Hamilton High School - Hamiltonian Yearbook (South Hamilton, MA)

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JANUARY Janus am I; oldest of potentates! Forward I look and backward, and be- low. I count — as god of avenues and gates — The years that thru my portals come and go. I block the roads and drift the fields with snow, I chase the wild-fowl from the frozen fen ; My frosts congeal the rivers in their fiow, My fires light up the hearths and hearts of men. HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. MADEMOISELLE MYSTERIOUS Chapter 1 — The Voice of the Battlefield. Marie Duplessis had disappeared. She, the famous French prima-donna, the idol of all Paris! Where had she gone? No- body knew, for she had left no clues. Detectives were put on the trail, but with- out success. No traces of her could be found. She had just slipped away from the stage and her devoted admirers. All Paris talked about it. Her brother Gene was told the terrible news by a fellow poilu as he lay convalescing in a rest camp. Her fiance, Rene Dupre, was heart broken, and, after waiting for two long weeks, which seemed like years to him, he enlisted, as an aviator. They called him “L’audacieux”, which means “the Dare- devil”, for his courage could not be equalled, and his happiness was never greater than when engaged on some dan- gerous mission. While all his comrades were “going West,” he was coming out of all his engagements without a scratch. In fact, he seemed immune from danger. People said he was queer, because he still believed that Marie Duplessis had gone away of her own accord. He thought that she was alive, and would, some day, come back to him. People told him that this theory was absurd, but he stubbornly clung to his own opinion. • • Meanwhile, where was this idol of the stage? She had gone to her manager’s for a rehearsal, and had never returned. Her friends mourned her as dead, and her manager. Alee Dupont, had offered great sums of money for information as to her whereabouts. She was to have taken the title role in the “Maid of Bautreux” which was to have been staged only two weeks after the date of her disappearance. Posters were put out describing her appearance, but this seemed a futile pro- ceeding, for had she not been known to the whole population of Paris ? Her sweet, strong voice was heard no longer in the theatres, and others took her place in the theatrical world; but some people there were who could not forget the gracious Mademoiselle Duplessis. Her manager, not being satisfied with the efforts of the de- tectives, sent to England and employed men from Scotland Yard, at great ex- pense, but without avail, for the case baffled them. So Marie Duplessis was soon forgotten, except by those faithful few of her friends who prayed for her safe return. « He was just a wounded poilu, but, as he lay on the battlefield, he heard a voice singing, faintly at first. There was a lull in the fighting, and the voice then rang out loud and sweet and clear, “Peace on earth, goodwill to men.” Then it stopped. His heart was beating wildly. He had heard that voice before, 2

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KL ' Tii hEHLc.)f THE HAMILTONIAN Vol. I HAMILTON, MASS, JANUARY, 1919 No. 3 Editorial Staff Editor-in-chief, MASON COOK, ’19. Associate Editor-in-Chief, GERTRUDE SCULLY, ’19. Business Manager, CHARLES PETERSON, ’19. Assistant Business Manager, ROBERT TRUSSELL, ’19 LITERARY EDITORS: Current Topics : Spectator Military and Sporting Social Editor Exchange Fads and Fashions Domestic Science Manual Training Commercial James McGinley, ’19 Richard McGinley, ’20, Francis Moynihan, ’19 Eleanor Scully, ’21 Robert Trussell, ’19 Ruth Perley, ’21 Ethel Poole, ’19, Gladys Mann, Fannie Foster, ’20 DEPARTMENTAL EDITORS: Maud Burrows, ’22 Einar Johnson, ’22 Franklin Holland, ’20 CLASS REPORTERS: Mabel Grant, ’20 Bradley Fuller, ’21 Nora Gorman, ’22 The Hamiltonian is published monthly by the Hamilton High School. Yearly subscription, $1.00 By mail $1.10 Single Copy 15c Single copies may be obtained at Knowles’ Drug Store. Address all communications to Business Manager of “The Hamiltonian”, So. Hamilton, Mass. THE CONTENTS POEM— JANUARY STORIES— MADEMOISELLE MYSTERIOUS “YVONNE” THE RED CROSS DOG MY FRENCH ADVENTURE THE LIFE OF 1918 SHIELDING A CULPRIT COURAGEOUS JOE THE FRESHMAN PARTY BITS OF DESCRIPTION- SPORTING AND MILITARY CURRENT TOPICS AND ALUMNI NOTES DEPARTMENTS— SOPHOMORE CHARACTERISTICS EDITORIALS GIRLS’ GLEE CLUB CLASS NOTES FADS AND FASHIONS EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT .... Henry W. Longfellow .... Lyndall M. Miller, ’20 By permission of a Senior Maud Burrows, ’22 Eleanor Sculley,’21 Anonymous Ethel Poole, ’19 Anonymous R. McGinley, ’20 F. Moynihan, ' 19 “Doc” Fannie Foster, ’20 . . . Ethel Poole, ’19

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for he had been Assistant Property-man in a theatre, and many times had he heard it rise high and clear in some simple melody. He spoke to a fellow- sufferer a few feet away, who lay wound- ed in a shell-hole, — an American, who was with the Foreign Legion. “I know that voice. It is that of the great singer, Marie Duplessis.” John Howard, the American, who was still conscious, though in great pain, believed this to be merely the imagination of a fevered mind. “It is probably the voice of a nurse,” he mused, ‘ ‘ one of these wonderful American girls who are making life (and death) so much easier for our brave soldiers.” But the poilu was certain that it was the voice of “Le gracieux Ma’mselle” and no other. The battle raged fiercely, and Francois Pallette, the poilu, never lived to see its end. Afterwards John Howard told the Lieutenant of his company what the poilu had said of the singer, and the officer replied that he, too, had heard the voice, and that it was that of a girl ambulance driver, who was singing to a seriously wounded soldier, on his way to Blighty, to keep his spirits up. However, the news spread, for when John Howard was sent back of the lines to a rest camp, he was placed beside Gene Duplessis. Not knowing Duplessis’ name, Howard one day mentioned the peculiar incident of the battlefield. Gene at once sent word to his sister’s manager, but when a detective was sent to the front, he could gain no information as to who the singer had been. She had not been seen after that incident, but a soldier who hap- pened to have been in the ambulance she was driving said, that she was “a tiny thing with big black eyes.” The detec- tives closely followed up this clue, but, as by chance there was found another girl ambulance driver who resembled Marie in all those details, but who had already been a year and half at the front, the search was abandoned. At last the detectives in Paris had a clue ! A girl had been seen in a suburb , of Paris whom they felt beyond doubt was Marie Duplessis. Then she had disappear- ed again, and she was not Seen for days. Her press-agent put out more posters and her manager raised the amount of the reward ; but to no purpose, for after days of earnest and painstaking effort, the de- tective found that the clue led to only a poor French girl working in a millinery store, and they then gave up the chase. On the battle-field the voice was heard often at the close of some big fight, or when there was a lull in the turmoil. Dy- ing soldiers heard it, and passed out with a smile on their lips, and a blessing in their hearts for the woman who, in that desolate waste, could raise her voice in some old-time melody. Rene Dupre still flew over the lines, and it was said that at sight of him, the sing- ing would cease. Why was it? Was the mysterious singer really Marie Duplessis or was she merely the “tiny American girl ambulance di ' iver with big black eyes?” Chapter II. — Marie Appears. Gene Duplessis wondered, as the pre- parations went on for a big attack, wheth- er or not he would come out of the battle. They were to go “over the top” at 5.15 the next morning, preceded by a heavy barrage of fire concentrated against a two mile front. As he sat cleaning his gun he recalled how he had come out of his last fight with only a slight wound. He was back from the rest camp, and was again going to serve his country, perhaps die for it. He was anxious for the battle to start, and yet, in a way, he dreaded it. He laughed with his companions over the 3