Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-19


graduated from Lawrenceville. After
that he went to Yale And very soon
he started writing for the magazines.
Authors Of boys stories had always
written about well-washed lads, who said their
prayers and scrubbed behind their ears john
son didn't think so much Of that.
The boys at LAwrenceville were regular guys
They smoked forbidden cigarettes and played at
the sporting life" They put beer in welsh
rarebit. And rubbed iodine on their fingers, to
simulate the vicious stain Of nicotine. They
even smoked "a No. millionaire cigars" And
they inhaled until they almost died.
I'm going to write about the fellows at
Lawrenceville," said johnson, chatting one day
with Hickey. "And I'm going to tell the truth.
They were great chaps. And won't pretend
they were little Rollos. III tell the things We
did. And the things We said. And the things
we thought III give the real low-down on boy
life won't make flock Of prigs out of a gang
Of glorious roughnecks."
So johnson wrote 1.-THE Varmint" 1t was the
1lrst Of a series of books dealing with life at
Lawrenceville Academy in New Jersey. And
when it was published, lady reviewer moaned
In public print.
Can these be our boysi" she walled. These
1ow-lived little rascals, with their pretzels and
beers, and their wicked wicked pranksi"
SGTNHAT was IS years ago." says johnson
And now the LAwrenceville stories are
considered classics Of boy life. They are more
popular now than when they were published
Every year the sales roll up"
And they'll keep right on rolling" predicts
Hickey cheerfully Owen has made US all inn
mortal. As long as men can read the lawrence
vile stories win be epics Of prep school hfe
Owen made an awful scalawag out Of me. But
I'm willing to confess my identity. After all, it's
something to have been an Eternal Boy all
these years, and Owen seems TO have invested
MS with everlasting youth"
Almost every one has heard of the Prodigious
Hickey the Tennessee Shad and the Varmint.
They were prep schoolboys in the nineties inn
mortalized by Author Owen johnson, in the fa-
nous Lawrenceville stories.
here was Doc MacNooder, Turkey Reiter
and Flash Condit. ButSey White and Garry
Cockrel1. The Coffee-Colored Angel, and the
Triumphant Egghead. The White Mountain
Canary. and the Gutter Pup. Dennis de Brian
de Boru Finnegan, and little Dink Slower.
<Teater than the faint heroes of mythology,
they have come down through the years Two
generations have loved them-Red Dog and
Tiny Bill. And Flee and Bojo Charlie De Soto
and Fatty Harris, and all the rest.
EVEN President Hoover. who is very erudite,
and doesn't as rule, read juvenile fiction,
has a soft spot in his heart for THE Varmint"
The American Booksellers Association gave
1.-THE Varmint" to President Hoover for the
library of the White House And when he had
read It, the President remarked, IT could all
most believe those boys were real"
Well, they were real. And they are still real.
They are middle-aged men now And some are
famous And all are interesting.
1t is Is years since johnson gave the gang to
fame. And now, for the first time he reveals
their identity
FIRST come The Prodigious Hickey Hickey it
was, you remember, who organized mid
night feasts, planned the revolts against the
masters. Lank Of figure and keen of feature
busting of gait and drawing of speech, with
face as innocent as choir boys, Hickey raised
Cain-and raised it plenty His genius lives in
the nicknames of the Egghead Beauty SawteTe,
Morning Glory and the Coffee Cooler, which he
bestowed upon his comrades with unfailing
felicity.
Hickey devil" declares johnson I'VE
thought he'd be burglar when he grew up.
And what do you suppose he turned out to be?
A coloneli Yes, sir-Col. William O. Hickock,
y. s. A., Of New York, traveller and dilettante
Same old Hickey. He hasn't changed a bit"
Great was Hickey, and Doc MacNooder was
his prophet Every one who has read the Law
rcncevil2e stories remembers Doc MacNooder.
Doc played quarter on the Lawrenceville
eleven. and ran, tina bali mile close 10