Gloucester High School - Flicker Yearbook (Gloucester, MA)

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time and practice will do wonders. Certain members of the class, too, began to display marked abilities in other directions. One showed quite a leaning toward poetry, indeed, his parody on Marmion, beginning, “ Young Lochinvar came out of the west, With a dirty coat and a ragged vest,” quite enraptured the class. His “ choice and flow of words ” was something remarkable, and we feel that if he had only remained with us, and received our help and encouragement, “ Bernie ” might have risen very high in the profession. Brooks seemed to think that the school texts books weren’t fully illustrated, and strove to remedy the defect, while Hannon and Barry formed a mutual scrapping society and held a “ regular business meeting ” every recess. Many, too, were the good times we had in recitations— in Physics with Mr. Burnham, where most of us, at one time or another, received a severe thrashing — with a catskin — which, of course, shocked us greatly ; in English with Miss Woodbury, where we took up astron- omy, geography, and kindred subjects ; in Latin with Miss Sibley, and later, with Miss Wonson, where our two dignified captains fought for the corner seat, while Brooks made “googoo e3 ' es” at the Freshman girls as they passed to gymnastics, and Harrison “ spouted ” his latest poem. But gradually the year wore on, with its vacations and exams., until Field Day was upon us, and then how we Freshmen drilled ! In fact, the Freshmen in the prize squad drilled so well that one of their number won a medal, which was quite remarkable, considering. Regi- mental Field Day and “ the last day of school ” followed in quick suc- cession and we parted for the long summer vacation. SECOND YEAR. All too soon September came round again, and we found ourselves back at school, watching with cruel enjoyment the aimless wanderings

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HISTORY OF THE CLASS OF 1902. One bright morning in the early fall of ’98, — to be exact, the sixth of September, — a crowd of frightened youngsters might have been seen hovering about the side door of the High School, until Mr. Bacheler, taking pity on us, marched us into the basement, allotted each a nail, over which the owner’s name was promptly scrawled, and then ushered us into the big study room, amidst the hearty applause of the upper classmen. The girls, of course, according to their kind, had gone in before school and secured their seats. Being an exceptional class, we suffered very few mishaps during those first few weeks, but whether that was because we all had the schedule on the back of our blocks, or because we strictly ignored all the kindly advice given us by the Sophs and Juniors, I can’t tell. Some of us plunged boldly into the Classical course, prepared to face the terrors of Greek and Latin ; some chose the General, frightened perhaps, by that mysterious word Greek; others took the Modern Language course, disdaining to study anything as “dead” as Greek and Latin, while still others, being content with plain English, took the Business course. This latter class has graduated and passed on into the world. Some have already risen to positions of honor and wealth, while the others are getting there as fast as they can secure the neces- ary “ rising material.” Good luck to them ! Our greenness gradually wore off, and we ripened to high school ways, until finally we became so accomplished that we could leave the study room for Miss Howe ' s when Mr. B. called, “ First four numbers!” and could talk across- three aisles right under the teacher’s nose. It took time, of course, and many sad failures, to acquire this proficiency, but ( 2 )

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of the little Freshies over the sea of “ No Dusto.” And what an awak- ening of school spirit there was ! Two classes organized, and a school paper, the Crimson and White, was started, being edited by members of the Junior and Senior classes. Early in the year the Junior class organized, and we, “ led on by fate,” dared to set an example, and elected our class officers, chose class colors, and selected class pins. But here our energy gave out, and as far as we remember, not another class meeting was held during the remainder of the year. Soon drill began again, and most of the male portion of the class blossomed out with corporal’s chevrons and a big volume of tactics, the contents of which we were required to assimilate, and then transmit to green and awkward freshies. Nepos claimed a good deal of our atten- tion, that is, of every one except Swift. He got along on sight trans- lation for a while, but feeling that that method was a bit slow, he cap- tured a pony. Then he got along so fast that he had to be excused for the rest of the year to give the class a chance to catch up with him. The boys took up chemistry this year — it wasn’t in the regular course, but you see, they had geometry in the chemical laboratory, and not wishing to waste a whole period on geometry, they did a little amateur chemis- try, chiefly in the chapter on acids. Toward the latter part of the year, the Seniors published the first attempt at a year book in the G. H. S., and succeeded in getting up quite an interesting little book, the “1900.” JUNIOR YEAR. Juniors ! At last we had reached a place of some importance in the school, so important a place, in fact, as Miss Slade’s room. Here, for one whole term we ruled affairs, and we were ruled — out, for the very first day of the second term found every Junior boy back in the