Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

Page 10 text:

TEE RAC IEE, Salutatory AGNES MARGUERITE VAN NORDEN. X JE, who love so dearly our Alma Mater, and the joys and opportun- ities that it has brought to us, feel most grateful toward all of you, our friends, who have labor- ed to make our school life both profitable and happy. To the Board of Education, who have worked so hard that our schools might give the best advantages ; to Dr. Maxson, who has watched over us from the time we first entered school with almost a father’s care and devotion; to Mr. Travell, who has been our friend and adviser throughout the four years of our High School life; and, finally, to the citizens of Plainfield, who have helped us by their support: —to you all we would express our sincere gratitude and wel- come you most heartily to our Commencement exercises. Tonight as we look forward to the new experiences that we are about to begin, I want to tell you about a man, the story of whose happy, self-sacrificing life has been to me a source of help and inspiration. Few people have heard of Bishop Patterson, an English missionary, who gave all of his energy, and his full manhood, and finally his life itself to uplifting the poor, ignorant savages of the islands around Australia.

Page 9 text:

THE ORACLE, 7 Shrouded in night and crowned by mist, And held by the camp of the foe, Stands the hazy height of yonder peak, With the river far below. Up its rugged side the soldiers climb To plant their standard high, And hope that the breeze of the coming dawn Shall spread its folds to the sky. Thru forest dense of bristling pines, O’er rocks they force their way, Up toward the mountain crest they toil, In steady, close array. At length they cease their weary climb, On the height they rest at last, And just at the break of the coming day They place their standard fast. For weary hours the battle raged, The fight was fierce and long, “No backward steps but all advance”! Class Poem BY HAROLD SCHENCK. Rang out in cheers their song. Rejoice! oh brave victorious band, Your troubles now are past, And proudly in the sun’s bright rays Your emblem floats at: last.

Page 11 text:

fA ORACLE, Valedictory SARAH ANNE BROUWER. LASSMATES, I have @ touched but feebly on the life of this nearly perfect woman, but I have touched lov- iaelys.. 10; imewche isy-any “ex- ample of a beautiful life, made beautiful not so much by what she did, though she did greatly, as by what she meant to do— the purpose which she took and held and which she never let her- self forget. It was her devo- tion to purpose that made her victorious even in defeat, a con- queror in death. Now, as we meet for the.last time as Seniors of Plainfield High School, stirred by the example of a true and noble life, let us resolve to see our purpose clearly as she did, and in a radiant light. Let us never falter on the steep, bright path— up hill and up, to be sidetracked by nothing, though tempting voices may call, as perhaps they called Joan in the remembered sheep bells of Domremy, and the peasant lispings of her home. But—‘vestigia nulla retrorsum’’—our own motto—‘“no foot- steps backward. And—there is nothing more. When our feelings are the strongest it is most hard to speak. This is our last night together. Before us throng our hopes and behind us our precious memories; and there is only one thing to say— a simple, hard Good by. el