The Plastic Age Percy Marks (read full novel txt) 📖

during the football season. Then when the cheerleaders and the team were heading the procession, the mob would make for the football field, with the cry of “Wood, freshmen, wood!” ringing down the line.

Hugh was always one of the first freshmen to break from the line in his eagerness to get wood. In an incredibly short time he and his classmates had found a large quantity of old lumber, empty boxes, rotten planks, and not very rotten gates. When a light was applied to the clumsy pile of wood, the flames leaped up quickly⁠—someone always seemed to have a supply of kerosene ready⁠—and revealed the excited upper-classmen sitting on the bleachers.

“Dance, freshmen, dance!”

Then the freshmen danced around the fire, holding hands and spreading into an ever widening circle as the fire crackled and the flames leaped upward. Slowly, almost impressively, the upper-classmen chanted:

“Round the fire, the freshmen go,
Freshmen go,
Freshmen go;
Round the fire the freshmen go
To cheer Sanford.”

The song had a dozen stanzas, only the last line of each being different. The freshmen danced until the last verse was sung, which ended with the Sanford cheer:

“Closer now the freshmen go,
Freshmen go,
Freshmen go;
Closer now the freshmen go
To cheer⁠—

Sanford!
Sanford! Rah, rah!
Sanford! Sanford!
San⁠—San⁠—San⁠—
San⁠—ford, San⁠—ford⁠—San⁠—ford!”

While the upper-classmen were singing the last stanza the freshmen slowly closed in on the dying fire. At the first word of the cheer, they stopped, turned toward the grand stand, and joined the cheering. That over, they broke and ran for the bleachers, scrambling up the wooden stands, shoving each other out of the way, laughing and shouting.

The football captain usually made a short and very awkward speech, which was madly applauded; perhaps the coach said a few words; two or three cheers were given; and finally everyone rose, took off his hat if he wore one⁠—nearly everyone but the freshmen went bareheaded⁠—and sang the college hymn, simply and religiously. Then the crowd broke, straggling in groups across the campus, chatting, singing, shouting to each other. Suddenly lights began to flash in the dormitory windows. In less than an hour after the first cry of “Peerade!” the men were back in their rooms, once more studying, talking, or playing cards.

It was the smoker rallies, though, that Hugh found the most thrilling, especially the last one before the final game of the season, the “big game” with Raleigh College. There were 1123 students in Sanford, and more than 1000 were at the rally. A rough platform had been built at one end of the gymnasium. On one side of it sat the band, on the other side the Glee Club⁠—and before it the mass of students, smoking cigarettes, corncob pipes, and, occasionally, a cigar. The “smokes” had been furnished free by a local tobacconist; so everybody smoked violently and too much. In half an hour it was almost impossible to see the ceiling through the dull blue haze, and the men in the rear of the gymnasium saw the speakers on the platform dimly through a wavering mist.

The band played various Sanford songs, and everybody sang. Occasionally Wayne Gifford, the cheerleader, leaped upon the platform, raised a megaphone to his mouth, and shouted, “A regular cheer for Sanford⁠—a regular cheer for Sanford.” Then he lifted his arms above his head, flinging the megaphone aside with the same motion, and waited tense and rigid until the students were on their feet. Suddenly he turned into a mad dervish, twisting, bending, gesticulating, leaping, running back and forth across the platform, shouting, and finally throwing his hands above his head and springing high into the air at the concluding “San⁠—ford!”

The Glee Club sang to mad applause; a tenor twanged a ukulele and moaned various blues; a popular professor told stories, some of them funny, most of them slightly off color; a former cheerleader told of the triumphs of former Sanford teams⁠—and the atmosphere grew denser and denser, bluer and bluer, as the smoke wreathed upward. The thousand boys leaned intently forward, occasionally jumping to their feet to shout and cheer, and then sinking back into their chairs, tense and excited. As each speaker mounted the platform they shouted: “Off with your coat! Off with your coat!” And the speakers, even the professor, had to shed their coats before they were permitted to say a word.

When the team entered, bedlam broke loose. Every student stood on his chair, waved his arms, slapped his neighbor on the back or hugged him wildly, threw his hat in the air, if he had one⁠—and, so great was his training, keeping an eye on the cheerleader, who was on the platform going through a series of indescribable contortions. Suddenly he straightened up, held his hands above his head again, and shouted through his megaphone: “A regular cheer for the team⁠—a regular cheer for the team. Make it big⁠—big! Ready⁠—!” Away whirled the megaphone, and he went through exactly the same performance that he had used before in conducting the regular cheer. Gifford looked like an inspired madman, but he knew exactly what he was doing. The students cheered lustily, so lustily that some of them were hoarse the next day. They continued to yell after the cheer was completed, ceasing only when Gifford signaled for silence.

Then there were speeches by each member of the team, all enthusiastically applauded, and finally the speech of the evening, that of the coach, Jack Price. He was a big, compactly built man with regular features, heavy blond hair, and pale, cold blue eyes. He threw off his coat with a belligerent gesture, stuck his hands into his trousers pockets, and waited rigidly until the cheering had subsided. Then he began:

“Go ahead and yell. It’s easy as hell to cheer here in the gym; but what are you going to do Saturday afternoon?”

His voice was sharp with sarcasm, and to the shouts of “Yell! Fight!” that came from all over the gymnasium, he answered, “Yeah, maybe⁠—maybe.” He shifted his position, stepping toward the front of the platform, thrusting his hands deeper