Fostoria High School - Red and Black Yearbook (Fostoria, OH)

Page 24 text:

OSH' Red and 6,29 - Black - pleasure seeking path ever builds a state or starts a great movement. Only those who are serious and willing to strive can so achieve. Climb up to the man or woman God means you to be. I challenge you, my dear young friends, to go forth from your high school and this closing hour into the problems of your life, your vocation, your college years, to share responsibility, to stand ever on the side of right and justice. Careers of all kinds are open to you. Your life may be replete with worthy efforts and ever glorious deeds. 'Take the highest, purest and best as your standard. Believe in the distant hopes that lure you on. It matters not so much whether you lose or win in the game of life but it does matter how you play it. Get the vision of greater service and when the great hour of opportunity strikes in your life, may you be ready. The greatest measure of a life is not what it does but what it is. We all need ideals great enough to master us and sweep us in spite of ourselves. The summit is only for those who climb. The road of life forks every few steps. Where you are today depends altogether upon the road you took yes- terday. May you not be conscripts in the march of time, but rather volunteers. The high school, I trust has laid the foundation well in knowledge and character, but the secondary school is merely the portico of the vast temple of knowledge. The foundations you have laid will determine the structure which you will later build. If you have put into it sin- cerity, honesty, loyalty to truth, willingness to sacrifice and pay the price, you need have no fear for the stability and integrity of the superstructure which you are to build. You are standing at the portals of the Garden of Youth with the gates open to admit you to all her treasure. Enter with faith and courage and make the most of your best for the sake of others and thus you shall lay foundations which will make you master builders. Whenever you wish help or counsel, my door and my heart are ever open to you. Sincerely your friend, MISS MCDERMOTT. QIYX9 1928 - Page Twenty

Page 23 text:

Red and - Black - , MESSAGE TO THE SENIGR CLASS GXJ MEMBERS of the Class of 1928-Dear Friends: I feel deeply the responsibility of translating this into wise and appropriate words. May I in this closing message to you speak especially of the importance of foundations well laid. In the quadrangle of Leland Stanford University, near San Francisco, there stood a mag- nificent memorial arch, built so solidly and splendidly that it seemed as if it would stand forever. But when the earthquake came, the great arch collapsed in ruin. Its foundations were disclosed, and then the truth was seen. Instead of being of solid stone, as they should have been, the builder had put in chips and rubble. 'The Leland Stanford Arch is a type of many lives which seem successful for a time, and then suddenly collapse. The foundation is found to have been built with wrong materials and the whole structure falls in a ruin. A foundation must be abso- lutely solid. Let it settle or sink ever so little, and the whole superstructure is in danger. So it is with character. The foundations of character are out of sight. They consist of those fundamental convictions which often come to us in childhood and which are strengthened and confirmed by a long experience, by habits of thought, by the ideals which have been suggested by our ways of looking at things, which have gone into daily life, and daily conduct, and so have become fixed and settled as the basis of our character. They lie below the surface of opinion, as convictions which determine the View we take of many things. The foundations of character are not only out of sight, but also, when well laid are confirmed by habits of action, they do not need to be altered or repaired. The beliefs by which we live and act remain firm amid storms of opinion and the trials of a difficult life. This is the value of foundations. In these days when so many of the great things are slipping you should realize that there are no new tests of human char- acter in this new time and day. You will be tested as the men of every age have been tested in loyalty, in honor, in honesty and in self-control. There are qualitiesin life which can be measured only by time or eternity. Certain attitudes, certain deeds are imperishableg they add themselves to the imperishable things we inheritg they are gathered up into the flame of the torch the run- ners hand on. No boy or girl can afford to join the throng of the weak-willed and short-sighted who sacrifice the long future for the sake of an easy time in the work-shop of youth. Life today is keyed to the heroic. And not to seek an exalted plane of living in a world, full to the skies of heroism, is to be out of tune. All youth is so dauntless. And its daring and its dreams have found adequate expression in the life and achievement of the Lone Eagle who on that memorable afternoon of May 21, 1927, emblazed his own name and that of his country across the sky in his flight over the At- lantic. Lindbergh, the finest exponent of the best manhood of this country. Clear eyed, bronzed face, tall, modest and unspoiled. You may not attain to such conspicuous achievement but your life may be a conspicuous achievement as is his. Reach to the highest, cling to it. Take no chances with any thing that is inferior. In one of the great business establishments of this country is to be seen this motto- Where only the best is good enoughfl What a life motto this would be, if every member of this class would adopt and use it. It would weave into your character and into the texture of every- thing you do, all the qualities that make for fine and strong men and women. Amid the confusion of our times there are many voices calling to you. Your own best self will guide you unerringly to the right choices and decisions. No one who seeks the easier path or 1928 Page Nineteen

Page 25 text:

M W7 Ennis Zzflllasses