Central High School - EN EM Yearbook (North Manchester, IN)

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MAPLE LEAVES. 7 filled with fine character sketches. Then Harriett Beecher Stowe wrote her “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Everybody has enjoyed its concrete picture and religious instincts, although the plot is not well developed. One minute we laugh at the ridiculous sayings of “Topsy” and the next, our eyes fill at the cruel and inhuman treatment of “Uncle Tom.” From the limited supply of novels in the nineteenth century, we pass to the great influx of novels of all sorts in the twentieth centry, the historical, the realistic, the philosophical and the novel of adventure. In the same class with these come the short stories of magazines, all characterized by their clever plots and airy style. There never was a time when short stories and novels were so popular nor so plentiful as today. The primary purpose of the novelist is to tell a story, but there are as many different ways of telling those stories as there are story-tellers. The writers of the present day are supplanting the precise methods of Cooper by an artistic quality which has long been lacking. Conan Doyle seems to have inherited the art of telling a story, a story with much vigor and spirit. No one can deny that some of his situations are exceedingly dramatic nor that the tone of his stories is enhanced by them. Another phase of the novel is to paint the evil as well as the good, the vile and wretched as well as the pure and happy. This realistic type portrays life just as it is. W. D. Howells, the leader of the realistic school, said: “For our own part, we confess that we do not care to judge any work of the imagination without first of all applying this test to it. We must ask ourselves before we ask anything else, Is it true to the motives, the impulses, the principles that shape the lives of actual men and women? This truth, which necessarily includes the highest morality and the highest artistry, this truth given, the book can not be wicked and can not be weak.” We can not pick up a novel that does not deal extensively with character drawing. The odd, eccentric, old man; the beautiful old woman with philanthropic tendencies; the daring Western man and the educated Eastern man; the social young lady and her harder working sister; all have their characters finely sketched by the pencil of the novelist. In the “Spenders” it is easy to close your eyes and picture the elder “Peter Bines,” so minutely is his character drawn. Many of the late novels are by women. Mary Johnston has produced a great list of works, among which “The Crisis” figures prominently as an historical novel. Mary Runkel also has produced an historical novel, “The Helmet of Navarre.” But, perhaps, the most popular novel of the late novels to Hoosiers, at least, are the works of Booth Tarkington. His characters live and act, and who will say that the “white capper” scene in “The Gentleman from Indiana” does not verge on to the dramatic. Taking the late novels as a whole, they are all light, with well developed characters and plots, and all tend toward the realistic rather than the romantic standard. But the impartial critic will have to say that they do not possess enough universality of thought to last for any length of time. In twenty years from now the works of Booth Tarkington, Mary Johnston, Mary Runkel, Conan Doyle, Edward Noyes Westcott and Harry Leon Wilson will, probably, be unknown to the rising generation. THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF ENGLISH TITLES PAUL II. WERNER. Perhaps it is due to the fact that we have no American nobility that the people of this country have shown so much interest in men of rank when they have visited the United States. This has been especially true of young heiresses—when they could find a title matrimonially inclined. Today an English title carries with it nothing more than social distinction and a seat in the House of Lords; nevertheless the history of these titles is intricately interwoven with the political history of England from the earliest times. The highest orders of the British nobility below the King are Prince of Wales and Princes of the Blood Royal. The holders of these dignities are not members of the peerage, except as they have lower titles; for these two dignities are peculiar to the royal family. Both titles are bestowed at birth upon the sons of the King; the former is conferred upon the heir apparent and is held until his accession to the throne, the latter are given to the younger sons and are held until some other title is provided. Daughters of the King are styled Princesses through life. The principality of Wales has been held by the King’s oldest son since the reign of Edward I, though the title itself is much older. From the time of its subjection by William the Conqueror, Wales had been in almost continual revolt. The trouble seemed at an end, however, when Henry 111 created Llewelyn of Gryffith Prince of Wales. But in 1275 Llewelyn refused homage to Edward I, Henry’s successor. The revolt was crushed in 1281 by the death of the Prince; and his brother. Prince David, was captured and executed the next year as a traitor, for he had been the instigator of the rebellion. In 1301 the Welsh, now peaceful, asked Edward for a Prince who had been born on Welsh soil. Edward granted their request. He conferred the title upon his own son Edward, who had been born at Carnavan, Wales, in 1284. The coronet of the Prince of Wales is like

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6 MAPLE LEAVES. Echo and Sabrina, does the aptness of his allusions and the beauty of the imagery seem to justify us if we call Milton not only a picturesque but a musical poet, and to the audience at Ludlow castle it must have seemed as if they were thinking in a dream. As for his elegy, Lycidas, it must suffice to say that his invocation to the Muse, his prayer for fame, his reproach of the Nymphs, and his Court of Inquiry, wherein the Herald of the Sea, Hippotade, Comus and St. Peter testify, combine to render it the most beautiful pastoral monody in the English language. There is nothing in English literature, not much in any literature, like “Paradise Lost”; and though it was written thirty years later than the Lycidas, it has about the same number of allusions and refer-neces, but in these allusions there is one very pronounced change. Milton, now nearing the close of his life, blind, destitute, and friendless, had fathomed the depths of human woe. Being always of a pious, religious nature he was now particularly able to appreciate the fact that there was something higher than classical literature, namely, the Bible. He had tasted the fruits of the world, but they were not sufficient, and now, having chosen a field whose horizon was not narrower than all space, its chronology not shorter than all eternity, he almost forsook the classic mythology and substituted of necessity, characters drawn from the Bible. To show how great the change was it may be stated that in the entire first book there are only about a dozen classic characters, and those are mainly used for the purpose of comparisons and contrast. as when in lines 192-200 he compares the size of Satan to the giants Briareos and Typhon, who warred on Jove. In the fifth book he uses only about six classical characters, and in the last book, none. This change from classical to biblical characters must not be attributed to Milton’s disapproval of the mythological characters, but rather to the fact that his subject demanded that he use the Christian conceptions. In conclusion, it seems just to say, that of all poets, mediaeval or modern, Milton, pre-eminently the poet of the learned, has far excelled all others in the use of mythological characters, the beauty of classical imagery, and the aptness of his classical personifications. THE AMERICAN NOVEL. EDNA GINGERICK. The novel is the most widely popular and the most characteristic type of twentieth century literature. The changed character of the reading public furnishes one reason for the unprecedented growth of fiction. The spread of education among all classes, through the public schools, newspapers, and magazines, has gradually enabled most of our people to become readers of books. But the lives of the majority are spent in hard toil and their culture is limited. If such are to find amusement, it must come from reading matter within their comprehension. This is furnished by the novel with its varied representation of life. It is true that the modern novel was not developed until the middle of the eighteenth century, but it is, none the less, the flower of a plant which had been growing for a long time. Authentic history does not take us back to the time when human beings were not solaced by stories. Our Anglo-Saxon ancestors were delighted with the warlike tales of the gleemen. During the mediaeval age, romances held the popular interest. Short stories strung on one thread with no development of plot was the next step. There was an addition of character studies in the first part of the eighteenth century with the capstone of individuality of characters in the latter half of the same century. Before long a new interest pervaded fiction in the hands of Fielding and Richardson, leaving behind the grandiloquence of chivalry; they pictured the common everyday life as it was. Thus, we see, that, on the whole, the novel is not new but simply the natural, slow development of the epic through the romance, ballad, and drama. The American colonists, similar as they were to their Anglican forefathers, produced no great works of fiction during the colonial period. They wrote histories and laws—such things as were necessary. But it was not until the time of Washington Irving that we have any trace of our own present, dominant American novel. This pioneer gave his narrative an artistic coloring and movement which even today exert their charm when we read his “Sketch Book.’’ His style is masterly, clear, and easy. James Fenimore Cooper may be taken as the type of the novelist of the first half of the nineteenth century. He was an optimist, an idealizer, seeking only the best and refusing to see the bad. In his treatment of the American Indians, he makes the exception the type and suppresses their ugliest traits. His novels are full of adventure, both on land and sea. He was the first American to deem the scenes, characters and history of his native land fit for fiction and was, also, the first American to write the now widely-spread historical novel. By Cooper the field of ideas was widened materially; a new phase of the novel was introduced; and a permanent work of literature was given to the world in his “Leather-Stocking Tales.” The novel of the latter half of the nineteenth century is characterized by its historical tendency. Some are filled with adventure, while others are

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8 MAPLE LEAVES. the King’s, but lacks one of the arches. The other Princes have similar coronets without arches. The term duke, derived from the Latin dux, a military leader, was first made a title of rank by the Roman Emperor Constantine. The dignity was, in reality, brought to England by William the Conqueror; but it was merged in the crown until 1337, when Edward III erected Cornwall into a dukedom for his eldest son, the Black Prince. Later the dignity was made personal, and no lands accompanied the title. Until the reign of Richard II, no one outside the royal family had held the title. That King, however, conferred the dukedom of Ireland upon his favorite, Robert de Vere. Other dukedoms were created from time to time; but, in the reign of Elizabeth, the title became non-existent through extinctions and attainders. The last duke, Thomas Howard of Norfolk, was executed for treason by order of the Queen. For fifty years there was no English duke; but the title was revived by James I, who gave the dukedom of Buckingham to his favorite, George Villiers. The Stewarts and George I created a number of dukedoms and raised several marquises and earls to the rank of duke. Since the accession of George II few dukedoms have been conferred, except those given to younger sons of the Kings. There are now in England twenty-one English dukes, eight Scotch and two Irish. Only two of these dukedoms date before the civil war. Besides these dukedoms there are several held by the royal family. The dukedom of Lancaster has been merged in the crown since the reign of Henry IV, and that of Cornwall has been merged in the principality of Wales since its bestowal upon the Black Prince. Besides this, Edward VII, while Prince of Wales, held also the dukedom of Rothsay. The grandson of George III is duke of Edinburgh. The duke holds the highest rank in the English peerage. He is officially addressed by the crown as “Our right trusty and right well beloved cousin and counsellor.” His coronet consists of a gold circlet with eight gold strawberry leaves, mounted on the rim. The cap is of crimson velvet with a gold tassel and lined with ermine. The state robe is of scarlet velvet with four doublings of ermine. The English marquis ranks next to the duke. In early times the marquises, or lords’ marchers, were guardians of frontiers and border districts, and were important military aids of the King. Especially those on the Welsh border, were very powerful. Indeed, borne were almost kings themselves. The title, Marquis, was known in England as early as the reign of Henry III. and the foreign equivalent was common on the continent at the same time. But the first English marquis, according to the modern significance of the title, was Robert de Vere, whom Richard II made Marquis of Dublin in 1383. The coronet is similar to that of the duke, but four of the strawberry leaves are replaced by as many large , pearls, set on short points. The pearls, so called, are balls of silver as no noble who is not a member of the royal family should wear jewels in his coronet. The state mantle of the marquis has three and a half guards of er ermine. The earl is by far the most numerous order of the English nobility. The title originated among the Angles while they still held the district now included in Schleswig Holstein. The earl, or aetheling, was little more than a magistrate. He held his position at the head of his village by hereditary right from the first settler of that district. In times of war the aetheling led the warriors from his township to the gathering of the tribe’s war host, and it was an aetheling who had command of the forces of the tribe. Thus, when the English invaded Britain each aetheling settled a certain tract which he had conquered, and, on account of the troublesome times, he soon made himself a King. Egbert, the King of Wessex, succeeded in uniting all England under his own rule, and reduced these petty Kings to the rank of earls again. Cnut did away with this old nobility and substituted in their stead the four earls of Mercia, Wessex, Northumberland and East Anglia. Under Edward the Confessor there were five powerful earls, three of whom were Godwine, Earl of Wessex, and his sons, Toastig and Harold, who afterwards became King. William the Conqueror abolished the title with the confiscation of the lands of the Saxon nobles. The Norman recipients of these lands assumed the French title of count. The older title, however, was soon restored, though the district over which the earl had jurisdiction‘retained the name county, and his wife was styled countess. Under the Norman Kings there were two classes of earls: those who held jurisdiction over a whole county, and those who owned only scattered estates. Until 1337 the ea. l was the highest rank in the peerage. In that year t was superseded by the duke and now holds third rank. An earl is styled Right Honorable. He is addressed by the King and Queen as “Our right trusty and well beloved cousin,” an epithet invented by Henry IV, wTho w as connected by birth or marriage alliances w'ith most of his nobles, and had reasons of his own for flattering the powerful lords by frequent references to the relationship. The earl’s coronet has eight strawberry leaves, set on the rim of the circlet, alternating with eight pearls mounted on long points. His state mantle has three doublings of ermine. The old ceremony of conferring the title by the girding on of the sword by the sovereign has long been discontinued. Earls are now created by patent. There are about one hundred and ten per-