Farmington High School - Laurel Yearbook (Farmington, ME)

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22 THE LAUREL SALUTATORY PARENTS, friends, teachers, and schoolmates: As the spokesman of the Class of 1936, I am here to extend a welcome to you and to express our appreciation of your presence at this event which forms a milestone in our career. As the solicitous mother bird encourages her hesitant fledglings to the exploration of the unknown spheres, so the understanding of those gathered here will inspire courage in us to try out our new wings and take fiight into the awe-inspiring future into which we are about to wing. It is largely through your encouraging assistance and cooperation that we have successfully terminated our period of prepa- ration for the more fruitful and serious part of our lives. Therefore, in class of 1936, it is my happy privilege to convey to you a sincere and heartfelt wel- behalf of the graduating COIHC. - The Warrior Saint SAINT person, virtueg one blessed in heaven. Authority quoted-Noah Webster. A saint is a person of heroic virtue whose private judgement is privileged. Authority quoted-'George Bernard Shaw. Controversies arise out of these diverse opinions of the qualities of a true saint, yet Ioan of Arc, the Holy Heroine, em- bodies all these as well as other saintly at- tributes and was duly canonized May 16, 1920, in the words of the Pope, for her heroic virtue, glory, and blessedness. Today Saint Joan of Arc is perhaps the most widely admired, well-known heroine and saint. But how was she regarded in the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and -eighteenth centuries? What are the con- flicting views of poets, novelists, dramatists and ecclesiastics as to her character and sanctity? 'They are widely divergent in their views. Witness the two extremes: Mark Twain's Joan clothed in a romantic, is a holy or sanctified eminent for piety and dazzling garbg and George Bernard Shaw's joan in a plain, unornamented frock. Joan of Arc was born January 6, 1412, in the province of Lorraine, in the little village of Domremy in the valley of the Meuse, of a family that were honest, good Catholics and well reputed. It was when she was thirteen, the day after her first communion, that she first heard her voices. She was in her father's gardeng the Angelus tolled its pious chantg the vision of Saint Michael, the Archangel, came to her saying, 'K Be good, Jeanne, be good. Finally, after frequent visitations from Saint Michael, Saint Marguerite and Saint Catherine, it was revealed to her that she was to fulfill the old prophecy of Merlin: By a woman shall France be lost, by a Maid shall it be redeemed. The heavenly mission she was destined to fulfill was twofold: CU She was ordained to win back France from her enemies, the English, by raising the siege of Orleans. Q25 She was ordained to consecrate and anoint at Reims the Dauphin, Charles, who had been disinherited by his mother. We are all familiar with the raising of the siege of Orleans, the Bloodless March to Reimsg the magnificence of the ceremony at the Cathedral of Reims where Charles VII, King of France, was anointed with the sacred oils, the capture of joan effected by treachery, the severities in- Hicted upon her in the dungeon-like tower of the Rouen castleg the trial by the corrupt courtg and finally, the burning of the di- vinely iinspired maid as a miserable witch, a victim of vengeance, May 30, 1431. Yet, when she was on the scaffold with the fiames bursting around her sanctified body, 'the entire mob, touched to the heart by her last supplication, burst into weeping and lamentation. The judges and the soldiers weptg even Cauchon, the chief figure in her condemnation, was overwhelmed with emotion. From her executioners at the foot of the scaffold, the cry went up, For- give us, O Lord, we have burned a saint!

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THE LAUREL 21 the recommendation of the advisory jury, it was presented the Pulitzer award. This season's prize play is Idiot's De- light by Robert Sherwood. Starred to- gether in it is that inimitable pair, Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. The most outstanding and most discussed of the prize-winning plays is Strange In- terlude which was produced by the The- ater Guild, at the Guild Theater, New York, january 31, 1928. This is the third play of O'Neill's to win the Pulitzer prize. The other two were Beyond the Horizon which which The in the won in 1919 and Anna Christie won in 1921. author inherited a profound interest theater, as his father was an actor. He, himself, appeared on the stage during a short interval of time, but it was not this phase of the theater which he preferred. His first play was published in 1914. With unbelievable rapidity, he rose to national and international fame. He now holds the position unchallenged of being the foremost of American dramatists. In Strange In- terlude, O'Neill experimented with an en- tirely new style. He reverts to the style of the novel in which the thoughts of the characters are revealed. Because of its originality, this production caused a tre- mendous sensation. Because of its length, the play commenced in the late afternoon and the audience was given an intermission around 6:00 o'clock. Even then it con- tinued late into the night. While the plot is excellent, to me, the spoken thoughts constitute the most outstanding part. As an illustration, Madeline, the ingenue, is look- ing at Charlie, one of the character leads, and she is thinking, What a queer crea- ture!-there's something uncanny! Oh! don't 'be silly! it's only poor old Charlie. Then in acknowledgment of the flowers he has just given her she says to him, Thank you, Uncle Charlie. This idea was original to O'Neill. Two possible reasons for this are that it must be difficult to write and difficult to act. It takes great skill and experience to be able to make the audience distinguish be- tween the thought andthe speech. In the movies, they did away with this diiificulty by having the thoughts come out of the atmosphere somewhere instead of being spoken by a character. To many, it took away from the desired effect and made it somewhat ridiculous. Strange Interlude has had its share of adverse critics, but because of its originality it will live forever as one of the foremost American dramas. CLASSMA1-Es: The last four years of our education may be regarded as a play containing four acts and many scenes. The plot began when we were freshmen and has continued to de- velop during these years. Now, we have reached the climax. Let us hope it will be considered worthy of a Pulitzer prize. The curtain is about to fall, but the theme will live on forever. It is only natural that the parting be sorrowful. There is a chance that some of us may never meet again. Life is stretching out before us full of oppor- tunity. We must start out in this new phase of our lives with a determination to con- quer, not to be conquered. You can make what you wish out of your lives if you will only have courage, faith, determination and a fervor for hard work. Soon we will be coming into ourown, be the ruling genera- tion. Let us show the world that this generation has what it takes to succeed. In farewell, I can best express-myself by the first lines of the poem by William Make- peace Thackeray, The End of the Play 1 The play is done,-the curtain drops., Slow falling to the prompter's bell, A moment yet the actor stops, And looks around, to say farewell. It is an irksome word and task, And when he's laughed and said his say, He shows, as he removes the mask, A face that's anything but gayf' Virginia Trumbull '36.

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THE LAUREL 23 Twenty-five years later, Joan's mother and brothers sued the courts and had the case tried over again. The Pope declared Joan of Arc innocent. Not until five hun- dred years later, in 1920, was the Maid of Orleans enrolled into the catalogue of saints! Apt indeed is the tribute Bernard Shaw pays to the Holy Heroine, in his play Saint Joan , Half an hour to burn you, dear Saiint, and five centuries to find out the truth about you. George Bernard Shaw's remarkable play Saint joan , which has just com- pleted a successful season in New York, with Katherine 'Cornell in the title role, embodies his unusual and exceedingly in- teresting idea of Ioan of Arc. He shatters all romantic and glamourous conceptions of her as a beggarmaid or a princess. Katherine Cornell portrays his creation of joan to perfection, yet her mere utterances in simple and unelaborate words cannot help but impress one. Shaw believes that joan was great because she was simple and direct, intellectual, though illiterate. She believed staunchly in her- self and her mission, but she was not a ro- mantic little plaster saint with a conscious halo around her head. On merely read- ing the play, one is nearly converted to George Bernard Shaw's Joan, but Shaw's subtle wit and occasional digs at conven- tion interfere just enough to prevent one from agreeing completely with his Joan. After seeing the play with Katherine Cor- nell as the honest, able-bodied, confident, magnificent rustic, it is difficult to adopt any other view of Joan of Arc. In the English playwright's idea, Joan was burned essentially for what we call unwomanly and insufferable presumption. In the prologue, he states in his inimitable manner- that As her actual condition was pure upstart, there were only two opinions about her. One was that she was miracu- lousg the other that she was unbearably presumptuous. She lectured, talked down, and overruled the king, statesmen, prelates and generals. She was the most notable Warrior Saint in the Christian calendar, and the queerest fish among the eccentric worthies of the Middle Ages. The expressions he uses in describing Saint Joan are-- A sane, shrewd country girl with extraordinary strength of mind and hardihood of body, a woman of policy, a daughter of the soil in her peasantlike matter-of-factness and doggedness. She could coax and she could hustle, her tongue having a soft side and a sharp edge. She was very capableg a born boss. He denies that she was the least bit pretty, but the possessor of a very uncom- mon face: eyes wide apart and bulging as they often are in very imaginative people, a long well-shaped nose with wide nostrils, a short upper lip, resolute but full-lipped mouth, and a handsome fighting chin. The centuries have passed. Justice has been rendered to Joan and to her work. It is now for sincere hearts to recognize the divine character of her wisdom. For my part, I agree with Mark Twain in acclaim- ing Saint joan of Arc as the most noble life that was ever born into the world save only One. Mary Magoni '36. YT DREAMS OF CONCRETE AND STEEL ODAY, in various parts of the world, many gigantic constructions are being developed. Hardly is one world's largest or world's highest completed before the inventive mind of man has perfected new methods and new materials making still more colossal constructions possible. So rapidly is this progress and development being made that soon the historic caption One of the Seven Wonders of the World will be changed to merely One of the Wonders of the World. Within sight of each other in San Fran- cisco Bay there are two vivid examples of the progress being made along the line of bridge construction. Entrance is gained to this bay through the Golden Gate, a strip of water about a mile wide between two narrow peninsulas. Immediately inside