Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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THE, ORACEE: 19 VALE DIC TORY Classmates—The time has come for us to say good-bye. The time has come for us to leave the life which has been such a happy one for us all. We are parting now from the friendships that we have cherished so dearly in the years that are gone. We are entering that broader life which must come to us all, that field which separates friend from friend, which sends us into ways that are far apart. All this has been said before, classmates, many, many times. Does the word “good-bye” mean anything to us? Is there one of us who hears it merely as the barren expression of the formality of parting? I think not. Common as it is, we must all realize its deep significance, and that realization must have cost us all a parting sigh during the past few weeks. In a few hours the class of 1906 will have passed out of existence. In a few hours each of us will be starting on one of those separate ways. Good-bye, classmates, I say it with all sincerity. Yet not farewell forever simply, Aufwiedersehen— Till we meet again.” AWARD OF PRIZES ENGLISH COMPOSITION. The George H. Babcock Prize, given by Mrs. George H. Babcock. First Prize, Lillian Reed Cronkite. Second Prize, Matilda Srager. Honorable Mention, May Titsworth Hallett, Lena Bohan. ENGLISH COMPOSITION. A prize offered by the Continental Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Prize, Five Dollars in Gold, Benjamin Edward Herrmann. Honorable Mention— Christella Frances MacMurray, Laura May Baker. MATHEMATICS. The Dr. C. H. Stillman Prize, given by Mrs. J. K. Myers and Mr. William M. Stillman. First Prize, $15.00 in gold, William Hicks Osgood. Second Prize, $10.00 in gold, William Crawford Douglass.

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18 Teor A GIR. “the sere and yellow.” One of these was Thomas Chatterton, who was destined never to know of his triumph. Chatterton claimed to have found in the Church of St. Mary of Redcliffe some poems which he ascribed to a priest of the fifteenth century. It was later discovered, however, that the poems were his own, but it was not until after the poet, tired with the struggle for existence, had committed suicide, in his eighteenth year. Chat- terton’s poetical work is among the permanent treasure of the English language. A trio of youthful poetic prodigies is composed of John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron. From Keats we have the “Endymion,” written at the age of twenty-two; Shelley has left “Queen Mab,” which appeared when he was only twenty-one; and Byron wrote his ‘Childe Harold” at twenty-four. What literary masterpieces might have been the production of their versatility can hardly be estimated. All three of the poets died before completing their work. The most wonderful of all youthful geniuses, however, must be placed in a separate class. It is she whom the world knows as Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans, she who defied courts and judges, she who, best of all, was the purest of Christians. It was a triumph of the rarest sort when, a girl of eighteen, she took the city of Orleans; it was another triumph as she calmly and wisely and unanswerably furnished her own defense in the faces of some of the world’s best jurors; it was a triumph, too, when she lay down her life at the stake, a short time after, in the streets of Rouen. If there have ever been prodigies of youth, Joan of Arc is the first. What has been the influence of the lives of these geniuses upon the world we cannot tell with any degree of certainty. What can be their influence upon our individual lives is for each of us to decide. Like them, we must go forth into the world; like them, we must choose our careers. It may be that from among us, this class of 1906, unimportant in the eyes of the world, will arise geniuses such as those whom I have mentioned. It is not for us to know now. But it is enough for us to know that, whatever be our destina- tion, we have the inspiration of all that is good in the past, and the will and determination of the present to succeed.

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20 THEJORACLE. TRANSEATION, PRIZES: For the best translation of assigned passages, a first prize of three dollars and a second prize of two dollars, to be expended in books chosen by the receiver of the prize. Modern Languages. Given by Mr. Ernest R. Ackerman. Senior French. First Prize, Elizabeth Crane Winter. Second Prize, Gertrude Laura Hunter. Honorable Mention, Ellen Holmes Ulrich. Junior French. First Prize, Frederick Martin Smith. Second Prize, Marjorie Mae Brown. Honorable Mention, Helen Johnson. Junior German. First. Prize, Rose Siegal. Second Prize, Joseph W. Gavett, Jr., Honorable Mention, John DeLancey Ferguson. Sophomore German. First Prize, Esther Barton Crampton. Second Prize, Hazel Gardner. Honorable Mention, Gertrude Laura Hunter. Latin Prizes. Given by Mr. Alexander Gilbert. Vergil. First Prize, Antoinette Lucy Aalholm. Second Prize, Elizabeth Crane Winter. Honorable Mention, Ellen Holmes Ulrich. Cicero. First Prize, John DeLancey Ferguson. Second Prize, Rose Siegal. Honorable Mention, Queena May Tillotson.