Bennett High School - Beacon Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

Page 15 text:

The BEACON 13 THE SEA, THE SAND, THE SKY The sea wears a smoothly shining skirt of satin, Cool green, and here and there a white foam ruffle, And she swishes it quite softly on wet sand As she trips along the shore. The sand wears dainty fluttering chiffon Of a color warm and golden, which the breeze Ruffles softly as she sits so shyly watching Her more sophisticated neighbor. The sky is cool and smiling, poised quite perfectly. She wraps her light blue cloak around her. She fluffs her summer f urs of billowy whiteness, And preening, glides along on summer breezes. Three lovely ladies, airy, demure, aloof, Beauties of the summer and of all creation, The sea, the sand, the sky. Esther Gibson 0071 1928 COURTESY The majority of high school students are so busy in their scholastic, athf letic, or dramatic development that they sometimes forget the development of that very important characteristic, courtesy. Most pupils think they are courf ttous if they say, Excuse me, when passing in front of a person, or if they perform other simple acts. This idea is all right for a pupil of the lower grades, but when a person has advanced into High School, he must consider courtesy in a broader sense. Courtesy to a high school student should mean considering the rights and privileges of others. If he has this idea, he will not talk when his teacher or someone else is trying to talk, he will not run through the halls knocking people to the right and left of him, nor will he disturb his friends in the study hall. In most cases a pupil does these things not because he wants to be discourteous but because he forgets to be courteous. He for- gets to consider the other person. This lack of consideration has been noticed by the faculty and many girls of our school, in order to remedy this condition, they decided to have courtesy week. This, of course, is a very splendid idea. But why should we wait for such an occasion before we start to be polite? Let us start now to develop this spirit of consideration in Bennett High School, because by its development, Bennett will be a better school and pupils will strengthen their character. -Elmer Tropman f206j 1928

Page 14 text:

The BEACON MUD Ivlud--dirty, drab, mud- Black mud, slimy mud- Cozing mud, filthy mud. Filthy say you? Say not so, Black it is But filthy, noe- Say you rather of its beauty, Of the sacrifices made To make it. Say you rather of its stillness 'Neath the woodland shades That break it. On the river bed it lies Soft and gripping, Shifting as the brooklets rise, Shifting, slipping. Know you not what lies beneath Exposed to all who care to see? 'Tis the work of God above, Maker, of both you and me. He that made us made the mucl, just as man. He made the lands. Why, then, do you scorn to know it, This,the work of holy hands? Could they hear you, 'neath the Waters, Souls of trees would whisper low, Hearts of flowers would whisper softly, VVhisper gently, Say not so. For, to make its velvet smoothness Fragrant grasses gave their all, And 'tis o'er the dead pine needles That the rippling rivcrs fall. Sturdy oaks their bark have given just to make that ebon black: Deep within this succulent mire Lies the heart of tamarack. Even in this oozing blackness, In this fen so broad, Even in this sticky drabncss, In this mud, is God! John Hagmann Q224j 1928

Page 16 text:

14 The B E A c Q N STREET CAR STUDY Oh, I hate to ride on the street car! It's so tiresome! I heard my neighbor in study hall confide to her friend. I smiled to myself. For to me street car riding is a constant delight. And as for being tiresome, nothing could be tiresome which brings one in contact with so many different types of people. Right now I can picture to myself a typical street car scene. Across from me is a weary mother, who has been burdened all day by her uneasy child and who thinks of that heavenly time ahead, when she shall have a moment of rest from her child. Next to the child, sits somebody's adored grandmother. She evidently has been shopping, for she is laden with the most interesting looking packages. And though very tired, she manages a kind smile for the child, who recognizes in her a genuine lover of children. Beside this woman is another woman who has lived hcr life but has not found, as has her neighbor, the secret of eternal youth in the love of a child. Bitterness and despair are the outstanding characteristics of that deeply furrowed face. Nearby is the woman who will take her place tomorrow. It is the overfdressed, overfscented, overfhaughty, and overfpainted middle aged woman, who having no child nor other home cares, delights in going down-town, to shows, beauty parlors, expensive tea rooms and luxurious department stores. Beside her sits she herself in the making, the young ofhce worker whose entire salary hangs in her extremely upftofthefrninute clothes and who is bored by all creation in general and in particular by the laborer who sits at her side. She shrinks from him because he appears in the clothes of his occupation and carries in his horny hand a tin lunch pail. Farther back in the car sits a young gentleman, correct as regards all details of attire but sadly lacking in a few matters of greater import. For as an old shawled foreign woman with a heavy basket takes a stand near him, lze continues to gaze at the scenery without. Then of course there is the busif ness man who with practised eye scans the sporting and financial pages. In front of him sits a nervous, apologetic little man, who is escorted by his over- sized wife, who reminds him that this is their stop and who openly furnishes her better quarter with the fare. Beside these are to be found the usual col' lection of school children, matrons and gum chewers. This is only a bare outline of the various types of people one meets as he rideson the street car. And the beauty of the whole thing is that the per' sonnel of one's fellow riders is continually changing, giving unlimited opporf tunities to study and enjoy human nature. w -Doris L. Flierl H231 1930