The Indianapolis journal., 1886-04-21

In the alphabet. / stood good chance Of being
leader, a distinction for which was not at all
ambitious. being of tender years. and of ruddy
conntenance and sensitive feelings But q boy
named Allen. who was called ahead Of me.
funked and said his piece, ''Hohenlincenr al
though we made such suggestive gestures
at him that he forgot half of it and broke
down and cried When / was called refused
in fatering accents, that there wasn't goin' to
be no more speakin'.o When the old man, with
unfeigned surprise, asked me who said so, I said
.'all of us did, THEN he said there would be "a
little more speakin'" before the close of the ses-
sion, and so he led out upon the rostrum.
Then and there with feelings which now shud.
der to recall, did my first song and dance act
l had often before performed my solitary cachuca
to the lascivious pleasing OF .Old Hinman's
slate frame, but never had accompanied fny-
self with words. Boy like, | had selectelt for
my piece a poem expressive of those pe,cefus
virtues most heartily despsed, so that my
performance, at the inauguration OF the STRIKE
ran somewhat like this:
"oh. not for me twhackD is the rolli- (whackD
drum,
Or the (whack whaok) trumpets wild (whaoL,
appeal. tI3oo hooD
Or the cry (Boo hoo) of (whack) when the
Or the (OwD brightly twha.N flashing steel"
(whack, whaek).
cannot convey to the most vivid imagina-'
ton the gestures which accompanied the seven
stanzas OF this beautiful poem Suffice it to
say that they kept pace with the old mans pecu-
liar system OF punctuation until at last, over
come with conflicting emotions, / went sobbing
to my seat, and wondered why an inscrutable
Providence had given to the rhinocerous the hide
that the eternal fitness of things had evidently
prepared for the schoolboy.
But forgot my sorrows and dried my tears
in the enjoyment of the play, as my compatriots
developed it. Mr. Hinman, who had been un-
usually gentle and self-restrained with me- Loss
his temper with the boy who followed me, and
there was sound of revelry for the next hour.
He shook boys until their teeth ratified so you
couldn't hear them cry he hit Mickey McCanns
the tough boy, one whack with a skate. strap.
and Mckev ran out and rolled in the snow to
cool off, be hit Jake Bailey across the thighs
with the slate frame, and it hurt SO that Jake
couldn't howl-he just opened his mouth and
gasped and forgot his own name; he pushed Biu
Haskell into seat. and the bench broke; he
shook Dan Stevens so that his feet didn't touch
the floor for five minutes; he ran across the room
and reached out for Lem Harkins, and Lem had
a fit before the old man touched him; he
whipped the two Knowtons with both hands at
the same time. and the Gibbon family. five boys
and big girl. he hit all at once with girls
skipping rope, and they raised such united
wall the clock stopped he kept the atmosphere
of that old school-room full of dust, and splin-
ters, and lint, weeping, wailing and gnashing OF
teeth, until his old arms ached and all hearts
wearied of the nhuman strife and wicked con-
tentlon, and then he stood up before us, In
sickening tangle. of strap and cane and slate
frame. rattan. and skipping-rope, and asked, In
clear. triumphant tones:
''Who says there isn't going to be any mora
speakn2"
And the boys of that school rose up as one be-
ing and shreked. in tones Of anguish.
Nobody
And I, who led that strike and was its frat
martyr, have been ''speakin" ever since.