The Wheeling intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1903-1961, 1915-01-02

sntos 81 Wv fork ttJ, cnsnced thar the -
iset private school Which no reluctantly graced.
becoming unduiy elated with the phenone
nai'y triumphant .slsvea which represented It.
issued q challenge and bore down on the Law
rcncsviilc School. La~renceyille, New Jersey.
wfih ssutng commits sioner and faces which
shsy Desperately stroys TO render without
malice guile.
"A the hospitality OF their hosts saw them To
toe Trenton depot. they reached New York
tacir return trip tickets and arrived at their
homes. delaying the eab-driFsrs no longer THAI
The item required to borrow the fares from
their sympathetic putiers.
The experience was exceedingly upsettins To
young skinner. who. being n very large frog
In very small pond. could not remember with
out profound unrest the very much larger frogs
he had seen disportng themselves the sur
face OF the considerably larger waters.
Nov skinner had not simply been born with
q gold spoon In his mouth. but literally amid
a shower Of golden spoons. forks and knives
Joshua III. skinner. proprietor and manager OF
The Regal Hotel. blssfully regarded himself
N but humble instrument In the advance
ment Of his only child's career and secretly
rs5oiced when his son iectured him on the pro
prieties OF masculine attire and the vernacu-
lar OF select society.
Despite this tender patsrnal solicitude Mon.
tague had passed through SO much of the dis
ilustonnent Of worldly existence that he had
quickly ceDe to assume that air OF complete
boredom which goes WITH stockade collar and
hmpy pendant cigarette. He never burst into
roars of laughter. The most excruciatingly
mirth-proyoking turns OF the vaudeville head
liners never stirred him to moro than a toll.
erantly amused smile He never annlauded
AZ the age OF sixteen he had never fallen In
love.
He was Just over the ivefoot line. very care.
fally washed. reddish hair well subdued. a
slightly raw countenance perpendicular ears
and a short chin which hung on the brink of
three-inch Piccadilly collar.
On Saturday morning he rose promptly at
ten. extended his muscular arms TO Buckle who
solicitously encased them In his wadded wraLe
per and opened the door TO the ALREADY nra
pared bath
BY halfpast e.even he was out on the ave.
nue. dragging a bamboo cane for a visit IN hi.
shirtmakers, whose obsequious attention gave
him little lukewarm satisfaction Later he
met his cronies at an expensive restaurant
where the head water in person placed him In
his chair with deferential what can \ do
for you to-day, Mr.. skinner?'
In the evening IL the matinee had been too
fatiguing. they ensconced themselves In Mon.
tague's private salon and sat into the early
hours about green table laden with different
colored chips OF the sort that on other tables
are used in a sport entitled tIddle-de-Uinks
And yet because way down beneath all the
sham and superhcality with which dotins par-
ents were trying 10 smother the real impulses
because the spark OF the boy Is invincib.e and
cannot be completely extinguished, young
Skinner began 10 wonder and to dream. Hs
y
Ing buildings the glimpse OF a strange life fast
ran joyously over green fields and around ivy
clad houses Of brick and tile. life where the
boy and the man were strangely joined where
the world was the world OF that youth OF which
he had known nothing and toward which he be-
gan strangely to yearn.
And so 1t happened to the amazement OF
his precious cronies OF Bucks the fabbergasted
valet OF SINNERS father and mother. and most
or all TO himself, that at the beginning OF his
seventeenth year, in the month OF September.
Montague Skinner. OF Broadway and Fifth Ave
nue., renowned the metropolis and took his way
toward the Lawrenceville School in Lawrence
vile, New Jersey.
Doc Macnooder. perched like n sentinel hawk
sat In the open window of the Triumphant Egg
heads room surveying the arrival OF the APP
petizing freshmen. His legs hung out his heels
raped an occasional tattoo around the clinging
ivy. but his glance was distant and circling up-
ward In the speculative heights OF financial
dreams.
Across the way. from Dink Stover's room in
the turret Of the Dickinson, the thin shanks Of
the Tennessee Shad protruded in a similar attl.
tude. From time 10 time their carniyorous
glances sought the front Dorches below them
and fastened intenuy on the stir of an incom-
ing freshman.
About the long green reaches Of the Circle
the last stages were dlsoharginE their vOcif.
erous or bashful Occupants-a last beiatsd
buggy was streaking toward the distant Cieve
ventre-a-terre. Below on the stone steps the
committee on introduction was catechizlng a
rumpled candidate who clasped a valise To him
with despairins loneliness.
"Oh you Macnooder mani"