Hartford Public High School - Classbook Yearbook (Hartford, CT)

Page 24 text:

284 THE CHRONICLE no doubt but that the football team of next fall will have a stiflish task before it in 'beating up' the said town's bloodthirsty repre- sentatives, without the sustaining hands of the six 1915 men on the hrst team and seven on the second. It was, indeed, a pleasure to hear of the 'saving grace' used by the Seniors in shielding the Hallowe'en celebrators from unjust censure and blame, and to read of how the evident good manners and obvious righteousness of the same upper- classmen speedily disillusioned critics in whatever suspicions they had entertained of 1915's active participancy in the regrettable affair. The basketball team, with four 'fifteeners' enrolled, reached the end of its season with a percentage of victories well above the passing-mark: the hockey team sensibly hung on to the two veterans who had shown themselves up well the preceding year. On the floor of the 'gym.,' eleven Senior boy leaders proved that their strength was as the strength of twice that number in the leaders' class of any other year. Quick of feet was that Senior Class, for besides the fact that three- fourths of the relay team were from 1915's numbers, as well as the majority of the indoor track squad,-if one had made a point of going to every dance attended by Seniors this year tan absolute impossibil- ity, you will admitj, he would have been struck by the nimbleness, the gracefulness, and the daring of our heroes and heroines as 'ex- ponents of the modern dance.' The critics in the front row at Unity Hall on March nineteenth declared that never had they heard a concert by the Glee Clubs which encouraged them so much in the impression that there might be a possibility after all of there existing some latent talent for music in those organizations. They were probably aided in this belief by the fact that there were one-and-twenty Seniors in the two clubs, who were relied on to keep the time, the place, a11d the pitch for their infant col- leagues. And the gorgeous Hertford Club resounded from the applause which greeted the tuneful strains rising from the strings picked by ten Seniors, and a few under-classmen, at the annual concert fand vaude- ville stuntj given by the Mandolin Clubs. Never did Minnehaha die a nobler death than in the midst of the famine and the fever 011 the occasion of the Choir Concert this May, when a full hall sat and suffered themselves to enjoy the delights of a wedding-feast, and weep at the griefs of a funeral, in which the voices of 1915 were the most pleasant, plaintive, and the most predominant. In the kingdom of letters of the past year, The Chronicle has

Page 23 text:

THE CHRONICLE 283 As for scholarship-take for example the ten boys ushering at graduation in 1914, who were so closely and highly ranked that the faculty could decide only with the greatest difficulty as to who were the guilty ones. Indeed, it was suggested, only momentarily, to be sure, that they depart from the usual custom by choosing the ten with lowest marks to pay the penalty for their negligence throughout the year, by having them 'cater' to the graduating class. They-the teachers-rejected this proposition, needless to say, as jarring too much on the fierce fand fierce in more ways than onej spirit of liberty which had distinguished the entire class from the very outset. 'Thus the banquet ended,' and 1915 scattered to mountain, river, and ocean, for a brief respite in preparation for the coming fall, when the excruciating toil and the tremendous labor, promised them for their Senior year, would be upon them. But, along with the hard work, there was destined for them what was no less inevitable than it had seemed when they first set foot inside the H. P. H. S.-glory. We shall see. The general sentiment of each member of the class as it merged into seniority followed those famous lines of Macbeth: 'I dare do all that may become a Seniorg Who dares do more is none? But it is apparent that, during this last year, the line established to govern the behavior of the highest classmen has been stretched to take a new shape, to fit the class itself, to embrace new or broader activities. For they fulfilled, and then went beyond the requirements made of ordinary Seniors, in actions dignified and exemplary for those who need to be shown. Perhaps the first opportunity they had to 'Hash' their colors in athletics was in the New Britain game on October thirty-first, And, even if that had been their first, last, and only chalice of showing their worth as sportsmen, 'twould have been sufficient. It was a rare treat to read of how A 'They reel, they roll in clanging lists, And when the tide of combat stands, Perfume and flowers fall in showers, That lightly rain from ladies' hands'- of how bravely the blue and white fought against the overwhelming odds of precedence, breaking down a thirteen-year-old tradition, bury- ing it Cand New Britainj, we hope, forever. Nevertheless, there is

Page 25 text:

THE CHRONICLE 285 flourished under Senior authorship and Senior editorship as it never has flourished before. The War News Club has been founded by Seniors and for Seniors, to discuss intelligently, if possible, the aspects of the conflict which they term the 'European situation,' and to neutralize whatever sentiments may exist in the breasts of the students. Never before, perhaps, has the patriotism of a graduating class been so cvident-they tell me that this is thevfirst for some years to even at- tempt to raise a Hag, especially a purple and yellow-excuse me, a purple and buff-one, and never before, positively, has a class had so much cause to be patriotic. I have shown you how this Class of 1915, entering the Hertford lfligh on that fine September afternoon years and years-no, only four-ago, at first as Freshmen, or rather as Fourth Class pupils, as they preferred to be called then, numbering one less than seven hundred-the largest class that had ever entered up to that time, how it has swept through this institution, carrying away in its grasp honors, records, and traditions. I have shown you how, coming down through the ages, this mighty river, beset everywhere with dams, and islands, and all sorts of stiffish obstacles-it has overcome them all, and has rolled on in grandeur to its victorious outlet. The class is now at the point where it merges and is lost in the great wide ocean of Life-lost ?-but even though indistinguishable in itself, won't that salty sea be clarified, and sweetened, and purified, in some measure, by the freshness, the vigor, and the variety of such an addition? You may say that there are hundreds of such streams emptying into that same ocea11 at this very moment. But how many of them come from such a pure spring as the H. P. H. S.? How many of them will, on analysis, reveal themselves ninety-nine a11d forty-four o11e hundredths per cent. pure, turning the wheels of scholarship, of athletics, of music, and of art, yet retaining their untaintedness throughout the course? Truly, is it not most extraordinary? From my viewpoint, that of a disinterested, but at the same time an interested spectator, it is the best ever-and such a viewpoint should not be disdained. Indeed, in my mind, the magnitude of the question, Zllld the certainty of its answer, is such that I think if submitted to the heads of the warring nations, they would lose themselves in the consideration and the settlement of it. For they could not help but agree, and indeed, come to peace, on the proposition that the Class