The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plastic Age, by Percy Marks

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Title: The Plastic Age

Author: Percy Marks

Release Date: August 15, 2005 [EBook #16532]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE PLASTIC AGE

BY

PERCY MARKS

ILLUSTRATED WITH SCENES
FROM THE PHOTOPLAY
A PREFERRED PICTURE

GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

[Illustration: "SHE'S _MY_ GIRL! HANDS OFF!"]

Made in the United States of America

1924
THE CENTURY Co.
PRINTED IN U. S. A.

To
MY MOTHER

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"SHE'S _MY_ GIRL! HANDS OFF!"
"LOOK! FLANNELS FOR MAMMA'S BOY!"
"COME ON--I KNOW WHERE THERE'S LIQUID REFRESHMENT!"
"THAT'S CYNTHIA DAY--A REAL HOTSY-TOTSY!"
"DANCE, SALOME!"
HUGH'S POPULARITY IS ESTABLISHED AFTER THE FIRST ATHLETIC TRY-OUTS.
"ONE TURN, HUGH, AND WE'LL QUIT THESE JOINTS FOR GOOD!"
CARL FORGETS HIS ANIMOSITY IN HONEST ADMIRATION FOR HUGH.

THE PLASTIC AGE

CHAPTER I

When an American sets out to found a college, he hunts first for a hill.
John Harvard was an Englishman and indifferent to high places. The
result is that Harvard has become a university of vast proportions and
no color. Yale flounders about among the New Haven shops, trying to rise
above them. The Harkness Memorial tower is successful; otherwise the
university smells of trade. If Yale had been built on a hill, it would
probably be far less important and much more interesting.

Hezekiah Sanford was wise; he found first his hill and then founded his
college, believing probably that any one ambitious enough to climb the
hill was a man fit to wrestle with learning and, if need be, with Satan
himself. Satan was ever before Hezekiah, and he fought him valiantly,
exorcising him every morning in chapel and every evening at prayers. The
first students of Sanford College learned Latin and Greek and to fear
the devil. There are some who declare that their successors learn less.

Hezekiah built Sanford Hall, a fine Georgian building, performed the
duties of tr