Brattleboro Union High School - Colonel Yearbook (Brattleboro, VT)

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L'HIVER VIENT! L'automne vient de partir, et maintenant c'est le tour de l'hiver froid avec le vent du nord. Les feuilles rouges, jaunes, et bruns sont par terre, et les nuages gris arrivent. Un matin la neige est en train de tomber, et les oiseaux sont partis. La belle dame d'automne avec toute sa gaiete, et toute sa beaute est conquise, car elle reste morte au fond et le grand monsieur, l'hiver, met son couvert blanc sur toutes les maisons, tous les arbres, et tous les brins d'l'1erbes. Chantant, la joyeuse princesse de glace danse sur l'eau, ses yeux luisants. Les montagnes ont la semblance de grands gateaux blancs. Le Noel arrivera bientot avec la joie et la pensee du bon Dieu qui est ne ce jour pour tout le monde. fMARY STOLTE, '27 NOEL EN FRANCE La plupart des familles franeaises cele- brent la fete de Noel. Dans toutes les maisons sur la veille du Noel la buche de Noel flambe. Et l'arbre de Noel brille avec les bougies allumees et les cadeaux gais et brilliants. Les petits mettent leurs sabots devant la cheminee. Si le sabot est luisant et propre, Le Pere Noel le remplit avec des bonbons et peut-etre un petit jouet. Mais si le sabot est poudreux, il reste vide, et triste, en verite, est l'enfant qui ne recoit rien dans son sabot. La veille de Noel, tout le monde est gai et heureux, en jouant avec les enfants et en chantant des cantiques de Noel. Le jour de Noel est une fete religieuse. On met ses meilleurs habits et l'on va a 1'eglise. Le jour est celebre comme le jour de naissance du Christ. Les eloclies de Noel sonnent toutes en haut de la tour, et le predicateur preche dans l'eglise, de l'Enfant Qui naquit en Bethleem pour sauver les gens du monde. Et d'un bout at l'autre de l'eglise resonnent les mots, G1oire soit at Dieu au plus haut des cieux, paix sur la terre et la bonne volonte envers les hommes! -ALICE J. DARLING, '26 LE TENEUR DE LIVRES' Le Teneur De Livresn est une histoire d'un vieux homme, Jacques Ferlac, qui tient les livres de la maison Durand. Il etait tres pauvre parce qu'il n'avait qu'un appointment de cent vingt-cinq francs par mois. Et aussi il avait, une petite lille a elever. Il a essaye de trouver une autre maison dont il pourrait tenir les comptes parce qu'il avait chaque semaine quelques jours de liberte. Mais il ne pourrait pas trouver une autre maison, peut-etre parce- qu'il etait trop tard ou parce-qu'il porta une redingote demodee et un air malheur- eux et aussi les patrons n'etaient pas in- spires de sympathie. , C'etait le jour avant le Noel et il tra- Ulibz tal vaillait devant une table chargee de gros livres. La pendule sonnait six coups et Jacques Farlac se levait et endossant son pardessus, il prenait son chapeau et ouv- rait la porte du bureau de son patron. Il restait la quelques moments et enfm il disait:- Monsieur, vous savez que je ne suis pas riche, pourriez-vous m'avancer quelque chose sur mon mois? Le patron froncait les sourcils mais il etait au fond un bon homme et il dit, D'ordinaire nous ne faisons pas d'avancesg mais vous devez avoir besoin d'argent parce que demain est le Noel, passez a la caisse et on vous don- nera quelque chose sur votre mois. Jacques etait tres heureux. Il prit l'argent et le mit dans son Vieux porte-monnaie. En dehors le temps etait tres froid. Il remontait jusqu'a ses oreilles le collet de son pardessus et les mains dans les poehes il sleloignait. Les jouets l'attirent surtout. Dans une vitrine inondee de lumiere, une belle poupee blonde et bouclee, aux longs yeux d'email, lui souriait, tendant vers lui ses mains pleines de fossettes. ll a oublie qu'il etait pauvre et il' voulait apporter cette poupee at son enfant. 11 entrait dans le magasin et demandait at la marchande le prix de la poupee. Elle repondait Vingt francs. Le main de Jacques pressait desesperement le porte- monnaie et il repondait C'est trop cheref' Puis la marchance voyait la douleur sur son Visage et elle lui dit, C'etait pour votre lille? Jacques repondait, Oni, Alors il lui dit qu'il etait un pauvre homme qui tient les comptes de la maison Durand. Il dit qu'il portait un vieux redingote et que quelques personnes se moquaient de lui, mais une caresse de sa lille le faisait oublier ses miseres. Et pourvu qu'elle soit heureuse, il etait heureux aussi. ll lui dit qu'il avait cherche souvent pour des autres maisons ou il pourrait tenir les comptes mais qu'il n'en pourrait trouver pas une. Quand il avait fini, la marchande dit qu'elle aimait les enfants et qu'elle voulait qu'il amenerait sa petite lille la voirg et aussi, avait-elle cherche depuis longtemps un homme qui pourrait tenir ses comptes, mais elle ne pourrait trouver personne. Elle allait lui donner un tres grand appointement. Elle lui donnait la poupee pour douze francs. ' Jacques etait tres heureux quand il ren- trait. Sa fille, Blanchette, coura a lui et il la prit sur ses genoux et lui donna la poupee et lui dit comment le Pere Noel avait pense at elle. Si l'on travaille fidelement, sa recompense viendra. -DORIS E. ROBBINS, '26 LE BAPTEME Le Bapteme par Maupassant, est une petite histoire, une peu triste, de la cere- monie par laquelle on baptise un nouveau- ne. Tout le monde, les hommes, les femmes, et lc belle etaient enclimanches. La cloche 9 de l'eglise tinta et la famille quitta la mai- son pour l'eglise. La garde avec le bebe allait la premiere, puis le grandpere et les deux grandmeres, les jeunes gens et le pere et la mere du nouveau-ne. - - Les gamins, les gens, et les filles de ferme, vraiment tout le monde, s'arreterent pour voir le bapteme. Quand ils arriverent at l'eglise, la porte etait ouverte. Toute la famille entra dans l'eglise et le pretre, un oncle du petit bap- tisa son neveu Prosper-Cesar. Prosper Cesar n'aima pas le sel symbolique et il se mit a pleurer. Apres la ceremonie tout le monde revint avec la famille pour le grand diner. Le pretre a porte son neveu en revenant de l'eglise car la garde etait lasse. Il devint tres triste tout at coup parce que au moment qu'il a prit l'enfant, il a su qu'il desira un enfant mais qu'il n'en aurait jamais parce qu'un pretre ne peut pas se marier. Toute la journee pendant que la famille et les invites mangeaient, parlaient, et lan- caient des allusions, le pretre restait tres triste en regardant son neveu. Quand l'enfant'se mit at pleurer la jeune mere emporta son lils dans la chambre voisin et le placa dans son berceau. Le pretre avait disparu et le soir pendant que les invites prenaient du cafe, la mere est alle voir si le petit dormait toujours. Mais en entendant un bruit singulier elle ressortit et raconta la chose aux invites. Tout le monde entra dans la chambre et at genoux pres du berceau, ils ont trouve le pretrequi sanglotte, -MARGUERITE WELLMAN LA MUSIQUE MODERNE DE LA DANSE En notre pays, il y a une compagnie des gens qui deplorent la condition de la mus- ique moderne, surtout, celle de la danse. Ils disent que le jazz perde les jeunes gens, et qu'il sera la ruine de toute la bonne musique, Pourtant le jazz est extinct. Le vrai jazz etait cela des annees 1916-19. En ce temps-la, tous les musiciens, que jouaient pour la dance, faisaient leur possible pour creer le plus grand bruit. C'etait le jour des cesseroles, de fer blanc et des cow bells. Mais maintenant, tout cela est passe. M. Paul Vllhiteman est l'homme a qui il nous faut faire nos devoirs. Il a travaille pour nous faire la musique pour la danse qui est vraiment la musique. Il appuie sur le rhythme parfait. Il ne produit pas des mauvaises bruits, ni des dissonances. C'est pour ceci que les gens qui estiment la bonne musique aiment lui entendre. Toutes les orchestres de haut rang suivent son ex- ample, et ils produisent la musique qui de- vrait satisfaire tout le monde progressif. -BYRON LEACH, P. G.

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8 last shine, but it seems like a century ago. I step outside and freeze to death. I stay inside and have the Hbluesf' And then they say, 'fSuch wonderful cold, crisp air. It's so invigorating. Isn't it just fine, twen- ty below zero, and coal so scarce you have to buy it by the spoonful, not knowing when there'll be more. It seems to be getting warmer and snow- ing less, and I begin to feel better and so go out, and in about half an hour the land is turned into an ocean of slush, and the rain is pouring down my neck. I rush back home to get warm and dry, and I find the house cold, damp, and the fire out. I go downstairs for kindling, and the cellar is half full of water. I go upstairs and the paper's in ruins and the floor and ceiling soaked. I'm miserable. Yes, I love the winter and snow! . -FRANCES H. Hrzvwoon, '26 Q QQ Q ll! Book hat QQQ QQ QEQ QQ MODERN FICTION Here's a list of the newest and most popular fiction and poetry. Let's read! The Keeper of the Bees Gene Stratton Porter Glorious Apollo .......... E. Barrington Soundings ........... A. Hamilton Gibbs The Red Lamp Mary Roberts Rinehart The Perennial Bachelor .... Anne Parrish Red Ashes ............ Margaret Pedlfrr Little Ships ............ Kathleen Norris One Increasing Purpose A. S. M. Hutchinson Arrowsmith .............. Sinclair Lewis The Great Pandolfo .... William I. Locke Poetry What's O'Clock ............ Amy Lowell Sonnets with Folk Songs from the Spanish ........... Havelock Ellis Ladders through the Blue Hermann I-Iagedorn Laura Lane and other Poems Nathalia Crane Priapus and the Pool .... Conrad Aiken Gay but Wistful .......... Newman Levy . . . . . . . . . Coontee Cullen Pluck in Pasture Elizabeth Mackenstry Two Lines .............. VVilliam Leonard Color .... . ..... UGLORIOUS APOLLO E. Barrington This book tells in a most interesting anil different way of the life and loves of the poet, Byron. This book changed my entire opinion of him. I had always had the illusion that Byron had been sadly used by life, but now I find that it was he, be tal who had taken life with all crudity, used the worst and thrown down the best. We have always heard that Byron's wife was a shrew who made his life miserable, but there she is pictured as a most lovable woman, with all strong and gracious char- acteristics, All of Byron's faults are here pictured as human, not as the misdemeanors of a wonderful poet. You will wonder how a man of such a nature could write the in- tense poems of the beautiful side of life, which he himself had known and flung aside, for in his every-day life every move he made was a contradiction to his ideals as expressed in his works. What is your opinion? Have you, too, clung to the traditional opinion of Byron? -KATHERINE LOCKE, '26 THE OTHER WISE MAN ' Everyone knows the story of the Three Wise Men of the East and of their journey to Bethlehem with gifts to offer at the manger-cradle of the Christ Child. But how many of us have read Henry Van Dyke's tale The Other Wise Man, the story of Artaban who also saw the star rise and set out to follow it but who, on account of delay, did not arrive in time at the Temple of the Seven Spheres to ac- company his three fellow searchers? Un- willing to give up hope of finding the King, his greatest and his one desire in life, alone, with a caravan of faithful camels, he crossed the tracklessdeserts to Judea, bearing his two gifts, a ruby and a pearl, for which he had sold his home and his possessions. It was three days after the arrival of the others that Artaban came to Bethlehem, tired and worn but ever pushed on by hope. Alas, it was only to find that Joseph, Mary and Jesus had fled to Egypt. Of Artaban's life, trials, and disappoint- ments, of his desire, denied yet accom- plished in the denial, Van Dyke gives us a wonderful and a worth-while account. This story, though short, makes one better for having read it. -M. XVELLMAN, '27 EBB-TIDE Floyd Osbourne and Robert Louis Stev- enson wrote this unusual book of the South Seas. It is a tale of three men who are on the rocks in a small settlement on an isolated island. We are told there is nothing so terrible or so conducive to sordidness as being penniless, friendless, and without prospect of future betterment in such a place. There are many men who have been and are in such a place, despairing of ever getting enough money to buy a passage out. They depend on others for hand-outs. Castoff clothing, a white man's meat, or small amounts of money from more fortunately situated fel- low-whites keep the life and hope in the body, for terrible are the disappointments some of these men receive. VVe are made to feel, through this story, some of the hopelessness, the dreariness of it all. Three such men tinally find a way out through the abilities of one of them, an ex- captain of a ship. They get the job of taking a trading schooner to another island but decide to sail on to the Argentine and there sell the boat and make tracks for civilization. The tale centralizes itself about one of the three who was once of a respectable English family and of excel- lent position. He, through misfortune and peculiarities in his character, had come to this low level, only to find himself again through this voyage. The schooner never reaches Argentina since, for some reason or other, they are forced to land on an island which is inhabited by a single white man and a number of the Polynesian race. Finally the villainous member of the trio is destroyed by his own black purposes and the other two are made to see, by the greatness of the man of their own race, that there are things for which to live honestly and they make their home with him. Vital human nature plays a powerful role in this drama of the tropics. You are advised to ,interest yourself in this remark- able book. -L. W. SEXTON, '26 Q Zllll IIIIIIIllIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllll IIIIIllIIIIIIIlllllllllllllllllllllllll ILUJJIIHIIKIII llllh Em ncccuoon onmcfumuluutntcourol: ox . I 5 IE EE E5 French Department L'ESPRIT DE NOEL De quelque endroit inconnu Vient l'esprit qui est tres doux. Ce sentiment est eternel- C'est l'esprit puissant de Noel. C'est puissant parce qu'il fait le monde Plein d'une soumission profonde. On a aussi une reverence Qui ne permet pas d'insouciance. Les etrennes et les bons cadeaux Expriment l'esprit qui est si beau. Les enfants eclatent dans le cri- N'oel! C'est maintenant ici E Le monde jouit si ardemment La chaleur de ce sentiment! Il aime sentir la chaleur gaie Autour de son coeur fatigue. On sent toujours une vie nouvelle Entrer dans soi-meme quand Noel Est ici pour une autre fois, Et on en jouit comme un roi. -RUTH E. OBER, '26

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10 EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EE . EE E History Department E EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVSEEEESEEEEEEEEESESE CHRISTMAS IN SCANDINAVIA As Christmas time approaches in the land of the midnight sun, the tribes to the far north in Lapland, set out with their rein- deer sledges for the nearest settlements which have churches. Dreary and cheer- less is the Lapland Christmas compared with ours. Still, these people find pleasure in reunited friendships and, paradoxical though it seems to us, the children are hap- py because they can go to school. These young people have no chance to attend school except a small part of the year when they are in the settlementsdfrom Christ- mas to Easter. In this country there is no merrymaking on Christmas eve but on Christmas morn- ing, which, by the way, is sunless, all at- tend services. After services they go back to the low, windowless huts to partake of a reindeer-meat dinner. In the days following Christmas, the Lapps take advantage of the clergyman's presence by having marriages, christenings and funerals. The bodies of those who have died between Christmases have been preserved in snowy depths to await the an- nual visit of the clergyman! A much happier Christmas is that of the Norwegians. The day before, the chil- dren fasten bundles of oats and corn on the tops of buildings, and on poles set up in front of their houses, so that From gable, barn and stable, Protrudes the birdies' table Spread with a sheaf of corn. These people begin Christmas day with services, and then a light meal. After this sample feast, as it were, a pipe of tobacco is passed to each man and boy. Next comes the real feast, bounteous with fish and meats and Norwegian delicacies. Be- tween courses, toasts are given and native songs are rendered. At seven o'clock tea is served. Shortly after this, small boys dressed in white and carrying dolls, representing the Virgin and the Christ-child, enter and sing carols. Sometimes strolling musicians go from house to house on this night. In Sweden, by the first of December, each housewife is busy cleaning the home for the holidays. Everything must be spic and span, the family silver must be pol- ished, the andirons and kettles must be scrubbed until their surfaces are like mir- rors. By the middle of the month, housewives begin to cook for the festivities. Sponge of wheat and rye flour is rolled thin and cut into circular pieces, twelve to fourteen inches in diameter, with a hole in the cen- Ulbe ial ter. These are baked and strung up in the baking-room to become crisp. Various kinds of bread, and different colored cakes are made, as well as quantities of Christ- mas beer, and molded sweet cheese. On the day before Christmas, the tree is decorated. Paper fiowers, tinsel wound with colored paper streamers, boxes of sweetmeats and fruits, and a large shining red ball on the tip-top of the tree, are the chief trimmings. On Christmas eve, the children see the tree for the first time, and a real Santa goes from home to home, distributing the gifts. The Christmas supper comes be- tween ten and eleven. The table, some- times including the entire edge, is prettily decorated with flowers and leaves. CEver- green is not used for decorations here, be- cause it is an emblem of mourning for these people.D The butter is moulded in the shape of a great yellow rose and the dish is trimmed with green leaves. Even the napkins are found to be in fanciful forms. Christmas mush is the most im- portant dish at this supperg it is made of rice boiled in milk and seasoned. A few blanched almonds are included and whoever is the first to find one will be the next to wed. It is expected that each person will make rhymes about the rice while eating it. Fish and a fat goose are other foods al- ways found in the Swedish Christmas meal. On Christmas morning, everyone goes to church for an early service. From a dis- tance come many, many sled parties which start while the stars are still shining in the clear, cold sky. In all the homes, the trees are lighted so that the sled parties may see them as they pass. But the gayest of the holidays in Sweden is the day following Christmas-the Sec- ond Christmasf' The Twelfth Day and the twentieth day are also celebrated. After the grand Twelfth-Night ball, the young people untrim the trees. Christmas in Denmark is unusually gay. The holidays are all spent in eating, drink- ing and visiting. Here, too, the goose is the favorite dish at Yule-tide, and also one finds here a peculiar kind of cake, one for each person. It is a custom among the Danes to go out at midnight on Christmas eve and strike each fruit tree three times, saying, Rejoice, O Tree,-rejoice, and be fruit- fulf' Thus the same gladness of heart is ex- pressed in varied ways by varied nations. -CLARA CROSIER, '26 H THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTMAS Christmas, originally Christes Mass fthe mass of Christb is the name given to the day in which we celebrate the birth of Christ. According to authorities, the birth of Christ was not celebrated in the first cen- turies of the Christian Church as the Christian usage in general was to cele- brate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth. The deaths of martyr Stephen, the evangelist Saint John and the massacre of the innocents of Bethlehem had during this century been commemorated. During the fourth cen- tury, a feast was established in memory of the Savior. In the fifth century, the XfVestern Church ordered that this feast be celebrated forever on the day of the birth of Sol, as no certain day for Christls birth was known. The birth of Sol was chosen because the early people always had a ten- dency to worship the sun as the giver of light and life. Their festivals in honor of Sol took place near the winter solstice, the shortest day in the year, when the sun in December begins its upward course and thrills men with the first distant promise of spring. This holiday was called Satur- nalia. On this day, there was feasting and gifts together with homes decorated with evergreen. In the far east this celebration took place on the sixth of January. As told in the Gospel of Saint Luke, Christ was born during the night and therefore divine serv- ice was held on the night of December twenty-fourth. The feasts of Stephen and Saint John were united with that of the birth of Christ and a feast of three days' duration was thus formed. In the ecclesiastical year this period extends from the first Sunday of Advent to the feast of Epiphany or January sixth. In the Roman Catholic Church the priest is allowed to celebrate three masses on Christmas day, a thing which he is not allowed to do on any other day of the year. The ancient Goths and Saxons called this festival Yule, which is preserved by us in the name of the Yule log. With the rise of Puritanism, the early existence of Christmas was threatened. An anti-Christmas feeling had been brought over in the Mayflower in 1621. In Eng- land, the feeling culminated in l643 when the Roundhead Parliament abolished tl1e observance of Saint's ,day, Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, and so for sev- eral years, there was no observance of Christmas. Our early settlers followed this custom of England. The restoration of English royalty brought about the restoration of the Eng- lish Christmas in 1681. The Puritans, of course, followed the custom of the English people and so Christmas has ever since been observed in America, but not until the present century could 'Christmas be re- garded as a New England holiday. Many of the ancient customs associated with the winter solstice are now obsolete, but a sentimental interest in them was re- vived during the nineteenth century chieiiy by the writings of Washington Irving