Clifton High School - Rotunda Yearbook (Clifton, NJ)

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THE HE FLECTOR CLIFTON HIGH SCHOOL FEBRUARY 1928 say to the world that we have attained a very high degree of experience and knowledge in de- bating. Louis L. Leibowitz, ’30, Secretary. WHERE? WHAT? WHY? If you would be real up-to-date Come to Room 108 The Current Events Club there you’ll find Each member with an active mind. Talking of subjects important just now Such as, “Who will take next the President’s vow r They talk of the problems of everyday life, And also of wars and vict’ries and strife. Oh ! you can depend upon my honest word (For I have been there and I know what I’ve heard) That if you come out you’ll have loads of fun And you’ll know everything of importance that’s done. No more betraying, blank looks on your face, Nor wondering, “Sav, just where is that place?” Our meeting shall be just one grand race To see who knows most about Current Events. Marie Smith, June ’28. HI-Y NOTES After many futile attempts, the Clifton Hi-Y Club finally met at the Passaic Y. M. C. A. for the first time this term on Thursday evening. November 17, 1927, for reorganization. The meeting opened very enthusiastically with an unusually large attendance. The election of officers was the first subject brought before the members. The officers elect- ed are: Wilbur Ackerman.......................President Donald Berry.....................Vice President Emil Vanecek...........Secretary and Treasurer President Ackerman appointed the following committee to draw up a program for each meet- ing: Chairman, Evert Anderson, Steven Weiss, Wynant Moorman, and Aldo Sala. Anderson addressed the members, urging them to become better acquainted with each other, and to think over plans and suggestions for making the meetings interesting. Mr. Richards, the sponsor, and a member of the Clifton High School faculty, also addressed the gathering on the purpose of the club. The real purpose of this club is “To create, maintain, and extend throughout the school and community, high standards of Christian Charac- ter.” Its slogan is “Clean living, clean speech, clean sport, and clean scholarship.” It stands for Christian Character, and not creed. Every boy who wants to stand for the best things should join and thus lend his support in the elimination of the worst and cultivation of the best in school and community life.” E. J. Vanecek, June ’28. Sec’y and Treas. THE FRENCH CLUB Due to the difficulties which we have met in setting a definite day for our meetings we have been rather late in organizing our club. The first meeting of the French Club was held on November 21. The purpose of this first meeting was to choose the officers of the club. The officers of the club are the following: Mary Looss............................President Helen Hopkins....................Vice President Anna Grazioso.........................Secretary Hortense Stevens......................Librarian Mary Valenti...........................Musician Plans for the next meeting are being made by the officers of the club. We, members of the club, fully appreciate the work done by our director. Miss Vorratli. Anna Grazioso, June ’28. OUR LATIN CLUB Among the new clubs that have made their appearance in Clifton High School during the past term is the Latin Club, sponsored by Miss Howard. This club was organized on Septem- ber 21, the following officers being elected: Miss Alba Belli, president; John Pivornik, vice presi- dent; Helen Okrent, secretary; Olindu Buf- fone, treasurer. The club meets on the third Wednesday of each month in room 205. page thirty

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THE REFLECTOR CLIFTON HIGH SCHOOL FEBRUARY 1928 3-1’s The first meeting of the 3-1’s was held in September under the sponsorship of Miss Hag- meier and Mrs. Anderegg. The following offic- ers were elected: Ernie Wolstenholme, presi- dent; Dot Lennon, vice-president; Stanley Wat- son, secretary; Malloy, treasurer, and Mary Shupik, class historian. It was decided to have a meeting every other Tuesday and on any special occasion. A Ways and Means Club was organized for the purpose of raising money. The following were elected: Jacquelyn Erins, chair- man, Lillian Murphy, Kitty Dietz, Wm. Ben- kendorf and Philip Ruben. At our next meet- ing, held in November, the fervent discussion of the class colors resulted in the choice of Nile green and silver. Hurried preparations were made for our first social event, the Junior Prom, held on Nov. 18. This proved to be a great social success. The Ways and Means Club finally decided on selling school pins to raise money. These pins found a ready market in all our section rooms. A cake sale was held in the cooking room on Friday, Dec. 16. Mary Shupik, Hist. SECTION ROOM SPIRIT A rather unique program has been instituted in Section Room 304 by the General Organiza- tion Committee under the direction of Miss Clarkson. In an effort to stop the tardiness a new schedule was followed out during the morn- ing exercises. In order to give them training for the assemblies, the girls are given turns in reading the Bible and leading the flag salute. As this takes but two minutes, we devote the other three to Section Room talent. The girls bring their ukes and banjoes and while some play the instruments the rest of us sing. We are also practising the school cheers, led by our cheer leader, Anna Van Leeuwen, who hails from this section room. A General Organization rally was held and the members of the committee spoke to the girls on school and section room spirit. We also discuss the subjects that are brought up in the auditorium. By arousing school spirit the girls take a keener interest in sports of the school. The result of this has been surprising. The girls are making an effort to get here on time and their efforts have been rewarded. A keener interest is being taken in school affairs and the girls are displaying an exceptionally good amount of section room talent. Lillian Murphy, General Organisation Rep. Anna Van Leeuwen, Personality Leader. Catherine Deitz, Captain. Maude Kendall, Aide. Dorothy Krouse, Inspector. THE DEBATING CLUB The Debating Club, one of the most active clubs of Clifton High School, held its first meet- ing during the month of September. The offic- ers elected were: Helen Okonowskv, President; Sylvia Weiss, Vice President; and Louis I.. I.ei- bowitz, Secretary. These officers will serve un- til February, when the next election of officers will take place. The high standard which our club has at- tained is due to the untiring efforts of Miss Merrev and Miss Morrell who have been the sponsors of the club since it organized a year ago. This year, to this staff of able sponsors was added Mr. Richards. The purpose of this club is to develop our power of public speaking and debating and also enlarge our fund of general intelligence. Meet- ings are held every two weeks on Thursday, a debate being held at every other meeting. Thus far the club has had but two debates. The first of these was debated by Sylvia Weiss, Bess Lev- ine and Louis I,. Leibowitz on the affirmative, and Dorothy I.ennon, Theodore Kulik and Thomas Reilly on the negative. The topic for this debate was, “Resolved: That the U. S. con- trol trans-Atlantic flights.” Thomas Reilly took the rebuttal for the negative and Louis Leibo- witz took the rebuttal for the affirmative. The judges for this debate were Miss Morrell, Mrs. Anderegg and Mr. Richards. The affirmative won. The second topic for debate was, “Re- solved: That Capital Punishment should be abolished.” Those on the affirmative were Hel- en Jacobs, Evelyn Halpern, and Edward Leibo- witz, while those on the negative were Herman Stern, Helen Vnuk and Gerard Kerkley. The judges were Bess Levine, Thomas Reilly, and Erich Schoeppe. The negative won. At the time this article is being written the whole club is eagerly anticipating a debate which will be held in the auditorium at one of the morning assemblies. The topic for this de- bate is, “Resolved: That final examinations should be abolished.” Helen Okonowskv', Sylvia W eiss and I.ouis L. Leibowitz will debate the affirmative side of this topic, while Dorothy Lennon, Lillian Murphy, and Thomas Reilly will debate the negative side of this topic. We wish to express our thanks and apprecia- tion to our Principal, Mr. Nutt, for granting us permission to hold this debate in the auditorium. We extend our heartiest welcome to all stu- dents who desire to join the Debating Club, and we hope that the future members will help us carry on this work. As we all know, the future looks brighter than the past, and we, of the debating club, see ahead of us fields of ex- perience and knowledge through which we must make our way before we can raise our heads and PAGE TWENTY-NINE

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THE REFLECTOR CLIFTON HIGH SCHOOL FEBRUARY 1928 On October 19 the second meeting of the club was held. The members were entertained with a novel presentation of a debate on the proposi- tion. “Resolved: that it is worth while to study Latin in high school.” The debate was won by the affirmative side, who managed to prove their point by means of a playlet. John Kowalsky gave a brief speech for the affirmative side, and proceeded to prove his points with the play, which was under the di- rection of Miss Howard. The characters were Alba Belli, the mother; John Kowalsky, the father; Norma Lindquist, the daughter; and Michael Rappaport, the son. The theme of the play concerned the son who did not wish to study Latin in high school. His father agreed that he would not have to take Latin if he did not eat or use a single thing during that whole day which had a Latin name. The poor son could eat scarcely anything, and he certainly didn’t enjoy himself, for his older sister was continually reminding him about names derived from Latin. At last he gave it up and decided he would take Latin if he could only have a square meal. After this playlet, John Pivornik spoke for the negative side. The members of the club then voted, and the decision was in favor of the affirmative side. Disapproval of this was ex- pressed by groans from the boys. The next meeting of the I.atin Club was held on November 30, with several discussions on Roman life being given by different members. Margaret Ausden Bruch spoke about the gen- eral aspect of Rome; Olinda Buffone talked about Roman streets in general and told of a typical short street; and Mary Coen told of the shops, street shrines, and the fountains. We heard about the street crowds and the cosmopol- itan nature of Rome from Marie Petruschak, and Marie Goetschius pictured the procession attending great nobles. Helen Okrent discussed a multitude of things, while Anna Petrisin ex- plained the danger of being out at night and the discomforts of life in Rome. For the next meeting. Miss Howard suggested that songs be given in I.atin. EI. CIRCULO ESPANOT. El circulo espanol fue organizado en el mes de septiembre. Los siguientes fueron elegidos como ofieiales: presidente, la senorita Giacom- ini; vice presidente, el senor Kelly; secretario, el senor Fain, y tesorero, el senor Boyle. Hay ahora veinte y dos socios. Los impuestos son cinco centavos por cada persona. Adernas, el circulo se reune una vez por mes. A cada reunion se le pide al secretario que lea el acta de la sesion anterior y la presidente pide a los miembros si tienen observaciones. Enton- ces el secretario pasa la lista. Es costumbre responder con un proverbio en lugar de “pre- sente.” F,1 programa siempre abre con el cantar de “America” por los socios y las diversiones siguen. Durante la segunda reunion la president toco un disco de musica espanola. Una representa- cion dramatica fue presentada por los senores Ferseh, Szalay, y Romlein. El senor Fersch hizo el papel de un rico, llamado Desiderio; el senor Szalay como su servidor vivo, llamado Or- lando, y el senor Romlein su servidor perezoso, llamado Prudenciano. Orlando responde tan aprisa que casi todas las veces rompe algo y al contrario Prudenciano responde tan despacio que su amo teme volverse loco. Todos desem- panaron bien sus papeles y los socios gozaron con la pieza. A la proxima reunion se presentaran dos piezas. Una se llama “La Primera Disputa” y la otra El Joven Doctor Infortunado.” Al cuidado de la senorita Kehl, nuestra ma- drina, la pieza anterior ha tenido exito y esper- amos que las siguientes sean lo mismo. Ella hace lo posible para hacer las sesiones interesantes y nosotros le agradecemos mucho por esto. La senorita Giacomini ha tenido la bondad de, dar- nos sugestiones estimables. Reynold Fain, Secretario, June ’28. THE TRIAL OF FIRE On November second we had the pleasure of being entertained by a delightful and scientific play, given under the direction of Mr. Derr and Mr. D. Collester. The purpose of this play was to show the hazards and destructive force of fire. Freshmen students represented different fire hazards, such as, kerosene, rubbish, carelessness (who was the arch criminal), cigarette, match, and defective chimney. Each showed its helplessness in the prevention of fire; and its careless use by many slovenly and indifferent people was over empha- sized. Evert Anderson as the judge, and the court clerk, Mr. Damiano, most effectively created a solemn court atmosphere. The district attorney. Erwin Roedel. worded his accusation in a grave and stern tone that made the poor defendants feel mighty meek and small. The attorney for the defendants, Mr. Reilly, was vociferous and convincing in his plea. The jury was composed of able and judicious seniors. The court officer, with his long swinging ha- ton, gave much reason for fear. Mr. Careless- ness, who calls himself Mr. Pable, drew forth our genuine sympathy. Oh! how every sensi- tive person in that audience craved to save you, Mr. Carelessness, but you cannot deny that you are the direct cause of the loss of many lives and property. Mary Valenti, Feb. ’28. PAGE THIRTY-ONE