Mansfield University - Carontawan Yearbook (Mansfield, PA)

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lEMtnnal back. N the country you have seen the fork in the road; the leaning pine by the road side, the rotted sign post sunk among the weeds. Perhaps you have seen two young people in a gleaming red roadster debating which road to take. Suppose you have. Now down the rough and rocky road a ragged roadster rolls, tires in shreds and body covered with mud from nose ad infinitum. And how is the road? the youth asks. It ' s a peculiar road. It ' s a short cut, you know. There is a short hill here, and then the road is good for miles. But, and he smiles ruefully, I got stuck in the mud and had to come Our teachers know the road. They have traveled it and have passed on their knowledge to us. It were a pity now, after being shown the way if we did not take it. And what have they taught us? Books? Books and morals? Books and moral conduct toward our fellow man. We have learned to an extent to fit into things ; if we are bashful, either to get ourselves over it or to lay low ; if we are uncultured, either to become cultured or to lay low. Once upon a time there was a man named Ed Hemkins. Ed was well- to-do and annually hauled thirty tons of hay to a town about eight miles distant. He (plus his hired man) arrived one day at the town, and, having deposited their burden, entered one of the stylish restaurants. Everything was Jake and the goose was hanging high, when the waitress brought on the pie. In characteristic fashion, the hired man laid the pie in the palm of his hand and proceeded to masticate. Ed, who was one of those kind of fellows whom the least breeeeh of etiquette greatly disturbed, howled in a voice that could be hard all over the joint, Confound it, Horace! Put that pie down on your plate and knife her, by cheeses! A resolution of thanks was submitted, the yeas had it, and the meeting was adjourned. That was in the olden time — about twenty years ago. Things have changed and now Ed ' s sons haul their hay by auto-trucks and eat with their wives. After all, progress has been pretty rapid in the last twenty years. Some say that development is uneven. Probably it is. It will be a part of the task of this year ' s class of teachers to aid in carrying out some of the great educa- tional measures which the World War showed were necessary. Page Ten

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Page Nine

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The War upset things a bit. It killed a lot of people, and starved many more. But it woke folks up, woke them up for good and for bad, woke them up to put their energy in a great cause, woke them up to tear down the very foundations of government. Monarchies fell, but prices rose. People got ex- cited about winning the war and about money. Then there came the armistice, and the coming of the soldiers. The return of the soldiers marks the beginning of the return to a pre-war condition of life. People are beginning to like pleasant, quiet homes, good, substantial jobs. People are leaving the cities and returning to the farms they left during the war. They are bringing their civic pride back to the country and are makng abandoned farmhouses beautiful. We arc happy in the new value of things. Jt is natural that our class should be in keeping with this new standard of values; that this class should be willing to leave the M. S. X. S. with a feeling that it is just a commonplace lot of good citizens, ready always to salute the red and black and the red, white and blue. This book — We hope you will like it — for we have worked rather hard in its making — is a book of memories: memories of the M. S. X. S. and our school- mates. Perhaps it is just an ordinary book. But for you and for me. the faces and thoughts of our schoolmates endow it with an individuality which sets it apart from other books. We entrust this book to you. We know you will look at it once in a while. Xow we bid you good-bye. a good-bye like his was when — He was a lowly young man. she was a laughing princess. And when he had to go away— strange to tell— they were both sad. They bade each other good-bye on every one of the front steps of the veranda, and on the last step thev had said yood-bye for the fifty-fourth time when — the camera busted. Page Eleven