Dover High School - Crescent Yearbook (Dover, NC)

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spared to make the course of study and the plan of its pursuit all that it should be in every way, a well regu- lated institution. As a class, we--fee-lr that we 'have worked very hard. We have not done our work extraordinarily well, perhaps- not being boys and girls of exceptional brilliance-but we do have the supreme satisfaction of knowing that we have tried hard, and that we have done our very best. In every stage of our progression, we have been com- mended for success in the most flattering terms, our re- peated examinations have been rewarded only by repeat- ed credits. A student whose attainments are thus marked by every merit that may attend a graduate is unfit to longer be the pupil of even a High School. Nor have any of us been wanting in attention to our associates. We have warned them from time to time of the approach of this Commencement, when our school would no longer extend a Warrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our attendance and development here. We have appealed to their natural energy and ambition, and W have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to meet all ex- aminations which would inevitably interrupt our connec- tions and associations. They, too, have not been deaf to the voice of study and opportunity. We must, hereafter, acqueisce in the necessity which announces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, classmates no more, but our dear friends. To be it now and forever known to all men that our instructors, after much needless examinations, profitless discussions, one with the other, and serious, but quite unnecessary consideration, have arrived at the astound- ing conclusion that it is altogether beyond their power to teach us anything more. We have thoroughly mastered all there is to be metg we know all there is to know: and there is no longer any place for us in the institutions we have attended so faithfully, and loved so long and well. 40

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the yoke of High School government, and to form new plans and projects for their future prosperity. Such has been the experience of the Class-the Class of 1920 of the Dover High School-and such is now the necessity which constrains its members to alter the for- mer systems of our existence. The history of our career as a Class is a history of repeated advances, victories and achievements, all having in direct object the establish- ment of absolute independence for each individual mem- ber of the Class. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid audience: The Board of Education and Woman's Betterment of this Dover High School have provided for us the school building, With all its appurtenances, the same to be for- ever set aside as an institution of learnnig-a place Where all young men and Women in search of educational ad- vantages may. meet together for the purpose of being instructed in such branches of knowledge as they may seem to need. . The very ablest of instructors have been engaged to impart their Wisdom along all essential lines of thought to the classes thus congregated together, and these have for four years patiently endeavored to instill into the minds of those placed in their charge, the germs of prac- tical thought and learning that they have found neces- sady to fit them individually for contract With the outside World. Kind and considerate parents have made it possible- even, in some cases, perhaps, obligatory, for us to attend the school regularly and punctually, and have given us all the assistance and encouragement Within their power in our daily pursuit of the facts of life that make up its one great composite truth, which all men are faithfully seeking-the Way to live! A Great care has been taken in the arrangement of the school curriculum that such branches as should be found to be of the greatest advantage to the greatest number should be most diligently studied. No pains have been 39

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The time to come, when, by every law of right and jus- tice, we must tear ourselves away from the associations of the High School and step out alone-no longer the grave and reverend seniors of school life, but one and all, mere freshmen in life's school. To this end, friends, we thank you for your attend- ance here today, and bid you all a hearty and sincere wel- come to the last gathering together we, as a Class, may ever have, asking you, at the same time to listen leniently to this, our Declaration of Independence: We, therefore, the Class of 1920 of the Dover High School ,in general congress now assembled, appealing to the principal of our school for support of the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by the authority of this same good principal and the instructors of the vari- ous grades of this institution, solemnly assert and de- clare that this Class is, and by right ought to be hereafter, free and independent individuals, that it is absolved from all allegiance to the Dover High School, and that each and every connection between it and the school is and ought to be totally dissolved: and that as free and independent individuals, they have full power to enter any business or profession, to marry and settle down, or to do all other acts and things which independent men and women may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protectio nof the diplomas that we do this day receive, we mutualy pledge to each other and to the world, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. RAY H. WEST, '20. Earle Dixon West and Frank Hawkins were hunting bears. Frank saw a hole among the rocks so he crawled into it leaving Earle Dixon outside. A mountain lion came along and seeing Earle D. it started into the hole. Earle managed to grab it by the tail and was holding it with all his might. Frank hollered: What darkens the hole Earle, what darkens the hole '? Earle replied, If the tail hold sllps you'1l find out what darkens the hole. 41