Central High School - Red and Black Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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Thomas Davidson with one of his favorite pupils, 19th Century. It was my good fortune to study Greek history and the Greek language with him. As for science, we had very little of that, although our botany work was good. There was no laboratory, on account of lack of funds. I remember that once, Mr. Richard Hays, a finely educated man, put something into a pipe and the result was a horrible . odor-probably sulphur. That was the ex- tent of my laboratory experience. Our elocution was criticized by Mr. Iohn Felix Hunicke. Martling, who insisted that I should bite my words off! The word bite suggests luncheons. Our luncheon was generally a flat slab of bread and meat with an apple or an orange. A girl in funds might run out to the front gate and buy a sandwich, or if she knew a boy, she might ask him to get the sandwich. But our mental pabulum was much more abundant than ordinary food. Probably, after the walk home at 2:30 P.M., the good snack from the home larder was quite sufficient for our needs. There were other teachers in dear old Central, but I have forgotten them. I can truly say this: there may have been a finer corps of teachers in the country, but I doubt it. These noble, generous, serious-minded men and women gave us something that is difficult to define. There was a steady onward urge that led us to do our best when seeking that intangible, elusive thing called Culture. So well were we drilled that we longed to attack new and interesting problems. A short time after I graduated in 1870, I went down to the Central High and informed Mr. Horace Morgan that I desired a position as teacher in the school. He gave me a quizzical look, wrinkled his nose, and said, I think, Virginia, it would be better for you to teach some- where else at first and come to me later. after a little experience. Later, I gained the experi- ence under Miss Sarah Bacon, Mrs. Dunham, of the Laclede School, Mr. Gilfillan, of the Lincoln School, and Mr. Davidson of the Polytechnic, on Chestnut and Seventh. A chance to substitute in old Central High restored my self-esteem, and forty-two happy years of teaching in Mary Institute made me ever conscious of this vision: a Greek runner with a lighted torch in his hand who seemed to say what my Central High School teachers had often said of the Torch of Civilization, Let us pass it on! m e 'E t eefkllfl Polytechnic School Building, Seventh and Chestnut. Page Twenty-nine

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genuine love of the language. And Goethe, whom I had always called Go-eeth, became for me a living poet, along with Schiller and Heine. It is probable that my visit to Weimar and to the grave of Heine in Montmarte Cemetery in Paris resulted from the many inspiring talks of Mr. Iohn Keller. Mr. Frank Childs, the principal, seemed to take a personal interest in each one of us. While he was principal, a few of us acted a play called It Never Rains but It Pours. The play may be found in an old Godeyis Lady's Book. Dear Mr. Childs was so anxious that we should articulate properly. After his death, Mr. Horace Morgan was our principal. He made English literature, from Chaucer to Ruskin and Tennyson, a study of vital interest. We had a school paper edited by boys and girls chosen by the school. I had the honor to edit it once. The paper was called Our Own and was the result of many days of begging and nagging. The editor Wrote some witticisms and endeavored to make it entertaining: as I look over it now, I find its very flatness most amusing. We had many dramatic readings. Our stars were Fred Crunden and Frank Cook. We gave a curious play called The Great Republic Grand National Allegory and Tableaux, written and revised for M. Hager's Entertainments by Captain W. Miller. ln this play, the Southern states seceded. I was given the part of North Carolina because I had a gift for yelling through my nose. When I threw down my Union Flag and joined the seceding states, I roared at the Union crowd, What will you do for tar and turpentine? One of our serious studies was mathematics, taught by Miss Helen Shafer, who after- wards became President of Wellesley College. We had to attend strictly to the business of learning algebra and geometry: some ambitious girls took trigonometry, but I was too sweetly feminine to bother with that. I remember a time when Miss Shafer sent a boy to the black- board: this boy drew the geometric figure and carefully used the same letters that were in the book. With my good memory I could learn the position of each letter and therefore explain the problem: if he had changed the letters, I should have been lost. A young and pretty blonde, Miss Bigelow, who later married Mr. Trask, gave us drawing lessons. She showed us how to copy real flowers in water colors and also how to copy other pictures with crayons. After many days, I finished a black and white copy of a hillside, a horse and wagon, and a man who was supposed to be walking. I used my spending money to pay for a frame, and one afternoon I carried my work of art home with me saying to my father, Pa, here is a picture that I made for you. Where shall I hang it? He looked at it carefully and said, Hang it in the closet. This was tragedy. My mother was shocked. The longer that I have lived, however, the more certain I am that the closet was the place for it. The study that gave me the most pleasure was The History of Art, taught by Miss Mary E. Beedy, She had a great love of art, and illustrated her teaching with many pictures. We went from Egypt, 4000 B. C., through Assyria, Persia, Greece, Rome, Italy of the Renaissance, and down to modern times. It was a joyl I can even now see Miss Beedy's long forelinger tracing the outlines of an Apollo or a Bacchus with equal ' 7 ' ,,,g,i,tQ,, if 'W impartiality. After I graduated, ' J 2' , , SCX A' - I she invited me to give talks to 5 . Qgnllll Mukhi gfhnn, . xl , Q the Art Class in h er room. X , . gikouti Tw 11111111 L ,Q Sometimes she would invite a Q S E' 1 .sw MW .- .5 if ' - -Jw 50q:U, ' I number of us girls to her room 'li'utw55 ' Q L aws- WQYESQW 10145 in the south side of the city, ' ' ' 'I l ' A where we could revel in a corn- fggzasxs is T0 smrsHrxzW, JQZMMQ ,Ea gnation oaths G10r5'fhafgv0S fini HIAIIXAAIXII 1116111424 7122 ,Q6k1z!2rlf Xvggefigoilglentt 631551 tag Cfgtgn fzzzz 'C'YQZf1.1nrnQffaf1, Qrahuatrb with full guitars af 2 Qfymm !ll!'HllA!l!f:1 A, fd d4JW1 JldHf07lJ ZfCd1Z4 pf ll2!C3Z1rkf4:ggza1.Q dZZn4YQZ2ff M , 0 If M71-41 A 1 gn Qutimnug Mlnnnf, 496 153.-...QA-ff: amlcekmfay 142 5 f I f and cakes. It was the personal touch that made us happy. Later on we took Shakes- peare with Mr. Iohn Kimball and mental and moral philos- ophy fro m Mr. Denton Snider. One of our most distin- guished instructors W a s Mr. Thomas Davidson fr o m Scot- ,'2'a.mna mu law AIJINMO ae! 1669 fund an! War! I6 Qfwuaizlzbwa .sm , Q J, 477, 'ffl MZJWD '5'f0 '3 Z 'f E land. He ranked as one of the g 1 Znal W' ' ' K 2 awww., A twelve greatest scholars ofthe A! 1'1 seem: - fvuvhfn- .reacts ww - e 'omg

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- Thank you. Miss Stevenson. Central can never forget your loyalty and what you have stood for-the improvement of personality through education . V Three years later Central celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary. What events have transpired, and what vistas have opened up with the passing of the years! The West has been conquered and the terms fi g? cowboy, rustler, posse, bonanza, and pay-dirt have become familiar to every American as the language of the Saga of the West. The foundations for huge fortunes have been laid by the Rockefellers, the Astors, the Morgans, the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, and the Carnegies. A band of steel has welded the East and the West: for the Union Pacific has been completed in 1869. New inventions are pointing the way to a fabulous future. The laissez- faire theory reigns supreme unmindful of a Manifesto published by an unknown young Ger- man by the name of Karl Marx. America is fast approaching the Gay Nineties. And Central has grown with the years. The once commodious building is bursting with eager students, so that branch schools must take care of the overflow. Our narrator for the twenty-fifth anniversary of Central's founding is truly one of Central's own. Graduating in 1869, with the highest average ever attained by a graduate of Central, he continued his education in college and later became principal of the school he loved so well. Let me introduce Mr. W. I. S. Bryan: THE first Quarter Centennial Anniversary of the Central High School was held on the fourteenth of Iune, 1883, twenty-five years after the graduation of the first class, which comprised these thirteen names: Henry M. Anderson Iames W. Loring Campbell O. Bishop Thaddeus T. Smith Robert A. Davison Amelia Child George K. Eaton Halcyon Child George P. Herchel Mary A. Gamewell Giles C. Litcher Anna I. Love Iulia T. Warren The Principal, Horace H. Morgan, said of the meeting: 'iThe event proved of great interest to the large number of graduates and former pupils, and to the still larger circle of friends and supporters, who availed themselves of the opportunity thus afforded them to testify their appreciation of the work accomplished by the High School. By their presence and words they evinced their conviction of the great value of the school to the entire com- munity. The unqualified endorsement of such men as S. D. Barlow, Iohn W. Noble, Nathan Cole, lohn A. Dillon, Shepard Barclay, Henry F. Harrington, Thomas Metcalfe, Richard Edwards, W. D. Dickinson, Iames E. Yeatman, Carlos S. Greeley, Wm. H. Thompson, should certainly carry with it great weight and should lead to a proper recognition of the worth and needs of the school, such a recognition on the part of the public as would secure for the school all the much-needed advantages of a suitable location, a convenient and com- modious building, a liberal provision for apparatus, books of reference, and such other appoint- ments as would facilitate the great work to be accomplished. The Alumni Association, which had been in existence since 1868, had become very active in its efforts to induce the community and the Board of Education to furnish the school condi- tions necessary for its most effective conduct-conditions which through its persistent presenta- tion were finally secured ten years later when the building was erected on Grand Avenue and Windsor Place at a cost of fB400,000 and comprising sixty-four rooms. The original building, which was dedicated February 26, 1856, cost 547,000 and contained ten rooms. In twenty-five years the high school had outgrown its first building and had been relieved by having taken from it the firstayear class, which was housed in branch schools. Page Thirty