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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 1934)
» * i 14 THE BATTALION yCU’RE ALL TC€ 1 « = ' : jv ;■ ■ I ANCNTMOU# A Short Short That Hint» of Satire LLMD 'Hl * i Before he had Lft* his home town to enter A and M as freshmair. “Fish” Servant Rollins had ,de- <dainu»d to his hf^h school chums that “he was not k°' those **oufchneck A>t^ies put anything over \o Sir—he would Uaik as dumb as the rest reshmen, may Ik*, but he’d put it over thosi The for the alleged iross-ex iiiK to 1 on him’ ot the uppercltasmen if they ever >rot tough! Rol ins’ classmates had had a great liking for him as a fri nd, but, nothwithstanding, they ttntk it uiH>n themsek t*s to inform various A and M sophomores of their ch mi’s attitude. They felt it would be a good joke on Rollins if they could find blue spots coloring Tiis post 4*ior region, when In* came home Christmas. *\ and.M sophofhores, to l»e sure, made ready iolent freshman. It was the night of the Rand Murder Investigation. The Chic 1!Prosecutor had “Fish” Sergeant Rollins, th** rlurderer, panic-stricken under fire of heavy i miration. 1-—)U-4 didn’t do it. sir!” “Why lie So j>ersistently? Your fingerprints are on the k life!” Si let ce— “Why lie? We found blood under your finger nails!” Sileiie- ‘WlfY 1)11) YOU KILL THAT MAN?” DN’TJol didn’t do it. I—1 (heart-rending In’t! 1 just happened to go in his room first —that wks all—and 1 found him lying on the floor.” Kvery bit! of color had drained from the boy’s face—it looked" likje a chalk mask under the “third-degree” lights-that glared irrto his eyes. 5“What possessed you to go into the room in the first place?” “I heard a noise.” “What kind of noise?” “I—I don’t remember.” “You’re sure it was just a noise, and not an el**- % ■ * * * « phant ?” The Prosecute s voice staccatoed with icy harshness. 1 “Sir?—^ es sir. “What did you Mo when you got in the room?” “I looked at—u|p-—at thu corpse.” “What did you see.?” “Wh-a-at sir?” “Yes, WHAT?” t ‘‘Nothing, sir.” “Oh. you looked at the corpse, but still you saw nothing?” : “Yes, sir—nothing except tby corpse.” At this point, thd sheriff leaned over and invited the* Prosecutor to “give him the woik*!” But—it was t$o late—poor little ‘[Fish” Sergeant Rollins, rocked I4ick on his heels and fell in a dead faint. The Commandant had two letters on his desk. . ()*ie of them was a recommendation from the Band CUptain that “Fish” Sergeant Rollins have his ra i < taken away as a result of:—“his incompetency as a sergeant, evidenced by his inability on the night of the Murder Investigation to tell that it was ‘faked’: also, his weak physical condition, betrayed by his fainting the same night when asked a few simple, direct ques tions.*’ The Commandant looked at this letter and then at the other. He stared at them Iwith for perhaps five minutes, all the while a purple vexation slowly deep ened the color of his face. Abruptly he jammed an electric button, and, as th** orderly burst in, he spouted in a bluster of violent rajge: “You tell those men in the Band that Rollins is going to l>e a sergeant throughout the year! You can tell them also, that'Rollins can not only wear stripes, but buttons if he wishes!” I The orderly faded out of the door—fast! Rollins didn’t choose to wear the buttons, but he wore the stripes. During his Christmas vacation, he was proud to tell his high school chums the he was the only freshman sergeant on the campus. And they knew it! Yessir! The poor little “fish” not only lived up to his avowal of independence, but he made history at A and M College. And the sophomores to this day don’t know how he did it—in fact, mighty few people ever found out that he was the Governor’s son.