Hasbrouck Heights High School - Coronian Yearbook (Hasbrouck Heights, NJ)

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f f E E .LLI Ill! Ll TRUE AMERICANISM The mist rested heavily on that dismal gray morning in May. It was early, the sun had just begun to creep above the horizon, and, piercing the enveloping fog, cast its rays upon a scene, already too familiar in the hearts of many. lt was lfranee, stricken France, in 1919. The sun- beams, stealing thru that curtain of dew and damp, fell upon a man's face. He was lying on the battlefield of Mons, still, silent, his features distorted, his head bloody. As the mist lifted, the form of another man could be seen, silent, still, prostrate. lioth were wounded, near to each other, yet between them lay a gap-one was a Yank: the other a llun: one a private: the other an ofiicer. The sun was high in the heavens when the eyes of the American private opened. l-le looked about, raised himself on one elbow and clutched his throat with his fingers. For twenfv long hours he had been lying there, with a bullet in his right shoulder, another in his knee. Twenty long, dark hours-without food or drink. 'His fingers tore apart his collar-band: he was dying-dying of thirst. Oh! where were those companions of yesterday? XVhy didn't they come to help him? .lust then he heard a sigh, the sigh of a sufferer. He was not the only one who had fallen before that storm of fire. Again he heard that sigh: it came from someone on his left. lie turned his head, and there, scarcely a foot away. lay an officer, in gray. Ah! A Hun, perhaps the one who had wounded him! Making a mighty effort, he raised himself once more. XYhat was that? A Hask-the Hun was grasping a flask. Thru the mind of the khaki-clad lad passed thoughts of a drink, water, and end to his thirst. He leaned over. stretched out his hand and took the bottle from the fingers of his neighbor, and, muttering a short prayer of thanks, raised the bottle to his lips. He was about to drink, when the German awoke and cried for help. A drink, my God. a drink! he pleaded. I am dying: help me. save me. Uh! God, give me water! The Yank paused, he took the fiask from his lips. Here was a man, about to die, the blood streaming from the bullet hole in his head. He asked for help, yet he knew that he couldn't live. And there was the lad in brown: Wounded, yes, but he might live: help would reach him, he felt sure. He raised himself a third time: but how hard it was, his strength was ebbing slowly away! tirasping the flask tightly in his hand, he moved it towards the fainting one's lips. Comrade, he said, drink: this is yours. l-le drank, and when he had finished, stretched out his hand and grasped the other's tenderly. My son, he said. I am going: yet with me I will take the memory of an American friend. l'lTfI1ITTI

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N amc CLASS DIRECTORY CONTINUED, Desire Russell Gokey May Greenstein Vivian Ham Howard Hettger Julia Kelemen .Carl Laluniia Henrietta List Tessie Magocsy Ethel Nicholas Marion Rafi Russell Rliinesniith Theodore Ruckert Mary Steegar Miina Stevens Alias Prominent Hobby Trait Goke Dignity Bluffing May Size Music 29 Vivie Goggles Shorthand Schrap Bristles Guns Jackie Quietness Speaking to ET C, J, Protesting Debating Heinie Boisterousness Spanish Tess Sedateness Studying Et Blue eyes Teaching' Marion Bobhed hair Driving a car Rusty Brown Playing banjo Ted Blonde Kidding Mary Llary Hair Staying at Peg's Mimie Quiescent Study periods To he a wireless operator To he a pianist To rival Miss Eckberg To bag a silver fox To be Mrs? To be a lawyer To declaim To be a milliner To be a housewife To go to college To smoke a 31.00 cigar To drive a Packard To put her hair up To tune a Uke

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l ' V ' ' a W ' ' -1----- --------H -Yv- ' 1 Lad,,' he said, may God bless-. ' He stopped suddenly, his face grew pale, and he fell back upon the ground-dead. That is the story of a True American, that is the tale of what any True American would have done. That young man knew that the officer could not live. Moreover, he was a Hun, an enemy. Yet, that lad did not hesitate. VVhy? llecause a great, invisible spirit had spoken to him-the spirit of Humanity, the spirit of,True American- ism. Five times the Government asked for Vlfar Loans, and five times the people gaveg five times the quota was ex- ceeded. NVhy? Because that same spirit, that invisible, invincible power had moved them-Americanism. Thousands of aliens have flocked to our shore, seeking what could not be found in any other country-freedom. lllany of these become citizens, patriotic Americans. great men perhaps. Leaving their native haunts, they seek America-the Beacon of Liberty, and when the call comes, they light for her, and die for her. In a message to New Americans, Vlfoodrow NVi1son said: You have taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be of God. Certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great Government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of a human race. There is but one longing and utterance of the human heart, and that is for liberty and justice. From 1776 We have grown, from thirteen colonies to forty-eight states, held together in one Union: from three millions of people to over one hundred and ten millions of people. lfVe have fought four foreign wars, and a civil war, of the greatest proportions ever recorded on the pages of history. And yet we have united those battling sections by an indissolube tie. A foreigner slanders America, and suffers duly for it. Vvhy? Because, as Theodore Roosevelt, great American, said, As long as strength is given to us with cool heads and fearless hearts we shall war unceasingly against what is evil and for what is good, so as to bring nearer the day when justice shall be done every man, every woman and every child within the borders of the great free common- wealths to which we belong. A' America,,' as Francis Trevelyan Miller has so uniquely put it, is, like a great sleeping giant-with its head at the North Pole, and its feet at the South Pole: who arises and stands today like Atlas supporting the world on his shoul- ders. This is America-the land which in the next genera- tion is to be the dynamic force behind civilization. The world is looking towards America, the face of every nation, great or small, is turned upon this country of ours. And, in turn, America looks to its citizens, its patriots. It is they who must lead the world of tomorrow. 4- M-W .- A ,. - - ,, Y