Elston High School - Elstonian Yearbook (Michigan City, IN)

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Edward Dankert’17—An Appreciation mm mam If there be any exceptional merit in this production, any feature which sets it off from the ordinary high school annual, it is the art work. The difference between the illustrations in this book and those in the majority of secondary school publications is the difference between Forbes-Robertson and a third-rate actor playing Hamlet; they both say the same words, do practically the same things, but from one we get inspiration, from the other, the mere story; from one, a realization of the emotions and passions of Hamlet’s heart; from the other, only the printed words vocalized. And so it is with the illustrations herein reproduced. From Edward Dankert’s art work we get an anticipation of what is to follow; an atmosphere is created which aids materially in the enjoyment and appreciation of the department. His products have the snap, the humor or the artistic element in just those proportions which proclaim a triumph of the pen. And so the reader, as he views these illustrations, cartoons and sketches, can realize how grateful we are to Edward for the conscientious task he has performed. For every drawing in this edition, as in the one of last year, is from his prolific pen, and though he is not a member of the graduating class, yet he has worked with a vim and enthusiasm that is most gratifying. Had every one of us the generous school loyalty that is Edward’s, our institution would lx? unsurpassed in the state. That he may enjoy the success he deserves when he takes up the profession of art, is the hearty wish of the Class of 1916. 18

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A PROTEST Although it is an error in practically every kind of composition to introduce a subject with an apologetic explanation, yet circumstances may cause this to be permissible and even advisable. Were the writer of this editorial a man of years and experience, he would have no qualms about criticising and reproving young men. But for a boy to criticise boys may, at first, appear presumptive. The writer, however, considers everything said as applicable to himself as to any other young man; and being himself a young man, he is able to give firsthand information which an older person could not obtain. The young men of America are slipping—drifting. So vastly different are they from their strict ancestors of New England, or their simple forefathers of Pennsylvania, or their rugged pioneer grand-parents of the Middle West! The average American youth is becoming lax—lax in his morals, his conduct, his speech, his habits of work and play. His whole life is merely a following of the line of least resistance. He is an adept in the “modem art of making a fool of himself’, but for the most part, he lacks the backbone that it takes to squarely face himself and determine to stop a pernicious habit, or change an attitude of mind, to say nothing at all about a real battle, which combines control of himself and of others. To exhaustively cover all the ground which comes under a vast subject of this nature, would require a huge volume. But it is our object only to mention a few of the matters in which the American young man fails to do what his better sense tells him, and to show in what respects he is falling back. Let us start on minor matters, matters which are apparently of such small consequence that they command very little attention. For instance, there is the matter of courtesy. The old spirit of chivalry seems to have died out in the majority of American boys and is replaced by an uncommendable attitude of “do others before they do you”. We have seen so much discourtesy. especially about the school building, that we have come to accept it almost as a matter of course. We see it in the class-rooms in the impolite practice of speaking while another is reciting; we have noticed it in the young fellows who hang about the entrances before school in the morning and at noon, and use profane language, even though girls are passing in. In the entertainments given in our own auditorium, we have observed rampant discourtesy. We always find those who will persist in whispering, or in putting on their coats and hats just before the curtain falls, thereby destroying the effect of an impressive scene. The cause of these short-comings is usually thoughtlessness. It seems that, under the modern conditions, this is a problem for the school to handle, altho it rightfully belongs to the home. Leaving the category of smaller evils, of which a lack of courtesy is representative, we come to those greater evils to which many young men are drifting. Of course, as we leave the “little foxes” and proceed to actual sins, the discussion applies to fewer young men; and yet we wager an older person who prides himself on his knowledge of youth, or who thinks that he intimately knows certain young men, would be astounded to learn to how many boys of his acquaintance these following words apply: The inability of the American youth to face the ridicule of the crowd is leadiny him into more corrupt practices and sins than any other outside influence or combination of influences. “But how can this lead to anything worse than a loss of independence of thought?” you may ask. Out of seventy-three cases of boys, under twenty-one years of age, who smoked tobacco, from observations made during the last four years in four different types of cities, so far as the character of the population is concerned, sixty-two admitted, and in some cases, maintained that their reason for using it was not that they enjoyed it. but that they were as game as the next one”, or that the bunch all smoked, and they kidded me about it. so I began, too”. That a fellow who smokes respects one who does not is shown by the fact that most of the seventy-three advised the investigator not to begin. “I wish I never had”, they said. Our next statements will probably be the most surprising and would not be disclosed, true as they are, were it not that they may bo the means by which many people may have their eyes opened to some conditions which exist, not among working boys, but among students in high schools, surrounded by the most uplifting environments and by a cultured class, which should tend to strengthen their characters. In our own high school of about one hundred fifty boys (and the condition is typical to a more or less degree in the 20