Brooklyn Technical High School - Blueprint Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

Page 21 text:

Remembrance of Things Past by DONALD KORNREICH, B32 Illustrated by Hyman Spieler, 7G5 What a world this is for sorrow! To see things and yet not to grasp them, to desire and not to attain. But it was not always like this. I have memories of: the dim, rich, beautiful, blue-wooded hills, the high branching elms and the stately walnuts, the hot, heavy, restless july days, the fresh, dark November days-not so gloomy as half-lit and colorless, the thunder brewing in the dark heart of huge inky clouds, the gentle rain pattering softly on the roof tops and window sills, the long-quiet fields, the cold bare hill tops, the fallows with hedges and coverts rounded with mists, the pleasant plodding and clinking of the horses coming home, the little ancient church with its timbered spire, the small red-brick school house with its short chim- ney and tall windows, the cluster of friendly buildings on the edge of a pool, the lights twinkling in the house while the fire glows and darts in the hall in the evening, the happy children playing under the blue sky, the men and women chatting merrily amongst them- selves, the peaceful thoughts echoing like a strain of rich, sad music. iam .Ulf LLQ . ik 2? 111 .r N S lil -cpm-4-'-:: ju-,F Y- '51, -.re .Q ..- -23, .-5, 1 57's X..---. Hi, gl: lik ,Q ,. ,vs .z- -. .uf 4- .5 32, dr,-1, - h. J 0 YS K 'I , ,. F52 . am ' x 'Q ' vflgf 7:5 V ..-gg-W--. If . F 3 2 ,.,.-.,, . . 1 , V X .. A h, x S, in-'f 1 ' 1 . ' 9' ' ng:-f - Q u'f,':1,1,'c' . - 5. giiiixf. : ... li, if . ' - x if Lf x -al: f l ' li , r- W , ' fi. F H f Y X 5 4 -,,t ' NN X 4: N- r -nVA,ll N -..,.nu --' . dim, - 'Q'-E lr ..nn-ai. , '. ' , 7 .lm---lil , '1 - - ,iw f X 't ' ill Today, however, caught in the midst of this fever called life , I am constantly in danger of not living at all, but simply racing on like a man intoxicated with affairs, without leisure for strolling, for sitting, for talking, for watching the sky and the earth, for smelling the sweet scents of flowers, noting the ways of animals, playing with chil- dren, eating and drinking. Yet this is our heritage. This is what it means to be A Man! 17

Page 20 text:

The greyness above him grew blacker, the air heavier. Even the heavens were convening to conspire against him, to stop him from committing the crime. Commit- ting a crime? Ah yes! Tbey would call it IllIlI'd6l'! Harsh word, thatf--murder. He shuddered. He hastened his dragging steps. If only the rains would come down to relieve him of that terrible weight that was slowly bowing him down. Oh to feel the soothing droplets on his face, to feel it washing the sweat from his eyes and trickling into his 16 mouth, moistening his patched throat. Hark! What was that? A rumble in the distance. Listen! It came closer! Louder! Louder! It boomed and thundered about his head. He staggered! Broad sheets of lightning flashed in his eyes, stunned him! He was weakening. But listen! A new sound, low, sibilant, like the voice of a thousand serpents. What was that running down his face? Water? The rain! It had come at last. But too late! He was weak- ening fast. His legs were folding under him. Darkness entered his eyes, smothered his heart. He lost consciousness. The rain came harder now. In solid sheets it beat down on man and mud, washing them togetherfAmaking them one. Dimmer and dimmer the lightening flashed. Softer grew the thunder. For a while the rain beat ong but at last it de- parted into the distancefwhence it had come. Overhead the blackness of the sky slowly, reluctantly surrendered to the deep gentle blue of the heavens. The moon, still veiled with long wisps of clouds, shone out with its soft, silvery radiancefu endowing each rock, each blade of grass with its own shimmering. Pin points of light, that were the stars, appeared in the blue velvet blanket of the sky. One by one they came out, their twinkling light vying with the moon to dispel the shadows that lingered furtively behind the larger rocks and trees. The wind subsided to a gentle breeze that gently rippled the surface of the puddles of rain water, distorting the reflections of the moon and stars. The soft sighing of the breeze seemed to magnify the silence. Something stirred in the stillness. A head rose from the mud. How still! How quiet it was. He looked about himff-up at the sky. A wisp of wind played with a stray lock of his hair, fanned his face, soothed himf-fas a mother's hand soothes flfmzlizzued rm page 201

Page 22 text:

Problems of Problematic Time-Travelers by ALEX HELLER, B61 Illustrated by John Sanchez, 810 .Man has made some little prog- ress in traversing the dimensions which are to him tangible, but in traveling in a fourth dimension, time, he has been entire- ly unsuccessful. The conquest of this in- tangible dimension would present unusu- al problems and paradoxes. When Professor X- gets into his time machine, sets it for the year 2040 and pushes the starting lever, scientists will ex- perience no trouble in accounting for him. As far as the world is concerned he will cease to exist for a period of one hundred years and then he will suddenly reappear. Simple enough-isn't it? But if he should turn the setting back to 1840, he would run into difficulties. As before, he would cease to exist in the world of 1940 and would appear from nowhere in the world of one hundred years ago. Thus, supposing the experiment to be successful, it would be known in 1840 that a trip backwards in time, starting from 1940, had been made and Professor X- could not possibly prevent himself from making his trip. Then too, suppose the professor started 18 on july 4, 1940, at six in the morning and went backward at Hrst exactly one hundred years, and then Hfteen minutes. If he wait- ed fifteen minutes he would Hnd himself in july 4, 1840, at six o'clock, and he would see himself materialize from the future traveling back from his original start in the twentieth century. One way to do away with these prob- lems is to assume that once a time-traveler goes backward in time, he can not possibly return to his starting time along the line of probability which he has followed into the past. That is, his advent into the world of the past would provide a new factor in the development of the world, and the modified development could not possibly result in the same civilization which had produced him and his time machine. Professor X-- in the case given be- fore would no longer meet himself coming backward in time as he would travel the last fifteen minutes in an entirely differ- ent line of probability from that in which he first traveled backward in time.