Cumnock School - Chronicle Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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it pered to its shining surfaces. Finally tearing himself away from its magnet- ism, from the hypnotic power of movement in bronze, he wandered through the corridors. He saw Greek writings on the floor, and mused in wonder- ment. He saw a thousand experiments, and understood not one. He watched force in a magnetic field, he saw oil brought to the earth's crust, he found an explanation of the laws of chance. All amazed him, nothing failed to arouse and stimulate his imagination. Then the crowning glory of astronomy was his. He entered a great domed room. Music drifted softly in the air. But in the center of the tiled floor stood a grotesque and horrible device. He could not understand it, yet somehow he felt safe. The lights were dimmed, then extinguished. A moment of silence. Suddenly on the rounded greatness of the dome a thousand stars were flung, and a calm voice spoke, This is the Heaven of summer. From that time Man's mind was in continuous turmoil. Galaxies of stars whirled before him. Names in Arabic or Creek invaded his snared tormented senses. His body grew tired with strain, all moved before him. An hour passed, the stars faded. Blacikness. He filed slowly out into the cold of the breezes, his mind cleared, his experiences were but dreams. He looked again at the building, the black and white. He saw the curving staircases silver in the moonlight, and he knew unconsciously Goethe's meaning when he had said, Architecture is frozen music, Symmetry is rhythm standing still. Man shuddered, the breeze was cold. He passed down the walks, white in the moonlight, and was gone. Silence reigned. The wind was cold. Only the shadows remained, and they pressed closer to the monuments. -'Sl

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il' A DREAM james Ray The great building loomed white in the black of night. lt seemed to hide all the mysteries of centuries in its walls, and the twin turrets of its giant telescopes reared themselves into the cold air as the two eyes of some fabulous monster. Below the promontory on which the edifice stood, the lights of a million worlds gleamed and flickered, red, blue, green, white in the night. To its left a single strand of lights lay on the black bosom of the hills. Silent, white, like Great Carbuncles they lay, white and still in the black. ln the blue-black of the sky the moon hung motionless, and her silver light illuminated the walks, curving silently, motionless in the moonlight. The wind blew in gusts, the bronze railings of the curving staircases were cold as ice to the touch. The stone figures immortalizing the dead and genius stood impervious, but even they were chilled by the breezes, blowing and murmuring. Heavy doors were opened, Man entered. What first met his gaze was beautiful. A great pit was in the floor, a pit surrounded by a waist-high wall the top of which was covered with bronze, and was divided into degrees. Man gasped . . . ln the bronzed interior a golden ball swung pendulum.-like, sus- pended from the muraled ceilings. Swinging golden, the ball reflected the paintings above it, and Man felt himself a little more mighty in his pride. He surrounded the prison of the golden ball, he stared at its motions, he whis- mf?

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A F BILL PEARSON GUTLER L. HUEBENER IOHN CRAVEN MAURIGE E. BAIRD jR HORTENSE VAGHON LORRY LINTON PHYLLIS GAGE PETE VAIL DELLA K. ROOT HELEN M. BRIGGS Advisor