Bennett High School - Beacon Yearbook (Buffalo, NY)

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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

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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

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The BEACON 15 SPRING There's a humming and a hustling, And a buoyant, bubbling, bustling, When soft springtime steals afrustling, Like some subtle melody: There's a sense of joyous greeting, Of the world and nature meeting, Springtime voices are entreating, With a pleasing harmony. Sweet spring music softly flutters Through the open window shutters, And the note the skylark utters Echoes faintly through the air, Then, the pussy-willow furring, Golden daffodil afstirring, Snowdrop, Crocus, all afhurrying, Greeting Spring's first sunshine fair. --Lenore Nathan 1223, 1929 THE GLORIOUS ADVENTURE By RICHARD HALLIBURTON Who would not eagerly desire to follow in the footsteps of Ulysses after reading the Glorious Adventure? Richard Halliburton, a young Princeton graduate, decided to retrace the trail of this mythical character after he had read Homer's Odyssey. While on this wandering adventure, he recovered its events and his impressions of the places he visited into a charming book called the Glorious Adventure. I think that I have never read a more fascinating volume of adventurous travel than this. In addition to being written in a most entertaining and absorbing fashion, it contains a wealth of unusual photographs taken at random during the course of the trip. Both the writing and the pictures show clearly the influence of the author's youth. Halliburton swam the Hellespont where the famous Leander of the myth used to swim. He climbed Mount Olympus, the home of the ancient Greek gods, and other difficult mountains. He ran the nineteen mile Marathon over the original course and scaled the walls of the Athenian Acropolis by night. ln other words, he followed, to the end, the fabulous trail of Ulysses, guided only by Homer and his own worn copy of the Odyssey. If you wish to spend some happy hours learning something of historical value as well as being highly entertained, just find a copy of the Glorious Adventure. RI-Iarriet Metcalfe 0230 1929