Aquinas Institute - Arete Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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THE ARETE SCHEFFEL, THOMAS “Tom” 10 Whalen Street Prepared: Blessed Sacrament School Here is a revelation—people who are mystified by the authorship of many of those cartoons that appear on the bulletin board from time to time may now pay tribute to Tom. That is only one of the ways by which he seeks to keep the school in good humor. Another is his contagious cachination. Strange to relate, Tom has a poker face for serious occasions, which has been the despair of the faculty. Study and school have been taken lightly by him, which does not seem to dim the luster of his achievements. He is a staunch advocate of holidays, and on some occasions has created them for his own convenience. Tom will take his place beside Michael Angelo or Bud Fisher. SWARTZENBURG, MILTON “Milt” Prepared: Immaculate Conception School One of Milt’s aims in life is to gain fame as a drummer and, judging from his playing at our Senior banquet, we can safely say that he will soon take his place in Sousa’s Band or some similar organization. But Milt’s achievements are not confined to music. His studious disposition and congenial ways have won for him a host of friends. Milt is by vocation a crossword maniac, but at intervals he finds time to entertain himself with a Cicero trot. These manifestations of a superior intelligence augur well for Milt’s future. WEIST, JOHN “John” WITTMAN, F. LEON “Lee” 40 Ferndale Crescent Prepared: Corpus Christi School John among other things is a prominent basketball fan. Not only that, but he even knows the correct score at any time during the games. The other things in which John has obtained prominence are, of course, his studies. Every morning John, if he is lucky enough to get a car on the Webster line, comes down and starts reeling off the day’s work. French seems to be his speciality for he is always searching for new knowledge in that subject. Of course he is always up in his other studies; the faculty no doubt wish they had a few duplicates of John. We’re all unanimous there! R. D. 6, Dewey Ave. Station Prepared: Saint John’s School Lee is a regular all around good fellow, always ready for fun and good times. He is usually found in the corridors tussling with a fellow student and display ing feats of strength. He provides many good arguments against study that are always enjoyed by the rest of the students, but which the faculty seems to consider absurd. When the photographer showed Leon this study, he demanded, indignantly, “Where’s my beard?” Leon drives his flivver with characteristic abandon, but is a curse to the filling stations. All his puddle jumper ever needs is free air and free water. eighteen

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T II E A R E T E OSTRYE, HERMAN “Herm 63 Evangeline Street Prepared: Saint Mary’s Academy, Dunkirk, N. Y. Besides being a success ac other branches of human endeavor, Herm is also a man of note—he plays the violin, banjo, etc., to perfection. Whenever the topic of conversation is musical Herm waxes eloquent. (No, he does not sing). As a skater he is par excellence. At the Genesee Rink he performed the fastest cutting one night that I have even seen. (There was a 200 lb. fellow directly in his path). In scholastic circles “Herm” Ostrye and his music vies with “Cecil and His Blue Mountain Collegians” for popularity. Au revoir, Herm, but not good bye! OTTO, GERALD FREDERIC “Jerry” 55 Culver Road Prepared: Blessed Sacrament School Here is the editor of the Arete, and the chap whose sketches on the bulletin board have been a never-failing feature of local art. Jerry is a declaimer of terrifying ardor. In the historical debate Father Brien had to tell him three times to sit down before he would admit that his time was becoming limited. His outstanding vice is his habit of perpetually demanding something— subscriptions for the Arete, literary material, or a pittance for the Aquinas drive. These are enough charges to make against one man, but we must add that Jerry doesn’t smoke for fear it will affect his singing. Leonardo da Vinci will turn over in his grave if Jerry doesn’t elect a career of bricklaying or something instead of art. RUBY, FREDERICK JUSTIN “Just” 45 Mulberry Street Prepared: Blessed Sacrament School As one may judge from his picture, F. Justin Ruby, or bettir still, plain “Just”, caused many a flutter among the fair sex who attended our basketball games this winter. Do not think however that “Just” confined all of his efforts to cheering the team on to victory. He found enough time to make himself popular w’ith both his companions and the faculty. His witty sayings oft-times enlivened many a group of classmates. Let’s have another “A-q-u-i,” “Just,” and then we will leave the old school forever. RICKARD, IRVING R. 238 Dorchester Road “Irv” Prepared: Saint John’s School Irv is one of our few really classical scholars. He is religious in the performance of his duties around school and seems to take a keen delight in work, being one of the minority ambitious enough to pursue Greek. One may gather from this that “Irv” is.buried in his books, but such is not the case. Firm belief in the adage “Work hard, play hard” makes him a pleasing companion in our pranks. He is one of the few seniors fortunate enough to own a driver’s license and consequently has a car at his disposal. We opine that Cincinnati can’t be such a bad hamlet after all, if it can turn out men like Irv. When Irv enrolls in Holy Cross he will spread the fame of Aquinas with little effort, as he is a standard bearer of Aquinas ideals. seventeen

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THE ARETE Catfjoltc JUcttottp tit literature T has long been the accepted custom of numerous men of letters, perverted and biased in their religious persuasions, to allude lightly and slightingly to the Catholic Church and her standpoint on education, her position in literature, the products and accomplishments of her children. There is noticeable to-day a marked trend to more sensible and appreciative estimation of the Church in this respect, but still there are those who, either bigoted or misinformed, perjudiced or ignorant, evidence a complete misapprehension of this matter, and ascribe to the Catholic Church effects upon its members and their lives, their thoughts, their ability or particular leaning in profession or vocation, which to us are not only suprising and dumbfounding but also highly ridiculous and extremely amusing. It is frequently asserted that our religion has a most detrimental and retarding effect on the output of Catholic authors. That their works, because of narrow-minded thought and intolerant ideas, are devoid of originality, of superior qualities, of all elements unique and unconventional in structure and content. In brief, that, because of the faith of the writer, and his consequent standards of morals, thought, and persons, a work of this class is stilted in a fashion, reserved, constrained, that the author is not enthusiastic and sincere, but that there is invariably and inevitably missing the ultimate essential of true convictions and rigid contentions which should be the very fundamental element upon which any form of real literature should be based. It is not difficult to deny these assertions, for every Catholic realizes the true position, aesthetically, of our Church, and we, to a great extent, can cite refuting arguments and convincing proofs, but nevertheless by far the most effective denial possible is the mention of examples in literature to prove the fallacy of the contentions which I have enumerated. For centuries, from the very primal origin of Christianity, Catholic books and authors have occupied an eminent position in the eyes of critics and readers. In every field, the drama, fiction, science, the essay, have writers of our faith been prominent, and numerous books of Catholic authors, written in different ages for over nineteen hundred years are regarded as the ideal standards of literature of their class, and are quoted to us as embodiments of desirable and requisite elements, of fluent and facile diction, of beautiful and well-constructed style in every field of literary endeavor. But to us the criticisms and comments of Englishmen and Americans are most familiar, and, bearing that in mind as an important consideration, I shall attempt to concisely summarize, from the Catholic prospective, the history of English literature since its origin, and to prove or rather delineate the potent influence that the Church has been on this subject. Not a restraint or a detriment to genius, but a most stimulating, beneficial, and inspiring influence on both authors and their output, a truly helpful and lofty incentive to great heights of accomplishment and merit. Let us begin at the crudest and earliest form of English literature, approximately in the eighth century, when our language was in its most undeveloped and pristine stage and was used by the most ignorant and illiterate peasants and woodsmen. Probably the first writer of English nineteen