Goshen High School - Crimson Yearbook (Goshen, IN)

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26 THE CRIMSON Class Grumble ADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I have been chosen Official Class Grumbler because of a misplaced sense EtgQsx,5::,l of humor on the part of some of the members of the Class of 1914. Accordingly I will enumer- ate some of the causes for discontentment: We, the Class of 1914, entered Goshen's famous institution of learning during the third year of the reign of W9bSt81', the First, although some of the present members preceded the class. No brass band awaited us, no floral wreaths, decked the way, no multitude cheered us on, no trumpets heralded our advance. In awe We entered the dimly lighted corridor, whose echoes have rung to the footsteps of those who have gone before, either to be crowned with success or to sink into the depths of obscurity. As we walked down the corridor We were aware of faint ghostlike creatures Hitting about and crying at the top of their voices, Get us if you can, Get us if you can. These strange beings often came near us, but when we reached to catch them, they glided easily out of our grasp. Then with hollow, foreboding laughs they skipped about mimicking our vain attempts to catch them, ceas- lessly crying, Get us if you can, Get us if you can. A shud- dering Sophomore told us that these demons were The Thirty-Two Credits, and that we were supposed to capture them all. Is it strange that I grumble after hearing that mocking laugh for four years? During our second year we formed the first organized Sophomore Class that the Goshen High School has had the honor to possess. By this fact we evoked the jealousy of both the Juniors and Seniors classes. The aforesaid Juniors and Seniors showed their sincere appreciation of our humble but dauntless endeavors by introducing into the room in which we held our meetings, fby way of transoms and doorsj, books, erasers, freshmen and other miscel- laueous school property. But despite all upper classmen we man- aged to exist. Except for a few inconveniences placed in our way we success- fully passed our Junior year, but not until we had incurred a fair- sized debt. Soon after the beginning of the present year we began to feel the tyrannical hand of the Czar, Sultan, Ameer, Rajah, President and Grand Mogul of the class, alias the hand of Dwight Yoder. fi? 1

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r 'T'g THE CRIMSON 25 wonderful backing of Claire Kinney we cleared over 8520. During the remainder of our Junior year we gave a few pastry sales and benefits, and at the close of the year we had something like S1575 which we used to give our fa.rewell reception to the class of 1913. We stopped at nothing in its preparation and we surprised them by our ability. lt left a high standard for them to live up to, but they were equal to the occasion and excelled us by their entertainment. Our festivities took place one week before examination and there was not much left to do. ln order to keep things lively sev- eral of the boys succeeded in putting a '14 banner on top of a tele- phone post, which broke all records by remaining 22 hours, before it was lowered. It would have been there yet had not Mr. Davis seen that we had stuck one overi' on our friends, the Seniors, and sent for a dozen telephone men to come and lower it. Thus the events of our Junior year closed. Meanwhile many of the boys were making names for themselves in athletics, of whom we are taking with us tonight: Robert Henry, Howard Berkey, Ernest Hansen, Carlton Renbarger, Joe Dangler and Dwight Yoder. Wlien our Senior year arrived we immediately assembled and elected Dwight Yoder, president. By his ability and skill as a leader we stand here this afternoon a class of success in every respect. We, with the assistance of Mr. Lowry, selected Mary Jane 's Pa as our class play, and as soon as our manuscripts arrived we started rehearsing,,under the supervision of Mr. Jeffrey. Mr. Lowry has been with us three weeks and we now express our ap- preciation for his valuable assistance. The class play tomorrow night marks the close of our High School career. S . Now let us go forth into the world, strong of purpose, and brave of heart, remembering our motto, B1'avely, Cheerfully, Faithfullyf' for tonight we stand on the threshold of life. Arthur Logan.

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THE CRIMSON 27 Dwight conducted class meetings in somewhat the following man- ner.x After a small portion of the class had assembled, he would tap for order with his gavel, and then proceed to tell the other mem- bers what he had decided the class should do. Such trivial form- alities as putting a motion, seconding it and voting on it were done away with. On rare occasions the servantof the class asked for objections to his plans. Those who favored his pet schemes were per- mitted to make grand, flowery, eloquent speeches. Those who op- posed him were denied the floor or expelled from the meeting for disorderly conduct. After nine months of such servitude, can it be wondered at that we sighed in relief? Our President abhorred the word assessment, so he accordingly coined his synonyms, the words being pastry sales and entertain- ments. In this manner the class was able to have assessments that were assessments, assessments that were pastry sales without any pastry being sold, and assessments that were supposed to be' enter- tainments, although few came to be entertained. One day a breezy young man breathlessly blew into a class meeting and informed everybody in spasmodic gasps, that he was out of breath since he had just arrived from the Pacific coast, and in addition had a bad cold. The suddenness of his entrance, his wheezing, and his strange utterances gave the class a great schock. This partly explains its later action. This young man then an- nounced himself as the advance agent for C. W. Harlan. He then imparted, in a few confidential whispers, a J. Rufu Wallingford get-rich-quick scheme to the class, with the usual provision that we furnish the mere financial assistance while he would do the brain work. To make a long story short, we bit by signing a contract guaranteeing Mr. Harlan twenty-five dollars provided he would give his entertainment in the assembly room. The rush for Harlan tickets was something like the rush for volumes of Homer, Vergil and Aristotle in a Bowery bookstore. But with much work the class managed to get what might be called, for courtesy 's sake, an audience. ' On the night of the entertainment, the audience arrived, hung its hat in a locker, gave its ticket to the door-keeper, passed in, took a seat and proceeded to listen to the entertainment. After the entertainment the audience took its hat and passed out of the front door into the darkness never to come back again. Five minutes later, twenty-five dollars of our money followed suit. Our net gain was fifteen cents. At this period we nearly came to the stage of changing our motto to Small favors thankfully received.