Speech on Honesty at School

Originally Aired: September 17, 1935

In Lum & Abner #197, "Speech on Honesty at School," excitement buzzes through Pine Ridge after a mysterious stranger named Mr. Donahue purchases stock in Lum's Great Western Sterling Silver Mining Company. The stockholders are convinced that Donahue, who flashed a large roll of bills and bought shares without asking questions, must have inside information about the mine's potential. Meanwhile, Lum has been strutting around town in his Sunday suit—ostensibly because of his position as company president, though Abner suspects it has more to do with schoolteacher Evelina's return to Pine Ridge.

As school opening day approaches, Lum reveals that Evelina has asked him to deliver a speech to the students. When he pulls out a tablet full of notes and begins reading his address about the "harp strings of memory" and "bright and shiny faces," both Abner and Dick Huddleston quickly recognize it as the same tired speech Lum has recycled for the past ten years. Despite Lum's protests that it's brand new, his friends aren't fooled by his windy oratory one bit.