Alton High School - Tatler Yearbook (Alton, IL)

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 T II E T A T L E R l7 SOME REMINISCENCES HE High School of the Middle West is distinctly a national pride. It is turning out a very finished product. It is the university of the people. While some of its branches may be trimmed here and there, it is my belief that it will go on growing with the steady and beneficial growth of the past twenty years, until it will be possible to give by its means not only a practical, but a finished education to all except the specialists. This is the tendency to-day. and those who have received the benefits of its kindly help and mental stimulus should aid that tendency all within their power. I have no statistics before me. I am, therefore, unable to say with exactness the number of graduates of the Alton High School. There must, however, be a goodly crowd of us. Roughly shaking, there must be some eight hundred. Some of them, let me say, in sorrow, arc not here to help us by their counsel and their friendship. When the Alumni Association of the Alton High School is organized, as I fully hope and trust it may be. the historian of that society will tell us in detail the humble beginning of our Alma Mater. I think I was present at the time it was launched, but the memories are simply those of a very small boy, and yet. goodness knows. I am old enough to remember a great many things pretty far back. So you will sec that our High School has quite a few years to its credit. It also has a host of graduates who have Ijeen an honor to its teachers and its Educational Board. In the beginning, as I remember it, the line of demarcation between the upper grades of the Common School and the High School was not very distinct. Of course we had no building to ourselves. We were on the top shelf at No. Two. At that time it was a three years’ course. The high class in the grammar grades and the low class in the High School were pitch-forked in together, and yet I think that we were entirely happy and content. I do not now

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EELING that all aid to the good is worthy of the most hearty commendation, firmly believing that good should be returned not only for evil, but for the good, being assured that the giver is ever entitled to the gratitude and favor of the receiver in the same spirit in which the gift is given, we ask that the readers of this little book take into consideration the help given us by our advertisers in making this publication a possibility, and, as far as possible, reciprocate their kindness. The Business Manager. A. J. Dcgenhardt. Alton Banking and Trust Co. Alton Gas Co. Alton Light and Traction Co. Alton National Bank. Alton Packing Co. Barth’s Pharmacy. C. A. Vanprcter Mercantile Co. Charles B. Rohlnnd. Dr. Geo. E. Wilkinson. E. A. Seek. LIST OF ADVERTISERS E. Marsh Co. Frank R. Davis Piano Co. George Miller. Gintcr-Wnrdcin Co. Hapgood Plow Co. Henry S. Baker. Hermon Cole Hardware Co. s . H. M. Schweppc. J. H. Bauman. J. R. Logan Co. Madison Shoe Co. M. H. Boals Planing Mill Co. R. F. Seely. Scott’s Dyeing and Cleaning Co. Sparks Milling Co. Trubc Furniture Co. The Globe Dry Goods Co. The Hnagcn Dry Goods Co. The H. J. Bowman Co. W. II. Wiseman.

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i8 “T II K T A T L E R ” recall any special thrill of joy when I entered the High School; this thrill was reserved until I was actually a member of the Senior Class. That was in 1876. and the Alton High School, with the rest of the country, celebrated that memorable year by turning out the largest ''lass it had ever known up to that time, and I believe that class still holds the record in that respect. There were forty of us. The graduation was a most elaborate affair. It was an all day function. It began in the morning at nine o’clock, and when it finished I cannot say, but I think before dark. We kindly allowed the poor, tired audience an intermission for lunch. We realized that the mental food we were offering them, in the shape of our essays and orations, while very fine, was not entirely life sustaining. Every one of 11s had a chance: we all spoke our pieces. For one I am glad of it. It is the chance of a boy’s or girl’s lifetime to get up before a big audi- ence and tell the world just what to do. You rarely get that chance again, and we old-time graduates are distinctly proud of the fact that that chance was given to us. while now-a-days you have to sit still and listen to a very learned and able man give advice to the world for you. But this is in conformity with the spirit of modern progress. All things change, and change, they tell us. is for the better. It has l cen for the Alton High School. The time has been extended from three to four years. You have laboratories and scientific apparatus, where we had nothing but dry text books. The classes graduating now are better equipped, educationally, than we were twenty-five years ago. There has been vast material progress and an intellectual awakening in the span from 1876 to 1905, and this development may be observed in the history of the Alton High School during that period. We who belong to the older generation glory with you of the younger in this advance, and we are as proud of the school to-day as we were when scholars. If I may humbly suggest it. I think our High School requires an Alumni Association. Yot for the material advancement of the school itself, because the people of Alton will attend to that, but to cherish its memories and keep alive the kindly spirit of fraternalism. which should animate all those who have been blessed with the favors of the same institution. H. S. Baker.