Berea High School - Prima Luce Yearbook (Berea, NC)

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PRIM A LUCE While wandering through a cemetery in England I noticed the following epitaph : Under this marble rests my wife, Who never rested in her life. Executors, whene’er T die, At a good distance let me lie, Lest, in her wonted clamors drowned, I lose the last loud trumpet-sound. Mr. Williford When Christ was crucified and Peter wandered afar off we find that woman stood the test. When foes the hand of menace shook, And friends betray ' d, denied, forsook, Then woman, meekly constant still, Followed to Calvary’s fatal hill ; Yes, followed when the boldest failed, Unmoved by threat or sneer ; For faithful woman’s love prevailed O’er helpless woman’s fear. Mr. Morris The voice of a virgin is as soft as the cooing of the wood pigeon on St. Valentine’s Day. Her laughter is like the sound of distant bells ringing for a wedding. She is as timid as a Highland doe. He who would creep near to her must do it — as dear-stalkers do — on his knees. At the voice of a man she flies, as a gazelle at the roaring of a lion. But no sooner has she tasted wedding cake than she grows hold as the tiger that has eaten raw food. Henceforth she shall be hold, as a servant that has discovered your secret. Her voice shall sound like a circus-gong at a fair, telling that the scenes are about to commence. That Xanthippe’s husband should become so great a philosopher is remark- able. Amidst all the scolding, to be able to think ! But he could not write : that was impossible. Socrates did not leave behind a single book. Mr. Currin O woman ! Whose form and whose soul Are the spell and the light of each path we pursue ; Whether summered in the tropics, or chilled at the pole, If woman lie there, there is happiness, too.

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Me. Morris I grant it, but there’s one thing that leads me to think that there are very few women on the other side. } What is that? Mr. Currin Mr. Morris It is spoken of as the silent shore. Mr. O’Brian 1 he billows on the ocean, The breeze, idly roamin’, The cloud’s uncertain motion : They are but types of woman. Mr. Williford You say, sir, once a wit allowed A woman to be like a cloud, Accept a simile as soon Between a woman and the moon ; For let mankind say what they will, The sex are heavenly bodies still. Mr. Morris A creature fond and changing, fair and vain, The creature woman rises now to reign. New beauty blooms, a beauty formed to fly ; New love begins, a love produced to die; New parts distress the troubled scene of life; The fondling mistress and the ruling wife. Mr. Currin Oh ! say not woman’s false as fair, 1 hat like the bee she ranges ; Still seeking flowers more sweet and rare As fickle fancy changes. Ah, no ! the love that first can warm Will leave her bosom never ; No second .passion e’re can charm, — She lives and loves forever. Mr. O’Brian Said Smith when some one criticized His pretty wife’s new bonnet, “She has so little in her head, She can’t bear much upon it.” [ Page 47 ]

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What is there in this vale of life Half so delightful as a wife, When friendship, love and peace combine To stamp the marriage bond divine. Mr. O’Brian The devil he swore by the edge of his knife (Hey, and the rue grows bonnie wi’ thyme), He pitied the man that was tied to a wife ; (And her thyme is withered, and rue is in prime). The devil he swore by the kirk and the hell (Hey, and the rue grows bonnie wi’ thyme), He was not in wedlock, thank heaven, but in hell ; And the thyme i s withered, and rue is in prime. Mr. Williford 25 Hear, ye fair daughters of this happy land, Whose radiant eyes the vanquished world command — Virtue is beauty. But when charms of mind With elegance of outward form are joined; When youth makes such bright objects still more bright, And fortune sets them in the strongest light ; ’Tis all of Heaven that we below may view, And all but adoration is your due. Mr. Morris Yet be not therefore proud and full of scorn, Woman, because man issues from your seed’; For roses always blossom on the thorn, And the fair lily springs from the loathsome weed, Capricious, proud, importunate, and lorn Of love, of faith, of counsel, rash in deed, With that ungrateful, cruel and perverse, And born to be the world’s eternal curse. Mr. Currin Charming women can true converts make, We love the precepts for the. teacher’s sake ; Virtue in her appears so bright and gay, We hear with pleasure and with pride obey. [ Page 49 ]