East High School - Cardinal Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

Page 16 text:

loused, so utterly out of harmony with the spirit of graduation, as to assume that a grad- uating robe could be worn on any other occasion? But how unimportant this seemingly important question is! Does it interfere with, or benefit, the male members of the class? Answer us that, and we shall be interested at once. But patriotism makes this suggestion: lVhy should not the costumes be in the school colors? lYhat could be more beautiful than to see our lovely maidens adorned in snow-white gowns with fiaming red caps coyly resting on their heads and a scarlet tassel over one ear? And the valiant youths with white duck suits and crimson hosiery? This would be a glori- ous spectacle! Once seen. never forgotten! Five hundred performers and trained ani- mals! Performances afternoon and evening! Parade every morning! Tickets fifty cents! C C5i9 Crying Needs HAT is this awful clamor? asked a stranger as he entered East High School one day. Oh, answered the Senior, Hthat shriek issues forth from the Statue of Minerva. She is demanding that she be cleansed of the filth which now begrimes her plaster robes. The moaning and wailing you hear comes from the auditorium. It is the call of those big white blotches on the side wall. for paint to cover their pallid nakedness. The awful rumbling comes from the annex. That culmination of 2oth century mastery in architecture. the annex! Une rumble is for those beautiful soft wood, grey-painted front doors, the other for that death-dealing cliff-stairway with those limb-wrecking swinff doors. . D N This. in part. explains the awful clamor that you hear. G 5JCfi'D HE class of Nineteen Hundred Nine does not presume to call itself the best that ever graduated from East High School. Besides. we would be too modest to assert the claim, upon every occasion, with that arrogance so characteristic of graduating classes. The class of Nineteen Hundred Nine, however, has stood for certain definite ideals in high school life. These ideals have not been smothered in meaningless class mottoes: progressive action has followed their conception. The things we have attempted to do have been bigger, better. more lasting than those undertaken by preceding classes. XYe have done this, not to crown our efforts with extraor- dinary pomp and external brilliancy. but to set a higher standard of real actual worth. Wie have sought to accomplish those things which have a definite significance. and a permanent value. School spirit and earnest. enthusiastic endeavor in all branches of school activity have characterized the members of the Senior class. Everything which tends to make our school life broader. more comprehensive, has been encouraged and urffed 'ilo U. fm S 1 nas Perhaps the best evidence of the standards we have tried to establish may be found in the selection of the Senior class play. lYeary of the interesting, but valueless. high school vaudeville. we sought for something classic. It was found in Tom Pinch, the dramatized version of Dickens' novel 'flffartin Chuzzlewitf' Though, of course, the pro- duction was essentially the work of amateurs, it showed earnestness and sincerity. The

Page 15 text:

Auditorium Hlf bell rings. There is a mad rush for the auditorium. The innocent observer. caught in the onrushing torrent of students seeking front seats is madly pushed, pulled. or jerked into the assembly hall. ln spite of the incon- venient circumstances. our friend has taken due notice of all the interesting things about him. lie sees a group of girls just ahead of him. lie hears the following in rapid suc- cession 2 l think auditorium is lots of fun. -'llow many periods will be skipped? - l've got to study Virgil. - Who's going to talk? XYhat will it be about? I hope he takes a long time. Still, long talks are a bore. but then it takes time. lYe don't have to listen. -i'-Xren't those puffs awful? Look at that dress! etc.. etc.. without rhyme or reason. The observer watches this group. They take seats near the back. Their chatter con- tinues in subdued stage whispers. Mr. Webster scans the horizon. .Xfter a pause he be- gins. The sky darkens. Mr. XYebstcr frowns. The storm breaks. Mr. XYebster has stopped, and in terms of utmost severity asks those girls right down there in the middle of the room to stop whispering. The girls are thoroughly ashamed and repentant. The rest of the students are sur- prised and thankful that they were not the guilty ones. This time the observer muses. Yes. of course the girls did not intend any harm. That excuse is shopworn. To be sure. they were thoughtless, but young people must be taught that courtesy is the tirst es- sential of good breeding. The auditorium period is arranged for the benefit of the students of the East High School. XYhen they attend that assembly. they do so to receive information and knowl- edge. ln return. their undivided attention is demanded by the speaker. whoever he may be. lt would seem that respect for Mr. XYehster alone would be sutticient. In any public meeting, auditorium. debating contests, class plays. or any branch of school activity. the students attend to be instructed or entertained. The smallest offering in return is absolute attention. lf you come to laugh and talk. while others are making an earnest effort. our advice is stay zitvuy. 7G 3 Caps and Gowns .XPS and gowns or not caps and gowns, is a question over which liiryan himself would surely wax oratorical. It is a burning question beside which woman suffrage seems minor, indeed. It is pressing an early solution, or this great Democracy will fall to rack and ruin. The great leaders of the opposition declare that the gowns will make the girls look too old, just like the university graduates. Oh horrors! Such a thought must be a haunting nightmare. Never. never, shall our sweet. conhding. youthful. blushing. bashful children assume the appearance of aged and decrepit university students. A second argument is that the gown could be worn upon one occasion only. Oh, no: such a delusion is misleading. for there is our university graduation at which all must wear cap and gown. Even if the cap and gown are not worn. what girl would so forget herself as to overlook the transcendent importance of a graduation dress? XVho would be so cal- fm.-.

Page 17 text:

stage setting was more elaborate and pretentious than is usually to be found in high school plays. No higher tribute could be desired for our play than Mr. XVebster's comment: It was a really good play. the best that has ever been put on in this auditorium. Though the estimate of the HCardinal will be largely a matter of individual opinion, nevertheless the editors have had high ideals and aspirations. They have tried to make the book representative of the whole school-to make it live. interesting, worth while. The best literary values have not been, intentionally at least. sacrificed to wit and humor. The editors have striven to make the humorous material good natured and inoffensive to the most sensitive. yet bright. crisp and to the point. Whatever may be the shortcomings. or perhaps the failures. of the class of Nineteen Hundred Nine. we have aimed high. 9 HERE is to be one departure from the East High School. at this Commencement time, which should not pass unnoticed. .Xfter many years of service on behalf of the boys and girls of Minneapolis, Miss Roe is to retire from teaching. Her departure will touch deeply the hearts of many boys and girls. and young men and young women who in the past years have been moulded and uplifted by her gentle influence. They have gone forth from this school at their various Commencement seasons. as we shall go forth at ours, with clearer heads. kinder hearts and a larger vision because of her part in making them what they are. The passing of such a teacher cannot be marked with words of faint praise. Her rare sweetness. her gentleness and kindly tact. have endeared her to us, and to her pupils one and all. She has been ever ready to give without stint her time and effort to our service. She has required of us, in turn, so much of enthusiasm, of honesty, of directness of purpose. that to be enlisted with her was at once an inspiration and a source of despair. She would see nothing but good in anyone. She expected us always to be at our best. She found excuse. whenever possible. for our mistakes and our failures. and we had to be worthy of her trust. XYe have marveled ever at the loftiness of her spirit. Though her grip on the details of the classroom never loosened. her thoughts were on the highest things only. lt was hard to reach the standard that she set. and expected of us, but we all are better for having tried to attain it. lVe honor her also because of her attitude toward her work, She taught us Latin, but she was interested not mainly in Latin. but in boys and girls, in us. To her. Latin was a tool, a means by which the development of her pupils might be wrought. But Latin was not to her an inert. inanimate thing. a dead language. a thing merely of conjugations and rules and case-endings. lt was alive. lt was a point-of-view. It was the magic key which opened to us the door to a wonderful past, the life and thought of a people different from us. in an age different from ours. NVith her. we saw through Roman eyes and lived in Roman days. And we surely are better fitted to cope with the issues of life here and now because we have had. under her guidance. the wide experience of facing life from the standpoint of the great Roman world. l -13-