Adrian High School - Sickle Yearbook (Adrian, MI)

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Class Essay- The Coming Day. Caroline Elizabeth Hall. HE achievements of every age have led men of that day to exclaim, We have reached the height of enlightenment, for no coming generation does there remain so much research, so much dis- covery, so much advancement, as this one has accomplished. The Pelopon- nesus and a small amount of contiguous territory was the world to the ancient Greeks. Mount Olympus, which as yet had not been scaled, was the home of the gods. But the mighty day came when the summit of the mountain was reached. That was a great achievement! VVhat an event when the Pillars of Hercules lay to the east of the mariner! Hannibal proved that even the Alps are not an impassible barrier. The mighty walls and fortresses that had frowned for ages on the besiegers could not with- stand the power of gunpowder. Armor became only a useless load before its power. Ignorance had laid its palsied hand on the world but the genius of n1an's intellect invented printing. The veil of ignorance was rent in twain.- This has been the history of the past. VVhat shall we say of the Coming Day? VVe smile as we look at those primitive forefathers of ours to think how the mightiest known forces of nature lay unused at their hand needing but the touch of a master to make them man's most willing and powerful ser- vants. Each force found its master. The lightning does man's bidding. Messages flash from place to place, even to the uttermost parts of the earth. Man has utilized the mighty power of steam and now its mighty heartbeats are felt in the throbbing pulse of great factories. It moves for man the powerful ocean liners. It urges forward the fast speeding trains. Man has reared the windmill with its out-stretched arms, which gathering the winds as they pass, press them into service. Even fierce Niagara has been made to yield its power to 1nan's work. The genius of invention seemed to wait through cycles of almost total darkness for the dawn of the nineteenth century, when, in o11e short space, have been developed and applied the wondrous forces of steam and electricity i11 all their forms and uses. Scientists assert that the development of these forces is still in its infancy, and so rapidly do the new inventions supplant the old that the perfect apparatus of to-day is useless to-morrow. It is 11ot for us to belittle the noble advancement of the past, but to the student of affairs it is evident that advancement has come only through

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being at least three times Older than any other. The Belle strikes the num- ber of years, while tl1e watchman Fred keeps the Mark. We may be scattered far and wide, but that indestructible bond, Lowe, which has kept us united during most of our course, will still keep ns united in mind. We trust that the example we have set in scholarship and deport- nient will be strictly followed by our successors. The earth may ring from shore to shore, With echoes ol' a glorious nainv, But we whose loss your tears deplorv, Have left behind us more than fame. ..iv', E l ard dl' as 5 i gp 1' xX A H, ' 5- PM 3 ff X x Hi--V ' I , Q fiife wa:-llllab l ..-7942 ' we ' if In, his X JI.. 5, ,U- KM lllmiiir ' Q .ISZQ EHL-, 4

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man's agency and that to no man unprepared has come the opportunity to serve himself and his fellowmen. just as to the nation which through long years of peace has built her ships, fortified her ports and trained her men, comes victory in time of war, so to the well equipped mind will come mastery of the problems which the coming generation must solve. And the day to come is to be one of achievement, not to him who stands highest in commercial or political circles, but to him who spends the years of his life making the western deserts to blossom like the rose before the flood of irri- gation, and to him who studies to make the advantages near at hand of greatest use to the public. To these must the nation look for true great- ness. As a nation our great desire is not so much to be first in war as to be first in peacef' To him who can teach us how to use best our re- sourcesg to him who can teach ns to be glad of life, because it gives us the chance to love, and to work and to play, to him will we give praise. VVe stand in awe of the great changes about us. The march of trade from the Orient to the new and mighty Occident. The wonders of modern surgery. The improved machinery, which, for example, in place of the sickle of old, cuts, threshes, and sacks the grain at one operation. The mysterious network of wire over the whole earth. These and a thousand other marvels of advancement claim our attention, and as we stand 011 the threshold of the twentieth century and view the achievements of the past, we, with the men of old are wont to exclaim: We have reached the noon- tide, nothing is left for us but to decline, the day is too far spent. Not so. The ever widening circle of time brings within our reach new forces, but tl1e still breeze that stirs the air is the breeze of the morning, the broad streaks of light already across the sky are but the heralds of the Coming Day, the voices are the voices of the morning and at our hands are oppor- tunities of which we have 11ot yet thought or dreamed. Yesterday the responsibility was another'sg to-day the duty is ours. Far ahead of us stands the Angel of the Future beckoning us forward. Her banner is aglow with light. We follow eagerly this bright Spirit of the Fu- ture, hoping to be ready for the duties of the Coming Day. W-.pt gwi,Wy.f ' at 2: