Blair Academy - Acta Yearbook (Blairstown, NJ)

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r F, Sling ClBrafiu1t HAMILTON fDoDGE AVERYA ANY classes have passed through the portals of Blair out into the world and there will be many more to follow. Each small group leaves in turn with a feeling of sadness in their hearts and each has observed the fitting custom of the planting of the ivy. And so now the members of the class of 1924 have gathered, here to leave behind them a simple token by which they may be remembered. WVe feel as those who have gone before us have felt, that we have incurred a tremendous debt which may never be paid. But we can fulfill the fondest desires of our teachers and instructors if we but go through life living up to the high ideals and splendid principles laid down by our forefathers. Are the years of learning that we have spent at Blair to be wasted and forgotten with the passing of time or will we take up the great game of life where the generation before us has left it? If only we might imbibe that indomitable spirit that characterized the founders of our mighty nation! We must catch the vision of the great task laid out for us. After the realiza- tion of the part we should play in the moulding of America into a bigger and better nation, shall we carry on, or shall we fail utterly, through lack of ambition and negligence to our duty? Look at the world about us, see what seemingly impossible things have been accomplished by the perseverance of our predecessors. Mighty ships like fioating palaces ply the seven seas, carrying their cargoes to the remotest parts of the earth. Man has constructed great machines which Hy like birds above the land and the sea. Man has laid bands of steel from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, over which one may travel with incredible swiftness from city to city by day or by night. Man has reached the point where, by various and intricate devices, he may literally speak into the air and be heard thousands of miles away. This, my friends, is but the work of well trained minds directed in the proper channels. This is why we were sent to Blair. Here our minds have been nurtured and disciplined so that we might go forth with the proper training to make our lives worth while. XVe have received this invaluable training. What shall we do with it? . Let us turn to the ivy, which, springs from the roughest of sod to toil upward, ever upward. In the beginning only a tiny shoot planted and cared for by human hands. Then, as it grows older, refreshed by the rain and vvarmed by the sun, it reaches out with its own latent strength to secure a firm hold on some statelypedifice. From that time on it grows, creeping slowly but steadily up, sometimes without the bright sun or the refreshing rains. The obstacles in its path are many. but it surmounts them all until at last it has attained the highest pos- sible level. ' And so it should be with our lives. We have been tenderly reared and carefully started along the wondrous way of life. Our beloved parents have given us our' first opportunity in this great institution of learning. Here with the aid of an excellent faculty we have been prepared to take our hrst hold on life and begin the upward climb. The days are over now when we could always look up to another for help. The time has come when we must stand on our feet and walk alone., A great life is in front of us. Our destinies are within our own grasp. , Now that the real test is just ahead shall we falter or shall we begin in earnest to do our bit, however small it may be, toward making the world a better place to live in? The great and the fine accomplish- ments in life are not those that come easily at our beck. The things that 'we shall look back on with pride and gladness when ole? father time has taken our youth away, .will be .those over which we have really worked and worked hard. Are our lives to be small and without the joy of manly achievements? No! Let us begin now with fearless courage and inexhaustible reserve to seek higher and more worthy things, never for a moment for- getting the task in hand. And, God willing, may we be more than suc- cessful in wiping out that great debtito our Parents, to our School and to our Country.

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mint 4 unmf JHBII First Honor. . . '. .YLAWRENC13 E. BROWN Second H onovf .... . . .BKCARLTON BQCNABIARA BLAIR BIRDSALL 'KALRRRT M. GRARMUELLRR YM. J. GROVE XNILLARD IQINEHART PIERMAN H. SCHNEPEL GEORGE A. SMITH STANLEY B. SMITH JAMES R. S'1'EwAR'1' :kCOI'l1IUC11CClHCllt Day Speakers. 22 -