Stanford Stories: Tales of a Young UniversityIrwin, Will
General
Stanford Stories: Tales of a Young University
Irwin, Will
College stories, American; Short stories; Stanford (Calif.) -- Fiction; Stanford University -- Fiction
"I numbered them off as they voted, and I could see that things were
going darkly and suspiciously for our friend the Lobster. 'What do you
think of it?' says Pellams. He was getting excited. 'We didn't know our
power, did we? Look at the votes he's rolling up. Say, we're corkers and
never knew it!' A few classes from the respectable part of the Quad,
where they do Political Science, came drifting along then with votes for
Castleton, and it went Castleton for awhile; then a lull during
class, followed by a scattering vote for Boggs. It was about an even
thing during eleven-thirty break, with Castleton still ahead. The frat
votes fell in bunches in the biggest rush at noon; I could catch old
Boggsie's name marked on most of them, but Castleton was full fifty to
the good then. I bolted lunch with Pellams at his house and came back to
the Quad. Things were beginning to happen. People I never heard of, the
kind of bird that floats in and out on the train and probably doesn't
know there is a Student-Body with troubles of its own; digs, crawling
out into the light, blinking away at the line; Laboratory fiends in
squads, actually losing twenty minutes of precious credit,--the darndest
crowd of resurrected stiffs the Quad ever saw, strung out from the
registrar's office to the polls, every last one of them squeezing a
ballot properly marked ahead, all looking as if it were a conferring of
degrees, serious as hell, you know, and the eye of the Brown girl or of
one of her crowd fastened on each of them. Poor Castleton, he was a
goner! His heelers got up against this line of sphinxes and fell back,
done up. It was two o'clock and after; still the vote rolled up. At
two-thirty they closed shop, and Pellams and I fell on each other's
chests behind a pillar, and busted at the josh on ourselves.
"Then we went over to get the figures of our triumph. 'Boggs, 402;
Castleton, 375,' and the biggest vote in the history of the office.
Well, you bet we went down to the train! Couldn't freeze _us_ out! We
were going to pry open the Lobster's claws and use them for a corkscrew.
So we piled into a 'bus. But, honest, we were paralyzed.
"Down at the station was the conquering Brown with her people, all
watching for the train. Say, when Boggsie saw the whole gang of us, he
was a balloon. He got up on a truck and made us a speech of thanks.
Pellams and I yelled 'Hear, Hear,' right along. Oh, it was awful! He
gave us the whole history of the Student-Body from the days of
'Ninety-one up. Finally Pellams couldn't stand it any longer and called
out, 'Good boy, Boggsie. How about that feed?' and Boggsie waved his
hand like a Tuesday evening spieler and said, 'I have provided for that,
ladies and gentlemen. Miss Brown, my cousin, invites you all down to her
home in Palo Alto for a little refreshment. Everyone is welcome.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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