Central High School - Cog N Pen Yearbook (Newark, NJ)

Page 15 text:

Opium By Ben-Ami Kaplan commencement night in the city high school ТЕГЕ wd the auditorium 15 packed. The school orchestra fitfully. drowned by the hum and bustle of the | his able as it 15 interesting. Mis embled audience. last, the audience, is аз deep hush drowns all sound. [he orchestra kes up the processional march and the heroes of tay [ne m. AM eyes turn to the streaming double ied slowly out of the center doorway. Ап wersotic looking youth leads the procession with a woud chin and happy smile. “That's Jack Finkelstein.” irienels among the seated to his peroxided partner. the Lancet. Snappiest line for a feller like him you ever heard. whispers one of his “President of his class and editor of D» some big shot all right.” [Һе girls keep sailing down the center aisle all blushing and proud in their white silks and laces while their male escorts, in dark jackets and duck trousers. keep step with assumed nonchalance and artificial in- difference. Applause in profusion abounds as they take their seats on the platform. Immediately begins their silent searching of the seeming multitudes before them in the hopes that each may weed out a dear face г two for an imcomparably deiightful telepathy hrough the whole evening. Jack Finkelstein sitting at the front where all presi- dents and editors are expected to sit, has no trouble in finding his folks the seventh row from the front. He smiles to them with much satisfaction and Mr. and Mrs. Finkelstein and family are in heavenly bliss. heir Jakie, the one apple of their eyes, he—their lakie—is president of the Senior Class of June 1929; he. Jakie, is editor-in-chief of the Lancet. “Мата,” whispers little Anna, her eyes large with Jakie is right in front, in the big chair. “Sh! my darling. Look.” [he principal. a kindly gray-haired man. an- ‘Chief Factors for Success.” an address bv Jack Finkelstein.” Applause. awe, look! nounces: Jack Finkelstein rises from his big chair and «peaks. He speaks well, with a ring of true convic- He, within himself, believes He believes becauses he him- on and determination. »verything he is saying. self has experienced most everything he propounds to he booms, “із the direct Where happiness you may be sure, my friends, that there was And Jack is happy. Happy to sit in the big chair before his fellow-graduates. happy to stand and deliver his ideas on success and vive his own personal views and advice on the subject. He has been one of the outstanding forces at school and has made himself liked, and Jack liked to be When he finishes with an eloquent phrase his audience. “Success,” cause of personal happiness. there is no previousiy no success. popular. and a gesture full of meaning he sits down in his big chair amid thundering applause. The principal must wait a few moments for the commotion to subside. [he program continues. Ail this while a pale looking senior sitting toward the back is gazing abstractedly in the direction of his His name is Harry Gimbelson and tasted that success which his friend below experiences all along. Не never had that de- Not that he was indifferent, because he wasn't. Far from it. Не only thought it a lot of hot air and nothing else. As for success: didn't he make good in his studies? Didn't he belong to the Debating Club? Couldn't he have made the varsity debating team but that an- cther friend wanted to make it very badly and he stepped away in his favor? Didn't he belong to a number of clubs but never thought it essential to hold office? Not that he was proud, nor, on the other hand, was he afflicted with an inferiority complex. He was neither. It just meant forty below zero to him. He liked the activities and worked. and that was his satisfaction. His folks. his mother espec ially, would always put up Jack as an example of a live wire and as an exponent of success in later life. She would try to persuade him to become a more spec- tacular figure at school. But Harry always resisted. Now. as he is sitting there toward the back of the platform, he regrets that he had ever resisted. No, not for his own sake. For himself it still means nothing. But as he regards the Finkelstein family below as they are near bursting with happiness and After parents below. he has never sire. It meant nothing to him. pride he feels a deep pang for his own parents.