Page:The plastic age, (IA plasticage00mark).pdf/121

Rh he had not only learned a lot but that he had en¬ joyed the evening heartily.

The college grew quieter and quieter as the day for the examinations approached. There were seminars on everything, even on the best way to prepare cribs. Certain students with low grades and less honor would somehow gravitate together and discuss plans for “foxing the profs.” Opinions differed. One man usually insisted that notes in the palm of the left hand were safe from detection, only to be met by the objection that they had to be written in ink, and if one’s hand perspired, “and it was sure as hell to,” nothing was left but an inky smear. Another held that a fellow could fasten a rubber band on his forearm and attach the notes to those, pulling them down when needed and then letting them snap back out of sight into safety. “But,” one of the conspirators was sure to object, “what th’ hell are you going to do if the band breaks?” Some of them insisted that notes placed in the inside of one’s goloshes—all the students wore them but took them off in the examinationroom—could be easily read. “Yeah, but the proc¬ tors are wise to that stunt.” And so ad infinitum. Eventually all the “stunts” were used and many more. Not that all the students cheated. Every¬ thing considered, the percentage of cheaters was not great, but those who did cheat usually spent