Evening star., 1935-04-09

made sIrreptitiouS eyes at tht
young gentlemen of the academy
when they passed on the street, but
1t was considered beneath the dignity
of these latter to notice the Fen
Sens.
Now and then a few servant girls
arm-in-arm, fearfully self conscious
and rather aghaSt at their daring
strolled about the campus in the twi.
light and might possibly have beer
talked to.
James scarcely noticed them before
they were shooed away by watchfu
guardians, the boys being most care.
fully looked after by the higher
powers.
James was much used to the society
OF his elders and he would have gladly
made friends with his teachers. How
ever, the latter were busy, hard-driver
men and we're either Indifferent Of
never noticed his shy advances.
One Of his masters, indeed, tht
physics prof, proved actively inimical
This gentleman, finding it painfully
easy to render James inarticulate with
C11lkd1 val II1C
OF his class room by making game o.
this tongue-tied young bean pole o.
Westerner.
well, Mr.. Stimson," he would say
guavely, you seem to be fairly burst.
ing to express your valuable ideas
Suppose you give us the benefits o.
your opinion on this subject"
Mr.. Stimson would thereupon un,
fold himself and rise blushingly to hi
feet and stammer a disjointed reply
while the class Uttered and the
master goaded him into further
tncoherence.
At the end of the term Jane:
turned in so good an examination
paper in physics that his professor
practically accused the boy of cheat
ing and thereby all but broke his
heart. James could scarcely reply te
this monstrosity so near was he tt
blubbering. but he stammered some
how an offer to take an oral examina-
ton and, after a few questions, wa!
given grudging half apology.
James left school at the end o.
his first term with his self confidence
and self-esteem crushed and shat
tered almost beyond mending. Bacl
In New Concord they began to re-
vive somewhat, but he never aftel
believed quite so firmly in himself
as he had and was for years vaguely
though unconSciously, expectant of re-
buffs from strangers.
His Summer was happy enough
after fashion, though he missed hi
grandmother constantly and hi
grandfather acutely at intervals. Per.
haps it was his pride that kept hin
from confding to the judge or Aunt
Sarah how unhappy he had been al
school or how he dreaded to go back
However, before James left home
that Autumn he enlisted the aid o.
Judge Holcomb and got the promise
of q regular and more adequate allow
ance as well as two suits of extremely
smart tailor made clothes made II
Kansas City.
(This latter concession caused Mis-:
Sarah many qualms of conscience anc
quite ruined her peaceful communion
with her Maker for many, many Sun
days as Mr.. Davis, the New Concord
tailor, passed her the plate in church
and never failed to look reproachfully
at herr
James, however. as one of his class
mates assured him, appeared almost
human that term. Perhaps this full
some praise went to James head. for
the first thing he did afterwards was
to buy the paper on the wall from a
departing upper claSsman whose room
he was taking over.
His predecessor explained that he
had been put to great expense IN re-
papering and painting the room the
previous term and it seemed reason
able to James that, since he himself
was to enjoy the results, he should
recompense the other in part.
James was truly no wizard in
finance, but how any one with New
England ancestry could lack so utterly
a bargaining sense it seems hard to
comprehend-but then James was
only half New Englander. And, of
course, as his Aunt Sarah often
pointed out. James did not come from
a line Of shopkeepers. His ancestors
were college professors, clergymen,
judges and the like.
James last year at school was not
actively unhappy. He was in a dor
i1itory now and had a roommate and
was besides a senior with all the
privileges and prestige that implies,
but he would have left school without
making more than the most shadowy
AZ e.
his graduating essay.
He chose Kansas then for his
theme, his beloved, misunderstood,
sneered at, jeered at Kansas and
worked for weeks collecting pages and
pages of the most beautifully deadly
statistics destined solely to annihilate
any and all who doubted for a mo-
ment that that particular bit of Eden
was not only the richest, the most
favored. and God-endowed, but the
most cultured State in the Union.
Then he wrote them all down in
order firstly, secondly, thirdly, ETC.,
major premise. minor premise, argu-
ment and conclusion until he had
before him very masterpiece of un-
enswersble facts, and burned to make
use of 1t.
But when the moment came for
James to read his essay and he rose
to face the hundreds of Indifferent.
slightly bored faces that were gath
cred there from every State in the
Union certain sixth sense suddenly
whispered to him that his statistics
would be only so many numbers in
their disinterested minds and forgot
ten before they were comprehended.
The same sixth sense made him
realize that to reach that vast crowd
he must first stir their imaginations
and touch their hearts. If it were
only possible to paint for them the
glory Of his State, its splendid inde-
pendence, the very essence of Amer
icanism; its originality, its steadfast-
mess. the romance of its beginning.
the love it inspired in its children. :.