James Monroe High School - Monrovian Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

Page 29 text:

Senior Class-Twenty-five

Page 28 text:

JAMES MONROE HIGH SCHOOL Nnurln Y the time one has reached the age of discretion, that - - seventeen, one is qualified to discuss and to criticize novels. 7 xi One has read enough of them by that time. . k Roughly, novels can be divided into three classes: .f win The fresh cold air novels. The warm stale air novels. The novels with no air at all in their setting. The fresh, cold air novels are invariably written on one theme, that of the dainty, deserted damsel who has been done out of her dues by a dastardly uncle, and the husky, handsome, happyfgoflucky hero, who helps the heroine in her hour of hardship, and, although the maiden protests against his supporting her, he carries his beloved, against her will UD, off to God's country and the wide open spaces. The second mentioned type has for its setting an ornate apartment or a magnificent mansion fpreferably the latterj. Heroine is, without exception, a pretty, pampered, powdered, painted, and provocative daughter of the rich. The hero, a blunt, brutal Qbut gentle to animals and children, bachelor, loves Annabelle to distraction, but is repulsed by her, because he cannot sway the Charleston way. Finally, in a moment of exasperation, Roger seizes his lady love and carries her perforce to the nearest justice of the peace, who marries them. The climax of these weighty works of art is of course reached when the blushing bride murmurs that she has loved him all the time. In the novels that have no air at all in their setting, or at best cold, dark air, the scene is laid in a filthy factory, or in an intolerable tenement. The sob-sister around whom the story circles, is a sweet, suffering maiden, who slaves ceaselessly at a sewing machine, and who is the sole support of a bedridden relative fthe more distant the betterj. The hero, a tall, tender truckdriver, is enamored of the girl and wishes to marry her. That perfect woman, however, is unwilling to do so, because of her feeling that it is her duty to care for her greatfaunt. Five years later, after many privations of body and of soul, the solitary s'hop girl ffor' the aunt is now deadj, finds herself one fine morning, consenting to marry the wistful wooer. Then comes a surprise indeed! The happy husband turns out to be either a great movie actor in disguise, or if not he, at the very least, the Prince of Wales! RUTH WEINERMAN Senior Cltzss-Tu'en tu-four

Page 30 text:

JAMES MONROE HIGH SCHOOL I Uhr 15mm W 75 EWELS whose brightness was surpassed only by the spark' W A ling eyes of those on whom they were set gleamed and glitf tered as cab after cab, car after limousine, and train after J T ,Q train, discharged hundreds of girls and their white bosomed lf. i escorts into the lobby of the Hotel Pennsylvania, where the Q Q li' big event of the senior year-the prom-was getting under way. Oh, what is so rare as a night in june? misquoted one swain as he sat in a corner, It was only the twentyfninth of May but what did that matter? His partner mumbled an unintelligible reply and stared at her slippers as so many other partners did that evening. For three hours the class in its entirety gave itself up to the God of Rhythm and dipped and twirled to the tunes from popular mainstem productions. Then promptly at eleven we promenaded, led by our class president. How our manly chests expanded as we walked down the center of the ball' room! Another hour of dancing and talking and then one by one the lights began to do strange things all over the city. Six blocks east of us lights, none the less bright for their environment, began to wink and tell that storekeepers were closing their shops. Toward the west of Third Avenue butlers were brushing their holiday livery for the next day's extrafwork, while along Broadway more lights began to appear as the whoopee parlors began to start their daily task of dispensing giggle water to the rounders. Over on Thirtyfthird Street the cabs were again honking their way clear of the snarl of traffic as they responded to the entreaties of their occupants to hurry them to other places of pleasure along the roaring Forties, frivolous Fifties, staid Sixties and respectable Seventies. H The prom was over but its memory lingered on-aided, no doubt, by the presence of that oncfandfonly who sat at our right all evening. JOSEPH D. DREYFUSS. Sen im Floss-Twrn ty-six