South Park High School - Dial Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

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-- ie94f 1 Qqij +- dlibe Dial -:Ds-4? Q 9,5 Y already taken hold of the newcomers was not wanting. A detailed account of the contest will be found in the following pages. The Evening School opened on the nineteenth of September. Here, too, a heavy increase in registration was noted. The registration of the past year had leaped to ll08 from a registration of 680 inthe preceding year. The Freshman social gatherings in the gymnasium and the Hallowe'en party enlivened the scholastic year which, with little interruption proceeded to the Christ- mas holidays. The Christmas celebration on December twenty-third will be long remembered for its solemn impressiveness and exquisite beauty. The auditorium and corridors hung with Christmas greens on the days immediately preceding Christ- mas prepared the student body for the pageant that marked the celebration in the afternoon and on the evening of the twenty-third. The solo work of the young shepherds and the hiagi was splendidly doneg this together with the singing of the carols by the Glee Club and the fine work of the orchestra, combined to give the Christmas program a rare finish and helped in a modest way to spread the Christ- mas spirit. The first semester closed with the reading of marks on january twenty-seventh. Distraction found little encouragement during the second half of the year. The afternoon study hours, the reading programs, the weekly oratoricals, the closest observance of the disciplinary regulations all tended to impress upon the young minds the importance of study. It was this period that gave birth to the new fortnightly publication: The Spark. The Spark made its first appearance on April fourteenth, and won for itself an enthusiastic welcome. Aside from giving the students the benefits resulting from intensive writing, the general purpose of The Spark, as stated in the salutatoryg is to spread the items of school news that should prove of interest to the student body, to increase the interest in school life, to put into print some things worth reading, and, at the same time, to widen each one's opportunity of reading some things worth printing. School closed for the Faster holidays on Wednesday, April twelfth, and studies were resumed on the twenty-fourth. The Seventh Annual Contest in Public Speaking was held on hiay eighteenth for the Senior students, and on the following morning for the junior students. At the Senior contest, graduates of the school who had entered professional life acted as judges. Senior Day in 1922 was, like its predecessors, the big day of the school year. The celebration was held on June first, which date was also the anniversary of the laying of the cornerstone of the High School. The interesting program of Senior Day will be found in the following pages among the programs of entertain- ments. The annual picnic was held on june third. At nine o'clock a jolly crowd 3122?

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M Q , vw? ve? Qlllje ibtstorp '50'0f :Usa-2 - t 1-: T Q-.Bebhyugfdrisfa .ella 9 e2do6.7 5-.Qfiv6.- 'q- EQ.,,.,i,..,..a.,ra.,.,A,15 CLASS of 1921 was graduated at the sixth annual com- mencement exercises which were held in the auditorium of the high school on Thursday evening, June 24, 1921. The ,L graduates numbered eighty-six, and of these twenty-five were graduated from the College Preparatory Courses and received 1 the Regents' College Entrance Diploma. Sixteen received the Mii e'i'+ '+ 'T :Ti Advanced Academic Diploma, showing that during their four years' course, they had completed the equivalent of an additional year's work. The Senior gold medal for general proficiency was awarded to Constance Riester. The junior gold medal was won by Mildred Harper. 1 The Sophomoregoldmedal by Helen F eyler, and the Freshman gold medal was awarded to Daisy VVeinmar. The address to the graduates was made by Dr. George E. Smith, Deputy Superintendent of Education. The theme of the evening's exercises was commemorative of the six hundredth anniversary of the poet Dante. Merle King spoke on the Age of Dante, and Ceorge Kolbe on the Life of Dante. The class poem was recited by Ethelwyn Cooke and the valedictory was delivered by John W. Burns, the president of the class of 1921. At the opening of school in September, the registration showed an increase of forty-three per cent over that of the preceding year. The growth in numbers continued throughout the year with the consequent growth in the faculty. The following teachers were added to the teaching staff during the past year: Nlr. Phillips, and the Misses James, Hoffman, Mahoney, Pellman, Riester, Sullivan, Tiffany, Howlett, and Blake. The hundreds of Freshmen soon fitted in with their new surroundings and not many weeks passed before they felt quite at home among the older students. The high school .Popularity Contests that were inaugurated just at this time by the Buffalo Evening Times and the Enquirer and Courier did much to unite the whole student body in a common cause. Freshmen vied with Seniors in a lively struggle to outclip each other, and long before the contest ended, every student at the school felt himself a very important member of one big family. Few contests were watched with more interest throughout the city and when South Park carried off first honors in both contests, leaving all other contestants behind by a margin of votes that was figured in millions, proof that the good old South Park Spirit had 'f311Ee 1

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ee f-'I+ 45'-f 4312 Dial j-:Q Q21-' of boys and girls boarded the train at the New York Central station and spent the day at Fort Niagara Beach. Two items must still be recorded to complete the History of 1922. The grounds surrounding the school have been beautified by re-sowing the lawns and by the planting of hedges and shrubs. The entire cost of the undertaking was defrayed by the student body. VVhether it wasdue to the improved appearance, or to a kind of proprietary interest, a new feeling of pride in the school was awakened in the students. The second item of interest was'the organization of the Athletic Council, an executive body of five men of the faculty who act upon all matters pertaining to athletics. This, then, in brief, is the history of the school year just ended. No account can be given in these pages of the vast accomplishments in the big fields wherein the chief work of a school lies. The results of the year in the physical, mental, and moral training of the hundreds of boys and girls must be told in the lives of the young people who are closing another happy year at SOUTH PARK. K. ,' g g -3138?