Belmont High School - Blueprint Yearbook (Belmont, MA)

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Belmont High School Felix V. Cutler J. W. B. With the close of the school year 1925-1926, the Belmont High School suffers a severe, if not irreparable, loss in losing the services of Felix V. Cutler, a member of its faculty. In addition to his commendable services as an instructor, Mr. Cutler, during his five years in this school, has admirably discharged his duties as Faculty Member of the Athletic Association, and as the coach of hockey. Not only has he removed the heavy debt which existed when he assumed the former position, but he has equipped the various teams more liberally than ever before, and while in the latter capacity he has produced teams far above the average. But above all this, his reputation for integrity, his influence upon the students as a man of silent strength and unassuming manner, will make his loss keenly felt. So, wherever he goes or whatever he attempts, the Class of ’26 wishes him success, never doubting but that it will be the inevitable product of his sterling qualities. Despite the universal cry that athletics are being over-emphasized in the secondary schools and colleges to the detriment of scholarship, Belmont High School attributes considerable credit to its athletic standards as a stimulus to good scholarship. By rigid physical examination and gym- nastics only the physically competent may join the teams, while our strict eligibility rules allow only the mentally alert to compete. Furthermore, it is the opinion of several teachers that these strict requirements tend to raise, rather than lower, the scholarship of the students during the playing season. 6

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The 1926 Chameleon The Chameleon Staff Editor-in-Chief JESSE W. BILLINGS. Literary Editor PHILLIP C. HAWKES Business Manager HARRY F. MASSEY Associate Editors FLORENCE E. LOCKE BETTY BARSTOW JANE SHERMAN MARGARET WHEELER Alumni Editors MARION SKEHAN ETHEL MEEK RUSSELL SIBSON Art Jokes SEYMOUR COMBS ETHEL ANDERSON GORDON CREIGHTON STEPHEN SMITH CHARLES POOLER RENA LOOMER Sports ANIELLO DeSTEFANO HAROLD JONES ELIZABETH LOCKE Assistant Business Managers JOHN LYON REBECCA HOOKER WILLARD BRIGHAM HARRIET BATES RAYMOND INGRAM HELEN MacKNIGHT Year-Book Adviser MISS GERTRUDE L. MILLER 5

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The 1926 Chameleon From our studying of the masterpieces of English literature, we should, and as a rule do, obtain a more facile style of writing, a more expressive phraseology, a stimulus to the fancy, an addition to our knowl- edge of the facts of the past and the present. Yet he is a superficial reader who derives these benefits alone ; for the kernel of every immortal literary work lies in the code of morals or philosophy which it teaches, or its subtle warning or advice to man. To be able unaided to discern these gems of thought is the criterion of the thorough and devoted student. As most of us are about to start out upon life, it is infinitely to our benefit, if we can make our own at least a few of these great verities. These deep truths do not generally consist of abstruse and incomprehensible high-mindedness, but rather owe their force and fame to their easy applicability to every-day life. Thomas Carlyle, in his many essays, teaches many a valuable lesson, but none more fitting, we believe, for the secondary school student than this: no person, however old, is more than a youth, until he has arrived at a definite purpose in life. An aspiration or an ideal, no matter how difficult or unattainable, is the toga which transforms the stripling into the man. Therefore, to all students we say, “Have high ideals, and strive always to change this idealism into realism.” “See America First” P. C. H. We wonder how many of those who will seek the madding crowds of Paris next summer, have gazed, awe-stricken, at the splendor of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado ; how many of those who will gaze at the steeps of the Matterhorn have seen the gorgeous upheavals in our own Rocky Mountains; how many of those who will visit the Riviera and Nice have been in Miami and San Francisco? Is there, in any corner of the earth, a marvel to equal t ' :e overpower- ing grandeur of that tremendous descent at Niagara? He must be a sorry one, indeed, who would not be thrilled to the marrow 7 at the sight of the scintillating, iridescent ocean of water dropping from the heights to be smashed to myriad, multi-colored atoms on the time-worn rocks beneath. Can the heather-strewn reaches of Scotland transcend the hills and streams and wooded slopes of the Yellowstone National Park? Are the tiny hamlets of Brittany more quaint or delightful than Gloucester and Provincetown? Let us observe that much over- worked, but ever sound piece of advice • “See America first !” 7