Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1902-04-03

" I WONDER If any Of my old gang
will be back TO the celebration
of that double centennial eelebra.
ton" said Harper, class of 40
/ Harper, 40, is a little stewed-up old
man, with a pink face and beautiful
curly white side whiskers. Harper
weighs lis in active training at the
! present time, and he wabbles badly
when he walks. He was talking to
! his grandson, 90, who left the other
/ day for New Haven.
Il got out my old files of the Lit
the other day." said Harper, 40, land
noticed, by the gods, sir, that
| Harper, '46, won the running high
| jump at the field day exercises in 10
His mark was five feet ten inches. II
takes a pretty good man to beat that
! even to-day, sir. Harper, 40 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 sul<ies or any oil
these new-fangled contrivances. Why
there amt 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
old days. Why, I believe that even
now I could go out and make some of
these eigarette-smoking athletes look
foolish"
The old man, leaning heavily on his :
cane, skipped across the room with F..
all the lightness and airy grace of an |
animated statue.
when you get down to New
Haven" he went on, 81 want you to /
zee if old 'Janitor John is still alive. /
The last time / saw him was in '46. /
He was a young fellow of IS or 60
then. Did l ever tell you about the
time we boys put up the famous
skeleton job on him?"
The grandson smiled sympathetic
ally. He had heard the tale on an
average Of once a month for IS years.
But this was a special occasion. Be
sides, grandfather had an estate val
ued at 100000 which would be left
to somebody, sooner or later.
why, no, grandpa" he said. what
was it?"
We'll, 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 il
the colonel and we were all anxious
to put up a job on Prof. Billy He
was the head of the natural science
department then. / suppose he's in
the same old chair, still, Ell? Wen.
we took the skeleton out-'Piggy'
haiston and l-Piggy's 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 J
I, when the bell rang for morning |
'hapeL But 'Janitor John'-Ive al {
ways believed the little old cuss was Q
mind reader-got up before five c
'eloek that morning and cut down {
he colonel before any of us had got q
glimpse of him. /
we sat up nights trying TO figure
tut how we'd beat 'Janitor John ont
nj finally 'Piggy'-he was the rich .
nan of the class with an allowance
u $50 a month-he spent $3.50 for A ;
and we borrowed a log chain :
rom a man who lived out on the old !
turtle road. We took the colonel nm
the same old place and chained him =
o branch six inches thick. Then
re padlocked the two ends of the u
hahn together and threw away the
ey. We were sure that would fool
ID John, but we sat up all the rest :
I the night to see what would come =
+ it, i
Along about four o'clock old Jani- =
Or John came down along the walk -
boxing up In the tops of the trees. ! !,
'hen he came to the coloners elm -
stopped, took off his coat. pulled y
couple of big files out of his pocket. -
nd Skinned up the tree like a =
donkey In less than two minutes =
was busy filing away at the log ~
ibin chain, and long before 1t was
me to ring the first bell for chapel y
he colonel was back again in his Il
lass case in Prof. Billey's' labora- u
Try. lie
Il tell you there was no such thing u
getting ahead of old 'Janitor john
i'd if the old boy is on duty stiu III DC
It there are none of the chaps of
lie present day who can come it over pr
m. We were about as lively a lot ID
the old college ever turned out, III ca
arrant you.
And the old eating club at South
iddle! 1t cost us two dollars a
eek there for board, unless YOU OF
.lped wait on table. Then you could 81
Il three meals a day for one dollar ~
even for nothing, if you we're ready III
The f.Iapfrrs A. Eoa.