The Monmouth inquirer., 1926-01-07
Eccentric Youth



IN the sports skirt with large purple
!, spots, the more amazed find myself
at the remarkable eccent.jcities Of
4 my children! rney appear 20 enjoy
such extraordinary things?"
That's exactly the way with my
Arthur" declared the lazy in the Ital
ian silk sweater. NOW, Arthur"
MY Robert" ruthlessly proceeded
the lady with the purple spots, met
| me the day that / went down to his
high school graduating exercises. He
was with crowd of his friends, and
all of chem stoned extremely hilarious
and happy | never boast about my
own children, but to make my point
must slate right here that Robert is
an exceptionally handsome boy! He
would be noticed in any crowd!"
That's exactly the way with Ar
thur" interrupted the lady in the
silk sweater. His eyes"
Robert is not handsome in a mere
ly pretty way" his mother firmly in
sisted He is going to be distin-
guished and strengthening So you
can imagine my horror when he met
me with bright green ribbon tied
across his forehead, crossed in the
back and dangling over his ears in
| front! l. gave him a sort of a menag-
erie effect-you expected he was going
1 to hold out his paw and demand pea
nuts! MY graciousi' i cried, what
Sver have you this Eort of arrange
tnent on for? Take it off"
Robert just grinned, and all his
friends grinned. He can't! they
shrieked joyousIy. He's a pledge!
He's q pledge to our society, and he
has to wear it till we tell him to take
/ it Off
"The awful thing was that Robert
seemed proud Of his Disagreement. He
did not seem to know how silly he
hooked And those awful boys were
adamal to my pleas that he be al
lowed tc take it off during the exer-
cises-I am sure it was because they
were jealous of Roberts good looks!"
81. hat is simply nothing to what my
Arthur had to go thru" said the lady
In the silk sweater, the instant the
other paused for breath. you can
not imagine how embarrassed was!
ATls. Ringbelt and were visiting the
school together and you know how
wonderful Mrs. Ringbelt is! They own
three imousines, and she is so par
ticular about Angelica, her daughter!
Angelica is such sweet girl and will
inherit the Ringbelt fortune some day.
Mrs. Ringbelt had been saying how
she simply refused to let Angelica
kave anything to do with the average
boy, because he was so urcouth and
not a bit gentlemanly, and ] was. tell
ing her how l thought she was en-
tirely right and that the average boy
Mortified me and how / had paid es-
pecial attention always to Arthur's
manners, and if there ever was a gen
tlenlanly, courteous boy he was one!
Why. Arthur has wonderful manners!
And just then we turned into the long
corridor where the lockers are, and
what do you suppose sawY My Ar
thur, with six other boys, sitting cross
legged, way up on top of the lockers,
with orange-colored donkey ears at
tached to their heads! They were
'xlggling their fingers in the silliest
way and chanting something about if
the ocean were one sea Of beer how
they would love to be little subma-
rinos! And my Arthur never tasted
beer in his life! thought / should
drop thru the floor, but l managed to
call family and ask what on earth he
was doing! He stopped chanting
long enough to say he was being ini
tiated into something or other. and
thcn he went right on with his awful
song!
Arthur" l shieked. Stop it, and
come down this minute!'
..He actually looked annoyed. He
stopped again and explained that he
couldn't get down till some one came
and helped him. Arthur is rather
plump you know. When | naturally
inquired how he got up, they all
stopped chanting and Just yelled. They
said Toodles and Snaps-did you ever
hear such frightful names 2-Toodles
and Snaps had permanently sprained
backs from hosting Arthur up, and
that nobody dared risk getting him
down. Then they sighed tremendous
II and said he probably would have to
pass the summer up there, but I was
lot to worry because they would
carry him bread and water every day
and then somebody whistled at
/ them. and then instantly began sway
ing and chanting again! never shall
forget Mrs. Ringbelt's glare that
ends Arthur's chances with Angelical
Not that there is anything serious
but think SO often these sweet school
friendships develop into something
stronger later on"
''Well,1 sighed the lady with purple
/ spots, since the day went down
town, and on the corner of Randolph
and Wabash ran into guffawing
crowd and discovered my other son,
James, balanced on the fireplug, auc-
%{cryur off cov,ao ufyfcs1 x,,r,fh saofor.