Page:Glitter (1926).pdf/123

 and Mike, about honeymoons. Assorted rhymes, most of them beginning, 'Here's to the girl who—.' Babe Ruth's batting-average. Automobiles. Petting. Marilynn Miller. Gloria Swanson. The All-American. The backfield from Notre Dame. Barney Google" . . . When he had completed this he tore it up without reading it over, calling himself a supercilious ass and feeling ashamed of his disloyalty.

He went to movies and vaudeville shows with others of his ilk and sat stuffing popcorn and cheering sonorously at all unnecessary junctures. At Commons, the dining hall for underclassmen and non-fraternity students, he participated in an indignant riot staged principally by boys who, like himself, did not eat there, and hurled biscuits and butter in every direction. Adopting the two favorite fads of the year, he dispensed with garters and slit his hats at the tops of the crowns so that his hair might stick up through, a waving ebony plume. He went twice to New York to see revues, and once, in company with Bill Olmstead and "Cracker" Ferguson, he took three chorus girls to supper. He became a little intoxicated three times, and very intoxicated twice. . ..

In such ways he sought to shut out of his mind Parke Demorest of Demorest Motors.

One night, rather reluctantly, he accompanied a quorum of sensation-seeking lads to a "Black-and-Tan" dance hall some fifteen miles away from the college town.

The room was vast, low-ceilinged, and one thought