Blake School - Reflections / Call O Pan Yearbook (Hopkins, MN)

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suffered in her trials. And now, as we leave the school, we leave behind the history of our activities, a history which, however incomplete, we hope is free from dishonor, one which we have tried to make creditable to Blake standards. A proud day it was for us when, in the fall of 1914, we entered the Upper School as caperish freshmen; a prouder day it is for us as we leave today, after four years of struggling, and look back on the days that have passed. Here we have spent the happiest years of our lives, years filled with joy, joy in our work and play alike. In our freshman year we were very young and, we must confess, rather “kiddish.” Indeed, ours is the youngest class to graduate from Blake. But as the year advanced, we awoke to a realization of our responsibilities as freshmen. We were too young to take part in the school athletics, but we made up for this deficiency in our class and Brown and White contests. The Fourth Form had a football team; in the spring we formed a baseball nine, with Coffin, the present ’varsity captain, as captain, and Michelet as manager. In scholarship cur class was in the fore. Back again in the fall of 1915, with our former membership nearly intact, we entered spiritedly into the school activities. As a class, we excelled in neither scholarship nor athletics, but, as was proper, and as was a fitting example to other classes, we gave our earnest attention to both. We did not shirk our class work for the glory of the field. We had the honor of producing the first play ever given by the school, a play of great excellence—“The Price,” written by one of our members, Philo Higley. 'This amateur attempt resulted in the organizing of the Blake School Dramatic Association, which has become a permanent institution. Higley, Michelet, Rogers, ex-members of the class, and Parke, Gale, Hewitt, and Bartlett were charter members. Mr. Sanderson’s little chart showed us to vary between second and third place in scholarship, even during the restless baseball season. For baseball again occupied our attention, and a Fifth Form Team was organized. When at last vacation was over, and we returned to school, we were Juniors. During the summer we had acquired the dignity belonging to that envied station. For officers we had Gale, president; Williamson, vice president; Coffin, secretary; and Crosby, treasurer. Gale represented our class on the football team, and carried off the captaincy for the 1917 season. Parke captained the second team, and successfully, despite his handicap of illness. Juniors comprised most of the second team, and were: Parke, Fullerton, Cross, Osborne, Harrison, Rubins, Williamson, and Jordan. Williamson and Stearns Cook were members of the fall tennis team. We had no school hockey team that year, but members of the class made themselves prominent in the Brown and White contests. Gale was captain of the White team, but for some unknown reason, the Browns did not have a Junior for captain. In debating, we had Rubins on the White team. In the Junior-Senior debate, Rubins, Cook, and Gale were matched against Woodworth, Carroll, and Bushnell. George Cook was alternate on the resulting school team. During this same year Dick Gale had the most honored post of secretary-treasurer of the Dramatic Association, while the other important position, that of business manager, fell to Williamson. Thus our Junior year passed, and when in the following fall, as dignified and sedate Seniors, we entered Blake for our last and best year, we were filled with resolve to give Blake the best Senior Class that she has ever had. How well we 17

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History of the Class of 1918 THE time has come when we, the class of 1918, must bid a fond farewell to Blake. In the four years we have been in the Upper School, the class has entered whole-heartedly into the activities, scholastic and athletic, of the school. We have shared in her responsibilities, we have gloried in her triumphs, we have 16

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have succeeded, how influential in shaping the destinies of the school, how well we have served Blake in this, our last year—we leave to you. Our officers at the beginning of the year were Gale, president; Crosby, vice president; Fullerton, secretary; Williamson, treasurer; and Parke, assistant treasurer. We chose Mr. Foss as adviser. Mr. Foss has joined the colors. In losing him we have lost a friend and comrade; in securing him, the nation has gained a loyal and faithful soldier. We instituted what we had long felt to be an important and beneficial plan, one which would elevate Blake standards, Blake honor—the honor system in examinations. This plan received the unanimous approval of Mr. Newton and the faculty. And the experiment has proved a success, a success which we hope will be maintained by the classes which follow. We thought that the then existent Senior Council was manifestly unjust and prejudiced, although we realized how hard preceding classes had striven to make it otherwise, and how earnestly they had labored to make it a just and unprejudiced tribunal in student life. The system we have introduced is not a Senior Council; it is a truly representative organization of the entire school, for which reason it is more just. When these two plans had been inaugurated, we had time to think of football. Captain Gale, Fullerton, Parke, Winton, Cross, Williamson, and Osborne were the Senior members of the team and squad. With the passing of autumn, football came to an end, and hockey took its place. We again had no school team, but Brown and White teams entered zealously into the game. Coffin, Stearns Cook, Penney, Winton, and Gale were the Senior members on the representative teams. Examinations were now perilously near, and we were forced to study harder than ever, if that were possible. After Christmas vacation we went doggedly back to work, striving to maintain 1918’s standards. Time dragged heavily, for we were all restless for spring and a resumption of spring sports. This year we have an unusually fine team, with Captain Coffin; Winton, who was on last year’s squad; Penney, and Cook all on the team. We have a fast tennis squad in Crosby, Williamson, Fullerton, and Hewitt. The annual St. Paul-Blake debate occurred early in the spring. This year it was of unusual interest. Rubins and Crosby were on the team, and George Cook was the alternate. We have now laid bare before you our whole history. Our portrayal of our life at Blake has been a modest attempt, for 1918 is a modest class. If I were a Cicero I might do justice to our biography, but I am only historian of the unassuming and retiring class of 1918. We leave it to you to judge us, we cannot exalt ourselves. As we say a last word of farewell we dwell with love and longing upon the memories of our years at Blake. In leaving, we surrender to the classes which follow the precious burden of maintaining the standards entrusted to us, and those which we nave endeavored to establsih. Donald Yoorhees Jordan, Class Historian 18