Beaumont High School - Caduceus Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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G'TlJ i af fi ft Vaseeco i eafffa fl if ei i tiluj e if ijt gt T H E C A D U C E U S turafforeign languages. Latin, Greek, German, Frcnchgancient and modern historyufthe sciences, physical geography, natural philosophy, physics, physiology. Zoology, botany, geology, chemistry, as- tronomy, mental and moral sciencef mathematics, algebra, geometry, trigonom- etry. analytical geometry, calculus, men- suration. mechanics, engineering, book- keeping. A comparison of these subjects with those now taught in the high schools will show the absence of manual arts subjects and stenography which were of later intro- duction, By the opening of the Beaumont High School with its admirable accommodations designed to facilitate in every way the ad- vancement of those who are so happy as to be privileged to enjoy them, a new stage in the realization of the vision of the far- sighted. public-spirited men of 1853 and the years following has been reached. They laid broad and deep the foundations of public education, which they thought and declared should be commensurate with the needs of all children and youth seeking to develop their native endowment of body and mind and should not be excelled by institutions privately endowed and acces- sible only to a limited number of children. Pupils of the Beaumont High School, heirs of the stout-hearted, far-seeing. broad-minded men who have planned and established and directed the public school system of St. Louis, I congratulate you and invoke your aid in carrying forward the work by them begun. So use your opportunities and influence that your debt of gratitude may be repaid many times over to those who come after you. V X , ,..,,.., .... . .. V Y xl 'C A D UC E U S I 1 1 .LL V' 'J' ' L L l ' ,Sk -iii 7'iut-nie-iitwi

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fm r fl? if . A r o t 'f'tti' F llillliif l l -2.1 2 , Q -if Jig, ,W ' T H E C A D U C E U S over under the rules of the Board of Edu- cation until the meeting of December 12, when it was unanimously adopted, Perhaps nothing could indicate more clearly or strikingly the growth of the educational system of St. Louis, and especially of its high school system, which has far outstripped the city's growth in population, than a comparison of the Beaumont High School building with the Hrst high school building erected in St. Louis. This Hrst building was completed in 1856, three years after the establishment of the first high school in 1853, and was located on the northeast corner of Fifteenth and Olive Streets, on a lot 150'xl06'6 , which cost 317,950.00 The extreme depth of the building from front to back was l04'4 and its extreme width was 84', including towers and transepts, The body of the building was 84'x67' and its main height was 71C Its cubical contents were approximately 400,000 cubic feet. lt was designed to accommodate 400 pupils, There were four rooms on the first floor and four rooms on the second floor. On the third floor was an auditorium 82'x64' seating 700. This room was used for classes in chorus music and also for phys- ical training. In the basement was one class room and a science laboratory. Prob- ably the first high school chemistry labora- tory in the United States was later installed in this room. The cost of this building was 347,186.16 and of the furnaces for heating it 81750.00 On each side of the building was a yard 30'x90'. The character of this building, how- ever. as judged by the standards of the time of its construction will appear from a quotation taken from the annual report of July, 1855, which reads as follows: The magnificent New High School edifice is drawing near completion and when it is completed, St. Louis can boast of a model school edifice, one not exceeded if equaled in the United States. In the interior ar- rangements, it contains not only all the modern improvements and conveniences in school house architecture, but several en- tirely new features. In exterior appearance, it is one of the most imposing structures in the country, and if the organization pre- scribed for it and the course proposed in it are faithfully carried out, there will be no literary institution. whether public or private. that will give such an extensive, thorough, and practical education to the rising generation. Among the most encouraging features of the age is the munificent appropriations for the higher grade of school edifices. Boston and New York have high school edinces that cost, including the lots on which they stand, S80,000,00. Philadel- phia, exclusive of the lot, 543,000.00 Cincinnati. SZ8.000.00, Toledo, 332,- 0O0.00. lt would not require a great stretch of imagination for the reader of this quota- tion to suppose that the Beaumont High School was in the mind of the writer. The city of St. Louis has been specially favored all through the years in having at the head of its schools men of broad vision and democratic conception of the meaning and function of the public schools, men who really believed in the fundamental prin- ciples of public education designed to pre- pare youth for self-realization and for participation in creating, conserving, and developing a truly democratic social order, men who saw that the establishment and preservation of a democratic state was de- pendent upon the freest, fullest oppor- tunities for the education of each indi- vidual child. Entrance to the High School from the eighth grade of the elementary school, at that time, depended upon written examina- tions in writing, geography, arithmetic, grammar, history and constitution of the United States. The High School curricu- lum included English, language and litera- Twenty-one

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T l l if H lg T I-I E. C A D U C E U S CADUCEUS By PETER BRAROE ll the advisory period, on March 17, Beaumont selected by bal- lot a name for the semi-annual -7 publication. The decision was overwhelmingly in favor of Caduceus. The record of voting was as follows: Ca- duceus, 1244: Mercury, 185: Record l72: Beaumonter, ll6. The qualities which commended the name to the stu- dents are several and evident. First among them is its appropriateness. That-as does the word itself-needs explanation to all. or nearly all: there, forthwith, is another excellence, a flavor of the mysterious. Back in the halcyon days when Apollo, Hermes Calias Mercuryj, and others of their ilk enjoyed a sportive existence, there we must inquire for the origin. Mount Olympus was once the scene of a very modern transaction, The mentioned representatives of the gods exchanged two gifts, one to the other: both for the con- sequent benefit of mankind. Mercury gave Apollo the lyre, the beginning of musical instruments, Apollo gave Mercury the caduceus, which was in its original form an olive branch with two shoots. The presentations were each suitable: to the god of music, the lyre: to the mes- senger of the gods, the symbol of his of- fice. Mercury, it appears, was of a pacific and conciliatory disposition. He used his staff to separate a pair of fighting snakes, and the belligerents twined themselves about it, unwillingly held in check. Thereafter, the snakes were substituted for the original fork. Two wings were later afflxed to the head of the rod to designate the swiftness of Mercury. In general, Caduceus came to be the appellation of a herald's staff, but its use by the gods was believed to have these attributes. Mercury awoke the dead and conducted them to Hades with it. It was the magic wand which was the means of granting wealth and prosperity: it turned whatever it touched into gold. Here, now, is the significance of this myth to us. At one time in its history the medical profession took for its symbol the caduceus, particularly in the army, where it is the official emblem of the medical corps fpresumably because of its reputed pow- ers over life and death of humanityj. Wil- liam Beaumont, in whose honor the school was named. was Surgeon-General of the United States Army. Thus the connection is entirely fitting. In passing, I might say something about the word itself. Undoubtedly its plural will be in colloquial use. The correct form, of course, is Caducei, since the word is a Latin adaptation of the Greek, but not- withstanding, I am certain that on the days of publication, in however distant years. the cry will be heard. The Caduceuses are coming out. Twenty-three