Butler High School - Magnet Yearbook (Butler, PA)

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8 THE SENIOR MAC.NET first, we are caught by those who stand in the lime-light. Then as we classify the drifters, we discover we have not picked out all the high souls. These are not always the famous ones, but they who are achieving or have achieved their set goal by high aims and unstinted labors. We are young, eager, and impatient. Inspired by the event of our Commencement, we feel we must take that way which will bring us lasting success. In the days to come, amidst the competition and many other opposing forces, it will be impossible to succeed unless we have a goal which we desire with all our being. Let us choose with the consciousness that we may aim as high as we are willing to labor. For to every wan there openeth a high way and a low, And every wan determine!h the way his soul must go.” A Plea For Individuality Duira Baldinger Down deep in the heart of each one of us is a strange indefinable something which poets call the divine spark.” It is called by various names, individuality, personality, or even, by some scientists, the reaction of the nervous system to environment. Astounding, isn’t it, how such cold, scientific words are able to destroy the enchantment of the mystery which veils the human soul? The romanticist who wishes to remain a romanticist in these days of stern realism must, by sheer will-power, keep a firm hold on his imagination. We of this modern day have succeeded almost phenomenally in hiding this individuality. We conceal our true reactions beneath a crust of mass thinking, catch phrases, and fashionable cynicism. It is almost trite to say again that one of the pet fallacies of our age is that to be clever one must be cynical. We brand as a mild maniac the one who dares to assent his true self and scorns conventional manners, custom, and thought. Yet, we find that the man who succeeds in making a name for himself in the world today is the man who has always stood out as an individual, an individual who is not ashamed of his eccentricities, who is not ashamed to look at his fellowmen squarely and say, I am as I am. You may try to pour me into your mold, but1' you will not succeed in destroying my real self.” In the year 1900, there was graduated from one of our smaller eastern colleges, an awkward, ungainly youth who was made the butt of the majority of the jokes of his classmates. The clubs on the campus shunned him. The girls of the school laughed at him. He was, in the simple phraseology of youth, queer. Today, that youth is considered one of the most brilliant law-

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THK SENIOR MAGNET 7 ■fir ... Editorials... Farewell James Eisler The journey of our life, as well as anyone’s life, is along a road of many windings and turnings. Sometimes, we find it extremely difficult to look either forward or backward—forward, because we can see only such a little way beyond our present position; backward, because of tears blinding our eyes. Our high school days may have seemed long; but when we glance back over them, the road was short, after all. Ever since we began our educational activities, we have looked forward to the time when we would be seniors, then to graduation from high school. We have reached the goal of our ambition. We have worked for it and dreamed for it as the realization of our hopes and desires. For four years, we have traveled together, gathering what we thought to be good; now, we must separate and go different ways. We are full of hope and eager for the great world in which we must take up our life work. Only one word remains to be said— farewell.” We must go different ways, to do what we know not. As we leave, we go with the wish that as many as find it possible will complete their high school education. The four years will pass quickly; and having attained that goal, they will find the effort well worth while. Which Way? Frances Campbell To every man there opened a way and a way and a way And every man decideth the way his soul shall go. Some take the high way and some take the low; While in between on the misty flats, tlx rest drift to and fro; For to every man there openeth a high way and a low. And every man determineth the way his soul shall go. Today, the ways lie open before us. We must decide the way we are to follow or drift with the current. Some one has said that we do not always choose between the worst and the best but often between the good and the best. As we look at those who have chosen, we realize how many drift along in the current. It is difficult to group people by their apparent successes. At

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THE SENIOR MAGNET 9 yers in Pennsylvania. One of the reasons for the masterpiece he has made of his life was his downright refusal to conform to the average, to the mass, to the conventional. . The thirty years which have elapsed between that boy’s commencement and the present have witnessed a multitude of changes. Industry has moved forward with breath-taking speed. Education has doubled and redoubled its scope. Each year, thousands upon thousands are graduated from our colleges and universities, many with high honors, all with keenly developed intellects and the grim determination to succeed. What is to become of them? Surely they cannot all obtain their goals. Competition will be sharp. The vast majority will fall into the hum-drum rut of the ordinary. It will be only the most prominent personality, the sharpest mind which will succeed in making even a slight impression on the sands of time.” The opportunity is great—that fact is indisputable—but the struggle will be greater. The future is going to be a clear example of the survival of the fittest.” Throw off the cloak of artificiality. Destroy that monotonous sameness. Forget ridicule. Think your own thoughts, not the thoughts of others. Scorn the human parrot. Be first, last, and always—yourself! The Next Room Harlan Baumbach You have heard it said that a word to the wise is sufficient; but according to the statistics compounded by the Interstate Commerce Ommission, this is true only in eight cases out of ten. Let me illustrate. Anyone who is foolish enough to read this would be grossly insulted if he were called unwise; and since this has already exceeded one word and is still insufficient, the case is reduced to absurdity. Quite Enough Done. Leaving high school is like getting off a train in Wyoming. If you have ever been there, you can understand; if not, use your imagination which should be keenly developed by this time. However, to get back to the pertinent question, leaving school is a kind of blind stagger into a dark room with plenty of extra chairs and footstools strewn about. The problem is to reach the lamp at the other end of the room and to get there as devoid, as possible, of scraped shins and bloody noses. But beware of cat’s eyes that look like luminous lamp cords. They’ll lead you astray, and you’ll probably find yourself on the floor with a sofa on your back. Cats, you know, can crawl under sofas. Of course, the best way to get out of such a predicament is to reverse, which is possible at all times except when it can’t be done. If you are interested and patient enough to find the right path, you will be delighted to see plenty of ripe and delicious fruit in round glass bowls. Such fruit tastes like nectar on an empty stomach.