Mount Penn Lower Alsace Joint High School - Penn Alma Yearbook (Reading, PA)

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!IIIIii9lillllllKIIIHIIillKlllMllllllllllllil the very best results. Each one of us that leaves school tonight, each one who takes as his or her motto “Living to Serve,” are the ones already assured of a successful life. It is the big thing that our teachers have been doing day after day. What we have done is the result of constant stimulation by our teachers. When we faltered they came to our assistance, and with a helping hand urged us on, but from now on their duties cease. They have fulfilled their obligations, and we have henceforth to depend on our own energies. If we have no faith in our abilities and no ambition to unseal them, we are practically useless in this busy world of today. No one can make the future for us. ’Tis true that circumstances govern our actions and mark our time of march, but as soldiers of fortune, as the class which shall be ready to go with the tide Shakespeare assures us shall come, we must be ready to face difficulties and press onward. As when our opportunity comes, when we feel we have developed as a good citizen, not only of our community, city or state but nation as well, may we feel that our schooldays have been worth while, that we have become men and women, true to an honest purpose in life, and by perseverance and singleness of aim win for ourselves a place which can be nothing less than a source of joy to our parents, our teachers and our beloved classmates. iiii'niHniiiitHiiniiniainiiiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiifliBiiMiMiniiHia SUNRISE, NOT SUNSET VALEDICTORY, BY J. ELMER HUYETT. The world is a series of graduations. In the beginning, we are told, man was little more than the savage animal, living in caves and hollow trees, wearing little clothing, and that but the rudely-tanned skins of beasts, with weapons and utensils—a beast among beasts. Gradually man developed. Some savage discovered that he could chip flakes from a flint stone by striking it with other stones, so as to give it a sharp edge and a convenient shape for the hand to grasp. This invention lifted man into the first stone age. Different tools of stone were manufactured, and among them were flint knives, spearheads. daggers, scrapers and drills. Hut man was still a hunter, with tamed wolves for dogs and reindeer to draw his sleds. The next great step in the advancement of man was from the stone age to the age of metals, about seven thousand years ago. Man made copper implements at first, but consequently found that by mixing tin with the copper, he could equip himself with better implements. The mixture of copper and tin produces bronze, and this age was known as the bronze age. Soon after the age of metals began, man came to use some kind of writing. This invention brings us to the “‘historic'’ period. The earlier “prehistoric” man, with many other gifts, had bequeathed to his successors, and to us, four supreme contributions. First, the use of fire made it possible to advance beyond raw food, and finally beyond stone tools. Second, most of the domestic animals familiar to us in our barnyards were tamed by prehistoric man in the Old World. Third, wheat, barley, rice, and nearly all our other important food grains and garden vegetables were selected from the myriads of wild plants and cultivated and developed Fourth, the invention of writing multiplied lifiliiniliilililiBkllilllWIIIB Twenty-two

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' [i.lL'il I I ! I . I, , • OUR OPPORTUNITY SALUTATORY, BY MARGARET H. ELLIS. Fathers, Mothers and Friends: It is vvitli a feeling of deep regret yet with a greater feeling of exultation that I cordially welcome you in behalf of the class of 11122 to our Commencement Exercises. This evening is a milestone in our lives and marks a turning point. Whether it is for the better or not depends on each one of us. Tonight we assume the responsibility of our own actions. We leave behind us the past with its little trials and triumphs, and the place we hold dearest of all. our school and second home. Tomorrow we shall be men and women; tomorrow we shall cease to hear the voices of those who have guided us; tomorrow we shall stand alone. In one of Shakespeare’s plays we find the statement: “There’s a tide in the affairs of men that, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.” This tide we all know is that force which we call Opportunity.” First of all, just what do we mean by opportunity? The dictionary defines it as the fit or convenient time. No better or simpler phrase could be stated. If we mention this we wonder if the fit or convenient time for ourselves has arrived. Now that our school days are practically over, the biggest opportunity that presents itself is the chance to develop ourselves as Good Citizens. This can be done in three ways, which can be grouped as the duty of developing ourselves first, for ourselves. second, for others, and finally for God. In developing ourselves for ourselves we bring out the intellectual or cultural, the physical and the normal sides. Books mean a great deal and play a big part in the intellectual phase. In this our school life has been prominent. Here are grouped together a number of people with different desires and notions but all possessing certain common interests. Here are probably represented different nationalities going through the process of being molded into Americans by common instruction and association. This real idea of democracy that we are trying to realize in our national and local communities. In school we find the necessity for industry and work, for a division of task and for united action. Here it is that more or less responsibility depends on us. And so we see that since school life is a big factor our habits formed here must be those that will work good by being perpetuated in the life of the large community outside of school. The physical phase is one not to be questioned. VVe all can very easily believe that a man of healthy body and mind is always the man desired. His work is beneficial: he cares for community affairs and looks after them as he does his own health. A cheery, sunny disposition always aids and strengthens, and as Browning says, “he is a man who can make life death and that vast forever one grand sweet song.” The moral side has to do, I might say, with each one of us alone. There are times in the lives of all of us when the right and wrong clash and often bring unexpected results. During our schooldays we have often met with such things. VVe know that a man’s beliefs has much to do with his conduct. His religious life has to do not only with God but his attitude toward his fellow-men. And this brings us up to the point when our development as a good citizen shall develop us for others or what I might speak of us as the best thing to live for namely, for others. “To love our neighbors as ourselves,” is the big thing to practice. To take up a phase in life which shall lead us to working for the betterment of the conditions and advancement of others is one which can bring only Mil Twenty-one

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 the value of language. Writing is an “artificial memory,” and it also makes it possible for us to speak to those who are far away, and even to those not yet born. Man now advanced into the “historic” period, where more attention was given to the development of the intellectual powers. Science originated in the deep recesses of the Nile. After an inundation, it was often to survey the land, and this led to the skill of the early Egyptians in geometry. Religion merely consisted in ancestor worship. Kingdoms were formed and more and more land was discovered and settled. Books were published and an alphabet of twenty-two letters was formed. The great awakening of man came with the birth of Christ. By Ilis teachings and the teachings of His followers, people believed. and at the beginning of the fifth century Christianity was accepted as the state leligion of the great Roman empire. The world now underwent a series of disorders and wars, which ended in the undermining of feudalism and a great revival of learning. This great revival is now known as the Renaissance, and included the Reformation of the church. The telescope, the compass, gunpowder, and the art of printing was discovered, raising man to a higher plane than he had ever risen before. The next great achievement was the discovery of America, a great unknown region. Man advanced more rapidly. The steamboat and the locomotive were invented. Then came the great inventions of electricity, wireless telegraphy and the aeroplane. We are now living in the electrical age, the surface of which, science tells us, has merely been scratched. Our advance depends upon us, the men and women of today and the men and women of tomorrow. In the same manner the day is a series of graduations. The night is a preparation of man for the coming day. His success of the day depends upon the amount of preparation he has secured the night before. Dawn is a signal for him to begin his work. He works steadily upward during the day until the noon hour, when he replenishes and rests himself for the toil of the afternoon. He works steadily in the afternoon till eve marks the completion of his labor. Our lives are but as a day that is to be passed. You have neither seen nor heard of any achievements on our part. We have thus far spent ourselves in preparation for the day that is yet to come. We have studied to advance ourselves as the world has advanced in order that we may keep in the ranks of human progress and do our share towards promoting it. But the darkness of preparation is now over and the dawn is before us. The sun is a rising sun, a sun whose rays will shine just as far as we by our deeds justify them. We attempt no great predictions of what we shall attain, but we go forward into life, armed with the weapons of right and education. Our instructors have given us the benefit of their knowledge and experience, and most important, our parents, relatives and friends, by their interest and pride in our welfare, have spurred us on to do the best we could. We are truly thankful to our in structors and friends for the great help they have given us, and shall try to prove by our lives which we are about to unfold, that their seeds shall have fallen upon good ground. Smoky Huyett—“Did you ever shave with Ivory soap?” Mason Bright—-“No, I use a razor.” Esther Adams—“John Lutz, the undertaker of St. Lawrence, got a new hearse, and the people arc just dying to ride in it.” IMIlIllAlfIBIIlliflIlllllM Twenty-three