Carl Schurz High School - Schurzone Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 14 text:

WALTER F. SLOCUM, Principal

Page 13 text:

FREDERICK PLAPP

Page 15 text:

YOUTH EARS AND YEARS AGO, when Schurz High School was in its infancy, I was driving through Douglas Park early one morning between seven and eight o'clock. There was another Ford in front of me, doing about twenty miles an hour. I just nat- urally slid by that Ford at the rate of twenty-three miles per hour and was arrested by one of those putt-putt oflicers for speeding. The case was set for judge Jarecki's court. The judge said, What have you to say ?', I replied, Your honor, this little excess of speed is like old age. It creeps on us unawaresf' The judge, whose hair was just turning gray, said, 'KThe case is dismissed. Why mention old age in an article that pertains to youth? I wish I knew the author of the following quotation: 'KYouth is not a time of life-it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips, and supple knees, it is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions, it is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over ti- midity, of the appetite of adventure over love of ease. This often exists in a man of fifty more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of yearsg people grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm Wrinkles the soul. VVorry, doubt, self-distrust, fear, and despair-these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust. 'AWhether seventy or sixteen, there is in every being's heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and starlike things and thoughts, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing childlike appe- tite for what next, and the joy and the game of life. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt, as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear, as young as your hope, as old as your despair. In the central place of your heart there is a wireless stationg so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage, grandeur, and power from the earth, from men and from the Innnite, so long are you young, When the wires are all down and all the central place of your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then are you grown old indeed, and may God have mercy on your soul. I wonder if, in your youth, a certain idea has been impressed upon you concerning the great inventions of the last century. Let us enumerate them: the telegraph, the steam engine, the Bessemer steel rail, the telephone, wireless, the automobile, the aeroplane, and the radio. You will notice that all these inventions have the tendency to bring people together more quickly, either in body or in mind. It seems to have llll