Elmira District Secondary School - Oracle Yearbook (Elmira, Ontario Canada)

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THE ORACLE 15 my native troops. This account would: not be complete without the Italian version, eminating from Rome. The Italian army has won a great victory against a superior force of British troops, over seven- eights of which were seasoned white troops. The British were forced to withdraw from the im- portant city of Moyale in Kenya, leaving much valuable military equipment to us. Since this episode, the British Ken-ya army has been reinforced, and is now in a position to take the offensive against the Italians in East Africa. . LITERARY Seven , said the ancient sage, is a magic number. Probably very few of you high school stu- dents feel that any magic is attach- ed to room seven, the library and English room, and yet, here is the entrance to a wonderful world, a world of romance and beauty, of heroism and adventure, of 'history and science, of fairy tale and le- gend. And he who would wander along its enchanting paths needs no gold, for the gateways are books, and the keys ?-the desire to read. Many of you, however, have not learned to appreciate the delights of the book world. O student read- er! is your key dull? Then bring it to your librarian, and together let us polish it until its brightness adds keen pleasure to your life. Early last fall, when Dorothy Thompson introduced the Let's Face the Facts series of radio talks, Canadians were thrilled by the oratory of this well-known American writer. On Christmas Day, the perfect English of our beloved king delighted us, and every now and again, a Winston Churchill or a President Roosevelt holds us spellbound through the power of his words. We may not all be orators, but it is becoming more and more essential in the business and professional world to be able to express oneself clearly and forcibly. Realizing this, the educational authorities have increased the amount of time devoted to English study. Are you taking advantage of the opportunity, boys and girls, to become masters of written and oral language? Your smart cloth- ing, ideal manners, perfect typing, ability in Latin and French, scien- tific or even domestic skill will be rendered less effective if thy speech bewrayeth thee . 1 --KATHARINE B. MACVICAR ll..l Across the Alps With Hannibal Dear Editor, It was very unwise of Stanley Beisel to bring his diary to school because he might have known that someone would get hold of it and that's just what happened. Nobody noticed that, one day, Stanley became terribly bored with the hum of vocabulary being said in a monotone, but this is what We found in the diary January 13, 1941. This was a very exceptional day in my school life. There I sat be- tween serene sleep which had come over me, due to the skating 'party the night before, and the slow, stately, ponderous gerundive Ele- phantorum traiciendorumn which withdrew the last spark of con- sciousness from me. When my brain started to mani- pulate once more, I found myself upon the back of the leading ele- phant which now stood before the bank of the Rhone. There, with a

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X 14 THE ORACLE the gate of the fort. But here, two of the guns had been placed, and their fierce fire forced the tanks to withdraw, leaving their supporting infantry exposed to a withering fu- silade from the walls of the fort. After vainly attempting to advance in the face of this fire, the Askaris withdrew in disorder, leaving fifty- four bodies on the field, and carry- ing with them many wounded men. Direct assault having failed, the Italians and their native allies settled down to reduce the fort by siege. The troops dug in and brought up a number of field pieces. With these and their machine guns, they forced the British garrison to withdraw from the walls to the greater safety of the barracks. That night a group of the villagers sallied out and collected the arms and equipment of the dead Askaris lying before the fort. Two of these were still alive, but so far gone that, out of pity, the natives shot them. The shots aroused the Italian pickets, who had their men stand to and man the parapet against a supposed night attack. After shooting off a couple of thousand rounds of ammunition into the darkness, the enemy came to the conclusion that the attack was a false alarm, and they ceased firing. After the sun rose, and through- out the day, the Italians kept up a desultory artillery and small arms fire. For the next two days the small garrison was left in peace, save for this fire, the enemy sending raiding parties into the outlying villages after food. On the fourth day, a flight of Hawker Hart Medium bombers flew low over the fort, dropping food and water to the beleaguered garrison, which was in dire need of these essentials. A dis- patch-case for Major Smith-Dor- rien was also dropped. After com- pleting this necessary work, the planes turned their attention to the Italians, planting several sticks of bombs in the centre of their camp, causing great havoc. Major Smith-Dorrien had receiv- ed orders to evacuate Moyale, if it was possibleg if not, to surrender his men and the fort to the enemy. That evening the major called the officers to his quarters, and told them his decision-the garrison would attempt to fight its way through the enemy. At ten o'clock that night every man was served out two hundred rounds of ammunition, three days' emergency rations, and a number of hand grenades. A number of men were also told off to carry the wounded men in litters. The anti- tank guns were limbered up, and with a detachment of the 13th Sou- danese leading, the tiny column moved out by the east gate. Ra- pidly the force crossed the inter- vening space, and at word from their officers, the black warriors stormed the trenches and broke the besieging forces. At the bayonet point the Askaris were driven from their shelter trenches and forced to flee. As the column passed through the empty trenches, there was a thunderous roar, and Moyale fort vanished in a cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, there remained only a big heap of rubble. All excess ammunition and explosives had been made useless to the enemy. Two days later the little column entered Buna. Here a relief column was in the process of being organ- ized to go to the aid of Major Smith-Dorrien's force. Although they had lost over twenty men, nearly one-tenth of the entire force, the small force had stopped the ad- vance, into Kenya, of the 32nd Ital- ian tanks, and, had caused over one hundred casualties among the ene-

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16 THE ORACLE shout of command, I, Hannibal, or- dered Mago, Dave Rowland, to pre- pare a raft to ferry us across the river. When all completions were made, we endeavoured to get the elephants on the rafts, but the clumsy creatures fell into the wa- ter. The fright of death made them swim to the other side. On we pressed towards the Alps, whose dim shadow we saw before us. From out of a cave, a band of sa- vage Gauls, under the captaincy of Jack Strong, sprang upon us. But under the magic glances of Donald Freeman, their fierceness was sub- dued and we advanced. At last the 'foothills of the Alps came into view. A rest was order- ed. We slept, and, during an inter- val of sonorous snores, a change took place around us. When we awoke, we found ourselves in a tourist camp. To our dismay, our pack-horses and elephants refused to stir. The Cities Service Station agent, Laverne Miller, informed us that the animals needed refuelling. We filled them up with Ethyl, no- knee-nok gasoline for perfect knee action. We refreshed ourselves with cokes and cream buns. We cranked the elephants' tails, and, spreading their ears, we took off. Up we soared and, receiving a wire- less message that the enemy was below, we released the high explo- sive water bombs from the trunks of the elephants. When we reached the summit, we stopped to visit the Hermit, Doug. McKay, who in- formed us of a short cut which had to be taken on skis. We set the elephants on long marks and went down the declensions covered with snow. With an Active Voice, I shouted On to victory l We slid right down to Lake Trasimenus where we barged in on a beauty contest on Bovis Beach. We decided to stay awhile and get acquainted with the contest winner, Bruce Ruppel. While we were having a regatta on the lake, along came Fluminius, Bill Arnold, an-d his shock troops under the joint leadership of Sum, Esse and Fui, in other words Don- ald Weichel, Louis' Klinck and Keith Keller. When Fluminius came out to en- gage us in hand-to-hand fight, we despatched an envoy for consulta- tion with the result that he imme- diately agreed to join forces in a drive to buy War Savings Stamps. Was it War Savings Stamps I heard? My wounded eye was not blind but there seemed to come to my ear-drums a present day, fam- iliar hum. It somehow savoured of a classroom. Dimly there seemed to still linger the Perfect Active of fero , melodiously recited by Mary Howard. Now was I sure? No! Fero was over and done- what I really heard was Flaminius pressing on his drive to sell War Savings Stamps. But lo! Flaminius took on the familiar form of our Principal, Mr. Currie, praising our patriotic Grade XII for their splen- did response in buying stamps, and thus I awakened from my Latin dream. MARIE WEICHEL ELEANOR ARNOLD STANLEY BEISEL BRUCE RUPPEL GRADE XII. FOR I DIPT INTO THE FUTURE By NORMAN HATHAWAY f W inner Second Prize Prosej Yes, it's truly amazing lg I am walking along North Arthur .Street of the Elmira of 1961. My, such drastic -changes have taken place! The high school looks the same, but