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Chapel Hill: |
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“Lewis, lend me your leg”
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During his sensational one year at UNC, Zeb Vance had all 200 students laughing, and not just from his droll stories.*
A classmate in President Swain’s course in international law was Richard H. Lewis of Kinston. He sat next to Vance. Swain one day demanded recitations on the subject of wartime contraband. The text was irritatingly loaded with up to 40 examples of articles and cases. The class was expected to have memorized them all.
Lewis opted, instead, to list them on his wooden leg. But it was Vance who was called on to recite.
“Lewis, lend me your leg,” Zeb said softly, and he jerked the leg onto his lap and recited the entire list. Well, Swain was no fool. “Mr. Vance, advance to the front.” On Zeb’s arrival in front of the class, President Swain said, “Now cite the cases bearing on this point.”
Zeb went down the list from memory without a miss and with the tolerant, half-bored attitude of one who has been called on for the most elementary of tasks. Swain, speechless, had been conned.
When Zeb got back to his seat, he stuck his elbow in Lewis’ ribs and said, “Why don’t you study your lesson, Lewis, you lazy fellow?”
*Kemp Battle in Dowd’s “Life of Vance” pp 18-19
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Produced by the public relations committee of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Masons in North Carolina,
2921 Glenwood Avenue, Raleigh, NC 27628 MMVIII
Author/editor: Walter J. Klein wklein(at)carolina.rr.com
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