The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1902-02-11
HHRPER,
GLASS OF '46
g I woNDER il anE Of nr old gang
Iii be 90 . the eelebration

WONDER if any Of my old gang
will be back TO the celebration
of that double centennial celebra-
ton" said Harper, class Of '46.
Harper, &c, is a little stewed-up old
man. with a pink face and beautiful
curly white side whiskers. Harper
weighs 11s in active training al the
present time, and lie wabbles badly
when ne walks. He was talking to
his grandson. 90, who left the other
day for New Haven.
u got out my old files Of the Lit
the other day" said Harper, '45, "and
noticed, by the gods. sir, that
Harper, 40, won the running high
Jump al the field day exercises in Is.
LIS mark was five feet ten inches. 1t
takes a pretty good man TO beat that.
even to-day. sir. Harper, 10, won the
running broad, too. He jumped IS
feet ten inches. on the level That's
been beaten often since, / understand.
but when l was jumping they didn't
have any Pneumatic sullies or any of
these new-fangled contrivances. Why.
there amt a horse alive to-day that
could catch old Flora Temple in her
prime. Records? OF course. But
they are made by the aid OF all sorts
OF mechanical contrivances. We
jumped and trotted on the level in the
cid days. Why, l believe that even
now l could so out and make some of
these igarette-smoking athletes look
foolish"
The old man. leaning heavily on his
cane, skipped across the room with
all the lightness and airy grace of an
animated statue.
when you get down to New
Haven" he went on, 7 want you to
see if old Janitor John is still alive.
The last time 1 saw him was in 40
lie was a young fellow of IS or 60
then. Did I ever tell you about the
time we boys put up the famous
skeleton job on him?"
Iae grandson smiled sympathetic
ally. He had heard the tale on an
avera-e Of once a month for IS years.
But this was a special occasion. Be
sides, grandfather had an estate val
ued az 100000 which would be left
TO somebody. sooner or later.
Why, no, grandpa" he said. What
was it?"
"Wen, you see, in those days" the
old man went on joyfully. they only
had one skeleton in the physiological
laboratory. A lot of us young chaps
broke into the laboratory one night
and stole the skeleton. We called it
the colonel and we were all anxious
TO put up. job on Prof Billy. He
was the head of the natural science
department then. suppose he's in
the same old chair. still. Ell? Well.
We took the skeleton out-'Pirgy'
Ralston and I-Piggy's a United
senator, nOw-and we climbed the
tallest elm on the campus. We tied
the colonel up in the tiptop branches
OF the elm where every chap who
came down the board walk would see
il, when the bell rang for morning
chapel. But 'Janitor John'-I've al
ways believed the little old cuss was
a mind reader-got up before five
o'clock that morning and cut down
the colonel before any of US had got
a glimpse of him.
We sat up nights trying to figure
out how we'd beat 'Janitor John out,
and finally 'Piggy'-he was the rich
man of the class with an allowance
Of $50 mOnth-he spent $3.50 for a
paddock. and we borrowed a log chain
from a man who lived out on the old
Turtle road. We took the colonel nm
to the same old place and chained him
to a branch six inches thick. Then
we padlocksd the two ends of the
chain together and threw away the
key. We were sure that would fool
old John, but we sat up all the rest
of the night to see what would come
of it.
Along about four o'clock old Jani-
tor John came down along the walk,
looking up in the tops of the trees.
When he came to the colonel's elm
he stopped, took off his coat. pulled
4 couple Of big files out of his pocket.
and Skinned up the tree like
monkey. In less than two minutes
he was busy filing away at the log
cabin chain, and long before it was
time to ring the first bell for chapel
the colonel was back again in his
glass case in Prof. Billey's' labora-
tory.
Il tell you there was no such thing
as getting ahead OF old 'Janitor john
and IL the old boy IS on duty still I'll
bet there are none of the chaps OF
the present day who can come it over
him. We We're about as lively lot
as the old college ever turned out, I'll
warrant you.