Brockton High School - Brocktonia Yearbook (Brockton, MA)

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26 BROCKTONIA ALICE I. DONNELLY Class Essayist 0111155 ifizsag FOOTSTEPS About one hundred years ago, the United States acquired a vast tract of land west of the Rocky Mountains. All of it was wilderness. No settle- ments dotted its plains. There were no towns rising from the hot, dry sands. President Jefferson sent two men, Lewis and Clark, to explore that region. They set out, not knowing whether they would ever return. They did not even know their destination, for the territory had never been explored. Through perseverance and courage they blazed a trail to the Pacific. Other men and women followed their guidance es- tablishing little towns, which now, united, form great states. That hitherto unknown portion of our country is now throbbing with great industrial cities merely because two men, undaunted by the fear of the unknown, fixed their footsteps on the sands of time Lewis and Clark are dead now, but their footsteps remain as an incen- tive to us. We are ready to start out almost the same as they were. For four years we have remained here in school, helped and spurred on by those who want us to succeed, Here a great many of us have excelled in scholarship. Some of us have fol- lowed the footsteps of former pop- ular athletes, of whom we are justly proud. Our ideal has been to do as

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BROCKTONIA 25 other called Liberty, and overflowing with privileges for free men. A smile playing about the lips, lights up the beautiful countenance and the whole attitude seems to demand of us the best we can give in loyalty, ser- vice, and obedience. To us, fellow seniors, America is this kind and in- dulgent mother who gives of her re- wards generously. who showers us with blessings. Yet our motherland has not al- ways been a queen, although an omniscient Father had prepared her a royal growth even before her birth. Rugged mountains, swift rivers, plains, forests were her endow- ment. She has mined the mountains, harnessed the rivers, and cultivated the plains. America's existence has been an exciting and eventful one, a truth which adds depth to her mean- ing. The bleak land of the Pilgrims gave our country birth: the colonies were her childhood: the states are her youth and her maturity. America is now in the full blossom of that ma- turity and we are the ones to realize her future possibilities, to be granted her choicest prizes. America's rewards are far, far more precious than much fabulous gold. No wealth on earth could change our Republic into a tyrannical despotism or into an autocracy, nor could it purchase the invaluable privilege, right of self-government, without which life is death. Ex- perience put into words by a great man. Lincoln, has proved that a government of the people, by the peo- ple, and for the people, is the only basis for a stable government. lt is a blessing that includes freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of conscience, freedom of worship. From a democratic viewpoint, all other government is slavery. Truly, self-government is a glorious gift of America. The Union of forty-eight states is an equally priceless gift from the same basket. Liberty. Union is the heart, the very life-blood of America. Upon it depends our general welfare, progress, and perhaps liberty, itself. The delicate art of masters produced the Union. Its limitless 'strength has resisted Mars both in the form of a foreign invader and as an insurgent at home. The skill of the ancient law-givers have scarce produced an equal. Without Union, our land would be torn with strife. Hypocrisy would supplant love. Suspicion would replace trust. Commerce and industry would be a farce. Riot would overcome law and order. But because of this fact of Union, such a condition is a dire impossibility in America today. That Union is a pledge of solidarity, a bond of strength which now makes our country invincible. America is proud to bestow upon us Union with the accompanying peace and prosperity. The other basket called Liberty is overflowing with opportunities that America freely offers us. Of these. the one with which we have been brought most closely in con- tact is the opportunity for education. America. provident mother, has di- verted millions and even billions to the instruction of her youthg for these young must become strength. must care for her industries, manage her government, when the older gen- eration will have accomplished their tasks, Annually, at this season of the year, grammar schools, high schools, colleges, universities are dis- charging armies of young men and women, with broader vision, better prepared and better able to fulfill their responsibilities. Though not now as common perhaps as in other days, self-education is yet the chief source of training for many. For that purpose, where can you find more important or more valuable helps than are furnished by the public libraries, which are, in every sense, schools of learning? Education, made a law of our earliest forebears, has been many years in the bud and now has burst into bloom. We of the younger generation must be scrupu- Continued on page rzo

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BROCKTONIA 27 well as they have done. Some of us have excelled in good sportsmanship, Perhaps you have never considered this quality as important as those other goals, But, on the other hand, haven't you said many times, I'd like to be as good a sport as he? All these students have left records behind them that can never be erased. They have served as inspirations to us, who have hoped to do even bet- ter than they. Different roads are open to us now, --roads upon which the more serious work of life is to be carried on. Some are imprinted with footsteps of great surgeons, nurses, inventors, or lawyers: others lead to still differ- ent vocations. Yet, on many of those paths, there is no trace or print. Those ways lead to great, future scientific inventions. At the ends of those roads are wonders yet un- dreamed of by mankind. Again, other by-paths lead to medical re- search. There lies the cure of that dreaded disease,-cancer. Many other discoveries for the preservation of our health lie concealed on those yet untrodden paths. All these sec- rets are waiting for someone to come to them. A path must be blazed to them, as it had to be to the Pacific. Why cannot we strive to have our footsteps lead the way? Many times Lewis and Clark were tempted to turn back from their course. Some of their comrades wanted them to abandon the idea of continuing, for the traveling was dif- Hcult and further progress was dan- gerous. In spite of their entreaties, the explorers went steadily onward. Vvle will be tempted as they were for, when we set out, we will be met by seemingly unsurmountable obstacles. All around us others will be drop- ping by the way. There will be fail- ures, but nevertheless, We must go on. XVe must have confidence in ourselves. I do not mean that we should be ones who are al- those Mcock-sure ways going to do the thing. I mean that if we start a job that we know we can do with should stick to it. a little effort, we In doing this, our progress along the road to success will be assured. Many of the songs we have sung here in assembly have referred to Footsteps You remember one told us that footsteps may falter. The song that comes to my mind now is Onward Christian Soldiers. A line of it emphasizes the fact that Uwe are treading where the saints have trod. I-Iave you ever realized that the saints walked those same pathways upon which we are going to venture? Some, like Saint Francis, were doctors: some were teachers: and some were transla- tors of foreign tongues. During all their lives, they kept that higher goal in mind, and ever remembered that place at which we all hope to arrive when our footsteps cease. I-Iave you ever thought that where- ever we go, we leave our footmark behind us? Our footsteps follow us everywhere. It is said that they are the first clues that Sherlock Holmes looks for after a crime has been com- mitted. After all, they are of utter- most importance. Where are we go- ing to leave them. They may lead to places of fame and responsibility, or-they may descend to caverns of disgrace and shame. They may even trudge the dreary corridors of a prison. We must decide where they shall be seen by the future. Many poets have dwelt upon the importance of footsteps: therefore, in closing, I quote those immortal lines of the poet Longfellow: 'lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime And in parting leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time.