Wakefield High School - Oracle Yearbook (Wakefield, MA)

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THE MODERN DIOGENES He was just ii plain, simple, law-abiding detective. He smoked a pipe, as all detec- tives do, and all in all he reminded me very miieii of the well-known and much-loved Sher- lock Holmes. I had met him several times and our acquaintanceship was becoming more and more congenial. On this particular morning I discovered him on one of Boston ' s most prominent streets. He wore a long gray ulster and a ponderous cap with far-reaching visor. Tlic inevi|table pipe was protruding from one corner of his mouth. Pie was walking along, bent over in the act of scrutinizing through a magnifying glass, something that evidently lay along the sidewalk. Being much interested, I went up and tapped him on the slioulder. He started as if from a profound reverie. ' ' Ah, it is you, is it? lie said, smiling his peculiar one-sided smile brouglit about Iiy :i compression of the lips to hold the pipe in place. Sure, it ' s me, I replied, having uothing better to say and feeling certain tha.t t!ie grammatical error would never be noticed by one so absorbed in hi|S work. What ' s the mat- ter? I continued; out of a job? No, he said. On the contrary, I am vciy busy. Sijenco enstied while I watched him. Thi n I said, What arc you hunting for? Did somebody lose a diamond out of their wedding ring? There was a moment of silence which fol- lowed and I began to speculate on the prob ability of a reply. Tlien in his uncanny voice, No, I ' m hunting for honesty! I jumped, i(t came so suddenly, desi)ite his delay in returning an answer. Honesty! T repeated, honesty doesn ' t leave footprints, docs it? On the contrary, he replied, it gives very marked evidence of its presence. I waited with growing impatience for him to speak. At last he paused in his work to say : Look at that man ' s footprint for instance. ' ' I looked. SeeJpg nothing peculiar about it, I remarked, Well, Diog enes? He looked] up at the appelation. Then grasping the connection, he smiled Ji second time. It ' s this way, he said. Of cours3 anyone that was honest would have a certain feeling of honesty about him. Tliis w ould give him a certain feeling of assurance which would show in his walk. See, this fellow has only i slight impression of the northeast part of the toe. That is the unfailirig sign of theft, no matter how small. He will carry it with him all his life. If he were honest, each part of the foot wouUl give a like impression. Now this man — hold on, ho has just purchased a pair of new shoes, so that you can ' t tell much about it. But this woman does not show the southwest part of the heel. This shows, in a woman, false pride. And so it goes on. He paused, resuming his careful study. Having nothing to say, I said it. hi a little while he went on. What are the retiuirements of honesty? Up- right conduct, no cheating, that is, being fair in every way, both to yourself and to others, no stealing, frank sincerity, candor, no deceit, and absolutely no lying. ' ■Stop, stop, I said, not so fast, surely ly- ing doesn ' t come under that list. You ' re mixed mixed up with the truth. One must be truthful to be honest, he an- swered simply. From my observations I have found that there is nobody who is hon- est, nobody, and that i,ncludes you and every- l)ody else and no free passes. But — surely — , I stammered, not liking to be accused of so gross a thing. Surely I — Vou, he said interrupting, a short while ago said, ' It ' s me. ' How many vows have you taken during Education Week that you would use nothing i)ut the best English? Are you not dishonest? I was overw-helmed. I had never looked at it in this way before. Do you mean — ? I began. 1 mean what 1 say and nothing more. Bi.t don ' t misunderstand me. A good many pc- sons think they are honest because they are not dishonest. This is not true in the way they think of it. To be dishonest they say is merely to clieal in selling something, applied especially hen thej- are the purchasers. No v, between this and honesty there is such a loophole as to enable them to crawl through. And they go about holding their heads hig ' i in the air, thinking, the while, tliat they are honest. Maj be they are; but ii ' thej ' are, I don ' t want to be honest. He left me pondering over what he had said. His slander was so vast that I could not grasp it all at once. I slowly turned and re ■ traced my steps examining them as I weut along. LOEES McCLOSKEY, ' 25.

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ways been considered one of the most musi- cal in all Europe. Foremost of all Bohemian composers was Anton Dvorak, famous for his New WorM ■ Symphony. ' Some of the most delightful music of re- cent days has come from Scandinavia, Nor- way, Sweden and Denmark. The northern folksongs are of a peculiar and exquisite charm, and they have tinged all the work of the Scandinavian composers more or less, part ' icularly since the European Romantic movement threw the attention of the art world I)ack to the charaeteristic national suljjccts and racial feeling. By Scandinavian music we find that we com- monly mean Norwegian, for in music, both popular and artistic, Norway far excels Den- mark and SAveden. Of this Norwegian group, Edward Grieg was the most ijnportant figure. Musical culture among the English-speaking luitions, for a long time imijerfcctly developed, has begun to attain in the last few years a new vigor. The masses of the people are now learn- ing to appreciate what is best in musical art, and this learning is being strengthened by private teaching, schools, societies, and an ex- pajiding concert system. Musiq is vapidly becoming a part of popular life. Arthur Sulli.van was one of the first of the modern English musicians to gain distinction. . Following closely after Sullivan was Edward Elgar, reckoned by some as the greatest of modern English musicians, Samuel Coleridge- Taylor, born in 1875, was another to rank high among English musicians. Of the English composers now living, three esi)ecially deserve mention, Percy Grainger, Cyril Scott, and Ralph Vaughn Williams. The outstanding reason that I chose this subject was the vast importance of being familiar witli the musical tendenc ' iCs and charact eristics of not only our own country liut those of the others also. DOKIS FROST, ' 24. LIGHTS ABOVE The sun went down, And o ' er the hills The moon stole up, A sphere of gold, Lighting the dark woild ])elow. The stars put on their twi.nkling coats, To help the moon in hi ' fe good wprk. Making the black sky A niass of merry, shining, little lights. WINIFRED GEIZER, ' 26. Many times the question has been asked, When is a person educated? Walter Pater, a famous English writer, once gave this definition: Our education becomes complete in proportion as our susceptibility to impressions of the world iii which we live, received through the senses, increases in depth and variety. This definition nmy seem very complex to many of us, but perhaps if an example is given, i|t will become clearer. At Christmas time, through the effort of the Art Department, little drawings, appropriate for the season,, were made in some of the rooms. One of our teachers, upon entering the class room the next morning, was much moved by the beauty of this little sketch. All that day lines kept forming in her mind, and the next day she placed a little poem on the board. Within two days four original Christmas carols, three of these with original music, were passed to her. If the minds of these pupils had not been trained in some degree, neitlier the sketch nor the poem would have made any impression on them, nor would they have desired to put into their own words the emotions which they felt. It is this spontaneous exjjression of impres- sions tiiat wo receive from the world about us that reveals the degree of our education. BERTHA VIK. MAY May, beautiful May, month of love and hope, welcome ! We welcome you l)ecause you fre« life from fiuitful germs; because you prepare and se- cure the vintages and harvests; because you pour joy into man ' 8 heart. For you the sky clears; for you the earth covers itself with fragrant flowers and with fruits exceedingly sweet. Oh May! The heart of man is like a pre- cious cup which should not be enii)ty. Pour, lovely May, into it a yearning for al new joy, a. ncAV hope. Genial May! Warm these soft germs whi.ch we with careful hand and kindled mind, con- fide to the earth and moisten them with spring showers. Oh lovely month of May, warm, renew, fer- tilize! CORRADO ZAMMITTI.

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RASTUS — KLEPTOMANIAC Kiistus! Is that you out in Ihuit cliit- ' kcu house ' ? No, Marse Ed, ' taint. Itastus, Kastus homo in bed. ' ou black rascal! Don ' t I ' e to nie! Dro)) that ::ig full of the Ijord knows what, aicL come licre to mo ! ' ' From the dusky recesses of the chicken house, a shambling figure with drooping, dis- consolate head advanced toward tlie erect figure of Young Ed. He was just back from college in the North, the joy of his widower father and the terror of the plumb lazy nig- gers of the plantation. Now look here, Eas tus, we can ' t stand this any longer! When we gave you another chance after you borrowed all the water- melons from the kitchen garden, you prom- ised to keep to the straight and narrow path ; but I guess it ' s no use to try to reform such worthless black trash as you are. Let me tell you this, you young imp of Satan! — you ' d have been sent packing long ago if it hadn ' t been for your mammy, the best foster-mother an orphaned Southern lad, such as 1 was, ever had. It would break Mammy Chloe ' s heart if she knew about your disreputable actions! ' Deed and ' deed, Marse Ed, I didn ' t wanna take that mizahle olc chicken. He raised pleading eyes, with the whites gleaming stavt- lingly in the moon-light, to the unrelenting figure above him in the shadow of the white pillared back verandah of the old ancestral mansion which had been the home of the Dinsmores for generations past. I didn ' t wanna take him, with a contemp- tuous side kick at the shapeless bulk in the linrlap bag he had dropped at his feet, F reckon the debbil done drog me in, Marse Ed. As usual, blaming evei ' ything on livs Sa tanic Majesty. But, say, Ilastus, perhai)S yon are a kleptomaniac! — the thought burstini; out excitedly. I dunno Avhat that kep-klep-er what chu sed — I don ' know what he is but I guess I ' m him all right — hopefullj ' . Well, if that is the case, it isn ' t your fault — soi ' t of an instinct, 1 supiiose ' — thought- fully said Marse Ed. ' , cagc ' ly, that ' s wliat it is .Marse Ed-- •t ' s a, stink — brimstone. I smelt it on de deb liil when he drug mo in de chicken pen! Well, Itastus, said Edwai-d, su|)]iressing a smile, you don ' t understand, that ' s all. I rememhej- hearing a lecture on that very thin.; at college. I shall try out some of my the- ories on you, Rastus. The evening is still young. Come into my study and let me get an insight into the machinations of your mind at such periods. In. the shadow ' y lujok-lined study Marse Ed proceeded to examine his servant who an- swered everything in the affirmative hopin;; to escajjo unscathed by humoring his mas ter ' s whims. Now Eastus, sit here and tell me how you feel when these impulses to--er--take things come upon you, Um, er, it ' s sort of an all-gone feelin;;;, boss. ' All gone ' , hm, perhaps your conscious will-power deserts you. Yessir, debbil drags me ' long by de han ' . ' ' Very interesting, very interesting — thoughtfully stroking his upper lip on which a manly fuzz was just beginning to show. Well, tell me how you felt tonight. ' ' Well, I wuz a getting ready for bed — So early? Yassir. V ' hen all of a suddint the roo ' u got all lighted up like a fiery furnace — and I was in the midst of it — and the windas fell in and the room got full of black smoke an ' en I saw dat red debbil a jumpin ' in thru the hole in the wall! An he grinned at me with his long pointed teeth a shinin ' and he said, ' Come along, Nigger ' ; so I come along, and I was scared white — you bet! An ' he led me to your chicken house — At this moment there was an uproar from the chicken house. Hens cackled, and rooster? screeched and the two i)rize ganilers made more noise than a Ford factory. Them niggers has come to finish up the job r started! exclaimed Rastus to himself. forgetting Young Ed ' s presence. What! It was all planned! You youiiij scoundrel! Come with me. A hasty search revealed two negro lads about Rastus ' age lying concealed with their booty behind the chicken house. Collaring them all. Young Ed removed their prey from the relaxed terrified figvires and marched then, before him into the wood shed. The next thirty minutes was devoted to the using of the worn leather strap hanging ther ' ' for just sucJi occasions; and then three verv sore bl;u ' k boys slunk away to their respective luuni ' s, all firmly resolved to remain far, far away fiom larso Ed Pijismore ' s vicinity in the future. DOROTHY HARRIS, ' 25,