Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

Page 5 text:

W| The ORACLE | “Tam Sir Oracle, and when I ope my lips, let no dog bark.” BOARD OF EDITORS Editor-in-Chief, PERCY M. BRowN, ’05. Literary Editor, School Editor, Exchange Editor, Corresponding Editor, LILLIAN SNODGRASS, ’05. ANTOINETTE AALHOLM, ’06, WESTON GAVETT, ’07. BENJAMIN HERMAN, ’06. Business Manager, . Assistant Business Managers. HOWARD LAPSLEY, ’06. GEORGE BENTLEY, ’05, ANNA RUNYON, ’05. Associate Editors, Mr. LINDSEY BEST, y ' Miss GRACE E. BURROUGHS. STAFF OF REPORTERS 204, FRANCES VANDEVENTER, 205, AIMEE CONANT, FRANCIS ANDERSON. CHESTER BRIGGS. 06, GERTRUDE HUNTER, ’07, GERTRUDE ABBOTT, DUDLEY STRONG. GILBERT GRIGGS. Published on the first Wednesday of every month during the school year, by the students of the Plainfield (N. J.) High School. Printed by THE RECORDER PRESS, Babcock Building, Plainfield. 10 CENTS THE COPY 75 CENTS THE YEAR VoL. 2 COMMENCEMENT NUMBER No. 9 JUNE, 1904 (he eriiston? ola Gram or, “Sand [This Essay won the George H. Babcock Prize in English Composition. ] NUMBER of years ago, a lugger, bound from Mindoro to Manila, was being coaxed by a gentle east wind through St. Bern ardino Strait. Its cargo was very commonplace, in fact even dirty, for it was a cargo of sand. Moreover the sand itself was not out of the ordinary. It was not the romantic sea sand which is ground from coral and shells and carried about over many miles of ocean bottom until it is finally tossed upon some beach, but it was sand formed of rock waste which had been lying for innumerable years in a dried-up river valley in Mindoro. This was not a much-traveled sand but it was a very humble stay-at-home sand which had started life as rock somewhere upon the mountain side. Under the in- fluence of rain and weather the rock had gradually become pulverized and carried to the valley below where men had found it; -and as these men knew

Page 4 text:

Goto HARRY DREIER for Baseball and Tennis Goods. Plainfield Agent A. G. Spalding Bros. Imperial Bicycles All kinds of Sporting Goods, Musical Instruments, Etc. 261--263 West Front Street, PLAINFIELD, N. J. WATES EYES JE AAMINE DPR SATISFACTION GUARANTEED VV ACRES We LOC ES ial NES ee ay) REP AIRE DiibBy Vier ALS Capital, 100,000 Surplus, 90,000 Deposits, $50,000 3 per cent paid on both Checking and Savings Accounts. 707-721 Broad St., NEWARK, N. J. Nice Gloves for — the Young Man and Miss for Dress and Street KID GLOVES—and Suede, one and two clasp— $1 in latest shades; also white and black.......... SILK GLOVES—White for Misses, button and clasp style, at.......... 98 an d 50c FABRIC GLOVES—White Lisle and Cotton for Misses Tand'2 clasp) and sack styles ...0.).. i825 « 12cto 50c | LACE and SILK MITTS—from .......25c to 1,75 pair Fire @rackers and Fireworks at HARPER'S, 411 Park Ave. Plainfield’s Leading Millinery Store........ MILLER’S PHARMACY Headquarters for FANCY SODA WATER Try Cherry Cream Puff, ‘‘Walnut Bisque’ also Nut Frappe—ALL NEW PARK AVE. and FOURTH ST. James B. Guttridge GROCERIES, PROVISIONS, BEEF, VEAL, MUTTON, LAMB, PORK Smoked and Salt Meats, Vegetables, Etc. Telephone Call 331-R NETHERWOOD, N. J.. Try a Pair of ——t=— Doane’s Oxfords Plainfiela’s Leading Millinery Store........

Page 6 text:

144 THE ORACLE that good building sand was scarce at Manila, they were transporting it there. The particular grain of sand with which this history is concerned was very small, rough and white. It was presently much whiter, for a little puff of wind, aided by the roll of the waves, started it rolling off the deck of the lugger. It reached the water in company with several other grains of sand, but it soon separated from their company and continued alone its zigzag- course to the bottom. Down on the bottom, with about sixty feet of water over its head, an oyster was lazily lying, open mouthed, waiting for a chance to bring it its dinner. It was not a dainty little oyster, such as is swallowed by some of us with questionable pleasure and a little lemon juice, but it was a large oyster with a shell ten inches across. In truth it must have been the grand- father of the cluster of smaller oysters which surrounded it. To-day chance was mischievous and instead of bringing the oyster some nice, rich, live, sea mud, it piloted to the open shell a small white piece of sand, much whiter now from the effect of its journey through the water. Now oysters .do not live on grains of sand, and to make matters worse the grain of sand had not slid down the immobile mouth of the oyster but had lodged be- tween the oyster and its shell. We all know how a grain of sand lodged in the eye feels and how we have to take pains to remove it. This grain of sand affected the oyster in much the same way. Working deeper and deeper into the shell, it irritated more and more, but the oyster, not being blessed with fingers, was forced to acquiesce to its tenantage. Nature, the enemy of chance, which had caused all the trouble, foreseeing just such predicaments, has provided oysters with a substance called nacre. So when a little piece of sand causes trouble, the oyster covers it with nacre, which is hard but smooth so that it allays irritation. The more troublesome the sand, the more nacre the oyster uses. This piece of sand must have been especially troublesome as it received a coating of nacre which would have made a Maiden Lane jeweler shrug his shoulders with covetousness. But what have jewelers in common with sand? Well, to make a short story, this sand in combination with nacre is a pearl and its home is a pearl oyster. I say that the nacre and grain of sand make the pearl, because one could not be a pearl without the other. The sand is the cause, the nacre is the result, and without the cause there would be no result. So when you look at a pearl, remember that in the center of that pearl there is a grain of sand or some similar substance. Several years had now passed since the sand’s advent into the