Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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SPECTATOR 27 the next issue of The Lyre comes out in 1920 we hope to have them all back with us to tell how the Kaiser was sent to St. Helena. - SEW DAVIS. ...- . A Qlllihnight Barrark Nutr C Company, 316th Infantry, National Army Camp Meade, Maryland 17 January 1918 The Spectator, ' Johnstown High School, Johnstown, Pa. Dear Editor: I am going to let my thoughts revolve around Cooper's legs, to keep from rambling too far afield, it is bad to write letters after taps. Corporal Cooper was one of the selected men, and his legs had been a very great worry to us in the Orderly Room at the Company. I first met his one day last September as he stepped oi? the train at the head of a sturdy quota of Pennsylvania Dutchmen. Cooper did not look at all military, his arms and legs had grown wild. so to speak, his waist measured more than his broad shoulders, and he ambled beautifully. There was an air of responsibility about him, however, and his Local Board had picked him to steer its little group to Camp, and he was worth watching. For several weeks I observed his painful efforts in making his feet do about face, and then, when he began to execute movements like a soldier rather than a windmill, he was made a corporal. To his great surprise, Cooper found him- self a teacher, showing Ignatius and Angelino the difference between right and left, and proving to himself that he would have to conquer his own unruly feet. One day he took a squad of men to a newly finished bath-house for a shower. One unsophisticated rustic, who did not know what to make of the overhead apparatus, exclaimed, I seen one of them things before. But he did not know the open sesame for it, and Cooper, to whom a shower was not such an old

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26 SPECTATOR A we here highly resolve that this sacrifice shall not have been made in vain -that this, our alma mater shall have a new birth of service to the people, and that this college of the people shall be truly of the people, by the people, for the people. No greater monument to those ,who serve -for us-could be raised. ANDERSON H. WALTERS, '77, Gllama uf 19111 America, my country, I come at thy call, ' I plight thee my troth and I give thee my all, In peace or in war I am wed to thy weal, I'll carry the Hag through the fire and the steel, On sea nor on land shall it suffer disgrace, Unsullied it Boats o'er our peace-loving race, In reverence I kneel at sweet liberty's shrine,- America, my country, command, I am thine. ' -Grendahl. Nearly one-seventh of the total membership of the class of 1910 have answered the call, and figuratively speaking, have lived the above poem. When the 77 graduates of this class received their di- plomas on the night of june 2, 1910, little did twelve of them realize that they would be at this'date serving their country in a battle for the freedom of the world. But true to ,the old spirit of High School they responded to a call which came for the freedom of others and they are now with the cream of the nation elbow to elbow and foot to foot, determined to do their share to rid the world of a stagnant monster, Kaiser Wilhelm, emperor of all the Prus- sias, and would-be emperor of the world. For the class of 1910 its service men have gained sig- nal honors just as they did in their school days. And to these boys we wish to extend our earnest wish for their good luck. May we do at home at least half for our coun- try that they are doing on the field of battle. By the time

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28 SPECTATOR acquaintance, had to induct jacob into the delights of an army bath. One simple lesson like this followed another, Cooper learning just a little faster than his squad, and all learning something new every day. Unexpectedly the Company suffered a heavy loss in the transfer of the Clerk to Headquarters, and we had to comb through our qualification cards very carefully to find in our Berks County aggregation a man fitted for office work. Cooper had scored a modest line under the heading, Book- keeper, and we made him confess that he had also tapped a typewriter in a village store. With Cooper in the office the fun began. VVith elephantine grace he plunged into his work, but his legs were entirely too long for our tiny Or- derly Room. When an officer came in and he snapped up to attention, he always knocked over the chair or jarred the Captain's pen into making an earthquake graph. There was too much of him for our two-by-four office. He had made great progress on military lines, however, and one day the chance came. The Captain looked up suddenly from an order which had just come in. Cooper, how would you like to go to France? My God, no l was the startled answer. No one from the Company had gone overseas up to that time, and Cooper had been too busy to think of such an immediate possibility. The train leaves at nine o'clock, and that gives you about forty minutes to pack up, was all the Captain said. Cooper knocked over his chair, came up to a salute, and charged out of the room. A few minutes later he came in again with his barrack bag, and he looked rather sheepish. he said, I guess I didn't mean what I said about going to France. It came kind of sudden, and maybe there'1l be more room for me over there anyway. The Company was mighty proud of him as he marched down to Regimental Headquarters. That is the simple tale of one man, and it is typical. A cablegram came for a typist, and a good man had to be sent. It was not the long legs, always in the way, that HSir,!!