Madera Union High School - Blue and White Yearbook (Madera, CA)

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3 — — Es 10 HIGH SCHgolL ANNUAL. fault, as scholars are apt to think, but to praise also; then weigh good and bad care- fully, and the result will be your own opinion. Even if the decision is wrong it has benefited you to form it. Each study in the course, whether it be poetry or prose, is selected with some par- ticular object in view, and each is intended to illustrate some peculiarity in style, time, place, subject or prosody, so that when the course has been completed a fair knowledge of the standard authors will have been gained. Rhetoric is studied in connection with read- ing so that we may see the rules applied, and when a composition is required, thoughts can be logically and intelligibly expressed. Grammar is reviewed while studying the con- struction of good works and can be i ntelli- gently applied. Classic myths are also studied, and while a knowledge necessary for intelligent reading is acquired, a respect for classic art is en- gendered, a love for the beauties of nature either cultivated or inspired, and the imagina- tions stimulated. Special attention to composition work is ad- vised by the University, and as much time is given to that branch as is possible in our lim- ited time. Immediately after finishing the study of any selection, one or more compositions are written by each one, and often character sketches are required. c The unity, concord, construction, grammar, mode of expression and thoughts are severely criticised, so each may see his faults, and by repeated trial, endeavor to amend them. The life of each author, whose works we intend to read, is studied. His peculiarities are discussed by the class, so that after they begin to read, his traits can be traced. Enough books are given in the course to il- lustrate the most noted styles of composition but there are more books in the list than are required to be read, so the teacher may choose those that are most suitable for the class. For convenience and to economize time, the Junior and Middle classes were combined this year, and consequently tried to do two years’ work in one. ‘They read the Alhambra, Lady of the Lake, Merchant of Venice, Prisoner of Chillon and Deserted Village and Gayley’s Classic Myths. The Senior class also were compelled to finish more than one year’s work. ‘They read “‘Comus,’’ Burke’s Speech at Bristol, Webster’s Reply to Hayne, Warren Hastings, and Lyle’s From Milton to Tennyson, containing poems by Milton, Dryden, Pope, Thompson, John- son, Gray, Goldsmith, Cowper, Burns, Coler- idge, Byron, Keats, Shelley, Wordsworth, Macauley, Clough, Arnold and Tennyson. L. M. ’g9. Our School Days. ar How gently comes back to us the memory of the few short years that are fled; how like the last lingering ray of the golden sunbeam sadly settles down upon the youthful breast the sorrowful truth that the happiest and brightest of his school days have passed. In after years how fondly will reflect upon our vague and indistinct memories the few little incidents and pleasures of our past school days. O, those glorious school days! Who would rob us of their charms? Who would de- prive us of the sweet memory of the day when we took that blissful vacation all by ourselves without the consent of the teacher, and in the sultry solstice of the summer day took our sleds and skates and went to the San Joaquin river a fishing, and when we returned with no compensation for our journey except one poor old fish that we bought of a peddler, half a quart of blackberries and mosquito bites, a lost fish rod and a bad cold. When we are grown old and wise like those noble professors who come around making ‘Paleontological collections”’ of ‘“Topographi- cal Gazetteers,’’ ‘Sociological ‘I'reatises,’’? and a few other things like that, then we will rub our deeply furrowed brows and think of the Dae Se CAE eee ine irene hele ha ae =a

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HIG ss C HOO ANNUAL. found something to be true he is more ready to believe it than he would be if he had to take someone’s word for it. In the chemical laboratory many interesting facts are brought to light by the student. Many things, e. g., pouring gas from oue bottle to another, weighing gas, or burning steel, which, at first thought, seem almost im- possible, are done, and thus indelibly impressed upon the mind of the learner. The mind is trained to note carefully every little thing in relation to an experiment, and the student, being required to write down everything he has observed, and from these facts to draw his own conclusions, is trained in the habit of thinking and in the power of observation. Thus, though his conclusions are sometimes wrong, they are much more valuable to him than a whole book full of facts simply com- mitted to memory. Although our laboratory is a converted cloak room, with very few of the conveniences of a good laboratory, still, under the guidance of our esteemed teacher, Miss Nicholson, we have spent many profitable hours in it. We are tolerably well supplied with chemicals and apparatis. Tn relation to the laboratory, R. P. Williams says: ‘‘T'o theaverage young person chemistry is the most fascinating of sciences. Its exper- iments teem with newness, odorous gases, colored liquids, and precipitates stimulate the powers of observation, and explosions fill his mind with wonder.’’ Although this newness seems very fascinating to the Juniors, and the work seems, to them, to be easy, yet we have had many hard lessons during the year. Exper- imenting does not take the place of studying, but is used to aid us in understanding our work. We will now turn our attention to Physics for a short time. ‘Tt is wholly beyond question that to him who desires to become a physicist practical laboratory work is absolutely essential. Thor- ough knowledge must be drunk in by the eyes and the ears, and absorbed by the finger-tips,’’ says Daniell, Chemistry deals with the elements and the different compounds and mixtures which they make. It hunts up the different elements of which rocks, earth, air, etc., are composed; while physics deals with matter and energy and the relation of the one to the other. Physics in its broadest sense takes in Biology, Chemistry, Chemical and Physiological Phys- ics. Physics is continually growing in import- ance asa study. It formerly was, and is yet to a certain extent, possible for a student to receive the degree M. D. without having any adequate knowledge of physics. But times are changing, and it will probably soon be impossible for a person to receive that title until he has a good knowledge of natural philosophy. During the past year Mr. Zion has been our instructor in this branch of our work and, as a class, we can say that the time spent in the Physical Laboratory, as well as that spent in the Chemical Laboratory, has been pleasant and profitable. We are glad that we live in a time when these advantages are given to students, and we intend to make the most of our opportunities. We Me Co O@e Our English Course. ar The course in English prescribed by the University of California, is arranged for High Schools having a four years’ course. While there is just enough work to be mastered in that time, it is entirely too much for a three years’ course as our school has. In order to finish, the work must be rushed over, and in this way the purpose of some selections is en- tirely lost. Neither beauty of style nor depth of thought can be fully appreciated without time for discussion of these points in class. Under these circumstances we can never learn to criticise, properly, authors whose works we read. Great authors are open to criticism as well as insignificant writers, and we are entitled to our opinion of them as well as other critics. To criticise does not necessarily mean to find

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neuory ov ke HIGH SCHOOL ANNUAL. ila precious moments we spent in listening to those semi-annual professors talk science, and how we used to awaken in agony from our moaning dreams, in the stillness of the lecture and wipe the great beads of perspiration from our troubled brow, as we imagined that we might some day be a circuit professor. Dear schoolmates, do you still retain in your misty memory the recollection of the time when all the boys, having become wearied of the monotony of school life, rashly re- solved to go to war and kill something, and when the time came for enlistment they could not sign their names, had a bad cold and wished themselves home ? How like the thought of a delirious night- mare comes back to us the recollection of the time when we rudely resolved to quit school and break up the whole public school system in America. But we found that school kept, notwithstanding our absence, and we returned as visitor next day only to meet with a cold reception from the teacher. When we are aged and great and are presi- dent or newspaper reporter, how like the the fragrance of the almost forgotten forget- me-not will come back to us the memory of the first day we orated to the debating society and how we stirred our audience’s blood to such a flood of mutiny that we pitied them, and how that great lump of embarrassment rose in our throat choking us until they pitied us. In the illusive and fanciful future how will we seek refuge from the stare of the nation’s eye and thrust away the cares of statesman- ship and give full vent to the thronging thoughts of the fantastic capers we cut in school; and like a long lost mystery we will discover the cold, hard fact that to our school days we owe our destiny. It was there that we learned to concentrate our minds into one great mass of thought, and how to tell a plausible lie. It was there we learned to ex- press our wrathful feelings in good plain Anglo-Saxon. It was there we learned to wield the death dealing pen like a demon, and how to chew gum. Let us support the public school always; it is the place where we at- tained our inexhaustible knowledge and re- ceived our first impulses for better lives. De emecOor Resources of Madera County. ar Among the counties of Central California none can lay claim to a brighter outlook for an early and extensive industrial development than Madera, which embraces a broad extent of fertile valley land, a section of foothills dotted with productive gold mines, and a lib- eral slice of mountainous territory, with all its diversified resources. All that is lacking to make it one of the most productive sections in the State is a suf- ficient supply of water. The irrigation question has been somewhat of a puzzle, the several streams lying too low to admit of turning their waters upon more than a small portion of the tillable soil. One of the. most feasible plans to provide water for the unirrigated portion of the county is the use of wells and centrifugal pumps. ‘These may be operated by electricity, obtained from the North Fork plant, or by petroleum, which is found along the western boundary of the San Joaquin Valley. It has been esti- mated thatirrigation by electric pumps can be accomplished at less than one dollar per acre for the season. ‘This system has been suc- cessfully tried by Tulare fruit growers and there is no reason why it should not be a success in Madera County, as an abundance of cheap power may be easily procured, and the water supply cannot be exhausted by pumping. With this additional supply of water, vineyardist, fruit and grain growers will be greatly benefited as their crops will be increased and made certain, for a drought will be impossible. Besides being a great aid to ranchers this will assist the people in gen- eral, as an increase in the products will neces- sitate the establishment of new factories,