Fryeburg Academy - Academy Bell Yearbook (Fryeburg, ME)

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THE ACADEMY BELL 21 place, the Trench of Bayonetsn protected by the American memorial. Men of the 137th Infantry had been ordered to hold this trench at any cost. They were standing in it, rifles in hand, when a discharge from the enemy upset the works and buried the occupants alive. The bayonets still stand above the earth, grim reminders of the tragic fate of the men holding them. It reminds me of Little Boy Blue in which the little tin soldier is waiting endlessly. The largest overseas cemetery, at Romagne-Sous-Mont- jaucon, contains 14,000 little white crosses in perfect rows, four marble monuments on either corner, and, a beautiful drive enclosing it all. The soldiers there represent every division of the American Legion. As we look over these graves of the best young men of our nation, a surge of blood rushes through us and we hope for better understanding and everlasting peace between nations: we hope that these men have not died in vain, but have made the world safe, so that never again the bugle will be heard at the front, so that never again the words Cease firing will ring out, and so that never again such grim spectacles as these which are left will remind humanity of such needless sacrifice. ELLSWORTH B. LAWRENCE, '30. MYSTERIES OF HOBBIES AND HABITS Everywhere there are people who have peculiar hobbies or habits. Business men, after a hot, hard day in the oflice, feel the necessity of the form of recreation which is most pleasing to them, therefore, they may visit the golf links, attend the theater, pick up some light fiction, or even work in a small garden after supper. Such hobbies are easily understood and truly helpful to the ones who enjoy them, but those which are originated in, around, or by dor- mitory life are far less comprehensible, I am sure. For example, why does a person like to go fishing in the most muddy season of the year, when it is certain the car will get stuck in the mud? Garage men are not always available on immediate call. Can there be some d.elight, unknown to most of us, in waiting on a lonely, country road, knee-deep in slimy mud, until a certain party fexpected or not ?J comes to the rescue? I know not, so will leave the explanation to a person better informed than I. To me the gum-chewing habit, too, still remains among the unsolved mysteries of life. The practice is all right once in a while and one stick at a time, but it has ceased to be limited to that. Those who take up this form of side

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20 THE ACADEMY BELL HALLOWED GROUND One of the most solemn moments in the history of the world took place in the Allied trenches November 11, at 11 o'clock-the coming of peace. This great silence replaced, the thunder of cannons and machine guns, that had been heard so many terrible years. Silence-peace-ending the bloodiest war that the world has ever known, a war to which all nations of the earth sent their best young men to facie death. Thousands of America's sons are still in France, resting in fields that will long bear marks of the terrible contests in which so many lives were cast away. Nature has done much in these battle fields to make men forget the awful turmoil of only a few years ago. She has grown plants and wild flowers, trying to hide the places where human beings fell by the thousands, bathed in blood. Yet, among all these fiowers and foliage, grim reminders often are seen as one passes along this sacred ground. Wire entanglements slowly rusting away, dugouts, guns, still in firing position, untouched. Here and there stand white crosses, unnamed. It has been impossible to mark every resting place, and they lie, unknown soldiers, by the tens of thousands in Belleau Wood and. Chateau-Thierry. In the northern part of Belleau Wood one may see many field guns in firing position, just as they were taken by the Americans in 1918g then in advance of those, a line of German machine guns, just as they were eleven years ago. Now, surrounded -by beautiful leaves, they are a picturesque sight as they hold the positions, their rattling hail of death stilled forever. Beyond these machine guns, nearly hidden by ferns and fir trees, is an Australian 88 millimeter gun, a symbol of the war gods, yet no longer throwing out its high velocity shells, but constituting a permanent memorial. Along the south front of the St. Michiel, the Germans constructed an elaborate barbed-wire defence to help pro- tect deep trenches just behind it all. Today the entangle- ment of wire is still there, intermingled with flowers of every description, it is a picture of grim struggle mingled with nature's beauty, a reminder of what has been there. One could hardly believe that, in truth, 200,000 gas shells had fallen in a single night in that area, or that 400,000 Germans had sacrificed their lives to hold the section just beyond, namely, Fort Danaumont, now a beautiful monu- ment, surrounded by the white crosses of 100,000 unknown heroes who .barred the way to Verdun. Here may be seen one of the most heart-breaking scenes of all this sacred ground. We see one rifle barrel appearing above the ground, a little farther another, then another, bayonets in

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22 THE ACADEMY BELL line become rivals for first place in the number of sticks they can chew at one time and the size of the bubbles they are able to blow. What ideals for virtue! If you have ever watched a group of people dancing perhaps you, too, have thought of how absurd it is to get up and take idiotic side steps, whirls, and dips, keeping in time with weird sounding music. Nevertheless, thousands do it every day and consider themselves as sane as neces- sary. There are other habits, such as collecting souvenirs, assigning new words to old tunes, holding afternoon teas, and sitting around a card table for hours at a time, which are too numerous to, mention. If you try to inquire as to why a certain person does or likes such things, the answer is always the same, Oh, everyone else likes them, so I do, and you turn away still unsatisfied and without any solu- tion. ELIZABETH RUNDLETT, '30. ' LETTERS The postman with his letters has many effects on dif- ferent people. When he gives a mother a letter from her daughter, she is very happy. When a father receives a letter from his son, he is generally worried lest he ask for more money. Bills! The postman gives those to everyone and, of course, they don't bring much pleasure. To the person in love, I suppose, it gives a moment of happy thrills. What it means to a boy or girl away from home to receive a nice letter from Dad with a check enclosed! Imagine the feelings of a person who is ready to go to some big party and at the last moment has a letter come saying they're sorry but the shoes of that size are not in stock, at the present. To some, a letter is a letter, and they are glad of almost any kind. MARION BARKER, '32. A PLEASANT TRIP One fine morning last September it was decided that the Dorm girls, who wished to, and several teachers, climb Mount Chocorua. We started about eight A. M., with Mr. LaCasce and Miss Fifield as chauffeurs. Among those who went were, Mister, Miss Fifield, Miss Johnny, Cherub Chase, Eleanor Frye, June Upton, Norma Stuart, and I.