Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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Dim twilight was creeping over the peaks as we arrived at the vil- lage, if so can be called a few chal- ets, an inn, and a ski-club. Having started early in the morning, we had twisted our way up the weary trail, and we reached Osingen just in time to view the most beautiful thing of- fered man by nature — the rising of the sun over the Alps. Ever the first to catch the fire from the upcoming day, the great peak of the Jungfrau blushed a faint rose color which each instant grew brighter and brighter, and then peak after peak was caught by the same rose flush, and light fell slov ly into valley and gorge. We watched this magic beauty of the dawn in silence, and if we had been for any reason unable to continue our journey, I am sure we should have returned satisfied with our pre- vious efforts. But v e had come to conquer the Jungfrau, and we set about to pro- cure the services of a guide. There were many of them at the ski-club and we were assigned an old moun- taineer, who could not remember how many times he had ascended these peaks, who could also not for- get, and who would only give up on the day his battered and smashed frame would be sorrowfully drag- ged into town on an improvised stretcher of pine-branches amid a group of other white-haired, snow bearded brother guides, at last hav- ing found peace and rest in the mountains that he loved. Thus is the life of an Alpine guide; he is born amongst his dear mountains, and he will die in their cold, grimy arms. One by one they go, but the next generation carries on. Many of them carry talismans, mostly medals of the Virgin or of her Son, and many a story is told of a sturdy guide who lost his life scaling a peak on a day on which he had for- goten his lucky charm. They are simple people, true to their religion, their country, and their traditions. It was with one of these true sons of Helvetia that we were to try our skill and nerves against the proud king. It took us some time to reach the foot of the peak since we had to cross numerous hills between Osing- en and our goal. We finally reach- ed our destination, and our guide gave us the same word-for-word in- structions he had previously given to hundreds of tourists before us. The first few hundred feet up were comparatively easy, since we v ere just following a winding trail that took us across green pas- tures. We were talking and chatting gaily, absorbing the beautiful sur- roundings : the native brown and white spotted cows, the chalets, the towering pines, the rustic and peaceful setting. But as we kept on winding up and around, we left the green pastures and their husky cows; the pines al- so were growing thinner and gradu- ally vanishing; only a few moun- tain goats made the air rattle as they scurried and bounded across the rocks above which we were soon to encounter. Now we had come to our real test. There were the rocks and the im- mense boulders towering far above and almost shutting out the vision of the sky; steep, polished walls, with here and there a small ledge, that rose to dizzy heights. Our guide went first; we followed. We were 15

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Editorial O NCE a ain the great portals of M. H. S. swing wide to allow an- other graduating class to grope its way into the world at large. Again a goodly percentage of the graduat- ing class will seek employment im- mediately. A lesser portion will seek the advantages of higher edu- cation. For the former the outlook is unusually bright due to the activ- ity of late in the industrial life of the town. For the latter the outlook is but little changed. Scholarships for worthy students are greater in number and more generous in their provisions, but the academic re- quirements for entrance are more exacting. Therefore we, the class of ’35, face a world brighter in many respects than that faced by preceding classes. In so doing, we as a class lose our identity and become lost in the mot- ley population of a vast country. Al- though we may soon lose this indi- viduality as a class, there yet re- mains to us the hope that as individ- uals we may give to the world some- thing unique enough to make it cog- nizant of the fact that Manning’s class of ’35 was not — just another class. Literary Ascension of the Jungfraujoch I THINK there are few more beau- tiful spots than Osingen, a tiny rustic village perched in the Bernese Oberland, part of that paradise of tourists, Switzerland. It lies at the top of a long ascending valley, which twists its way upward from the land below. Yonder are the ragged giants, towering, lifting their scarred shoulders towards heaven. Below, deep down from the road cut in the hillsides, undulate green pastures, the cattle so small at this distance that they might be toys set there ; a torrent leaps noisily from ledge to ledge, ending in a smash- ing, senseless cataract far below. To the right, dominating majestically the whole of this region, is the great double peak, snow-clad and often cloud-bound, which seems to stand sentinel for the surrounding moun- tains; God’s work and only His. This is the Jungfrau, immortalized in world and song, proud king of the Alps. As one looks on, fascinated, an atmosphere of challenge and de- fiance and even one of mockery seems to emanate from this rocky monster. 14

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quiet now ; only our lieavy breath- ing’ and difficult grunts bi ' oke the silence. After about two hours of such climbing, we reached the glacier. Although our faces were grim and our hands were trembling after such an ordeal, we immediately adjusted our ice cleats and started up the slippery, treacherous surface. Crev- ices were scattered everywhere, and here most of the careless tour- ists lose their lives. One false step, one careless moment, and you are cured forever of mountain-climbing. The air was getting fresher, and our hands, gripping firmly our life- saving pickaxes, were showing- white at the knuckles ; our breath was short and sibilant; our progress vas slight. But 1 will spare you the narration of what happened during the next three hours. Suffice it to say that we finally had conquered our foe and were mighty proud of this ac- complishment. We had struggled for six hours, but our labor had not been wasted. Here was our reward as we looked over all the Alps of Italy, France, and Switzerland from the summit of the Jungfraujoch, thirteen thousand eight hundred and twenty feet above sea level, second only to Mont Blanc in height, second to none in splendor and color. M. Savoy, ’3G This essay was judged by the faculty ad- visors to be the best article submitted to “The Cub” during the year. GRADUATION ESSAYS. The Growth of Secondary Education By Charlotte Machaj W ITH the landing of the Pil- grims in America in 1620 came the ideas of independence and the education of their children. The settlers wanted to make better citi- zens of their children for the good of both church and state. Hardly five years had passed after they landed in America when they held a meeting in their first church in Boston and discussed education, which meeting eventually brought about the founding of the first Lat- in grammar school. In spite of fam- ine, pestilence, and attack at the hands of the natives, they continued to carry out their plans for educat- ing the children. Massachusetts, therefore, from the landing of the Pilgrims to the present day, is con- sidered as one of the leading states that has helped to develop secon- dary education in America. The first Latin grammar school was the Boston Latin School estab- lished April 23, 1635. This type of school had been transplanted 16