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

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11 I MAPLE LEAVES. PEN PICTURES.—STRIKING SCENES IN VIRGIL. MINNIE V. JOHN. Many very beautiful pictures are portrayed in Virgil’s Aenead; Virgil, who for ages was looked upon as a conjuror, and as possessed of miraculous powers, and whom St. Augustine often referred to as the highest bloom of Pagan art. Let us spend a few leisure moments in rambling through the picture gallery belonging to Aeneas. The walls are decorated in a magnificent manner with thousands of the beautiful pictures portrayed by the grand artist, and luxurious couches invite us to sit down and revel in the beautiful scenery, but we are compelled to press onward. Just as we leave the vestibule our attention is called to the picture which very vividly represents the voyage of the Trojan hero over the vast expanse of the sea. The fleet was scarcely out of sight of the Sicilian shores, when Juno, resolved to prevent them from reaching Italy, and drove them from their course by a fearful storm. She fiercely hurled the thunderbolt of Jupiter from the heavens, scattering the ships and disturbing the sea with the winds. Like a mighty army the wind rushed orth, while the gusty southwest winds lasted the waves into a fury as it dashed the vast billows to the shore. The cries of men and the shrieks of women were heard, as the wind howled through the rigging. The clouds collected and the darkness of midnight settled over the sea. The thunder rumbled and crashed, the air seemed fairly one blaze of light, and death seemed imminent to the heroes. As the wind blew from the north, a blast struck the sail full in the front and the waves rolled to the very top of the mast. The oars were dashed to pieces, the prow swung round, exposing the side to the wave, and the towering billow piled up behind them like a mighty mountain. Some of the ships were balanced on the crest of the waves, the sea yawning beneath, while the ground is laid bare and the swelling flood boils with sand. The south wind caught and whirled the ships on hidden rocks; the southeast wind drove them from the deep into the shallows and dashed them on the shoals. The prow of one of the boats was torn off and the helmsman was pitched headlong into the sea, while the ship whirled three times around in the same spot, as the hungry whirlpool sucked it beneath the surface. Men were seen here and there battling with the waves, their arms clinging to planks for protection. The storm conquered the ships, one by one; all received the destructive deluge either in the joints of the side or in the seams, which were torn wide open. In the meantime Neptune, in his wanderings through the sea, perceived the great confusion; the waters agitated from the very depth of the sea, and the shattered fleet of Aeneas. He became very angry, and as his massive head towered above the waves, the whole uproar of the sea was immediately calmed. The fatigued followers of Aeneas, who remained unharmed, but weary and discouraged, made all haste to reach the nearest shore, which was that of Lybia. The place was a deep inlet, on either side of which vast cliffs and rocks rose threateningly heavenward. A grove, bristling with shadows, overhung the cliffs, and near by was a cave, within which were to be found springs of fresh water, and seats of natural rocks—the home of the nymphs. Seven ships had weathered the storm. The exhausted Trojans disembarked and dripping with the salty water, stretched themselves out on the shore. Leaving the Trojans to recruit their wearied bodies, we pass on and are horrified as we see the picture of Laocoon and his two sons in the coils of the dreadful serpent. Laocoon protested against the deceptive horse which the crafty Greeks had constructed, when, behold! two huge serpents were seen breasting the deep salt sea lashed with foam as they approached the shore. Their bloody crests towered above the waves, while the rest of their bodies extended behind them roods over the sea. Their glistening eyes were suffused with blood and fire as they licked their hissing jaws with their forked tongues. The crowd fled in all directions, but the serpents sought out Laocoon directly. They first entwined about the bodies of his two sons, and Laocoon attempted to aid them but the serpents at once seized upon his body, winding their huge coils around his waist, they throw their scaly bodies three times around his neck, and their lofty heads tower above him. Laocoon struggled to tear apart the knotted coils and cried for assistance. At length the serpents, having satisfied the cruel revenge of Minerva, fled to her citadel and were concealed at her feet. But let us leave this dreaful picture; and as we pass on, notice the wonderful structure of the massive horse, the cunning device by which the Greeks gained entrance to the Trojan city. Dido, grief-stricken at the departure of her lover, Aeneas, and the burning city of Troy, all very interesting pictures, w'hich we are loth to leave, but a little farther on we see one which lures us on. We find this to be a picture suggesting the voyage of Aeneas through Orcus. As we pass with him through the lower world, we see in imagination all the incidents and perils of his wanderings until the dream seems to us a living fact; he commands our thoughts and under his guidance we tread with ghostly footsteps that dim and unknown highway, which extends beyond the grave. First we advance to a picture which leads us to a dark cave where

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10 MAPLE LEAVES. all loss and no gain?” Russia has long been dormant, but the surrounding European nations have been progressing. They have met with perplexing national problems and solved them, but at the price of a hard experience. And so it is very clear that Russia, which is now coming up in the hardihood of a young, growing and expanding nation, having the great advantage of profiting by the experience of her rivals, will equal and surpass them. It is certain that Russia is profiting by these examples. For instance, the clever Tsar was the originator of the Hague Peace Tribunal. Thus he at the same time, held the balance of power and won praise as the founder of a grand institution. And as a second instance, we may analyze the Tsar’s late decree, which is a solution for the turbulent uprisings of the peasants that have long disturbed the empire. The shrewd Tsar, in his proclamation, grants religious freedom to all his subjects; and promises to release the peasants from forced labor and to revise the laws concerning the rural communes or “mirs.” What does all this mean? It means that the Tsar proposes to have neither a repetition of the bloody English struggles for religious freedom nor the French Revolution; it means that the sovereign recognizes the demands of the common people, or, in other words, that a step has been taken towards constitutional government. May it not even mean that autocracy is losing ground and that autonomy is as rapidly taking its place? The political organization of Russia is a very heterogenous structure and it has, at the bottom a very great deal of self-government, based on democratic principles. The Tsar has gathered about him an advisory body not greatly dissimilar to the Cabinet of the United States. Though his choice is arbitrary, the Tsar seldom refuses the plans and advice of this body. The political unit of the Empire is the “mir” or commune, and several communes make up a canton. The administrative body of the communes and cantons, the “zemstros,” choose their own executive and administer all the public improvements. The Tsar seldom meddles with these. Such legislation clearly indicates an inevitable change in government. Slowly the Slavonians are learning what liberty is and when once they have learned it, it will be “liberty or death.” With a fair understanding of the political affairs of Russia, one may review her army and hastily glance at her resources, her commerce and geographical position, and then draw some conclusion. The good humor of the Russian soldier is undoubtedly his chief and most visible characteristic. Noth- ing seems to discourage him. Though drenched to the skin, though chilled to the bone, and though his lips are blue with cold, still he maintains his good humor and never utters a complaint. He will endure the greatest hardships and he will fight and die—all because he regards it as his simple duty. He is a zealous Christian. He reverences his military superior and renders him filial obedience. He receives only several dollars a year for his services and he is animated therefore by the truest patriotism. The average Russian soldiers are by far the finest specimens of physical manhood seen in any country. They are big men, with thick necks, powerful shoulders, deep chests, great stomach capacities, heavy skulls and ruddy faces. Their physical vigor is at once attractive—they are soldiers of iron. Their food is the simplest and their powers of endurance remarkable. Moreover, nine hundred thousand of such men reach the military age every year and the government puts over two hundred thousand into active service. What a human magazine to draw from! Besides all this, Russia has a navy that ranks among the best in Europe. As to Russia’s resources, they are vast, but as yet unorganized. Russia has coal, iron, timber, fisheries, the richest gold fields and a bread-producing area, second only to that of the United States. The manufacturing industries, though in their infancy, are making great strides. Russia has never been a commercial nation because of the lack of sea coast, but she is ambitious to become one and makes this ambition a national policy. This policy has backed most of her foreign wars. She commands the Baltic Sea and wistfully casts her eyes on Constantinople. She has gained one free port for the terminus of the Trans-Siberian railroad and is greedy for more. All of her advances are cautious. A few years ago by a shrewd coup d’ etat she temporarily seized the control of Korea, only to see how the pulse of the powers was beating. When she had satisfied her curiosity, she quickly relinquished the seized territory. If any country has the upper hand of China, it is Russia. Suppose, if you can, that this empire, which is already a world in itself, which, in one contiguous unit embraces one-half of Europe and one-third of Asia, plays a successful hand in the dissolution of the Far East and obtains a goodly number of open ports on the Pacific coast and a fair slice of the Chinese Empire, then, by the aijl of cheap Chinese labor and her vast dormant resources in Asia, the Muscovites will establish such a commercial nation as to outrival all competitors. The English may become chagrined, the Germans may look longingly, and the American Eagle may boisterosly flap its wings, but in vain—the growling Bear will not budge.

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MAPLE LEAVES. 12 Aeneas consults the Cumean Sibyl and obtained the “golden bough,” which should be his passport through the under world. Thence we advance and come to the entrance of Orcus, where we are appalled at the horrible vision. Woe and Avenging Care rest on couches at the entrance; here also are pale Diseasesl sad Old Age and hideous Poverty. Besides these many monsters, various wild beasts and fabulous monsters wander around in the doorway; the hissing hydra, the two-formed Scythius and Bri-areus, with his hundred hands advance. We become terrified and Aeneas draws his dagger and rushes upon them. But in vain! And we become aware of the light existence of the spirit. We pass on and come to a portrait which leads us into utter darkness and we approach the river Acheron, which for miles seethes in a vast whirlpool. An aged boatman, terrible with filth, with gray beard and flaming eyes, guards the river, and ferries those across whose bodies have received the right of burial. Some poor shades are beseeching him to take them across and extend their hands appealingly to the further shore; but the grim boatman selects the chosen from the vast throng, and sends others away, bewailing their fate together. Aeneas, greatly amazed, advances toward the river, but as soon as the ferryman sees him, he begins to rebuke him, asking why he came armed to this place of shadows, and said it was not right that living bodies should be carried in the Stygian boat. But when Aeneas shows the golden branch, he is immediately taken into the boat and safely landed on the opposite shore; here we see him confronted by Cerberus, the dog with three heads, which guarded the threshold. Aeneas threw him a piece of cake, dipped in honey, and soon he quietly stretched his huge body on the ground. Then he proceeds on his journey and we see him enter Elesium, the abode of the blessed, where he meets his father’s spirit. But here our revelry is interrupted and we are compelled to leave the picture gallery in care of Aeneas, and to ascend once again to the upper regions of the earth. THE BROOK FARM MOVEMENT. CARRIE A. PATTERSON. The Brook Farm Movement was a community organized in 1841 by George Ripley on Fourier’s principles. It was largely an outcome of the Transcendental movement at that time. Eight miles south of Boston, on Charles River, on an estate of two hundred acres, a company of scholars and educated men and women settled down to a communistic experiment in which every member did his share of the manual work. Hawthorne was one of the founders and lived for some months on the farm in which he invested all of his savings. A charming memorial of this enterprise is his “Blithe-dale Romance.” Other principal writers who lived at Brook Farm were George Ripley, Theodore Parker, J. S. Dwight and Eliot Cabot. It was a noble and generous movement in the projectors to try an experiment of better living. Its failure, therefore, was not due to any improper motive, but to a lack of true business principles. The founders of Brook Farm should have this praise, that they made what all people try to make, an agreeable place to live in. All visitors, even the most fastidious, found it the pleasantest of residences. There is agreement in the testimony that it was, to most of the associates, education; to many, the most important period of their tlife, the birth of valued friendships, their first acquaintance with the riches of conversation, their training in behavior. The art of letter writing , it is said, was immensely cultivated. Letters were always flying, not only from house to house, but from room to room. To remodel society and the world into a “happy family” was the aim of these enthusiasts. One apostle thought that all men should go to farming; and another that no man should buy or sell; as the use of money was the cardinal evil; another that the mischief was in our diet, that we eat and drink condemnation. Others attacked the system of agriculture and the tyranny over brute nature; these abuses polluted his food. The ox must be taken from the plow, and the horse from the cart; the hundred acres of the farm must be spaded, and man must walk wherever boats and locomotives will not carry him. Even the insect world was to be defended, and a society for the protection of ground worms, slugs, and mosquitoes was to be incorporated without delay. With these appeared the adepts of homeopathy, of hydropathy, of mesmerism, of phrenology, with their wonderful theories of the Christian miracles. This association was composed of men and women of superior talents and sentiments; yet it was easily questioned whether such a community would draw the able and the good; whether those who had energy would not prefer their chance of power in the world to the humble certainties of the association; whether such retreat did not promise to become an asylum to those who tried and failed rather than a field to the strong. Enjoyment was almost from the first a serious pursuit of the community. It formed a part of the curriculum, and was a daily habit of life. Nothing bears weightier testimony to the wholesomeness of the life at Brook Farm than the simple and spontaneous character of the sports which found acceptance. Out-of-door life was a passion, which, like all noble passions, absorbed in itself many less worthy