St Rose Academy - Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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THE DIAMOND X 5 OIVIE lives are bound up in superstition and lore which often take form in their religion and other beliefs Some of these are connected with our family traditions and even the most unbelieving of LQ humans at one time or another feel these influences I do not mean to say that the story I relate is taken from a chain of coin cidences or has been comured by my imagination There may or may not have been any connecting link with the story of the diamond and the fate of Harmony Locke Harmony and I had always been the best of friends We had grown up together in the town of Shorewood and our lives had always been interwoven Perhaps it was our nearness to each other that led me to follow her to Spain and there find the tragic end to our friendship Harmony the name didn t suit her any more than the life that had been planned for her by her parents Her father and mother had musical inclina tions and they felt that the baby daughter should be named to suit the voca tion they had planned for her Although sne had the best in the way of a musical education still she lacked the feelina for music and often I found her in tears bitterly disgusted with the hours of practice forced upon her The name did not suit her disposition e ther for although she was the dearest person l knew she seemed to be made up of a dozen different conflicting emotions due to the fact that she had forced upon her a life that was in complete con trast with her nature She wanted to be an actress but her family had resolved that she would be a musician When Harmony s parents were killed in an automobile accident I thought that at last Harmony would be freed from their influences She loved them dearly and I have very seldom seen a family so attached to each other but when the question of Harmony s career was mentioned they would not relent on this subject They honestly believed she had talent and it was their desire that Harmony be famous To my great surprise and to Harmonys life was not changed by her parents unfortunate death Her Grandmother decided to carry on and to see that Harmony fulfilled the trust that had been placed in her It was this Grandmother that had given her on her sixteenth birthday the diamond pendant The setting was antique silver and placed in the middle was the diamond I am no expert on diamonds yet everyone who saw it said that it was fascinating How it glittered and sparlfled and arrested one s at tentionl Its cool depths cast a mystic spell and the changing shadows in it glided mysteriously across its watery deepness There had been a legend about it as 1t had been in the family for years Her Grandmother could recall the superstition vaguely yet she thought it had something to do with a curse on the person who possessed it and who revolted against tradition and family PAGE TN fEN l Y LIGHI . 1 . and she seemed to be fighting a battle within herself. This may have been

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l tried to tind Harmony, and, amid the smoke and tire l groped my way upstairs. Her part ol the apartment was blazing, for evidently it was there the bomb had struck. l pushed into her room and tound her Y 1 buried beneath the debris. One look told me she was beyond human aid. l glanced around the room where all Harmonys possessions were destroyed. Everything of her and hers - gone. As l ran out, one thing arrested my attention. There, in a mass ol molten silver, with all the setting destroyed, lay unharmed, unscathed, and as mysterious as ever the diamond! l bent down to picl' it up, and as l s tw its cool crystal beauty l remem bered what Harmony had said about aivmg it to me Minel lt was mme' l glanced from the Jewel to Harmony slight inert form and the whole supersti tion came back to me The dian ond slipped tion my hand to the tloor where it lay waiting to use its influence against a new unknown owner loan lohnson 43 LOOK UNTO THE ROCK WHENCE YOU ARE HEWN Iscucxs LI 1 l 11'-XPPlLY we students seek to learn the beginnings ot our loved Saint Rose Academy ln the early thirteenth century Saint Dominic tounaed his Religious Order with the hope that its members would be Champions ot Truth Lc ss than three hundrc d y ars later some Dominican Missionaries accom panied C hristopher Qolumbu across the Atlantic The prayers ot the Domtni can Sisters in their cloisiercd European Convents tollowed their zealous Brethrcn who in An ericc taught euls tc know and love the true God With the history ot the aevelop tent ot the 'We tern hemisphere the story ot their sacriti es ti ids place alongside the issio iary labors oi the Franciscans and lesuits r tllt of . X , c , 1 . 1 . L 1 1 1 . . 1 1U . 1 ,- : T O L 1 ' ,. l .T T l ' .. 1 1 - 1 'WA 1 u n 1 Ill I ' 1 1 1 11 1 11 1 ' n A ' 4 ' W ' , 1 . , , O 1 , . . s 1 1 1 1 1 - V f. , 1 - .1 . o . , c , ,, 1 , ,, t: i , ,' V ,, ,,1, , 3, v ' . X ' ' l 1 Q ' ' ,, it , .., 1 O 1 1h 1Y 4 4 . l vt! 1 Y 1 . X., . Y, , .i. i 3' ll TY7 'T