The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1919-03-14

In New York Public School No. 70 I
had three chums, "Bill" Meek, Jim"
Fleming, and Charlie" Unger.
Bill was full Of wild ideas and
schemes. He had the ''get-rich-quick"
mania. About every two weeks he
would call us aside and in a mystic
rious and important manner carefully
unfold some daring scheme to get rich
quick. giving his personal guarantee
that 1t could not fail At first we
were very enthusiastic over his
scheme and wanted to go in with
both feet" and would carefully work
out the details of how to proceed,
when, bang! Bill would introduce an
other project absolutely different from
the preceding one. When we asked
him what became of his wonderful
proposition Of two weeks ago, he I'M
blushingly told US that unforeseen cir
cumstnnces which no one could pre-
vent had interfered. Then he would
unroll another wild dream Of fortune
And SO 1t went on; one scheme after
another vanishing in smoke, until we
became very skeptical. Personally,
had no faith in any Of Bills day
dreams. but I admired, and perhaps
envied, his spirit of adventure; so at
last ! decided that would take a
chance, success or no success.
One night Bill came around to the
house with four tickets for a blood
and thunder war play entitled "Cuba's
Vow" His brother was playing the
villain. This play greatly impressed
me; in fact, from the first act to the
last the footlights were gushing blood,
love and adventure-and rotten act
Ing. Bill's brother was awful.
BIZ was a pretty good Judge Of
human nature. He had taken us to
this play to get us worked up to a
pitch Of enthusiasm. and thus getting
lis In the proper frame of mind. he
could unroll his latest scheme.
That night, after the show. he pro-
posed trip to South America. which
took our breaths away. We were to
run away and ship on tramp steam
er, for passage of about nine
months. With the money thus earned
we were to equip ourselves and start
out for Port LImon. Costa Rica, and
go into the coffee plantation business.
We all fell for this and took solemn
vow to stick. The scheme especially
appealed to me because here was my
chance to follow Dana In his 1.-Two
Years Before the Mast" The next
day, after sleeping it over. Charlie and
Jim decided that there was more
! money In New York. and refused to
go. admit had sinking sensa-
ton in the pit Of my stomach when
viewed the proposition In the sun
light, but I stuck. Then Bill and I
made a tour Of the docks In New
York, trying to find the ship we
wanted. We fell In with several
boarding masters" These men In
fest the water fronts Of large cities
and are nothing but bloodsuckers
parasites took us on board an old
tramp steamer lying in Erie basin,
called the Cushko. Here we met
the steward, a slime juicer." John
Royal-Minns, with the emphasis on
the hyphen. The wonderful tale Of
ease, luxury and getting paid for see
ing the world" stun that the steward
and the boarding master unrolled be-
fore our eager eyes carried us into
the seventh heaven Of expectation.
This was five o'clock In the afternoon.
The ship was to sail at three-ten the
following morning. but they did not
(, tell us this. The steward said that
we we're just the two that he wanted.
there being vacancies on the ship for
second steward and second cook. He
suggested that we sleep on the ship
that night, and then In the morning,
after seeing what It was like, we could
go home and decide whether we want
ed to ship or not. / demurred at
this, because l had to go home first.
10 he gave BIZ and me permission to
90. but said we had to get back at
midnight. We hurried home and on
the sly packed my grip with my be-
longings.
That night / exploded bombshell
In the family. After dessert had been
served, pulled up with Importance. I
declared: swell. I'm going to South
America" A barrage Of laughter
rlppled around the table. This got
me sore, and / shut up like clam.
1t was February, and very cold.
About seven o'clock that night greac
storm came up and the streets were
soon covered with sleety Ice. turned
into bed with my clothes on. Bill was
to notify me at ten o'clock by throw
ing pebbles against the window pane
In my room. Every time l looked
out into the street and saw that howl
ing blizzard, picture Of ship wal
lowing In a trough of the sea con-
stantly came before my mind and
shivered, and my enthusiasm dropped
to zero. l could not take my eyes
away from the clock. 1t was an
agony OF intense waiting. similar 10
tha. xh~n. later In TIE trenches. !