Plainfield High School - Milestone Yearbook (Plainfield, NJ)

Page 7 text:

THE ORACLE 5 Success (An Address to the Members of P. H. S. by Dr. Maxson ) One summer day, I started out from my camp on Long Lake with a friend to visit a pond some miles away in the forest. There is no path to the pond, but a guide told me how to go up one log road and down another log road and so on, until you come to the pond. We walked all the morning, going up one log road and down another log road, and so on, but came to no pond. Finally, I turned to my comrade and said, “Mason, it’s an old saying that advice is cheap, but it seems to me that the advice we have been following all the morn- ing isn’t worth even what we paid for it. We have walked steadily four hours: in five hours more it will be as dark as your hat. I feel more interested in seeing home than I do in seeing Moose Pond.” “Do you know where you are?” said Mason. “No, I don’t. I only know we are in the woods and can’t see out.” ‘Must you find the pond to get your bearing?” “Yes, I only know that home is over yonder somewhere.” “Then you're lost, aren’t you?” said Mason. “Well, the pcnd is lost.” “Can you follow back the way we came?” said Mason. “No, all log roads look alike to me. They lead anywhere and get you nowhere.” “Then I think you're lost,” said Mason. ‘What are you going to do about it?” The first thing,’ I replied, “we'll eat our lunch... Then we'll lie down and sleep half an hour, and after that we'll take the compass and lay out a course due East. Where that leads, there we will go, whether it be over the mountain or through the river. Some time today or tomorrow, if your legs hold out, we'll see Long Lake.”’ Mason meditated a moment, then he said, ‘““‘Well, I think we’d better save some of the dinner; it may come handy.” I didn’t lie awake to see whether Mason slept or not; I have a suspicion that he did not. Walking after a compass thru the forest is no lady-like walk, especially if the lumberman have been thru the region. There is many a tan- gle of brush to push thru, many a fallen tree to crawl over, and it is heart- breaking to go up a steep hill only to go down the other side, with more hills 720724

Page 6 text:

To our sincere friend, Dr. Henry M. Maxson, who, by precept and example, has revealed to us the right trail to follow thru our happy High School years, and to the citizens of Plainfield, who have so nobly supported him in building up a most excellent school system; this, the year book of the Class of 1921, is most gratefully dedicated.

Page 8 text:

6 THE ORACLE ahead. When you come to a path, there is an almost irresistible temptation to follow it, even though you know it is only a deer-path. After we had walked an hour or two, we came to such a path. “There,” said Mason, “that looks like a good path. Don’t you think we'd better follow ities “Yes,” I said, “it has nearly all the earmarks of a good road; but it has one bad feature—it doesn’t go our way. We'll follow the compass.” Then we thrashed brush for another hour when Mason stopped and said, “Are you sure you can get out?” “We are sure of nothing in this world, Mason,” I replied, “except what is past. I am positively sure I got out all the other times.” An hour or two later, we came to a good path which ran northeast, while our course was east. ‘There,’ said Mason, “that’s a good road and goes almost our way. Don’t you think we’d better follow it?” “Would you be satisfied,” I asked, “to almost get out of the woods? ‘The only trouble I ever got into was following log roads that went almost the way that I ought to go. We'll follow the compass.” ‘But are you sure the compass is right?” said my friend. “Mason,” I said, “I am sure of only: one thing,—our whole salvation rests on believing that this compass is true and following as closely as possible where it leads. There was a man once, lost in the woods, who doubted his compass: but he was dead when they found him. We’ll follow the compass.” When darkness began to settle down over the woods, and the song of the birds was hushed, we stepped out of the forest onto the shore of the lake, just opposite to the camp, and the people in the cottage heard my hail ring out across the water as I called for a boat to come over and ferry us across. As we rowed over, I heard a little splash in the water as Mason dropped over two ham sandwiches and a hard-boiled egg. Now the point of my story, this morning, is this: A straight line of travel thru the forest is a hard line to follow, but it is the only road that will surely bring you to your destination. There are many tempting side paths, many roads that look easier, but in a strange country your only safety is to follow the straight line of the compass. So it is in life; the straight road is a hard road to travel, but it is the only road that will surely take you where you wish to go. Select your destina- tion, then go straight for it, undaunted by difficulties, undiscouraged by hard- ships. Do “not be diverted into side paths that ‘are easier and are said to be about as good. Do'not get weary, though the way be long. Stick to the trail unfalteringly. |