Beaver Falls High School - Tiger Yearbook (Beaver Falls, PA)

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she grew older, continued to call for me at the sunset hour, in the vain hope that sometime, somewhere. I might hear the call and answer. She told me how wearisome the task had been, how hopeless, how vain, but, in a lower voice she added, ‘‘The end crowns the work. And the leaves in their gentle whispering caught the refrain, and murmured on into the peaceful stillness of the summer ni I t. ‘‘The end crowns the work. “Pussy Wants a Corner” (Commencement Essay by Mary Dougherty.) “All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. These lines suggest indeed a vision of future time. The word stage, though a fitting appellation, m ght be called a playground. Playground— not because we are accustomed to the sight of rosy-cheeked children running to and fro in their revels, but because all mankind are placed in this playground to enter and pursue the more lively game of life. Beautiful is the scene of a merry lot of chTdren in child-like innocence enjoying a game of Round the Mulberry Bush, Ring Around a Rosy, or Blind Man’s Bluff. At the sight our heart seems to leap with joy; their happiness relieves the weight Of many a saddened and more mature heart. But what is the combined pleasure and meaning forcefully brought before us when that same lot of children change the r game to “Pussy Wants a Corner?” Is there not here unconsciously portrayed the real life of man? When the child in lively competition seeks to crowd his neighbor from his corner, there is pictured to us the competition :'n life among men seeking to win places for themselves among their fellow-men. In a measure live is but an illustration of the “survival of the fittest” and it is depicted to us in the more able and sturdy child crowding out his weaker companion. Just as Shakespeare in the “Seven Ages of Man ascribes to different periods, so the nature of “Pussy Wants a Corner” w'll depend upon the age of the participant. In childhood he unconsciously plays his game in developing himself for his corner in life If such development bears fruit he has won the game; if not, he has been the vict m of partial defeat. In youth he finds his contest more serious. His time of development is to some extent past. He must take the fruits of that development, the life that has been formed as a result of it and find a earner expressly cut out and fashioned for him by Providence. Later Pussy, nature, must not t’re of his labors. Ambition must lead him higher and higher. “Bieger. Brighter and Better” must be his slogan. Desire for improvement is never satiated. The higher a man gets the higher he wants to be. He has ever before him a loftier goal and sees his nability to reach this goal. Then, realizing the dependance of man upon man, he applies for help that he may find some empty corner carrying with it more privileges It is here the phrase. “Go to the Next-door Neighbor.” enters the game of life. We are characteristically selfish. The “Ego” is too prominent in our life play. We fail to see a corner open not for us, but which would be ideally adapted to our fellow-men. Despair and discouragement gap open as a fearful chasm before many and we do not hasten to stretch out our hand least they fall. We shirk those divine words: “Do ye therefore unto men as ye would have men do unto you.” There is a niche or corner for every man brought into this world, for 31

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With the patience which only a mother knows, the soothing voice of the woman repeated a story that the girl had evidently heard before. “You were just beginning to talk, dear, and to call your brother all sorts of funny names. Hut for the most part you delighted in calling him “Wim’ although his real name was William. The speaker paused as in retrospection she heard the childish treble of her sunny haired babe. Then she resumed her story. “We were living on a large farm. One day when your father had gone to town for provisions, I was troubled with several tramps who insolently demanded food. I was young and refused to be frightened by their mumbled threats, hut when near evening, your brother and his playmate failed to return for supper, I began to he alarmed. For awhile T comforted myself with thinking they might have gone to the home of the playmate and forgotten the flight of time. Hut when 1 went to the neighbor's house, neither William nor the playmate had been there. Sighing, the woman paused, mentally viewing the vista of bygone years. “When ! reached home, your father had returned and, together with ti e neighbor's family, we searched far and near for our boys. The woman’s voice broke completely, and the girl in contrition softly said. Xever mind, mother, maybe sometime they'll come back, and you’ll forget the grief you’ve had. Concealed in shadows. I listened to the whole story, first because of a strange interest in the characters and then because of a stranger turmoil within my heart. My name was William. Jack was my companion and always had been. We had never known a home hut had been taken with the lumber jacks wherever they moved their camp. Searching in my memory for more conclusive evidence, I convinced myself that I remembered a barn, a trout brook, and a large elm tree by the roadside. 1 had never understood why I had no mother, hut the lumberjacks had been such rough companions that neither Jack nor T had courage enough to provoke their ridicule. Like a truth, that although unreasonable yet convinces, it seemed that this woman must he my mother, this girl my sister. T entered the clearing and approached the two. I addressed myself to the woman. 1 told her of the pictures my memory painted; 1 told her of my life as I remembered it. But why should T repeat the story of our meeting! Those were sacred moments about which one never speaks. As the evening stars succeeded the amber twilight and the now happy sister went to prepare the evening meal, the mother voluntarily answered the question I longed to ask. She told me of how the little sister of long ago had cried during the night for her missing playmate. She told me of how that same sister, as 30

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Cod does not arbitrarily place us here. We are here to t'ulf 11 a mission and can accomplish that mission only after we have found cur corner and fitted ourselves into it. Some are more fortunate and find their corneis more easily. T hough fortunate their obligation is greater. A soc al duty demands that they help their fellow-men to find corners, They should not shirk their duty by claiming such corners do not exist, for in biblical lan guage we know that not a sparrow falls to the ground w.thout our Heavenly Father’s knowledge and so it is that not a man is placed on th.s earth without a niche into which he may be fitted. Eut what of man’s fitness for his corner? We are constantly hearing about the equality of man. Many questions can, however, be raised as to the mean ng of this equality. No one can contend that all men are endowed with an equal mental capacity. Neither can bodily development, temperament, or character be argued as basis of equality. These present as many varieties as there are sanas in the sea. Man finds himself so differ e,u from every other man that he almost comes to the conclusion that he is cast shiftless n the world accomplishing nothing for the common good. He can find no corner wherein he may fit himself and work out his earLh.y career. He feels himself deserted and in his despair decided that the world contains nothing for him. Such a condit.on is indeed sad, bui pardonable. Spiritual despair, on the other hand, is absolutely without defence. Our eternity lies entirely between us and our God. Every individual must work out h s own salvation. If he fails in this he is the victim of a most wretched and humiliating defeat in “Pussy Wants a Corner.” There is an equality, not to be sure, on the temporal side, but in that spiritual way which is the inheritance of all men; that opportunity to reach the mosi cubl me of all goals—Heaven and everlasting happiness. In this game of life competition has been an all too-important factor in our lives. The tendency to work out plans for our own happiness and '■omfort, irrespective of the happiness and comfort of our fellow-men, has been too prominent. We have too often crowded our brother out of the desirable corner. Human brotherhood has been an ideal, advocated but not practiced. If each one would take up his responsibility there would be an end to the constant batobling and contention among us Man would meet man on common ground; peace, that long-prayed-for blessing, would be showered upon us and the world would rival that Paradise where God first placed man and which he intended man should enjoy. Yet the world is not entirely a wicked world. Man has not wholly forsaken his duty of grasping his neighbor’s hand in a friendly way and at least assisting him in finding his corner. Happily the time is passing when we scorn a man because he is engaged in one of life’s lowly callings. It is our duty to transfer him to a higher corner by enlightening him. The city missionary and the settlement worker, by their God-given talents of time, money and lives, have put a new meaning into the “Golden Rule ” Men and women are fitting their fellow into corners and showing the truer spirit of the Brotherhood of Man. “Pussy Wants a Corner,” but Pussy needs the assistance of man. All that is required to give this assistance is to both advocate and practice the “Golden Rule.” Then and only then can we sincerely say with Lowell, not only for June, but for every month: “And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days: Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune, And over it softly her warm ear lays; Whether we look, or whether we listen, We hear life murmur, or see it glisten; Every clod feels a stir of might, And instinct within it that reaches and towers, And, groping blindly above it for light, Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers; The flush of life may well be seen Thrilling back over hills and valleys.” 32