Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 222, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1913 — Gary’s “Clean Face” Prize Winner Backslides [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Gary’s “Clean Face” Prize Winner Backslides

CHICAGO.— The flaming red necktie which used to cast a crimson reflection on the much scrubbed chin of Andy Hatrack, the Gary schoolboy who won the cleanliness championship of his town, no longer casts a roseate glow on the Hatrack chin. One reason for this Is that, as a Chicago judge recently remarked apropos of dirty faces on growing boys, "dirt casts no reflection.” Another reason Is that the necktie Is no longer red. Yes, freedom has marked an awful change In or rather on Andy and unless he falls Into the lake of a washtub before Miss Laura Knaggs, his

teacher, returns from her vacation, she will not recognize the pupil who won a red necktie and world-wide fame in the clean face contest tn the Gary schools. Since school let dut Andy has gone from bad to worse. With the departure of Miss Knaggs he erased the word soap from his vocabulary and he remembers water only in connection with thirst. And the necktie! Alas. aH the brightness went out of its life with the departure of Miss Knaggs. It first became spotted, then striped, then a plaid and finally the whole design was lost under a layer of dark brown which now has turned black. When asked what he was going to do when his teacher got back, Andy grinned through the grime and displayed a nickel proudly stored away In the only pocket without holes in his clothes. “I’m savin* that ’til the day before school .starts,” he said. "Then I*m goin* ter buy a cake o' soap.’*