John Adams High School - Clipper Yearbook (Ozone Park, NY)

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8 Nigh+ Stood Sentinel SELMA GREENMAN I-lli gentle drops of rain wove an intricately beautiful pattern as they splashed with monoto- nous regularity upon the dimly- lightecl street. The occasional muf- tied blast of an insistent boat whistle, or the blaring of a lone taxi horn were the only sounds that pierced the blanketing quiet tap, tap, tap of the rain. It was very late, and the great metropolis was quietly awaiting the dawn that would start the great machines pulsing which would trans- form the still city into a busily-em- ployed industrial center with far- reaching tentacles serving the most re- mote corners of the earth. But at that hour, night stood guard over silent buildings sheltering weary, sleep-drugged bodies. The cool still- ness of the night was broken by a new sound, a heavy purring sound that could only emanate from the powerful motor of a large cabin plane. Nearly a mile above the sleep- locked city, the Gods of Fate were whimsically playing at a game of death. A white-faced man with great, staring eyes was their pawn, for in the tiny cabin of the rakish little biplane, a madman sat at the controls, living again and again the happenings of the last ten hours. The decision that would spring from his twisted brain would determine the fate of hundreds and thousands of men, women, and children. Arthur Menson had been a prom- inent stock broker in the city over whose fate he was now pondering. Nights he would happily go home to his family, tired, worn, but content. For Arthur Menson had good reason to be happy, his wife. He had ar- rived at the stage of married life at which each had achieved as perfect an understanding as was possible and they had completely eliminated fool- ish quarrels and bickering. They had two adored children, Arthur, fifteen and Ray, twelve. Both boys had al- ways confided their problems to their interested father. Eventually this practice resulted in the strong family feeling which knit all closely together into a loving unit. But all this was before the crash! In the morning the bottom had, both figuratively and literally, fallen out of the market. Wild-eyed stock brok- ers had babbled incoherently as the tape relentlessly trickled out their ruin. The telephone exchange was a hopeless entanglement of jammed wires. Runners wandered in aimless bewilderment, contributing their mite to the prevailing general confusion. It was not a great crash such as that in '29, but it was of great moment to the speculators in that particular section of the country. The crash had affected Menson to a considerable de- gree, but in many other cases it had taken the entire fortunes, and fre-

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A Message From The Skipper N a 'Few days, a group of some five hun- dred of you will galher in our audi- lorium in The presence of paren+s and friends io receive +he diplomas +ha+ are +he oulward evidence of 'lhe complefion of your high school work. For mosf of you, +he exercises +ha+ nighl' will mark ihe end of your formal educafion and lhe word commencemen+ will mean for you enlrance in'I'o 'lhe hard school of experi- ence. Wi+hin a few brief years, moreover, all of you will be called upon 'lo exercise +ha+ priceless herirage of our democra'ric cifizenship, +he righr fo vofe. You will help 'ro decide +he policies +ha+ will guide or deier our progress and +o choose lhe men who will make 'lhose policies e'Flec+ive. Seldom have +he lessons of experience been harsher, and rarely have decision and choice in civic and in'l'erna+ional mal'- 'rers been more diFficul+ +han now. A+ 'lhe momen+, our group responsibilily looms larger 'lhan ever. The rapid growlh of means of communicafion has served +o mulfiply +he +ools of propaganda in such agencies as newspapers and magazines, 'I'he movies, +he s+age and, par+icuIarly in our fime, lhe radio. Wi'I'hou+ some meas- ure of crilical mindedness, wi+hou+ 'I'he be- ginnings, a+ leas+, of +he habil of weighing and considering, wi+hou+ some healfhy skepricism in fhe 'Face of ex+ravagan+, con- flicfing, and self-in+eres'fed claims, +he generous impulses of your you+h may only serve +o make you readier dupes for 'I'hose clever enough fo hoodwink you, and un- principled enough fo exploi+ you. A cerfain wariness seems essenrial, if you are fo profecl' yourselves in individual dealings and +o serve +he irue communiiy in+eres+ in your acfivilies as cifizens. ll would be a fragedy, however, were you +o permil' +his caurion, wholesome and neces- sary as i+ is wifhin bounds, 'lo srifle your presenf readiness +o see lhings in fheir road implicafions and 'lo make sacrifices for +he common good. If is my earnesf hope +ha+ our program of inslrucfion and ac+ivi+ies has 'lrained you +o mainfain a frue balance be+ween fhe habil' of sus- pended iudgmenf ihal' is a mark of fhe infelligenf mind, and fhe readiness fo ac+ courageously and generously iha+ char- acierizes your presenf years. WILLIAM A. CLARKE, Principal 7

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quently the lives of scions of the city's oldest and most important families. Pride and social standing when disturbed, frequently have a curious effect upon human nature. Bankers, financiers, merchants, shrewd business men all, were reduced to cowering children. First came fright, then hate, and lastly, the despair and discoui-agement which make absolute human derelicts out of formerly strong men. But it was in the second stage, hate, that the ruined stockholders sought someone who could bear the stigma of having caused the crash. Guilty or not, a man, upon whom they could vent ther anger, must be found, they decided. And Arthur Menson, the only one in that section connected with the fallen stocks, was the selection of these hate-driven men. Mad with the lust for vengeance they forced him to bundle his horrified family into his small sedan, and es- corted them to the city limits. There they warned Menson never to return to the city for violence would be used in his second ejection. Menson continued along the dismal, wet road, mentally trying to excuse the men who had driven him from his home. The gloomy quiet was broken only by an occasional sob from his wife and the steady throbbing of the powerful engine. Five miles along the highway, hid- den by a bend in the road and the ghostly silhouette of the forest, was stretched a thick cable, taut above the road between two great trees. With an audible grunt of satisfaction, the shadowy figure had tightly secured the cable barely four feet above the paved road. The hgure had hardly darted behind a clump of shrubbery, when a pair of headlights pierced the gloom. The motor was purring steadily as the car rounded the fatal curve. There was a sickening thud and a woman's scream knifed the air as the automobile struck the cable and careened off the road. It rolled into the ditch, then lay still, a crushed and broken thing. The sinis- ter figure crept from behind the shel- tering bushes and unfastened the cable. Witliout so much as a glance at the wrecked machine, it moved off into the concealing darkness. Two hours dragged by on leaden feet, and still all was quiet. Then a weak moan could be detected com- ing from the ditch which hid the car. The form of Arthur Menson crawled slowly from under the wreck- age. Miraculously, he had escaped death and serious injury but at a ter- rible price. The shock of the crash had thrown his wife across him, thus shielding his body with her own. Now, fervently, the man would have welcomed the release denied him. He had seen enough of the bodies of his other children to realize that the mangled flesh was beyond hu- man repair. Although unharmed physically, Menson had not completely escaped the vengeance of his fellow men. The succession of shocks had taken their toll of him, and he was no longer a sane being. His mind had snapped leaving him with but one thought, he must have revenge. Then, and only then, could he die. For two days he wandered through the dense brush, living like a wild animal, sleeping in trees, eating noth- ing but berries and thinking only of his anticipated revenge. Then one day, towards sunset, he had come to a large field in the center of which a group of men were carefully load- ing small boxes into a rakish little 9