Germantown High School - Record Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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THE CLIVEDEN thing approaching-something very near -and yet I could see nothing, so close was the darkness. It was a weird and creepy feeling-that awareness. Sud- denly over my shoulder flashed a brilliant white light and revealed to my staring eyes-IT! It was, in all probability, a man, but somehow I can not seem to reconcile myself to that thought. It seemed to me more like a vampire or some such thing of evil. Because of that I shall use the impersonal pronoun to indicate it. It was clothed in black-a scrawny, stoop-shouldered thing-and wore a black high hat. But its face I will never forget. It was milky white, and the light coming from a point lower down, lit it up in a fashion ghastly and terrible, leaving the shadows very black and the illumina ted parts very wl ite. Its lips seemed to be paralyzed into a position, part driveling, part sneering, and revealed an occasional yellow fang. Its eyes were fearful. One was a big, round, staring blue, the other small black and squinting. . But it was its nose that made it so revolting. It was entirely missing and a livid dent and two black holes, the nostrils, were the only signs to mark the place where it had been. Oh, the horror of it all! Oh, the ghastly, nauseatin g horror! It was so close when I Saw it. I felt its rank breath on my facep there were only two or three inches separating us. The automobile, which had been the source of illumination passed on, leaving me again in total darkness. Sick, im- measurably sick, I turned on my heels and ran, until I reached light and at lea st temporary safety. O: :O QIIFHIIIEB FESTIVAL GDR? GIHIHIIE- NIGHT FLORENCE B. SILBER Night steals upon an unsuspecting world. Birdlings sleep in their feathered nests. The purple shadows deepen- the silence becomes more acute. At last! The world is at rest. The tranquility L the peace - the beauty. The babbling brook plays an accompaniment to the rustling of the leaves. Higher and higher climbs the moon. Her shimmering shadow on the gurgling brook is a beauty to behold! The tiny pebbles become living things -the gurgling a real song. Humanity is asleep-and now nature awakes. The inanimate objects become tiny elfin creatures. The trees sway and dip to music so sad and sweet. Tiny legs scamper amid the green foliage of the forests-all nature is at play. The moon sinks lower and lower and softer is the music-more slowly the trees sway-fainter the scamper of elfin feet. The dawn-cold and gray. Then the sun-beautiful-glorious - tints of gold and rose ornament the sky-deeper and deeper they become-forming a frame for the golden sun which slowly slides up into its casing. 412011:-

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THE CLIVEDEN terrifying creatures but he always came through unharmed. Iack finally found a haven of refuge on top of a large mass of rocks. He was perched there for several hours and was becoming sleepy when a faint humming noise aroused him from his lethargy. lxlaybe it was a rescue plane. No, it could not bel Looking upward, another danger confronted him. Coming down at him was a huge, ferocious looking bird of the prehistoric type. Down off the rocks came Iack and away he went at full speed. This time the shoe was on the other foot. The bird had the advantage. Iack ran darting and swerving like a mouse try- ing to avoid an owl. Still the bird gained. Would he escape this time? It looked like it. There was another chasm, smaller than the first, and on the other side was a dark hole, probably a cave. The bird was closer now than ever. Looking back in desperation, lack strove to go faster. Only about three hundred yards to the chasm now. The bird's beak then snapped about two feet in back of his head. Frantically, he increased his pace. He was in a state of collapse. Once more he looked back to see if he had gained any. At that moment his foot hit a rock. lack went head over heels. He rolled over and over. Abruptly he was out in space falling down, down, down. He brought up with a sudden, sickening jar. Was this heaven? Breathing painfully, he opened his eyes. A huge shape was swooping down on him. An awful shock-and then everything grew darker -darker-oblivion. LTIIIHIHIUIEB lIl?llRllE5413lIE5lIlD6lllflll11fDllNll GDI? EVIL FLORENCE B. SILBER AVE you ever wondered how you can picture in your mind such intangible perceptions as emo- tions ot good and evil? Somehow, it seems to me, when we wish to think of these, we involuntarily personify par- ticular emotions and visualize charac- ters, actual or imaginary, whose face seems to us expressive of those thoughts. As soon as the thought of anger comes to nie, a vivid picture glows in my imagina- tion. I see a man, a powerful man with mighty straining muscles. His hands are clenched, taut, as though he were about to bend a bar of strongest steel. Nevertheless it is his face which is clearest, largest, in my consciousness. His lips are drawn back, snarling, and revealing sharp white fangs and an underjaw somewhat protruding. Eye- brows lifted, veins swollen, eyes flashing, all these characteristics go to make up my personification of anger. This is, of course, purely an imagina- tive character. There is, on the other hand, that character which is drawn from life and which presents to us, a perfect personification of an emotion. It is with the latter that I am now going to deal. Indelibly traced in my mind is a character-my personification of sordid evil. I was walking down a small street- a narrow filthy street, in a section of the slums seldom used by casual pedestrians or vehicles. A shiver of fear and a premonition of evil seemed to combine and weigh on me. I hardly knew where I was-just dimly aware that I was near the corner of an intersecting street. Another chill passed over me. Then came an awareness, an intuition of some- -01119110-

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e , '39 '- .I , GJ ll Season of mists and mellow fruitfulnessl Close bosom friend of the maturing sun 3 Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit, the vines that round the thatch-eaves run, A is the despription that Iohn Keats gave of Autumn, that bounteous and beauti- ful time of year when we commemorate Thanksgiving. Our holiday was first celebrated in this country with a harvest festival which lasted a week. This first Thanks- giving was not a religious ceremony, and no services were held other than the morning prayers and Sabbath worship. There was given a great three-day feast of wild turkeys, geese, ducks and water fowl, of codtish, clams and oysters, of barley loaves and Cornbread, of salads, fruits and pastries. Then for fear there would not be enough, tive Indians were sent out and they brought back five deer. There were about a hundred and forty persons, including ninety braves of Massasoit's company, who all had their share of supplies brought to them by the girls whose duty it was to keep the plates filled to overflowing. Between these meals, contests and games such as pitching ye barren and Hstoole-ball were held, and a grand hunt of the four prime shots who received the honor from the governor himself. This harvest festival was an inspira- tion to the New World citizens, which reanimated their spirits, drooping from previous failures of crops and other hardships. When the holiday was over Gllfklllllili 4DllRM?fllllINll Ulf wmawkseivime NANCY REYNOLDS, Bk. 10 they were better and braver men for having turned aside from their labors to rest. However, the idea of a special day of thanks and feasting does not belong to America. This dates back to olden times in Greece, Rome and Early England. In Greece the harvest festival, called the Tlzewmaphoria, was the feast of Demeter, goddess of the soil and harvests, and was celebrated in Athens by the housewives only. The Grecians chose two noblewomen to perform the sacred rites and tq prepare the feast. On the first day of the feast, which sug- gests our Thanksgiving dinner, the women went in a colorful procession to the cliff of Colias where the temple of Demeter was, and celebrated their Thanksgiving for three days. Follow- ing this was a three-day feast in Athens, which started sadly at first, but generally ended in a perfect riot of mirth and danc- ing. The symbols of the fruitful goddess were poppies, corn, fruit and a pig, while the symbols for our Thanksgiving seem to be a turkey and pumpkin pie. In Rome the goddess of the harvest was Ceres, and her festival, which occurs yearly on October fourth, was called the Cerelia. The word cereals or grains is derived from this. The holiday began with a fast among the common people who gave an offering of a sow and the first of the harvest to the goddess, and followed this by fantastic parades around the fields and rustic sports. The cere- monies ended with the usual Thanks- giving feast. fCoutinued on page 485 elI21le