Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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THE ORACLE. 13 School Offices Held by ’08 Members The following are members of the class who have held responsible positions in the school: P. H. S. Athletic Association ; Chauncey R. Murphey, Director, ’06-’07. Chauncey R. Murphey, President, ’07-’08. Walter B. Caldwell, Vice President, ’07-’08. Augustus Nash, Director, ’07-’08. George Henry Pound, Director, ’07-’08. Baseball George Henry Pound, Manager, ’o6. Fred R. Reid, Manager, ’o7. William V. Rafferty, Assistant Manager, ’07. William V. Rafferty, Manager, ’o8. Chauncey R. Murphey, Captain, ’o8. Football George Henry Pound, Manager, ’o6, Chauncey R. Murphey, Captain, ’o7. Bask etball Augustus Nash, Manager, ’07-’08. Walter B. Caldwell, Captain, ’o7-’o8. Peo G AA Eleanor Van Tuyl, Secretary and Treasurer, ’05-’06. Eleanor Van Tuyl, President, ’06-’07. M. Elizabeth Pound, Secretary and Treasurer, ’06-'07. M. Elizabeth Pound, Secretary and Treasurer, ’07-'08. Esther B. Crampton, President, ’07-’c8. Basketball Esther B. Crampton, Manager, ’06-’07. M. Elizabeth Pound, Manager, ’o7-’c8. Oracle Charlotte Taylor, Exchange Editor, ’os. Eva C. Kelly, Exchange Editor, ’o6. M. Elizabeth Pound, Exchange Editor, ’07. Eleanor Van Tuyl, Exchange Editor, ’o8. William T. Lambert, Editor-in-chief, ’o8. Debating Society George H. Fisher, Jr., President, ’06-’07. Orlando H. Lounsbury, Treasurer, ’o8. Percy L. Mygrant, President, ’o8. Sallo M. Kahn, Treasurer, ’07. William T. Lambert, Vice President, ’o7. Sallo M. Kahn, Secretary, ’06.

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12 THE ORAGCIE: one of many that touch the individual conscience. Surely we do not want to buy clothes, however good the bargain, if the cloth is spun by children whose very lives are woven into the web; if the garments are made by girls and women in a factory or sweat shop, at starvation wages; if the goods are sold by women whose salaries are so meagre that an easier but infinitely degrading life stands ever before them as an alluring promise of relief. Child labor is but one form of the great social problem of the day ; and however we regard it, in the end we find it as a question in whose solution we must bear our share. Music for the Flames Rome was in flames. “Hear the people groan,” cried Nero, gleefully, as the agonized shrieks of the people below reached his ears. “They are suffering?’ he asked expectantly. “Yes, my lord, intensely so.” A pleased expression stole over the emperor’s masterful features. “The poisoned spears,” he asked, growing interested,—“‘have they been applied?” “Not yet, my lord.” A look of mystification settled over his face, then he brightened. “The flames are crisping their gory bodies, charring them into beauti- fully shaded nut brown corpses, to the rythmical melody of their heart- rendering cries?’ he volunteered, in the tone of conviction of one who is acute enough to solve almost any problem and who is clever enough to ex- press it in polished language. HNOts yet, sive lords A puzzled expression again settled over his features. “Ah”, he finally said to himself in a relieved voice, and a look of supreme satisfaction settled over his face. Turning to an attendant he said, in a self satisfied tone, “Sara Sander- son is reciting Paradise Lost?” His eyes lit up with pleasure and he smiled contentedly, “Boy, bring me my fiddle.”

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14 Tie ORACEE, Thomas A. Edison, Wizard Salutatory Essay by Roy C. Whitall The Twentieth Century is the age of invention. At no time has the world been ketter prepared to receive and to profit by labor-saving and pleasure-making devices of inventive genius than today. The darkness of superstition has faded before the full daylight of scientific knowledge of physical phenomena. Much as we owe to the masters of literature, of art, and of industry for the comforts and culture of life, we owe per- haps not less to the masters of invention; and the most wonderful of these, in this generation, is Thomas Alva Edison. Possessed of mental, physical, and moral vigor, Mr. Edison repre- sents a fine type of American manhood. His scientific attainments are due to a rare and remarkable combination of scientific imagination, wonderful vitality, and a dogged persistence that knows no defeat. Fdison’s education has been in the school of experience rather than in the school of books. Even now he has little regard for scientific theories as printed in encyclopedias. A statement is true if it be proved true in practise, otherwise it is open to question. Experiments have always been his delight. At an age when most boys were playing with tops or kites, he was dabbling in chemistry and in telegraphy. His first experiment in electricity showed a striking lack of knowledge of its nature, yet is in- teresting because ingenious: He had strung a telegraph line to a friend’s house and had fitted it with crude instruments of home-manufacture. He had no batteries, how- ever, so he captured a couple of cats, fastened wires to their legs, and ad- ministered a fierce rubbing to their backs. He was surprised to find that, although this produced a steady stream of electrical sparks, and was ac- companied by volcanic disturbances in the neighborhood of the cats, it would not work his instruments. The experiment was a failure, but it was one of a series of failures which led to brilliant success in his invention of the quadruplex system in telegraphy, enabling four messages to be sent at once on a single wire. There are many people who hold the creed that to be able to do one thing and to do it well, constitutes success. Others try to do many things, and do nothing well. A few Gladstones and Edisons do many things, and do them all well. It is this characteristic of the man that pleases