Havergal College - Magazine Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 33 text:

Havergal College Magazine gone. A playful mood succeeded. Humorous notices appeared, warning us out of our own hall. Enviously we watched them frolicking on the gymnastic apparatus we seemed destined never to use. Mutinously we beheld the re-doing and undoing what they had done the day before. Now wherever we crept, our way was blocked by a smiling workman and a ladder, or a cheerfully whist- ling workman with a few hundred feet of boards, or a strolling workman with pots of paint. So, hounded and hunted, we saw the months slip past. The advance of spring brought on the end with a rush. Gradually the swarm of men dwindled, then vanished. Peace settled down on our halls and heads again and, shaking off the horror and humiliation of the winter, we thankfully said good- bye to those super-men who, whether in the bustle and throng of school routine, or in the flurry and turmoil of breaking up, or in the peaceless calm of the holidays, had moved upon their way su- preme and indifferent, had hurried not, had flurried not, had bother- ed not the — genus homo, species faber. M. S. (I thank thee for this word. — Principal.) FRIENDSHIP. A friend is worth all hazards we can run. Perhaps it would not be altogether out of place to say a few- words in a College Magazine on the subject of friendship. Those whose privilege it is to look back on happy years of school life, look back also on friendships formed during that period, which last throughout one ' s life. But in looking back with pleasure and grati- tude on the past, one must not forget those friendships which were formed and broken — formed in all good faith, but broken because they would not bear the test that inevitably followed. And why is it, we ask ourselves, that friendships are so easily broken? Youth is the golden age for friendship. Girls have a perfect genius for making friends, but how does it happen that so many women have very few friends of their own sex? A boy was once asked to name any historically famous friend- ship that existed between two women. His ready reply was : There is none; they can ' t keep it up! Being reminded of the Duchess of Marlborough ' s friendship for Queen Anne, he replied that it was purely selfish, to advance her husband ' s interests, and that it came to an end when the Queen at last grasped the situation. Perhaps the lad was somewhat severe, but there is more than a grain of truth in his answer, and it would be well for us to re- 29

Page 32 text:

Havergal College Magazine by the Royal Drawing Society, England. In the Junior School Enid Allen won the bronze medal for her illustrations of fairy tales, and Stella Boyd, in the Senior School, gained hers for original drawings of animals. Earl Grey asked Miss Jones to grant a holiday to the girls in memory of his visit, which sent them to their form rooms with smiling faces. Thus ended a day which will always remain in our memories as a red-letter day in the School annals. THE WORKMAN. (Genus Homo, Species Kaber) From that moment in far-off September when, rushing up from the station in eager haste to gaze on the splendour of our long- expected Wing, we saw nothing but a few sorry-looking bricks sticking up above the ground, saw no one but was steeped in gloom, from the kitchenless cook to the comfortless staff — from that moment we ceased to have will or volition of our own; from that moment we became mere purposeless puppets, moving only as directed by that most imperturbable of the human species — the workman. You who, unmindful of the dread power of these tyrants, still walk abroad with lightsome tread, pity us poor mortals who, crushed, disheartened, maddened by the long, weary wait and daily disappointment, now gaze upon the completed Wing, not with joyful pulsing of the heart ; not with cheerful pride — but as cynics, sneering at Life ' s delays and faded ideals. You well may ask how we, women and so all-powerful, could possibly be brought so low. Not at first, believe us, did we yield ; nor without some resistance. Xot one of us but made some protest when Duty w T as seen to be now nothing but carrying messages to the foreman, when the telephone was available for College affairs only before 5 a.m. and after 9 p.m. Even the least of us expressed some indignation on returning at night to find all her cherished belongings, clothes, books, pictures, hurled pell-mell into a corner and exactly seven square inches of unnecessary paint applied to the moulding. To sit in our room, protected from the chilling rain by an umbrella and an overcoat, seemed unpleasant at first, but when we had passed through the stages of dense ta smoke and deafening and ever-swarming, never-finishing painters, plasterers, carpenters, foremen, onlookers, to be alone with the rain and what little mind was left seemed bliss indeed. But of what use to pro- test? Of what use resistance? We were dealing with beings at whose word of wounded dignity, plaster cracked, boilers burst, the very heavens fell. And so on for months. Everywhere hushed voices and weary faces. Only the men were cheerful. Snatches of song and merry voices still drifted down to us with pungent odours of tobacco in their lengthy intervals of rest, while they invented new and hideous sounds to rasp our nerves. But in time the zest for this seemed 28

Page 34 text:

Havergal College Magazine member this — They can ' t keep it up — and to make it our resolve that nothing on our part shall weaken the ties of friendship we have formed. But great care should be exercised in the choice of our friends. True happiness Consists not in the multitude of friends, But in the worth and choice, , and the very fact that girls have such numerous friends should warn us of the fact that their choice may not always be the best, for enthusiasm and feeling of good fellowship will often outrun discretion. The girl who shews her friendship in an emotional, sentimental way is not one to be cultivated, any more than the one who makes friends in order to use them for her own interests. The sensible girl will see that she does not choose for companions those whose influence lowers the standard of her moral life ; but she will look for friends among those whose tone is healthy and uplifting. And of this tone among companions, one cannot speak too strongly. Whether we wish it or not, we are ever influencing those wim whom we come in contact, and equally are we being influenced by them. Whatever our companionships, they must exert a strong influence on our characters — instinctively we adopt the tone of those with whom we associate. Let us never disregard this truth. We must, therefore, seek the best type of friend, and every noble im- pulse in her will be roused in our hearts. Emerson writes beauti- fully on this point : O friend, Through thee alone the sky is arched, Through thee the rose is red ; All things through thee take nobler form And look beyond the earth. The fountains of my hidden life Are through thy friendship fair. And what is it that constitutes a friendship? Briefly it is a bond of sympathy, an inner harmony, which, as Dryden says, makes a friend seem the other half of one ' s soul. The word sym- pathy is derived from two Greek words meaning with and feeling, and surely this expresses to us how necessary is this bond. There must be a compatibility of temperament underlying natures which very often appear to be the exact opposite of one another. Sometimes we take dislikes to people for no apparent reason — I do not like thee, Dr. Fell; The reason why I cannot tell. 30