Boston Latin School - Liber Actorum Yearbook (Boston, MA)

Page 13 text:

r A r i i ) i i 7 announced a death in liis lamily took tlie new captain ol Company B out ot sciiool. Here was tlie finder of fate. Stiffeninr ' a none too firm upper lip, 1 soiiglit the drearl c|uarters of the Judge. I pointed out that only an imbecile woidtl knowingly have calleil for cheers for the man who had forbidden them. Inattention I admitteil, but not disobetlience. lilo- cjuent in my desperation, I told the Head that while a military office lookeil small to him, it meant much to a boy; to lo.se it was intolerable humiliation. I think I detected a twinkle in the august eye before my pa.ssionate plea was ended; an hour later my appoint- ment was posted. I truly believe that ever since that experience 1 have been a little readier to see the boy’s point of view. And the notice in this morning’s paper It told the death of that friend of mine who was captain of Company B for just one tlay. Here let us leave random recollections of days over a half-century gone and address ourselves to the sterner business of closing this my latest, and my last, contribution to the Register. Let us turn to the mem.ories that 1 shall carry away from the school where most of my life has been spent. I’ortunate imleed is the man who leaves his work with happier impressions than mine. It is the teacher’s lot to grow fond each year of a group in his own room only to bid them farewell in the early summer. La.st September I wondered, as I nur.sed a damaged arm, what fortune would deal me for roommates in my final year. Let me a.ssLire the boys of Room 303 that I was not unmindful of the little willing a tentions that my partial helples.sncss of the early fall made welcome. Those little kindnesses will stay with me, though those who showed them to me have forgot cn them already. They will carry away with them, those boys of the strong lungs and the friendly faces, my very ood wishes. It pleased me to be mentioned in the will of TM6. I prize my membership in that class. I must make appreciative mention, too, of the many other boys who have passed or entered my door; their smiles and greetings have added to my year. I pause to leave, as a sort of legacy, my recurrent congratulation to him who .shall, each year forever, win the medal for excellence in French. Here belongs the expression of my affection, long grown deep and la.sting, for the class that some of us have come to regard as peculiarly our own, the Cla.ss of 1904. They presented the medal to the school; it was their suggestion, not mine, that it should bear my name. Of all the groups with which I meet, it is with iyo4 that 1 feel most restfully at home. Five Headmasters have reigned in m.y time; each has been my friend; each has made for me clays of pleasantnccss and a path of peace. To the pre.sent Head I owe many courte.sies, and, notably on the occasion of one of my major errors, a fine forbearance. To the secretaries in the office, my grateful recognition of their constant willingness to help. And be it here recorded that though I have not seldom caused them unnecessary trouble I have never been reproached with word or look — I cannot forget that. In my own department I have been surrounded for twenty-nine years with a personal loyalty that has been my wonder and my joy. My colleagues 1 count my friends. Their thought- fulness has lightened the heavier hours of my nights of illne.ss. By them my mistakes have been lightly passed over; my days have been brightened with genial fellowship. I shall miss them. In the library I have always found willing help, entertainingly afforded. I have run on too long. One merited tribute I mii.st yet pay, to the editor of the Register, master speller and gentleman. He has waited on mv delays with a fine courtesy. I hope he will not regret it. I close in the speech that gave our school its name; uhitnms vos saluto. WM. F. HLNDLltSr)N, ’H4.

Page 12 text:

6 I A I I N St n t t L ill the niuniin — .iw.iitcJ w itli LonfiJence my dunce to .sparkle. The chance came, in tlie lonn ol a loni; parai;raph ol nearly a pa»e. W ' ord lor word 1 spoke it in my proudest style, omittiiiL;, alas! one small ckiu.se in the middle. I ' or this performance, which I then thought, and still think, not perlect hut commendable, 1 received just plain zero, I ' his mark, nearly obsolete now, was known in our ancient argot as a plum”. Let us rejoice together, ye .scholars of a kindlier day, that such barbarities have cjuite vanished from the earth. Or have they? A great English scholar visited our .school and heard recitations in many chis.ses. Alter we had paid him every honor and, I suspect, bored him stiff, we asked him what he thought of us and our work. I have never forgotten the very words he .spoke so long ago. I no ' iced,” .said he, great fluency in incorrect translation.” It was not what he had hoped he would say; inUns LU h ici nit W ' hen we came to our new home on Warren Avenue, then, they told u.s, the linest school building in the world, we were too lew to occupy all the rooms. So when we be- came .seniors our chess got permission to lock ourselves in a vacant room at recess with a set of bo.xing-gloves. W ' e did not eijual the exploits ol Vergil ' s Dares and Entellus, but ihegloses did .iccjuire new rich stains. Among those that helped to color the mitts ' was a hiture mayor of our city, known to us as kitzy”; a plucky contender was the lad who is now Protestant Bishop of Michigan; a U. S. f ' .ongressman-to-be gave and took hard knocks. And we were the better friends for it all. I should like to know, by the way, the ■ill time record for .speedy consumption of lunch. Something like dash figures sufficed even in our spacious times. We used to share parts of our lunches, brought from home. A wedge of ' X ' ashington pie, a daily par. of the contents of my own box, was considered a .special delicacy. A small bit was all I ever salvaged for my.self. Our Siege de Piiris brings to my mind its editor, Frank Freeborn, scholar and ath- lete. He it was that lightly vaulted through an open wdndow ' on Bedford Street, on lawful capture intent. Two stories below lay the yard, inhospit.rbly paved with brick. But I have told this .story too often; so here I will leave him, in mid air. his blonde hair bright in the June sunlight. Where better could I leave him? Perh.aps the following tale, of which I should not have thought but for a notice in the paper this morning, may explain why inattention is the cardinal sin in Room 30,s. Fhe ilay before the annual parade in my junior year the Headmaster announced in the several rooms that there must be no cheering next day on the C ommon. I had vast rccspect tor Dr. Merrill; he stood near me while making his pronouncement: I was day-dreaming and he.ird no word of what he said. So the next day. c ' hen he passed near the company in which I was a non-com”, 1 yielded to a surge of enthusia.sm and yelled, Three cheers for Dr. Merrill!” And were they given! The heat ot my ardor fell to the absolute zero when the austere face under the silk hat turned coldly on me. You ' ll remember this” came cpiietly from the set mouth. Dazed, stricken, knowing not my sin, I was cheerfully enlightened by those who had cheered the loudest. The .set]uel was shrouded in unknown fate till the next September. The fir.st cla.ss voted the ro.ster in those days; there was al- ways soine log-rolling, and we knew pretty well what each one was to get. I was slated captain of C!ompany B. When the Headma,stcr announced the offices, he told us that our choice for one of the captains could not be ratified because the nominee had been guilty of flagrant disobedience. One of my friends got the appointment; I resigned myself to make what 1 might of what was left of a blighted life. The very day the roster was

Page 14 text:

Front Row: White, Moshenberg (Co-Chairman, Cantor (Chairman), Shannon, Warshaw. Roar Row: Tobin, Miller, Bullock, Slivkin, Stone. THE YEARBOOK COMMITTEE Arthur Cantor, Chd’iniiaii The Yearbook Committee, as other committees in other years, found the assembling of the Yearbook a mountainous task. The correcting of the name sheets, the gigantic quotation-giving job, the final exertion in getting everything ready for a tolerant printer, all made up a sizable strain upon the energies and abilities of an unusually efficient com- mittee. Besides the gentlemen whose smiling faces are viewed above, there were several otlier members of Class I who generously contributed of their time and talents to the success of the present Yearbook. To these nameless ones, a sincere vote of thanks is necessary. Of course, the job could never have been acconaplished with any measure of success without the supervision of tliese three tireless members of the faculty: Messrs. Dunn, Wenners, and Marson. Mr. Dunn, notwithstanding his previous long labors for the graduating class, co-operated with the committee at all times, and gave priceless help to the members. To Mr. Wenners, Class I must acknowledge a sincere expression of grati- tude, for without him there could have been no Yearbook. The tremendous task of hand- ling the variegated financial matters of the Register and the Yearbook bear witness to his remarkable efficiency. Mr. Marson was always near in time of need; tolerant, smiling, and judicious, he adjusted the tight spots in our work and advised the proper course. Now that it is all over, w e can safely say that the Yearbook has been completed, and, we honestly believe, successfully. rinis coronal opus!