THE FREE LANCE.
Published Monthly during the College Year by the Students of
The Pennsylvania Slate College.
Vol. X
PERKINS' ASSIGNMENT.
" Here, Perkins, look this up!" Perkins picked up the mes
sage his chief threw on the table and read: " White South
American Chief in Chicago. Get story."
Such an assignment just suited Perkins. The more vague the
clew the better. Without a word he set out; but a round of all
the principal hotels failed to give him any trace.
" How am I to find this man among two million people?" he
asked the chief When he returned.
" Oh, you'll get him somewhere," was the reply. " You
might catch him at the Fair, though I'd like the stuff in time for
to-morrow's issue."
"At the Fair!" gasped Perkins, " great scott, man! there
were eight hundred thousand people there yesterday." A multi
tude of expletives mingled in the conversation, but with '' the man
has to be found! If you can't do it, 1;vho can?" ringing in his
ears, Perkins set out.
To hunt for the man would be absurd, so Perkins took his
station in the " Temple of Beauty " on the Midway, and waited.
His only hope was to tackle every man he found talking with the
South American beauties in a foreign language.
" What foolishness! I might have to stay here a week before he
conies around. But no danger! The chief will have something
very pressing' when I get • back, and this piece of royalty will
fall into some other reporter's clutches."
Perkins busied himself writing a paragraph about the place and
making a sketch or two, but he had scarcely been waiting an
hour when he saw a strikingly beautiful woman talking with the
Chilean lady. With her was ,a tall, powerfully built man, and
after'a few more, words the strange couple moved away.
OCTOBER, 1896.
No. 4.