Ipswich High School - Tiger Yearbook (Ipswich, MA)

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words ever spoken by Horace Mann: “Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity ’ Nature’s Wonderland In New Hampshire By Priscilla Bailey J HAVE chosen this subject, ad- mittedly a little unorthodox for the occasion, because New Hamp- shire and its mountains make a sort of background of my life and be- cause I couldn’t talk on any subject more familiar or pleasant to me. New Hampshire has that faculty of remaining on one’s mind, and though it is not famed in song and story, as much as are the splendors of the Rockies or the romantic qual- ities of the South, it is just as dear to large numbers of people as are these other places. People, as a rule, never go once to New Hamp- shire and then just go away after a pleasant outing; they return again and again to their familiar haunts and urge their beauties on all whom they meet. The ranges and foothills that make up the White Mountains cov- er the whole of central and north- ern New Hampshire, with the full grandeur of rugged peaks and ma- jestic scenery concentrated in the North country, and the sylvan beau- ty of lake, forest, and wooded slopes in the southern part. Robert Frost, our celebrated contemporary poet, who reflects the charm of the country north of Boston in his writ- ings, has expressed the whole plan of the mountains in his poem “New Hampshire” much more briefly and clearly than I could ever hope to do. He says about them : “Anything I can say about New Hampshire Will serve almost as well about Vermont Excepting that they differ in their moun- tains. The Vermont mountains stretch extended straight; New Hampshire mountains curl up in a coil.” Within this coil, there is such a concentrated wealth of valleys, peaks, waterfalls, and forests form- ing a veritable wonderland for the nature-lover, that it seems as if God had conspired to set down in New England a place where people might forget the world and its cares and follies and come nearer to peace and happiness. And the vacationist is using New Hampshire for just that purpose. Crowding the roads leading north are people of all walks and ages of life, in haughty limousines with shining luggage, and in battered beach-wagons with worn tents and frying pans strapped on back. This flow of vacationists started way back when Henry Ward Beecher discovered that the air in Bethle- hem was an infallible cure for hay- fever sufferers and made it the headquarters for the National Hay- Fever Association. Since then the number of tourists has increased so rapidly that one wonders at times how the small state can manage to hold them all and still preserve its rustic beauty and its solitudes with- out becoming a second Coney Is- land. 20

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V V KS»S«K%% 3«g3«XX «SgX deaf mutes to speak. He said that signs were not used but that the pupils were taught to speak by the muscular formation of the words. He was bitterly assailed for this re- port by his foes, who denounced it as false, and who tried to use it in an effort to have him discharged. However, with his unusual and un- failing wit and originality, he wrote and published an answer which ef- fectively silenced their criticism. At last, in 1848, after eleven years of toil when he resigned to serve in Congress, he had seen most of his proposed reforms completed and many others so well started that they could continue without him. He had provided three good Nor- mal schools, seen many high schools built and others improved, raised teachers’ wages as well as their morale, equipped many schools with libraries, improved attendance, lengthened the school term, and, above all, aroused a lasting interest in the public schools of Massachu- setts. It might be thought that after he left the Board of Education in Mass- achusetts, his work was finished in that field, for he was growing old, his health was poor, and he de- served rest and leisure. However, his desire to see that all Americans had the best possible opportunities for education led him to extend his work further. About 1852, in Ohio (at that time a backwoods settle- ment) a new college, Antioch, was founded which was to be the most liberal of any yet established. The institution was in reality the re- sult of his own ideas and theories which were rapidly spreading throughout the United States. It was coeducational, open to all races, nonsectarian, and its purpose was to build the character of those young people who would be the pi- oneers of the next generation and to bring culture to the wild and rough settlements of Ohio. He in- stituted the famous “Code of Hon- or’’ here, which was a system un- der which the students were put on their own responsibility for obeying the laws of the college and seeing that their fellow-classmates did likewise. Under his guidance and perseverance, all, or at least the majority, of his aims were ac- complished, and in spite of serious financial troubles, difficulties were eventually smoothed out. Horace Mann worked tirelessly for the cause and could he have lived a lit- tle longer, his college would have advanced to a standing twenty-five years in advance of any other. How- ever, he worked too hard, exhaust- ed his strength, and having seen his third graduating class leave as cul- tured people of good character (for his code was such that he could not graduate any person from Antioch who had not a high moral standard) he died. He can never be forgoten, how- ever, for he still lives today in the many schools which bear his name, in the progress of his work, which has become the basis of the Amer- ican public school system, and in the present excellent condition of our schools which we hope will ad- vance to higher achievement in the future. More especially, he lives for us today in his many, wise, of- ten quoted sayings, of which the most beautiful, courageous, and the most like him are the last public 19

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For the different types of tourist there are accommodations to suit his desires and his pocket-book, and everyone finds some place to his satisfaction. For the wealthy such huge establishments as the Hotel Randall at North Conway and the Mt. Washington at Bretton Woods have been built, where one may find the same luxurious accommo- dations and smart company that are common to Newport or Palm Beach. I venture to say, however, that most of the true White Mountain lovers could not be hired to stay at one of these hotels for any price. These true mountaineers you will find in soiled khaki shorts and battered hats, sitting on the edge of some lofty ledge far above the clouds or boiling coffee over a fire before their tents in pine groves. They pre- fer a hard cot and the cool pine- scented wind from the mountains to any feather-bed you might offer even with the addition of running water. For these campers there are any number of inviting reservations set aside by the government in the White Mountain National Forest. Perhaps the most famous is the Dolly Copp camping ground in Pink- ham Notch under the shadow of Mt. Washington. Statistics are usually dry, but I think it might interest you to know that it is not unusual for five hundred outfits to be pitched in a single day there with two thou- sand campers registered. If you ever stop at this encampment with its stone fireplaces, swimming pool, clubhouse, and dancehall, and smell the wonderful odor of woodsmoke, frying bacon, and coffee boiling that hangs over the place, you will want to set up camp and stay for- ever — everyone does. Nobody seems to know a great deal about Dolly Copp, for whom the reservation was named. Her history has become obscure in competition with the many other mountain legends. The records show that Dolly was what is known as a “character’’ — they abound in New Hampshire. She lived in Bartlett, and when she was twenty-three, she was married to Hayes Copp and came to live in the Notch. Life for the women in those early days was hard, and Dolly cooked, sewed, took in travelers, and raised a family in the mean- time. The Copp fortune grew, and by their golden wedding anniver- sary Hayes and Dolly had a flourish- ing farm and were comfortably well-off. But Dolly decided that she had had enough of her rigorous pioneer life and Hayes in the bar- gain; so she packed her trunk and prepared to leave. When a neigh- bor remonstrated, she said, “Oh, Hayes is well enough, but fifty years is too long for a woman to live with any man.’’ So she and her husband peaceably divided their savings of a life-time, left their comfortable homestead, and as far as I know, never saw each other again. The Appalachian Mountain Club maintains many cabins both on the established trails and at populated spots in the mountains. The hut- masters put up trail lunches — three sandwiches, raisins, and chocolate — and provide supper, lodging, and breakfast for footsore and hungry travelers who find themselves half- way down a mountainside with darkness coming on. The Dart- mouth Outing Club is another or- ganization whose members are fre- 21