Hobart Senior High School - Memories Yearbook (Hobart, IN)

Page 28 text:

26 HOBART TOWNSHIP Father of American Letters”; Nathaniel Hawthorne; George Washington; Abraham Lincoln, “The Great Emancipator,” and Theodore Roosevelt, the master mind of the present age. All these spent most of their youth amid rural scenes enjoying Nature. Then, as we survey the past, observe the present and look into the future we see the city alleys are the criminal breeders and the sterling men in the city must be continually supplied from the country, and thus the country is the up-lifter and supporter of the nation. This was true in the past, is true in modern days and will be true in days to come.

Page 27 text:

HIGH SCHOOL. 25 days and received his training. Here he came in such close contact with Nature that he can converse with animals and read the life history of grass and flowers. And now many people of the cities obtain a great deal of their knowledge of the undomesticated plants and animals by means of his writings. In Santa Rosa, California, lives another man who is spending his life working with vegetation. This is the famous Luther Burbank. There have been many days, while trying to carry out his life-work, that he has been near starvation in a land of plenty, but he has risen by sheer force of noble ideas above all temporal want. And now his work will live as the richest gift to civilization in a thousand years, llis marvelous achievements have taken years of patient, painstaking, persistent labor. Such knowledge of Nature and such an ability to handle plant life would only be possible to one possessing genius of a high order. And yet, all these are farmers, tillers of the soil, and they will live in history as farmers. Our noted writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, pays tribute to the nobility of the farmer in his “Concord Hymn,” when he says: “By the rude bridge that arched the flood Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled, Here once the embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world.” And that shot was the moving principle proclaiming “Liberty.” Then why should society look down on the humble farmer? Where would our food come from if the farmer should quit work? Not any of us would have meat, bread, nor clothing; the staff of life would be broken. What is there on the market as food and clothing that was not once in the hands of the farmer? Why do the city folks scorn the farmer? He is better acquainted with the country than they are. ITe looks healthy, because he and Nature work together. If he does not wear the latest cut of clothing he provides the choicest delicacies for the table. Of all the criminals, where are they raised, on the farm or on the city streets? The dirty little street waifs are far more apt to become law-breakers than the little tanned, barefoot country boys. The influences inviting city children to lives of crime are in remarkable con- trast to the ennobling surroundings of the country children. We should look upon the farmer with feelings of admiration and a desire to encourage him, for he is the bread-winner of our nation and the very foundation of our civilization. Many of our greatest men in literature and politics came from the farm — William Cullen Bryant, the first American poet; Washington Irving, “The

Page 29 text:

HIGH SCHOOL. 27 ATHLETICS WILLIAM MARQUARDT. ITHIN the last few years there has been a marked change in the field of athletics. This change, however, has not been so much in the amount of exercise taken by those pursuing athletic sports as in the growing tendency toward the organization of athletic clubs, and athletic associations and college and high school games. During the season of athletic sports the subject of conversation is the chances of the home High School team in the next basket ball or athletic meet, the characteristics of some hammer thrower or right guard, and other things connected with the sports. The schools of to-day are in every respect far in advance of the schools thirty or thirty-five years ago, and the present condition can, in no greater degree, be ascribed to any other source than to athletic sports. To be sure the desire to defeat a rival in a contest is not the highest motive of the human mind; the honor of winning a medal in a race is not the greatest honor which earth can afford, the glory of being champion in any branch of athletics seems childish to serious minded people. Competitions, prizes, medals, honors, appeal to students and hold them to efforts which higher and worthier objects fail to call forth. By these they are educated to habits which fit them to receive higher motives. Recognizing these facts the faculty of Hobart High School have done everything in their power to encourage the students toward athletics. We first began winning recognition in the field meets five years ago. Since then we have been steadily advancing. Many of the boys in our school hold medals fo r the broad jump, pole vault, hammer throw, discus, shot put and the races. Many, since leaving the high school, have entered college and won recognition there. Charles Jahnke, attending college at Purdue, still holds his own in the shot put, and Oliver Bullock ought also to be mentioned in the half mile. Earle Kholer, ’09, is considered our best in the mile run and Ralph Wood and Wallace Watson in the shorter distances. Ray llalsted won honors in the broad jump and Eric Carlson made several records in the hammer throw. Our girls can hold their own in basket ball and really excel the boys along , that line.