Leominster High School - Magnet Yearbook (Leominster, MA)

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TUE CGI een JE JEL, SIA CW, In January a group of ten boys, interested in radio and electricity, got together and formed what is popularly called the L. H. S. Radio Club. Several very interesting and instructive meetings have been enjoyed by the members. Arthur Holland visited one of these meetings and explained various simple radio circuits. At the present time two committees are at work, one on the framing of a constitution, and a second on correspondence work with other schools and clubs. Plans for next year are already being made and include one or two trips to radio stations, as well as several speakers. Members are also planning to start the new year with various individual projects. Mrs. Grace Marlowe is Faculty Advisor. The present officers of this organization are:—Gale Tyler, President; Herbert Johnson and Carl Lanza, Vice-President; Howard Reeves, Secretary-Treasurer. The members are :— John Moulton Carlilanza Wesley Sargent Roger Hill John de Pasquale Ned Pelligrini James Hobbs Douglas Eaton Norman Ordway Ralph Person Louis Dube Frank Ippolito Kendal McRae Russel Tucker Herbert Johnson Vincent Lacouture

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— THE MAGNEI—— Aeronautical Club The officers of the Aviation Club are President, Winthrop Lear; Vice-President, Verne Fdéllansbee; Secretary, Walter Brown; and Treasurer, Philip Wright. Mr. Buck- nell is the Faculty Advisor of the club. Regular programs are carried out at their meet- ings. These programs include the study of aerodynamics, aerostatics, airplane instru- ments, motors, and designs. The first outside enterprise of the club was the securing of the motion picture film entitled, “The Lost Zeppelin’, which was shown in the Metropolitan Theatre on March 6th. This affair substantially increased the amount in the treasury and enabled the club to carry on larger enterprises. On April 28th the entire Club went on an auto tour of Boston and vicinity. Most of the time was spent at the East Boston airport. Here they met Mr. Johnson, who showed them the Colonial planes which carry mail to distant points from Boston. They also have complete charge of carrying passengers to New York, Montreal, and other points. Valuable papers, including bank notes and bonds, are carried on these planes. The boys had a chance to see the 10:45 A. M. plane from New York land, and the 12 o’clock plane take off for New York. They were next introduced to Mr. LeMan, sales manager of the East Coast Aircraft Corporation, who showed them various types of planes. This company is New England’s first exclusive aircraft sales and service organization. In the new administration building they met Mr. Ross, who has entire charge of the U. 8. weather bureau at the Boston Airport. He explained how the weather was forecast to the pilots, and how a pilot knew he was off his course. The party then went to the radio station, and later they visited the other part of the U. S. Weather Bureau at Castle Island where they heard a complete weather report being broadcasted. On May 10th the club hired the airplane of the Wachusett Airways and with Lieut. Langley took a “hop” over Leominster. Mr. Bancroft Hall gave an interesting talk at the last meeting of the club. We are very glad to say that all our members have gained much valuable information on aviation during our year’s activities.

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ee Three Centuries of Literary Culture “Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure and good. Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow.” Every land and every age has its own books, with beginnings perhaps as meager as our own. When our practical and religious Puritan ancestors came to the shores of Massachusetts, they were intent upon founding a colony, and had neither the time nor the environment conducive to writing. Then, too, they brought with them the rich in- heritance of the mother country and clung tenaciously to it, imitating in a provincial way the great men of literature at home. So the literature of this early period is valuable, not as art, but as an expression of the spirit of a people. Naturally the first books were histories, painting graphic pictures of the times. These works were largely imitative of the English, but they showed the seriousness and hardy strength of the Puritan emigrants. In addition to the histories written by the magistrates, we have the religious works of the clergymen and the controversial writings of the more militant among them. In these Massachusetts communities the clergyman was the most venerated man of all, and his sermons were listened to as “intellectual feasts’. Among these men John Cotton was the acknowledged leader. | . The Puritans, believing that art seduced the soul, did not encourage poetry, still they studied and practised it, and Michael Wigglesworth, who became New England’s Poet Laureate, stands out in the group of poets. As we read “Day of Doom’, we realize, however, that the day for our state to express herself in poetry had not yet come. Later, as the Revolution drew near, patriotism was inspired in these people, and they came to look more upon the worldly and practical than the divine and the life hereafter. Political questions gave rise to ballads and songs which were of momentary interest only. Politics also inspired essays, orations, and pamphlets which had a little more origi- nality than the earlier writings had had. The novel too was beginning to find a place in this period through the work of George Brockden Brown, who though depending upon the Gothic form, used America as the setting for his stories. But these early Americans were far too busy to write. What little was written shared in the crudeness of the life at that time, though it also showed the same promise of strength. New England and especially Massachusetts was still the home of independent religion and morals, of intellect, of education and of industry; but the Puritan grimness had softened into a strict primness. Although conditions in the United States in general were still unfavorable for literature, Massachusetts’ literature above that of all other states was gradually developing and beginning to show promise. Still lacking in originality and power; still linked with the past years, it was yet a forward movement. Thus we note that for the first two centuries our Massachusetts literature was primarily an imitation of the English; its merit being in its historical value rather than in its artistic value. Finally, after these years which were comparatively unfruitful as far as art is concerned, our state emerged into the light of the “Golden Age’. National unity bound the people more closely, education developed more extensively, many colleges were now centers of higher scholarship and culture, libraries were established, and more leisure and wealth was conducive to general culture. The time had at last come which was favorable for the production of good literature. The reading public increased, permitting a man to live by his pen; the greater scholarship broadened the literary forces; the culture of the Old World was brought over to the New; and writers now had an abundance of subject matter at home. There was a new interest in nature, with its mystery and spiritual significance; Indian life had taken on the charm of things past; and the history of the Revolutionary days came to acquire romantic interest for our American writers, so they were rich in material, but yet poor in craftsmanship. In Colonial and Revolutionary days we realize that Massachusetts was the literary leader, and as the 19th century progressed, she kept that leadership, for a new spiri t