Essex District High School - Argus Yearbook (Essex, Ontario Canada)

Page 9 text:

One of the greatest weakness of our modern society and one of the most fruitful causes of discontent and unrest is the prevailing tendency to try to get something for nothing. Every day one meets people who expect to receive fabulous remuneration for their services and those same services, alas, are for the most part trivial or entirely non-existent. Rest assured that the world is a sharp trader, ever ready to get the better of the dreamer, the dishonest men and the lazy men, but with equal readiness ever quick to reward the thinker and the doer and the man or woman who gives his best. It is time that your awards will not be stated in terms of a king’s ransom but will be rather stated in terms of contentment. H. W. HALL Principal

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I COMPLIWIENTS of I j tf. R. JOHMSTON ' ESSEX IN IN UAL - - .- - »- ! TUITE FUEL SUPPLY COAL,COKE, WOOD BUILDING MATERIALS Tuite Fuel St Supply Co. Phone 198 Res. 212 -- I A Good Place to Eat RANSOM’S RESTAURANT Phone 88 - Essex On No. 3 Highway Quality and Price Guaranteed A. C. RANSOM, Prop. School Supplies -1 Kodaks S THE REXALL DRUG STORE S. H. SADLER t We Appreciate Your Patronage Drugs Tobaccos

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THE ARGUS ANNUAL EARLY DAYS When I was asked to write a few lines about the early days of E ssex High School, I could not possibly re¬ fuse. All my associations with the school have been of such a friendly and kindly character, that it is a pleas¬ ure to do everything within my power that I am asked to do. Methodist Churches had been united into one body, a small room at the back serving for a second classroom. But what we were to speak of for some time as the New High School”—the building which was destroyed by fire some years ago—was nearly completed and we were soon able to move in. and to have a third teacher. My direct knowledge though does not go back to the beginning: the school had been in operation for three years before I became Principal in Oc¬ tober. 1888. The first Principal was Mr. Weir, but he is dead and for the inside story of those three years one would need to go to some of the sur¬ viving students of that time, such as Dr. Margaret Wallace, Mrs. J. J. Tullv of Windsor. J. L. Naylor of Essex, W. Tilden of Point Pelee, Dr. McCormick of Windsor, Prof. A. T. Laing of To¬ ronto, Dr. J. W. and Dr. W. W. Mc¬ Queen of South Dakota. W. B. Clifford of Ruthven, and others. It was the great good fortune of Essex High ' School to begin with such a fine band of young men and women who started it with a tone, an esprit de corps, and the beginning of a tradition that lasted till long after my day—and which. I hope, endures still. The school building to which I came was far from being attractive or con¬ venient; it was an old frame church just behind the station which had been used for worship by the Methodist Episcopal Church before the various The Village of Essex Centre, as we knew it then, was very different from the Town of Essex as we know it now -sidewalks of wooden planks, mostly laid lengthwise—streets of mud with no vestige of paving—no public water supply—no natural gas—no electric- lights; the only light at night on Tal¬ bot street outside the business centre, was an oil lamp in front of Dr. Browse’s office—hitching rails in front of all the stores, and so in the school —no water but what was carried in. no lights for evening meetings—stoves in the classrooms were the only source of heat, but these burning good body hickory, no heat in the halls—no la¬ boratory, a cupboard and table in one of the classrooms serving for all pur¬ poses of Chemistry and Physics. One of the most noticeable changes in re¬ cent years, is the much larger number of students attending the High School. Until the opening of Leamington High School in—I think—1895. Essex had the only High Sc hool in South Essex, and the population of the town itself was greater than now, yet I do not think that we ever had much over