PRIZE STORY By IDELMA WICKERHAM THE CONDEMNED DORMITORY Mrs. Joseph Trumbull stood on the station platform, trembling(and whitefaced, with her arms around the neck of her son and her fear-filled eyes looking pleadingly into his,"Now remember. Johnny, and do not do any of those dangerous things that I have warned you about. Above all, never sleep, or go into that terrible Condemned Dormitory. I just can't understand why men who have enough intelligence to manage a college, would allow the young men in the school to risk their lives in such a terribly foolish way." Thus Mrs. Trumbull gave the final warning that was to be the saving power to protect her son,—the son that her watchful care and protection, according to her way of reasoring, had brought to his nineteenth birthday, physically strong and apparently the picture of health. "Yes, mother, I would never do anything so foolish as to sleep in that dangerous place, but I do not think there will be much danger in just going inside for a little while, if the wind was not blowing. Do you?" . "Yes, Johnny, dear, I would never risk my life in there f or a minute, for you never can tell what time the wind might start to blow and a storm might come up." "Alright, mother. Good-bye." "Good-bye, Johnny," choked Mrs. Trumbull, and the tra in which he quickly boarded, sped rapidly toward Thurston College. John Trumbull was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Trumbu ll, and being naturally very attractive, as well as being their own, he had become a victim of over affection and care. His mother, especially, lived in constant dread for fear that some accident or calamity would befall him. Although John wa s handsome and manly in his appearance, he had ignorantly allowed his well meaning parents to make of him,, what the high school boys termed, a "sissy." He had been advi sed by his father, warned and rewarned by his mother, against the dangers th ey had heard were present at every college to threaten the life and limb of every young man who entered. But Thurston College possessed a danger all its own; for th e old three-storied, brick building, that had once been the main college building, tho ugh now condemned, was being used as the men's dormitory, until a more modern, as well as a safer structure could be erected. By most people the building was not thought to be dangero us, as the bulging at the ends had been duly checked by four strong rods that ran lengthwise and were securely fastened to four strong steel plates at either end. In fact the old structure had stood in the same condition for so many years that it had come to be thought of as an ordinary and necessary part of the institution. Few people feared it at all, and none of the students, at this particular period of the school's history, with the one exception of John Trumbull. John was fairly well liked and might have been very popular among the fellows but for this one short coming, fear of personal danger and the unwillingness ever to take a chance. This characteristic is never advised by any group of young men and th e youth of Thurston College, while they were far from being a "bunch of rough-necks" were no exception to the rule. They therefore determined either to cure John Trumbull of putting such a high value on his personal safety, or at least to have some fun at (Continued on page 92) '76
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=