Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

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THE ORACLE 5 Valedictory Address Ellen Shjarback Classmates: Tonight, as we are saying goodbye to dear old P. H. S. and are about to enter a much broader life, there could be no better wish for us than that some of these visions should stay with us; for surely we could learn no more valu- able lessons than to have sym- pathy for others, to be optimis- tic, to control our ambitions, to show respect to every man, and to let our deeds shine out in the world as the beams of a eandle gleam forth in the darkness. We are about to leave the schoolboy and schoolgirl part of life and enter into the scenes of manhood and womanhood. Let us, as we go on to the larger stage, play our part well and so bring honor, not only to ourselves, but to our Alma Mater.

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4 THE ORACLE Salutatory Address Helen L. Edwards To all of our friends here this evening we extend our most hearty greeting. To our fac- ulty; to our ever-helpful prin- cipal, Mr. Best; our warm friend, Dr. Maxson; to the Board of Education; to our distinguished guest, who has come to give us his valuable ad- vice, and to the worthy citizens of Plainfield—to you all, we give a most cordial welcome. It is through your efforts that we have been able to secure the key which unlocks for us the door of opportunity. Those of us to whom opportunity has come through our commercial course feel that the most important part of our work has been not simply the business training which we have received, but the fine ideals of ef- ficiency and service which have always been our inspiration. The motto in one of our class-rooms, the words of a former much-beloved teacher, Mr. MacNab, might sum up the spirit of our training: ‘“The heaping good measure of service That no one has quite the right to ask of us, That is what everyone wants from us.’’ This supplemental service we might call the Golden Rule in business.

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6 THE ORACLE The Will of Allah (As told by Richard Borden, Winner of the First Babcock Prize) Ali Ben Khan drew up the hood of his dirty white burnoose and leaped viciously on his camel. His wiry form was tense with anger and his nut-brown face twisted in an angry snarl. As the camel stumbled to his feet and shambled forward over the hot gleam of the sands, Ali Ben Khan’s teeth gleamed in an expression of fiendish rage. ‘ Accursed of Allah,’’ he growled, ‘“‘he thinks to best Ali Ben Khan—- the dog of an Osmanli.”’ On all sides were the sands of the desert, steaming in the morning sun. Ridges, slopes, wave-ruffled hills of yellow sand, twisted and fur- rowed by the wind, met the troubled gaze of the Arab. The night before, he and Omar Ibn Kasim had encamped together. When the morning had come, Omar was gone; gone also were Omar’s camel and both water-skins; but above all—the gold they had stolen from the crafty Persian at Okaba had also disappeared with Omar. As the fiery day wore on, Ali commenced to growl again. ‘ Would that I had never met the accursed Osmanli! May Allah do battle with him; may he be burned in the flame. I swear upon the Koran that the dog dies !”’ Ali’s thirst grew unbearable toward sundown, his throat was parched and his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth. The setting sun bathed the plain in golden radiance and sent a flood of yellow sunshine over the arid waste, till it broke in masses among the violet shadows of the hills be- yond. Ut. eet by a The sun dropped with orient swiftness over the rim of the world, in all directions the untracked desert stretched, yellow and crimson and dun. Altho a full moon was shining, and, like many desert-bred Arabs, Ali detested to travel by moonlight, desperation forced him to continue his swift journey across the sands. Far, far ahead, a lone man urged his camel forward at a terrific rate. It was Omar Ibn Kasim. Now and then he would turn in the high backed Arab saddle and gaze anxiously behind. Fear rode constantly with him and death came behind, and Omar knew it. But if he could only