Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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8 THE ORAGEE Mr. Travell, you especially have helped us, both as a class and as individuals. Everything you have done for us has been done for our good, and what you have denied us (even if it were dancing after the Senior Play) we now believe was for the best. Throughout our high school course we have found in you a faithful friend and a most helpful adviser. It is impossible for us to express how sincere and heartfelt is the gratitude which we feel toward you. Mr. Speaker of the evening, in the name of the class of 1907 I wish to welcome you and to say that we greatly appreciate your presence with us on this occasion, when we are saying farewell to our school life; we shall highly value whatever helpful thoughts you may have to give us, as we stand at this “parting of the ways.” To you, the citizens of Plainfield, to. whom we are first of all in- debted, we wish to say a few words of gratitude for your liberality toward our schools. Especially helpful has been your interest in the high school and your hearty co-operation with our teachers. In all cases of discipline or difference of opinion the monarchy at home has upheld the dignitaries at school, and we are the better for it. In the years to come, we will strive not to destroy vour confidence in us. We hope that we shall have courage and patience and strength to live up to your hopes for us and to be worthy of them.

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Titk= OR ACI W Chirty-Sixth Conunenrcement SPEAIGE RVORSGHE SEV ENING-...:...semeee REV. JAMES I. VANCE, D.D. HONOR STUDENTS WITH EQUAL RANK. EDGAR WELLS FREEMAN ROSE SIEGAL FRED MARTIN SMITH SALUTATION BY ROSE SIEGAL. Mr. President and Members of the Board of Education; Mr. Super- intendent; Mr. Principal; Mr. Speaker of the evening; Citizens of Plain- field; to all of you, who are gathered here tonight we extend our heartiest greetings. We appreciate greatly the fact that you have come here tonight. You have always taken an interest in us, and your interest has helped us to do our best, and for this we thank you. To you, the Members of the Board of Education, we especially give our thanks for your splendid work. Despite the fact that you are all business men, whose every hour is actively engaged, you have willingly sacrificed valuable time for our good. You have given us teachers whose helpful influence will cling to us throughout the future. Our teachers have taught us the broader side of life and have done away with some of our narrow-minded ideas and petty prejudices. For instance, we no longer think of the British as tyrants, who were always wrong, while the Americans were heroes who were always in the right. Such fair judgment is largely due to them. Dr. Maxson, we scarcely know what to say to you. You know our feelings toward you. You know that when you appear before us on the platform, there is no one whom we welcome so heartily, and no one to whom we listen so eagerly as to you. Your words have always done us good, and we shall remember them. You have watched our progress with such thoughtful interest, that we have come to consider you as the father of our great family.

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THE ORACLE 9 SAEU PATORY ESSAY PAP PROPEE IpisAbAH AT eA PEACE CONFERENCE, BY ROSE SIEGAL. About three thousand years ago, the Prophet Isaiah had predicted that a time would come when there would not be any war among the people of the land. He said, “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning knives; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, and they shall not learn any more war.” However, as matters appear now, his word has not vet been fulfilled. But who knows what will happen after the Hague Conference, which is to meet in June? Perhaps then Isaiah’s. prophecy will come true and all strife on this great, wild world will end. One day a number of men met at the Czar’s palace in St. Petersburg to discuss the Hague Conference and Isaiah, the originator of the problem of peace, resolved to come there to hear what they would say regarding the question which had been so dear to him three thousand years ago. He took with him an angel, who understood all languages and all secrets. They both stole into the apartment, took their places somewhere in the air, and prepared to hear what would happen. In the large, spacious chamber, where the delegation met, hundreds of electric lights were burning and winking joyfully at each other. A sea of light, mingling with the halo surrounding the angel, poured down upon the people present. Isaiah closed his eyes. “Too bright, too bright,” he murmured. “God knows whether the hearts of all these men are not filled with darkness and guilt.” At that moment a burst of applause resounded through the chamber. “What are they doing?” Isaiah asked the angel. “They are paying honor to this man (pointing to the Czar) who sits at the head of the table. He is the man whose father brought together the first Hague Conference and who tried so hard to establish a good consti- tution for his country. This man, too, is working for a Hague Conference, but he himself is the first to bring about war, and in his own land people are condemned to death without trial, blood is shed wantonly, and riots and revolts prevai l. He does not listen to the voice of his own heart, but to those who with fluttering words and smiling speeches steal away his own views of justice, and deceive him, in order that they may the more easily gain their desires.”