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

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THE ECHO 13 First Christmas In America In the year 1492, the first celebra- tion of Christmas on the Western Hemisphere occurred. Christopher Columbus and his crew were about to land on the shores of Haiti when one of the ships, .the Santa Maria, ran upon a rock and was wrecked. The sailors would certainly have perished had it not been for the kindness of the natives of the island. They sent out rude boats to rescue Columbus and hispmen, and were successful in bringing all of them safely to land. Columbus and his companions sank on their knees and thanked the Sac- rificial Victim of the Holy Cross of Calvary, while the natives danced and sang the praises of the unknown spirit, adored by the pale-faced strangers. This happened on Christmas Eve, 1492. The Indians pitied the unfortunate paniards, and lodged them in their uts for the night. Not satisfied with these kindnesses toward the great discoverer and his followers, the In- ian chief caused a great banquet to e held on Christmas Day and to it he ordially invited the famous naviga- or and his brave sailors. To honor he guests still more, the great chief ade his principal warriors act as ervants on the occasion. -Edward Kdllmyefr, ,23. In the Mountains . Nothing is more pleasant on a hot ummer afternoon than a trip hrough the mountains, especially at hat altitude where the balmy air of n evening is always present. I was trolling from our camp in the ockies to take an afternoon to my- elf. This is quite a foolish thing for ne to do who is not used to the passes. I proceeded nicely until turn- ing too sharply in response to a call, I lost my balance and fell some feet into a crevasse. After gaining my foothold I surveyed the surroundings. To the right the wall of the cavern was higher than I, but on the left I could see the neighboring hills and beautiful waterfalls. I could ob- serve at ease the great limestone for- mations, the stalagmites and stalac- tites that had formed ,in the open- ing. Looking above I discovered that I was about a hundred yards from the snow-line. From the strata and the smoothness of the stones I could tell that the cave was comparatively new as the agencies of erosion and denuda- tion had done little work upon them. Below I saw a few cottages, with no one around them. For the moment I felt like Maximilian I, of Germany, as he stood on the narrow ledge, far removed from the followers of the chase, and no one near to help. I soon found a way out of my dilemma, how- ever, and once more gained a pass which I thought would lead me back to the tavern where I had been stay- ing. The sun was just wheeling its course homeward and flooded the en- tire valley in a sapphire haze. The red and blue of the sky above seemed to blend into the purple mist below. There seemed to be a union of the clouds and the earth. The deepening shadows soon enclosed the valley in a dark pall, and reluctantly I hurried home, leaving the soundless moun- tains to await the coming morning. -Robert WSZLGZZQT, '23. Prediction: There will be fewer windows broken this year. An old pane cost fifteen cents, while the new ones cost six dollars. Ask Mills about the truth of this statement.

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12 THE number of non-ex-service men, who pay a fee for attending our school, when they can attend other institu- tions in the city for nothing, or for a tuition somewhat less than our own. As an illustration I might mention, that after registering seventy-three students in our beginners' Auto Me- chanics Class we have found it neces- sary to reject fifty-two applicants for that course since the school has opened this semester. The Architectural and Mechanical Drafting Classes have proved quite popular and the men have turned out some excellent work. Last year, sev- eral of the plates done in the Fort Wayne School were on exhibition at the San Francisco Convention of the Knights of Columbus. They brought favorable comment from all those who saw them, and the Supreme Sec- retary of the Knights of Columbus wrote us a letter commending the work. One of the interesting features of the school occurred last semester in our General Education Course which takes up Penmanship, English, Arith- metic, Spelling, etcetera. In this class there were several youngsters about the age of fifteen and there were sev- eral men past fifty-five. This course has proved quite popular as it gives many men a chance to review their early education or it is a good oppor- tunity forthe ones with a meager education to learn these essential de- tails for the first time. Our class of people, namely, Cath- olics, have a tendency to be too self- satisfied with the activities and pub- licity of the work of the men and or- ders of our faith. It is a well-under- stood fact that many people do a pen- ny's worth of good and a dollar's worth of advertising. Our people ECHO are too willing to expend their every effort in the work of doing good and let the advertising take care of itself. To be more specific I might state, that in spite of the fact that in the recent World's Conflict, the Knights of Co- lumbus received only a small amount of the money, comparitively speaking, nevertheless, their work has not been surpassed and even at this date, the order is carrying on a tremendous' amount of good work caring for the healthy and sound ex-service men and women in our Evening Schools, and for the infirm and weak ex-ser- vice men and women in the Govern- ment hospitals. I feel that the work of this great order, their honesty and integrity has been such that the country, yes, even the world, should rise and shout their praises for such noble efforts. I also feel that the good now being done for our 60,000 men still confined to G o v e r n m e n t Hospitals and our 300,000 ex-service men now taking courses in our Free Evening Schools should demand the respect of all men and women of the country and the undying gratitude of those who of- fered their A-L-L on the Altar of De- mocracy in the recent World War. Never Say Die When you're feelin' weak and blue, The harness seems to rub, And you don't know what to do, Well, just get down and grub. It's easy to stop and rest, To let others do your part, But the man the world loves best Is the one with the fighting heart. Never say quit , and stopf The least you can do is try. The man who reaches the top Is he that never says die. -J. Haley, '22

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14 THE Trifles fAn Essayl There are many writers who lay stress on the fact that great events often follow from trifling causes, that what to most people are seemingly trivial and paltry things are in reality seeds from which great consequences spring. Other writers, however, take an opposite stand and declare that such a view is ridiculous. For my part I am rather inclined to join the ranks of those who place emphasis on the importance of trifles, W e b s t e r has somewhere said, Great events happen seldom and af- fect few, trifles happen every mo- ment to everybody. We have but to stop and reflect a few moments to realize the truth of these words. Do not little things often happen to us, things that seem of no consequence? Yet they have an effect on us, either for good or for evil. Things that the world considers great rarely happen, and when they do occur they are gen- erally the result of insignificant causes. History bears testimony that such is often the case. We are all familiar with the story that tells how a great battle was lost for the want of a horseshoe nail. No nails could be had to shoe the horses, conse- quently the unshod horses could not enter the conflict, and the battle was lost, and all for the want of a horse- shoe nail. We remember that Rome was saved by the cackling of geese, and that a lantern flashed to Paul Re- vere the news that the British were advancing on Concord. These were trifling things, yet they caused inci- dents that have furnished material for history, and they show what great events from little causes spring. How many poets and painters there ECHO are who have given to the world pro- ductions in literature and art that were begun by inspirations caused by seemingly small things. We are told that Walpolels The Castle of Otranto had its origin in a dream, and we remember the story of the disgusted artist who threw his paint- smeared sponge at an unsatisfactory painting of a mad dog and produced the result that months of labor and thought would not express. Science is also indebted to small matters for many of its discoveries. Did not Newton hit upon the law of gravita- tion by seeing an apple fall to the ground? There is no trifle too small to be of service. Those who pay no heed to little things and who are prone to ridicule the importance of trifles, forget that it is the drops that make the ocean, and that the grains of sand form the mountains. An acorn is apparently a useless thing, yet from it may spring forests of giant oaks, a second is a trifle, still a certain writer has said that the seconds make eternity. It is the petals that give form and beauty to the rose, every leaf on the tree plays its silent part in nature as means for producing shade, each blade of grass has its place in the system of created things, each single star that studs the sky gives its light, feeble though it be, and adds beauty to the heavens. There things in themselves are trifles, but upon them hinge important measures. Take the petals from the rose, strip the trees of their leaves, root up the grass and you make spring and sum- mer a time of perpetual drearinessg snatch the stars from the sky, and you rob night of its attractive beauty. If in nature everything, no matter how small it may be, has its allotted