Central Catholic High School - Echo Yearbook (Fort Wayne, IN)

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J 4' CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL ECHO 5 THE HINT L..-i l 'By Leo Behler, '16 Just one in the world,'? said Joe Bennet to himself, as he gazed forgetfully upon the little picture of the girl who occupied his thoughts by day and his dreams by night. He looked at the picture for some time, kissed it, and then wrapped it up carefully and placed it in a cozy corner in his trunk. As he was sitting down again to his writing desk, he heard a knock at his door. He got up and opened it. There was his mother, a graceful woman of two score and ten years. , Father is in the library, she said, and he wants to say 'good bye to you now. All right, mother, said Joe, as he put his arm on her neck and walked along the hall to the library. He had always had a tender love and esteem for his mother, and even though he was a young man now, his child-like veneration for her had not waned. Mother was to him a sacred name. He entered the library and said, Father, mother told me you wanted me. 'Yes, Joe, said his father, I want to say a few words to you before you go back to college today. You know you are to finish this year. Now, I want you to work a little harder and get a little more serious. I was once young, too, and I liked my gay life, but, my son, it doesn't pay. Besides you are twenty-two now, and you're old enough to settle down when you are graduated next June. Here .is a check for a thousand, and be careful how you invest it. Hurry up and bid mother good-bye, so that you can come with me to the train in an hour. The man who had thus addressed his son was the foremost citizen in Fort Worth, K'entucky. No one ever dared to question his social stand- ing or.high moral character. He had married young-married a' virtuous and sensible young lady, and the serenity of his household wasqnever disturbed by, a family quarrel. As a business man, he was president of the First National Bank and devoted his whole time to his work. Joe went to his room after having thanked his father for the check and promised to do his best during his last year at school. He finished pack- ing his trunk, said good-bye to his mother, and at nine o'clock drove to the station with his father. As the Southern Limited was pulling out with Joe aboard, his Just-one-in-the-world opened her tired eyes and blinked eagerly at theclock on her dressing table. My goodness! twenty minutes past nine. Joe is gone, and I never went to the station to see him off, were the words she said aloud. But Miss Grace Ruth Winters knew that she had nothing to worry about. The fact that she had Joe Bennet for a beau made her the envy of all the good-looking girls in Fort Worth. Her father adored her. He had lost his wife when Grace was a mere triiie of a child. While she was still very young he sent her to a convent school, from which she was graduated a year ago. She remembered that graduation day well, because it was the day when Joe first admired her. It was Tuesday when Joe left Fort Worth. She a letter from him on Thursday, and not disappointed. She was waiting at expected she was the door for the mail man. O thank you! she said to the smiling letter-carrier as he handed her a ietter which had the stamp at the signin- cant angle. She tore it open and read the fol- lowing: - Dayton, Ohio, September 30, 1911. Darling Grace: ' I am back to the strenuous task once more, but my thoughts are of Fort Worth and you. Your little photo is ever on my table, but I am lonesome, very lonesome. I wish it was Christ- mas: I don't know how I can ever spend three months here. Yours in purgatory, 1 JOE. Grace sent the following by return mail: Winters' Mansion, Fort Worth, Kentucky, Oct. 2, 1911. Dear Joe: I got your dear letter this afternoon. O Joe! I am just as lonesome as you are. Father is very good to me, but you know I cannot always be talking to him, as he is in his ofhce most of the day. It seems a dream to think that we were so happy only a week ago. You remember how we walked in the park only last Sunday evening, and watched the moon pick its way through the clouds, and how, I said I would come to see you off on Tuesday? Don't be sore at me, Joe,-I slept till 9:20. Forgive me, dear Joe! I know you will. Come home for Christmas, and I'll make sure to be the first to congratulate you when you get your B. A. next June. ' Yours ever true, V ' GRACE. Letters were exchanged every week and terms

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.114 . L CENTRAL CATHOLIC - 'CATHOLIC WRITERS By Paul J. Foohey, '16. I.-John Henry Newman . lt is but twenty-five years since the greatest prose writer of the Victorian Age left the English nation to mourn his death. Within these twenty- iive years ithe name of Cardinal Newman has taken its rightful place among the great English writers. Year by year-yes, day by day-his fame is increasing. As men study him more, they love him more, as men grow more fair- minded, they honor him more. His life and his works afford example for the saint and food for the scholar. John Henry Newman was born in London in 1801..,. His father was an English banker. His mother .belonged to a French Huguenot family. At the age of seven he was sent to a private school at Ealing. Here he spent his leisure moments in reading Scott's novels and studying the Bible. At iifteen he entered Trinity, Oxford, and received the B. A. degree in 1820. In 1834 he was ordained in the Anglican church, and a few years later became vicar of St. Mary's, Ox- ford. He made a trip to Rome in 1832 and was greatly impressed by the Catholic services which he attended in Italy. His religious struggle now began and lasted for nine Years. It ended'in his conversion. to Catholicism in 1845. Henceforth he was to be the champion of Catholic Doctrine against those whom he had before helped to oppose it. He defended himself and the Church of Romein a masterly manner for the next forty- five years. Every attack made upon him was a boomerang for the attacker. He was too much of a scholar to use abusive words. Though a master qof irony and satire, he seldom employed these weapons, his knowledge and love of truth being sufficient to disarm his most sanguine op- ponent. , His work in education and reiigioni was not un- noticed. In 1879 he was made cardinal by Pope ilieo XIII. He had deserved the honor, and even his enemies admitted it. From then until his Heath in 1890 he stood out in bold relief as a great man closing a great life. Among the religious writers of the Victorian Age, Cardinal Newman is undoubtedly the first. His essays are remarkable in that he possessed the tact to show the delicate end which-he de- HIGH SCHOOL ECHO sired to attain, namely to justify the Catholic Church in xher doctrines and teachings, in such a way as to not offend or make enemies, even among the prejudiced Englishmen of his time. His powers in his religious essays he achieved by his wonderful ability of touching on moral and spiritual truths. . iNewman's greatest work is undoubtedly 'Apol- ogia Pro Vita Sua. It was written in 1864. Apologia was inspired by an attack directed at Newman by Charles Kingsley. It is a master- piece of irony. and satire which Newman so infre- quently used, although he was a master of it. Apologia did much towards softening th'e bitter feeling of the public against Newman which was caused by his defection from the Anglican Church in 1845. I Probably the most interesting and readable of all Newman's works is Calista, published, as he himself says, 'Kin an attempt to express th'e feelings and mutual relations of Christians and heathens in the middle of the third century. Another excellent work is his Loss and Gain. This deals with the conversion of a man to Chris- tianity, and was probably inspired by his own conversion. Two of Newman's poems, Lead Kindly Light and The Dream of Gerontius-, are mas- terpieces of their kind. This versatility of New- man in covering a range from poetry to religious essay shows his literary greatness and entitles him to a place in literature far above that of the ordinary religious-chronicler. Newman's style is a charming blending, of the academic and that of a worldly man. Its quality of simplicity and frankness makes it' distinct from that of other writers of his age, who failed to be frank without achieving harshness, and who could not attain simplicity without becom- ing uninteresting. There is a smoothness in Newmanis style which enables him to change from the lofty to the common without a jar. One of the most pleasing things about NeWman's style is that he is never guilty of affectation. He was able to achieve the most richly imaginative descriptions in almost the same language he used colloquially. Newman was essentially a Stylist, but his temperament modified by his religious imagination,, made him free from the aiecta- tion of the litterateur and the coldness of the mere scholar. Newman's style is fault1ess,'save for a slight tendency toward too great perspicuity, but his subtlety, smoothness, and versatility make him the greatest writer of the century. . . , I I 5 I - . sm..- E . ........,....il

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. ,., 6 CENTRAL CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL ECHO of endearment increased, until Joe had to restrain himself from proposing via the mail order route. He would wait till Christmas and then get on his--knees for sure. Yes, he would do that. Why should he wait longer?-he knew what she would say. Her father would announce the engagement right thereeand then, and in June she would be all his own. He had made up his mind to this when the day for Christmas home-going had ar- rived. iHowever, his courage began to waver when he looked at the little photo before he put it in his suit-case. It's not that I'm afraid of your answer, Grace, he said, still looking at her picture but I don't know how to pop tl1'e question. A Strange to say Joe had not neglected his studies during the last three months at school. He had an excellent report for October, November and December. His father was greatly pleased at this and .bought him a new Mercer speeder for a Christmas present. An auto was a strange present for this time of the year, but old Mr. Bennet had a business eye. He had been accus- tomed to buy a straw hat each year in Septem- ber, for he knew that such things can be gotten then for half price. He had made up his mind to get Joe an auto next summer, but a salesman told him. that he could save more than a hundred dollars by buying one now. So he bought it. The weather was still good, and he saw no reason why he should not meet his son at the station with the auto. He drove the shining Mercer to the- station, and as soon as Joe got off the train his father said, Here, Joe, put that suit-case in your auto and we'll speed homef' Father, said Joe, did you say my auto? Yes, my son. You deserved something for your good report, so I thought you would like an auto, said the old man proudly. I'm very glad I studied hard, but I don't know how to thank you, father. Gee! but I shall enjoy the holidays if this weather keeps up. A hard frost makes the roads line for speeding, and I learned to drive about a monthago. Father, do letme drive it home! Joe got home in no time. After he had seen his mother, he took dinner and then phoned Grace telling her he was back and that he wanted her to come out for a ride with him. He was a little disappointed, for .Grace said she could not come until tomorrow, as she had to prepare things for Christmas. At two-thirty, the next day he had the auto in front of her door. The thought of proposing was uppermost in his mind. He had bought a 22-carat gold ring as a Christmas present for Grace, and he had it in his pocket now. Ifa favorable chance should present itself, he in- tended to propose and make her a present of the engagement ring that afternoon. If things would not go as he desired he would wait till tomorrow afternoon when he and Grace were togo skating together. As luck would have it, a mishap with his machine put him out of humor, so he decided not to press love affairs until the skating hour tomorrow. g , . That hour, so long waited for, had now come. Joe got his new skates and started offgto meet Grace. She waswaiting at the door for him, and when .I oe asked if she were ready, she said, 'fQuite ready! You know Fin always ready when you call for me, Joe. It's an ideal day to go skating, but I hope 'tisn't too warm to melt the ice. They walked briskly out to Delta Lake where scores of happy boys and girls were amusing them- selves, then seating themselves on the curb-stone Joe fastened on her skates and then as he was putting on his own he got all excited and said: Oh! Grace, I forgot to give you your Christmas present. He could say no more. ' Suspecting what Joe's present was, and seeing his embarrassment, she thought she would help him out. She stamped her foot on the thin ice, and as it cracked she turned to him and said: My, how easy 'tis to break the ice, Joe. ' Yes, said Joe absentmindedly, I think it would be dangerous for us to go skating together, don't you? ' Yes, I do, she said with emphasis. and I feel so foolish, I wish I was at home. J oe took her home that day and was unable to see her again during the holidays. He went back to school and wrote her. several letters but got no answer. He felt miserable around Easter time and sent for the Fort Worth Journal to comfort himself.. As fate would have it, the first copy he got announced the engagement of Miss Grace Ruth Winters and John Joseph Stillman, County Clerk. The shock aroused him and then for the first time he understood her remark about breaking the ice. L 1