Atwood Hammond High School - Post Yearbook (Atwood, IL)

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about us. Dear high school, we intend to do you credit for you have inspired us with higher aims, and given us a desire to gain more knowledge; dismiss us with your blessing. Schoolmates, since we are about to leave you let us reveal our secret. Though we have often shown our authority, as was our right because we were your “superiors,” we always had a warm spot in our hearts for you. Freshmen, Soph mores, Juniors, always remember that the days we have spent together will never be forgotten. It is hard to part from you aud we are sad when we realize that these happy days are now ended. Long shall we remember the timid Freshies, the laugh ing Sophmore girls, and the quiet dignified Juniors. We wish to think of you just as you are, and not for worlds would we have you changed. In our parting word let us offer our best wishes for your future success. The honors due to you, teachers, are very important. We sincerely thank you for the kindness aud patience with which you have daily led us along the rough and rugged road to knowledge. No doubt you wTere often justly annoyed when we frequently found things very laughable or unintentionally did little things that provoked you. It is not necessary to explain why a pupil does things he knows he should not do or how funny he finds the things which happen in school;'for you have had the same experience in your own school days. For this reason, dear teachers, we beg you to forget our misdeeds and think of us only with kindness. We now leave your protection but as we go out into the world without you your efforts will not be lost; for your influence is stamped upon our lives and with pleasure we will recall your teachings. Members of the school board, our last address is to you. We have not left it to the last because it was the least important, but because we owe you so much that it is hard to express ourselves as we desire. You know what we would say; first of all that we are glad of your personal interest in us; how we appreciate the efforts you put forth which have placed our school on an equal standing with other high schools in the state; and lastly that we thank you for getting the apparatus which has more completely fitted up our labatory and make our studies more successful. You have tried to make our high school life as interesting and pleasant as possible, may you be rewarded for these efforts by our future success. Dearest schoolmates, teachers and members of the board of education, in the name of the class of nineteen hundred eight I now bid you all—farewell.

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class, to reply to the presentation of the ladder, which he did with great credit. During the third, year two more members of the class dropped out. In April, 1907, a concert was given for the purpose of paying off the piano debt. Our class assisted in the preparations for the concert, and felt amply rewarded. when we found that the door receipts were sufficient to pay the indebtedness. On Monday evening, April 15, our junior class gave a farewell reception to the seniors of 1907. Three of those members now remain in the class. Of these Lora Biggs was chosen to represent the Atwood High School in the preliminary oratorical contest held in Bement, April 17, 1908. Here her essay obtained five hundred and twenty-eight points against the five V A I, K D BY LOKJ The time has now come when the class of nineteen hundred eight must gather up her books, and depart from the sheltering roof of the old school building. For tour long years (perhaps we should not say long' years for looking back over them time seems to have down) have we met within these walls, and shared alike each other’s joys and sorrows. Here indestructible friendships were formed, and though several members of the class have left us we still have an affection for them—an affection which we are unable hundred and thirty-one, the essay in whose favor the judges decided. Lora is a native of Atwood. At the age of seven she started to school. After a few years study her teachers noticed a decided preference tor the study of literature, and in the last few j ears, her literary talent has been developed to a remarkable degree. The third senior, Myrtle McClain was born in Josephine, Kentucky, and has been with Hie present class since the second grade, when she began to attend the Atwood school. I suppose many of the little incidents I have given, will be of small interest to those outside of our high school, but we will recall them with pleasure. The records of the class of 1908 will hereafter no longer fill the pages of the Atwood High School’s annals, but will be entered in the chronicles of higher institutions. C T O R Y BIGGS to describe but which will continue through the coming years and be recalled in old age. We indeed realize that our graduation is the first great event of our lives. We are to depart from our home, the high school, and go into the world where things are new and strange; decisions must be made in which no one can help us; our future careers are to be settled. Our ways will divide, but whatever bent we follow we are determined to put forth our best efforts. Our hope is that we may ever be useful to those

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A STORY OF THE REBELLION BY TED MERRITT “What are you reading, grand pa? ,asked a young man of about eighteen as he entered the library in which his grandfather was seated. The grandfather was a gray-haired, venerable-looking, old gentleman of about sixty with dark, piercing eyes set beneath heavy brows. “Nothing, nothing, son,” he said, folding up the piece of paper which he held. At Mr. Churchill s reply Jack’s curosity was heightened all the more. After being questioned for some time Mr. Churchill answered in a subdued voice, “Lelters, my boy.” ‘Letters from whom?”,queried Jack. “From your genile grandmother.” Jack never tired of hearing Mr. Churchill’s experiences in the Civil War, especially hisro mantic ones with Mrs. hurchill and asked his grandfather to tell them once more. “Well, sonny, I’ll start with my journey from Richmond to the Federal lines after my escape from Libby Prison. I got out during the early part of the night, f tramped only at night and rested, through the day beneath the underbrush in the dense woods through which I was passing. I was unarmed and consequently my only hope of avoiding recapture was to keep hidden during the day. At the end of the second day of my flight I was unable to sleep ror hunger, for about forty-eight hours had passed since I had enjoyed the Rebel’s coarse fare. T was therefore determined to risk captivity for a bite to eat. As I lay beneath the hollow trunk of a fallen tree, covered over with shrubbery and vines, endeavoring to thii k out a plan whijch I might pursue, I was startled by a sound which seemed to come from a point but a few feet away. As I listened closely, I heard an old southern melody, sung in .he negro dialect. I decided that this was as good a chance for getting something to rat as I could possibly meet with. “I imufdiately spiarg fiom my hiding place and found that an old colored woman was standing not more than seventy feet away. On seeing my uniform she threw up her hands in amazement and exclaimed, ‘Laud o’massy! if dar aint a Yank!’ As J advanced toward her, she screamed out, “yo’ done come fur ’nough! Fo’ Laud sake, Miss Virginia, come heal)!’ “Turning around to find Miss Virgina, my eyes met the steady gaze of a young lady just emerging from a thicket nearby. Her complexion was of exactly the same hue as the light cream-colored gown which she wore. Her cheeks seemed like petals from the pale pink rose which she carried. “Come, Dinah,” she said in a tremulous voice which betrayed he; alarm at coming upon me so suddenly. It took all the courage that I could arouse to