Girls High School - Yearbook (Reading, PA)

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She drank in, with her thirsty eyes, the unequalled charm of the wild lands, and breathed into her soul the scented air of the forests. The dark and murky city with its heavy, unhealthy air, was upon them, and nothing was left of the land of her dreams but memories. The city had held her its prisoner for long, endless weeks, crushing her soul with its maddening noises and its oppressing closeness, and steal- ing, bit by bit, the life from her frail body. Finally the city, reeking with terrible diseases, gave her its deadliest fever. For days in her de- lirium, she would call feebly for the open, with its free spaces, its pure air, its music of whispering winds and laughing waters. But she called in Vain, and finally called no more, for the soul of her was preparing for flight. At last, in the small, dark hours of the night, when the evil spirits glide softly to and fro, death stalked in, and claimed its own. The soul of the pale, sweet llower that had blossomed in the heart of the caravan, passed silently away like the Arabs of old. Again it was spring, and the caravan was moving, but mournfully, for back there in the city rested the body of the one it loved, the flower ol' the caravan. lllll, . ii.ji3i:'f h I ,,....i,q,igi T e nzversa iflll, ' illlllll illfl Milil.li'M - g g Lan ua e '- j-.E -9 llflllfllilllulvllff 'S 'Uhlilllilllifllllf 'fm Jlflary F1 Deem And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. In the beginning there was but one language. Imagine then the con- fusion which reigned when, during the building of the tower of Babel, the workmen were made to speak various languages, which rendered them mutually unintelligible. The same obstacle to intercourse exists today. We have of course an advantage in being able to learn a few languages in addition to our own, but the difficulty of learning even a few discourages us. Many attempts have been made to found a language which would be simple and easy enough for any one to understand. In some localities a sort of international dialect has been adopted. Such are t'Pigeon Eng- lish, spoken in China, Chinook, on the Pacific Coast of America, and Lingua Franca near the Mediterranean Sea. Even our own Berks County Dutch is such a dialect. One of the first systems of which we have record was that of Bishop VVilkins, constructed in 1668 on the principal of correlation of ideas. An- other system was that of Stephen Pearl Andrews in l8G9 which he named Alwato. This was supposed to have been based on philosophical prin- ciples. These two, along with several minor inventions, were unsuccess- ful. The only system which was put into actual use was Volapuk. This was advised by Johann Martin Schleyer, and published in 1879. Its prin- clple of eclecticism, or the selection of that which was the most excel- lent in each of various languages. This language is now known to some extent in every civilized country and taught in several schools and col- leges. I2

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THE FLOWER OF THE CARAVAN ny RUTH BRANT They fold their tents like the Arabs And as silently steal away. The caravan was leaving. It was bidding farewell to the wild and beautiful land that had been its home. It had nestled close to that same land, and, when the day had turned to night, had lulled itself to sleep in its hungry, loving arms with only the heavens standing guard, the heav- ens of that deep, impenetrable midnight blue with their heralds of the night shining softly down and their pale and shimmering heart, the moon. And now the caravan was leaving, never again to return. One, there was, sitting alone and apart from the rest, whose attitude was one of hopeless surrender, for like a tired, drooping flower for which the struggle for life has proven too great, her head was bowed in grief, and the heart of her in weariness longed to cease. Rich were her dusky tresses with the copper they had stealthily lured from the sun's dazz- ling rays, and eyes she had, like dark and troubled waters, with a dumb, appealing misery in their depths. Many there were who pondered long upon those mournful eyes only to be baffled in their attempts to fathom their mysteries. How could they know that the misery was the misery of a life denied, for to her was given the soul of a genius. She was leaving, now, the land of her desire, for a far and distant city and her heart clamored loudly against such an action, but the voice of the caravan bade her away. The voice of the caravan, the only voice she had ever known and the only voice that was hers to obey. But the parting was a hard and cruel one, for she was gazing at the most beauti- ful picture ever painted, the parting gift of the wild land, a picture that filled her heart with strange emotions and tortured her soul with its very beauty. The weary day lay dying into a twilight faint and dim and the sun made a last glorious attempt to stay the course of things. It blazed forth in all its fiery anger and painted the heavens with blood, and out- lined black against this blazing background were the tall and gently swaying forms of the leafless trees. It soothed yet agonized. It over- whelmed her with joy, yet maddened her with the hopelessness of it all, for she could find no words to express the beauty ol' the scene. One slim brown hand pressed the heart within her as if to stop its wild beat- ing and two tear-dimmed eyes closed in pain. Slowly her head bowed down until, on the bosom of mother earth, she wept bitter tears for the life that was denied. She knew of the beauties of the world, of the laughter of the waters, the gentle whisperings of' the trees, the drowsy hummings of the crickets, and the happy music of the birds, but her un- trained mind could not interpret them to the world. She was denied the greatest privilege of mortal. The caravan was ready, and with them she must go-with them, those crude, unimaginative people, possessed of a wander-lust stronger than they were. Yet she was one of them to the extent that she was crude and uneducated, too. Oh, fate had certainly had the upper hand in the game of her life and it had gained that hand on a dark, unhappy night long ago. This gypsy band had stolen her, a mere babe-in-arins, from her home in a far away land. They had taken her with them from city to city and had loved her in their own rough way, for they called her their flower of the caravan. Slowly from sight the wild lands were passing and she gazed long and steadl'astly upon the beauty she was destined never to see again. Il

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Since the publication of Volapuk there have been many interna- tional language schemes published, but none have been acceptable. In 1887 a committee, appointed by the American Philosophical Society, of Philadelphia, met to consider the subject of an international language and also the value of Volapuk. This committee did not think Vola- puk well-adapted for the purpose, and suggested that there be a meet- ing of a Congress composed of learned men of several countries to ad- vance a new language scheme. This meeting has not yet been held, and England especially has not been responsive to any such plan. There are what you may call limited universal languages. Techni- cal terms and symbols of the sciences are a kind of limited universal lan- guage. These embody mathematical signs, chemical symbols and Arabic figures, which are intelligible to all civilized nations. The arts, too, are a means of expression. The sculptor and the painter express their ideas in marble or on canvas, and we interpret them. In Millet's picture, The Angelus, do we not see the devotion, goodness, and gratitude in the pure and simple hearts of that peasant man and woman as he with head bare and she with hands folded stand in the field with heads devoutly bowed, the village church spire showing in the distance? Can we not almost hear those bells ringing? We do not have to read the inscriptions on all of the works of art to understand them. Music is a language which many can understand. Music not only ex- presses the moods of the composer, but also interprets the voice of na- ture. Do we not hear the twittering of birds and the rustling of leaves, the tolling of bells and the peals of thunder, the babbling of the brook and the fierce rush of the torrent? In the ages long, long, ago, all that was known of music was man's attempt to imitate the sounds of nature. He then used his art in charm- ing and influencing others. Thus long ago, Iire heaving bellows learned to blow, VVhile organs yet were mute, Timotheus, to his breathing flute And sounding lyre, Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire. Music controls our emotions. VVhy is it that tears come to our eyes when we hear a certain composition? VVhy do our spirits rise and our feet tap time when we hear some music? VVhy does our blood tingle when we hear a patriotic air? It is not the association of the words set to the music, but the music itself that appeals to the human heart. But in art there are many like unto VVordsworth's Dulhead, to whom, A primrose by a river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more. The deaf-and-dumb language is a language common to those unfor- tunate ones who can neither speak nor hear. It is taught in special schools. Then there is the Indian Sign-Language. This is a means of com- munication which can be understood and used by any one of the var- ious tribes, each one of which uses a different Indian language. Every gesture and every look is significant. The simple affirmative is signified by gesticulating with the extended forefinger, and the negative by a wave of the hand from front to right. A symbol for a drink is the hol- lowed hand presented to the lips. Darkness is represented by a simul- taneous movement of the hands, palms up, from the sides, in a circling manner until the palms, one above the other, rest in front of the body. I3 .