Havergal College - Magazine Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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HAVERGAL COLLEGE MAGAZINE 13 tread. Is there any dishonest work in our schoolrooms? Do we pay full measure to our School, her rules and obligations? You know best. We all speak with loathing of the men who have tried to make themselves rich by stealing boots and horses from our soldiers, and of working men who demand more pay while the trenches are calling out for ammunition ; but do we turn out every day for our country ' s sake the best work we can do in truth and honesty? Do we ever take unfair advantage of those with whom we work, or who work for us? The Germans have painted us in ugly colors, as lazy, pleasure-seeking, slack and selfish — indifferent to the rise of newer powers, unworthy of our splendid past. On a day of reckoning we have to ask ourselves if any of these accusations are true. Rome learnt her lesson from the Huns too late, but in God ' s mercy we are still at school. Search for the foe in thine own soul, The sloth, the intellectual pride, The trivial jest that veils the goal For which our fathers lived and died; The lawless dreams, the cynic art That rend thy nobler self apart. And lastly, is our effort to give sustained and untiring? We shall never bring this war to a close, writes the Bishop of London, returning from the front, without a more complete national concentration upon it. The whole mind of the nation must be concentrated on this one problem. What is true of service in war-time will be just as true of service when peace is proclaimed. The whole mind of the nation must be set upon righteousness if the evils and abuses in our national life are to be swept away by a rising wave of inspiration and high purpose. Each of us may rise on this wave to heights before undreamed-of, not if we drift and dream like idle wreckage, but only if we steer and strive with compass set and every sinew strained to the venture. Shall these last nine months, and those to come, be given in vain ? The peaceful life bought for us by so much blood, so many tears, must and shall be worthy of the price paid for it. We make the vow, do we not, in deep humility, conscious of all our faults and weakness. But we make it, too, in full and deep devotion to our earthly King and country, and to the King of Kings who calls us to His service, to the war in which there is no discharge. For through it, as through the Valley of the Shadow, lies for men and nations the way to the Celestial City. After a well-fought day, when the cool of the evening comes, may He in His mercy bring His soldiers home. Your affectionate friend, EVA L. JONES.

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12 HAVERGAL COLLEGE MAGAZINE This Magazine letter will not be a long one this year, for it is hard to turn from the great, absorbing thought in all our minds to the small events of the School Year. Yet it is the one oppor- tunity of that year to greet once more the old girls separated from us by time and distance. So many of you are busy as home daugh- ters, or with new ties in homes of your own. and whenever we hear of or from you we wish you God-speed. As the West fills up and new conditions prevail, we hear of others who in various professions are making an honorable name for themselves and their old School. No less than five old girls are training as nurses in the General Hospital at present, and two are helping in hospi- tals in England. Recent events have shown us of what value to society such trained workers are, and I hope that one lesson of the War will be that of the duty which lies on each one of us, in School years and afterwards, to make herself ready, both in body and soul, for the calls and claims of the new and cleaner national life which is to come. Everywhere, in militant and neutral countries, life is going to be different. It is different already. Vaguely, but with increas- ing clearness, we begin to realize the debt we owe to our nation and our Empire. We have been like happy, careless children in a splendid household, fed and cared for and protected by the Empire ' s servants, with leave to lead our own life and choose our own pleasures. And last August, on the fourth day of the month, all that changed. We have been taking, taking, taking; now we must give, give, give. When we give, we must count up what we have to give. That means a day of reckoning. What have you and I to give? Our men have given all — home and fortune and life itself. We stay- at-homes must not be behind them in daily surrender and sacri- fice. Has this lesson, the plainest of all, really come home to us? Have we learned it, really learned it, made it a part of ourselves, like a hard rule in French or Latin to be applied through exercise and example? If you have really grasped a rule, as you have been often told in the schoolroom, you will know when it is broken, and shudder at the solecism. Shall we shudder when we find our- selves departing from the rule of unselfish sacrifice which this terrible time is sent to teach us? Are our souls as well as our hearts more sensitive for this year? Can we give what is worth giving? A day of reckoning pro- vokes many questions. In the days which will follow this War, Canada, like all other nations, will need wise minds and strong hands to build and shape things so that no such war may come upon the world again. Can you do your share? Are you using your time in the schoolroom and out of it so that your will and brain will obey you? Unless your mind becomes by training a valuable instrument for thinking and judging, you will not have much to give to Canada. The selfish and the unfaithful and the lazy will not be able to build up the waste places and repair the desolations, nor to mark out new paths for the children ' s feet to

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14 HAVERGAL COLLEGE MAGAZINE Cbitortal J2otes(. The eighth number of the Havergal Magazine is inevitably a war number. The great struggle, which is convulsing Europe and has the whole civilized world in its grip, affects even so small an undertaking as a School Magazine. Yet, since this Magazine records the doings of a year, nine months of which have been lived in the shadow of great and terrible events, reflections of them must be found within its pages. The world ' s outlook has been changed, a new strain has entered into the thoughts of men, and even our school life, far away as it is from the storm-centre, is affected by it. These nine dark months have done much for us and now there is something to show for the spare time and pocket- money that we frittered away in the past. There have been fewer excitements and events in the school year than there usually are. A Friday Knitting Circle was more attractive than a Form Party, and even a Masquerade seemed a little unlawful. So readers may look in vain for School Enter- tainments in this year ' s Magazine; the Chronicle, too, is briefer since the routine has been less unbroken. On the other hand, the year has been very busy and interesting in another way. As the result of knitting done at the Friday Circle and at odd moments snatched during the school day by all — from the Prin- cipal down to the maids — the following articles have been sent from Havergal to the Red Cross Society up till 1st May, 1915: 8 flannel shirts 78 pairs wristlets 48 pairs socks 5 pairs knee-caps 82 scarfs 4 belts 32 helmets 8 face cloths 8 pairs mitts 60 bandages The Forms have also contributed steadily out of their pocket money month by month to the City ' s Patriotic Fund. At Christmas time an appeal for books for the boys of the Strathcona School produced one hundred and seventy; and Norah Jardine ' s eloquent plea for the Christmas Tree at the Children ' s Aid Shelter, which was suffering from the economies induced by the War, was answered with far more dolls, toys and games than she had hoped for. At the end of the Easter term a small contribution was sent to the Maxine Elliott Barge Fund. Meanwhile, the School has worked as usual for the Hay River Mission and the Zenana Guild, but details of this will be found in another column. It gives us great pleasure to make an innovation in the Maga- zine and to give a place to the Report of the Havergal Alumnae Association and a directory of its members. We are very glad that such a society has been formed and that by holding many of their meetings here the members keep in close touch with the present generation at Havergal. We feel that the Directory will