Belmont High School - Blueprint Yearbook (Belmont, MA)

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1923 THE CHAMELEON 1923 easier, but it actually makes them less difficult by the background which it provides ; it is a firm foundation for the intellectual life of any man or woman. Indeed, it not only leads to a better understanding of life but it prepares one for a happier and more serviceable existence among men. Richard Loud. iSaoiug ©tie’s Photngraph eaken Having one’s photograph taken — what an ominous sound! Instinct- ively we couple it with having teeth pulled and similar ordeals. Are not the incidents attendant upon the last time you went still fresh in your mind with all the poignant freshness of a something that has seared the soul? The setting — a studio lined with faces : funny faces, serious faces, faces of all types and nationalities united by a common purpose and looking curiously alike. Alike, not in feature and in shape, but in the grim and determined expression peculiar to them all. The same light at the same angle has illuminated all those faces. Done in black and white or in the warmer sepia, with all wrinkles and traces of individuality removed, they gaze down upon one, faces all, with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but with expression? No. The same tree stands sturdily behind them all, lending moral support, or perhaps it is only for artistic effect. Who can delve into the wherefores of a photographer’s doings? The young coquette in all the glory of her vanity and youth, hangs be- side her grandame, whose placid face is not one whit more guilty of wrinkles, frowns or blemishes than the granddaughter of twenty. Is not that cruel and unkind? Somehow the grandmother has lost all that we love in her by the ruthlessness of the artist’s “touching up.” But even as I sit and philosophize, time in her flight has overtaken me and I too must go even as others have gone from that same waiting-room. The chair awaits me, the light is lit and set, and ah! joy to my soul, the tree is there. Now that I see that, I can summon courage to advance. I sit, the photographer takes my chin in one hand and the back of my care- fully coiffured head in the other. Cautiously he tilts my head forward, then gingerly upward and to the right while I long to tell him that my neck is not brittle and that it really will not come off in his hand. Presently as I sit there, eyes at an angle of sixty degrees, face at an angle of thirty degrees, he disappears behind a big black cloth ; he murmurs “ah !” snap ! The deed is done. “Wonderful expression,” he murmurs, ushering me out. Ere long I, too, shall join the throng on the wall in the waiting-room, I, with my two eyes, a nose, and mouth will look just like the others. What a pity the thought never struck me before. Why did I not order a dozen of any one of the samples I liked best? It would have saved me so much trouble. Priscilla Henshaw. I0hg America i?linulh JJarticipatc in IBnrlii Affairn (One Member Supports a World Policy for the United States) In the year 1919 a Great Peace Conference met at Versailles, to effect an amicable decision concerning the indemnities to be imposed upon the vanquished power, against whom we had but recently been in arms. This Conference gave birth to one of the most skilfully prepared conciliatory documents that has ever been composed. President Wilson used all his influence to have the work presented to the Allies in conjunction with the Peace Treaty. It made allowance for Germany’s participation at a later date when she would have cleared herself in the eyes of the world. [30]

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1923 THE CHAMELEON 1923 In the first place, Latin forms the background for modern European languages. A person who knows the language of Caesar can make rapid progress in the study of Roumanian, French, Spanish and Italian. This is true because these languages are derived from Latin. But these inflections are considerably easier than those of Latin. Therefore, a Latin student may master the grammar of any of these languages readily. In the cases of French, Spanish and Italian, especially in the latter, the vocabulary is astoundingly easy to one who has used the words of the Romans. Conse- quently, the student of Latin is invaluably reinforced when he turns his elforts to the study of the simpler and more comprehensible languages of today. Latin aids one in any study. Particularly valuable is it in the study of science. There have been occasions in mathematics and history where my knowledge of Latin has proved a distinct benefit. The terms : “vinculum,” “bisect” and “intercept,” familiar to a student of geometry and algebra, are Latin in origin. Equally familiar are these terms which are met in history, civics or law: “referenda,” “data,” “expost facto,” “aborigines” and others. In all higher branches of learning, Latin proves its immense worth. The college student, the musician, the clergyman, the doctor, the lawyer and all those who are accustomed to much mental activity, profit immeas- urably by it. Indeed, the regularity and precision of the language accus- toms one’s mind to arrange difficult facts in logical order. More than this, however, presence of mind is another blessing bestowed upon the Latin student. In studying this language, he must be prepared at all times to meet any one of a great variety of constructions. As a re- sult of this, he acquires a knack of meeting unflinchingly unprecedented situations. What many people consider most beneficial in Latin is the aid it gives us in speaking our own tongue. The Latin student who sees, for the first time, such varying words as introduce, postpone, access, surge, delude, equestrian, timid, suspect, insane, or sacred does not require a dictionary to discover their meaning or, in many cases, their spelling. In the litera- ture of our language (as well as of other languages), we are constantly encountering phrases and classical allusions which a knowledge of Latin renders less obscure. This is particularly true in regard to Shakespeare. Thus, is not Latin invaluable even if one looks at it only from the stand- point of better English? But now, lest the reader accuse me of writing wholly in behalf of the merits of Latin, I must stop and seek for arguments against this language. The majority are too thin to require answer. However, there are three which are repeated constantly : the first persists that Latin is a “dead” language ; the second states that the Latin language along with other classical knowledge has no practical value, being merely “stuff” ; the third is that it is too difficult. To the first I reply that Latin is not a dead language. It lives on in the English of today. If all the Latin words in English should be taken away, one would be unable to carry on a two-minute conversation. He would have to stop for lack of words. Latin and classical knowledge are more than “stuff” for they prepare one’s brain for the coveted “practical” knowledge. Neither is its difficulty of any consequence, for who was ever harmed by an arduous task? Men do their best when it is necessary for them to use their utmost effort. Latin, therefore, far from being a luxury, is a priceless necessity. It assists one in speaking English; it makes all other subjects not only seem [29]

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1923 THE CHAMELEON 1923 The League of Nations was nothing more or less than a scheme for a brotherhood of world powers wherein disputes and altercations were settled arbitrarily by a world tribunal, which should include a representa- tive of every European power. I grant that it was an inconsistent policy to present such an ambitious achievement at a Conference gathered for a different purpose; but who can gainsay the fact that it would be difficult to discover a more auspicious occasion for its promulgation, than that immediately following the most disastrous war the civilized world has ever witnessed? President Wilson in his speech said, “We still read Jefferson’s immortal warning against entangling alliances, but we recognize and accept the duty of a new day in which we are permitted to hope for a more general under- standing and maintenance of common rights.” In the same speech he added, “Let me say that the United States is prepared to assume her full share of responsibility for the maintenance of the common Covenants upon which peace must henceforth rest.” Upon the presentation of the Peace Treaty with its addenda the League of Nations to America, it was subjected to a great deal of opposition, criti- cism and revision. The American people felt disfavorably toward the pol- icy of isolation which they had so unceremoniously dispensed with in 1917. The Peace Treaty and Covenant of the League of Nations were rejected unanimously by the United States Senate whose President had been in- strumental in its formulation. The American people depreciated the prophetic appeal of the League in order to make it the subject of contro- versy between two dominant political parties. It required vision and fore- sight to grasp the possible beneficial effects of the Covenant on the world, but the public construed it simply as a subject for a political contest. The country of today cannot adopt the same narrow methods in its for- eign policy as it did in the days of Washington and Jefferson. Space, if it has not been annihilated, has at least been contracted, to such a point that the prosperity of every nation, including, of course America, depends upon a relative degree of stability of world conditions. America cannot remain solid and unmoved economically on the shaky foundation of world deflation. The League of Nations is in existence today, and is functioning in a decidedly useful manner, albeit, much of its authority and influence have been depreciated through the withdrawal of America in the solving of world problems. A power so far-reaching in its influence as the United States can no longer afford — in its own interest and those of Europe — to be reluctant to participate in the affairs of the world. Laurence Wray. league of Natiaus — u{l)c Snnm of OPur J oltcg of 3laolattou (A Second Member Considers the League of Nations Impractical and Sup- ports Isolation) The history of Europe has been one continual record of excessive tur- moil. Shameless auctions of peoples were frequently resorted to in order to satisfy the greedy lust of Imperialistic might. Alliance and counter- alliance, treaties, secret and otherwise were but pawns in the European policy of “balance of power” — a policy which kept at white heat the mutual jealousies, hatreds, fears, and other petty animosities which fed the conflagration of European wars. It is with little wonder, then, that the statesmen of America should [31 ]