Evening High School - Owl Yearbook (Reading, PA)

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90 y THE OWL THE MIRACLE OF MICHMASH After the capture of Jerusalem by the British, the Christian armies suffered a slight setback in the hills near .lericho in January 1918. A battalion of the 24th Welsh Infantry found themselves en- rapped in a valley near Miclimash f about eight miles from jeru- salem and about twelve miles from .lerichoj The hills around them were massed with Turkish artillery and the road by which they entered was barrred by overwhelming numbers of Turkish troops. There seemed to be no escape for the 600 Britishers. Await- ing the inevitable attack in the morning at which it was determined they would dearly sell their lives, Major Spence was sitting in his bivouac, unable to sleep, when a strange association of ideas conjured up a vision of his boyhood home in Wales on a Sunday morning. Puzzled over this constantly recurring thought, he finally decided that the names on the map before him must have something to do with it. Suddenly he paused. The name of Ramah, only a mile away was familiar. He suddenly thought of the Bible and Sunday School. He rose and inquired whether there was a Bible in the battalion. Because their luggage was at headquarters, there was some difficulty in locating one, until a private spoke up and informed the Major that he had part of a Bible. Some of the pages- he told the officer - had been consumed as cigarette paper. The Major fingered the book for awhile, and then began to turn its leaves, reading as he went. Ramah, he discovered, was the birthplace of Samuel. He reread the book of Samuel until he found Chapters 13 and 14 of lsamuel I D. He found that his desperate situation was the same as confronted the Israelitic Army in the identical valley in the time of King Saul. l When the men of Israel saw that they were in a strait.lAnd then he came to the following passage fSamuel1, 1-L, 4 86 SJ - And between the passages by which Jonathan sought to go over to the Philistines, he found a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other side and the name ofthe one was Bozez and that of the other Seneh. The forefront of the one was situated northward over against Miclimash flV1ichmash was on the Major's map, and the other southward against Gibeahf' There was a great light in the lVIajor's soul when he read the

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THE OWL 89 HARALD BRAGG THE MAN YVITHOUT A COUNTRY 3 The popular story of HThe Man VVithout A Country,'i by Ed- ward Everett Hale, is admittedly entirely fictional. Hale admitted that he invented the character of 'Philip Nolan. But while Hale invented his story, the idea of which came to him .through the famous C. L. Vallandigham case, he did not know that a drama of a real lVIan Without A Country, was then being enacted in real life. A few years before his death, Hale learned of the Bragg story, at which he was greatly surprised. The real lVIan Without A Country was Lieut. Harold Bragg of Charleston, S. C., who was tried and convicted by a court martial of a treasonable utterance. Bragg is supposed to have disapproved of the impending war between the states and expressed a wish never to hear Habout these what you believe to,l:,e United States. Almost one of the first acts the newly appointed Secretary of War, Cameron, had to reveiw, was the case of Lieut. Bragg. In accordance with Lincoln's wish, a sentence of death was set aside and a commutation to lifelong banishment was substituted. In ac- cordance with Lieut. Bragg's own pronouncement, he was to be kept in ignorance of the fate of the United States. Lincoln intended this punishment for a short time only. But unfortunately. Cameron was soon removed and by the time the case was again called to the President's attention, lVIr. Lincoln had been assassinated. Bragg was originally on the U. S. frigate Carolina bound for Hong Kong. All during the passage he was well treated, but he was refused shore leave and all newspapers brought aboard were exfiised, lest some news of the United States would come to the attention of the poor outcast. On April 2, 1893, he was transferred to the U. S. frigate lVIedusa. On May 4th he attempted to escape in the harbor of Valpariso, Venezuela. He was recaptured and brought again aboard. Three years later he was stationed on the Ncptune,' whence he was finallv transferred to the Georgia On board the Georgia, Lieut. Bragg died in the port of Cal- cutta, on the Hooghly River on September 15, 1883, after 22 years of isolation from American matters. The fate of the United States was for the first time revealed to him on his death bed. The story is based on a reprint of a United States Publication dated 1893 in which I have implicit confidence. BELIEVE IT OR NOT

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THE OWL 91 conclusion of the chapter fufor there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by fewnd. He quickly awakened the men and at their head set out to find the pass by the rocky erags on each side. VVonderfully enough the passage was quickly located and the little army crossed to safety. The Turks thought next morning that the earth must have swallowed the giaours, as the secret passage was not on any map. The strategy of Jonathan as recorded in the Bible, saved the lives of G00 Britishers in 1918, Hand the word of God was like the pillar of fire guiding the Israelites through the desert. BELIEVE IT OR NOT THE LAST SUPPERH The plan to paint nThe Last Supper matured in Da Vinci's mind in 1478. When he received his commission from Duke Lud- ovico of lVIilan, he painted all the figures, with the exception of the Lord and Judas, in short order. The first difficulty he experienced was the inability to find a model for the noble picture of the Lord. At the urgings of the Duke he finally located one and immortalized him on the Wall of the Con- vent of Santa lVIaria delle Grazis, but for about eleven years there- after the great master searched in vain for a model for Judas--ihe antithesis of the Lord. In the end he located the horrible face which was to serve as a model for the portrait of history's greatest traitor. He hurried his model with him to his studio, where he Worked feverishly for sever- al days. IfVhen he had finished it and immortalized the old, greedy, and rapacious features, he dismissed his model-after compensating hii11 very generously-but the model tarried and intimated to the great artist that he had seen him before. Da Vinci was distraught and inquired where, to which the old man retorted, I am Pier Sa- laino, the man who was your model for Jesus eleven years ago. An unfortunate love and inordinate pride had brought about the complete metamorphosis in the features of the most famous of all models. This story can be found in Leonardo Da Vinci's own diary, which was was written in mirror writing, with the left hand, and was recently deciphered by Professor lVIanutt. BELIEVE IT OR NOT