the only time I have ever been beaten. Gentlemen, Mr. Elberts is entered for the twenty-five mile race tomorrow. He uses Mr. Fowler ' s new racing car, the Mer- cides. 3. A second scene in direct contrast to the preceding one deserves the attention of the reader. It is the picture of the sitting room in a quiet, modest, little home in the suburbs of the city; the homo of John Elberts. The room is decorated simply. The furniture and pictures are plain, but they are placed about the room with quiet taste. John Elberts is seated by the fireplace and as the red flames cast their wierd shadows upon his face we see the furrows on his brow, and his grey hair, but there is a kind look in the old man ' s eyes, a look of love and happiuess and pride, for he is thinking of his son. The mother is seated by the table. She has tried to sew. but al- ways as she starts to ply the luedle, she needs must stop, for there comes the thought of her son. But she is nervous tonight for tomor-

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The band is playing and the people are cheering, the great grand stand is filled. Down in the box seats sit eleven men, the guests at the dinner the preceding evening. Far back in the grand- stand sits an old man, a little woman, and a little girl. Such scenes are strange to them. Before them stretches a race track. The track is not a saucered one, but a dangerous mile course track. Six cars stand in front of the grandstand. Strange looking cars they are ; big, long, hoods covering powerful engines ; in fact they are almost all engine. Two hours have passed. The motorcycle races are over, and the aeroplanes have made their flights. The lesser automobile races are done, and Hugh Wandeman is winner of them all. The green Mercides car has stood strangely silent all afternoon, but now there comes a figure across the track which caused little Mary to gasp. Thomas Elberts has been recognized. Suddenly there is heard a terrific noise as the many cylinders of the Mercides give vent to a loud roar. The Mercides is going around the track for a tryout. A suspicious tear glistens in the eye of a little old woman far np in the grandstand, and joy beams from the face of John Elberts. The Mercides completes the tryout and becomes silent again. One after another the other cars speed around the track on the tryout. Hugh Wandeman ' s car is No. 1., Thomas Elberts No. 6. At length the tryouts are over and the cars line up for the start. The silence is intense. Thousands of eyes are turned upon six low racing cars. BANG, The race is on. With a tremendous roar six cars leap forward ; six pair of hands are clenched npon six wheels, and six pairs of eyes are glued to the track before them. On, on, they speed, No. 1 in the lead on the inside of the track, and No. 2 second. The other cars remain even.