Latin School of Chicago - Sigillum Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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SIGILLUM who really loved the literature he taught, that kindly Scotchman, Mr. MacLeod, who taught us mathematics, and we must not forget Fraulein Arnold in the German Division and Miss DeMerritt in charge of the French classes. To all of them and to the memory of those of them who unfortunately have died, I extend my highest assurance of affection and regard. Being a great teacher has great compensations and among the greatest, it seems to me, must be the knowledge that students, throughout their lives, will remember his high character and example. Throughout all these intervening years, I have never heard any boy make the slightest criticism or speak with anything but respect and affection for UR. Pf' and his associates who labored so stren- uously to pound some sense into our heads, if not by the regular routine, then by prestidigitation, if necessary. Having had the experience of being its editor-in-chief in IQI3, I take particular pride in knowing that The Sigillumn has pros- pered through the years, and is now celebrating with the school this important anniversary. I salute the school, The Sigillumn and The Folio and wish for them all, now and through all the years to come, success and prosperity. Another World CULBRETH SUDLER Culbrath Sudler, ex-,I6, Yale ,2O, one of the original editors of Timz magazine, later connected with Doubleday Paige, he travelled for two years around the world, is at present in the advertising business. I'm sorry I haven't a thing to send this anniversary Sigillum in the form of original work or published pieces. Being an ad- vertising copywriter, examples of my work have been scattered through the magazines and newspapers for the past several years, but invariably over some other signature, a coffee company or a floor polish or a chain of stores, or some other business or financial institution. Uff and on I've been writing a book about a couple of years I spent at sea after leaving college. At the time I wanted to be convinced that the world was not bounded by North Avenue, Dearborn Parkway, Division Street, and the Lake Shore Drive, and I was.

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SIGILLUM g But enough of these unpleasant subjects. I should be ungrate- ful and stupid indeed if I did not take this occasion to look back across the years and express again my gratitude and affection to the faculty of C. L. S., as it was composed in the years I attended there, of these facile princeps, of course, is R. P. Bates. No less than two distinguished Harvard deans have referred to him in my presence as easily the leading Latin master of his day in this country. VVith that judgment I, of course, have never had the slightest dis- pute, but it is not for that reason or that attainment that I hold him in such high respect. It is rather for the reason that as head- master of a boys' school he succeeded, I think, better than any other man I ever met in the field, in instilling in men at that early age the idea that there are certain fundamental standards which are more enduring than any changing concepts of a physical or political world, and all who had the great privilege of reading the classics under his searching and stimulating direction may not remember much today about the classics, but they will remember the attitude of mind with which that study was approached. Under his teaching there was an awareness of reality which every boy was made to feel and carry with him into the outside world. If an unpleasant job had to be done, it had to be done and that is all there was of it. It was not just to be done if we liked to do it or if it didn't rain or if it met with our convenience. To youths who must look forward to the shouldering of future responsibility, that kind of training I think is fundamental and absolutely essential. This preparation in the awareness of reality is, I think, of tre- mendous importance today, because from what I hear of the so- called mcdernistic system of education, many children and youths under that system are allowed- to educate themselves pretty much as they please, when they please and how they please, provided they never do anything which is disagreeable or distasteful to them. I cannot help but feel that this method is just a charming type of playing house -it is by no stretch of the wildest emotionalist's imagination, an education. It is the shocking truth that the super- intendent of a public school system not far from the Chicago Latin School, when rebuked for the increase of this modernistic tendency in his particular schools, and the lack of discipline and standards which prevail in them replied patronizingly, Oh, well, it is just a matter of time and Harvard will have to come down to our stand- ards . This is pure rubbish, of course. After all life is made up of a lot of disagreeable things and a lot of very agreeable ones, and it is the fundamental purpose of education to prepare the youth of the country to meet both. Ctherwise his subsequent jostlings are apt to be very unhappy, even to the point of tragedy. Among those associated with Mr. Bates on the faculty during my short acquaintance with the school were Mr. Bosworth, head of the English Department, not only a fine teacher but a scholar

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SIGILLUM The sea down around Java-the Banda Sea, Arafura Sea, Flores Sea, and Celebes Sea-this whole body of Venetian glass water, interrupted by the most timeless and sunblest islands, makes the china and tableware department at Marshall Field's look perfectly dull. Day after day you steam ahead on a comfortable modern freighter, do your eight hours and have the rest of the time to think, read, write, and listen to the fool stories of pearl trading, smuggling, and white men's misadventures in the South Seas. The whole stern, the whole poop deck belongs to the crew. The skipper and the illegitimate other officers are way forward where they don't even see you. There's a big canvas awning stretched on the awning spars-like a yacht. You bring your bunk up out of the fo'csle and sleep on deck without a thing over you. Day after day you steam right through this opalescent water with these green and gold and purple islands drawn up pretty much on parade on both sides, and occasionally you see a canoe like a pecan shell sneaking along close in shore, or you look across at a rain squall and someone remarks, That's the harbor of Bali. Then one morning you are waked up by a terrific racket and clamor. Overside are a whole parking lot of junks, tubs, and lighters painted red, green and blue with dragon's heads and tails carved or painted at the bow and stern. The poop is cluttered with fifty or so brown men, very handsome fellows in turbans and sarongs who gaze at you witha mixture of indifference and contempt that is measured down to within a millimeter of being an insult. That's the East-you've arrived at Samarang or Batavia or Sourabaya. My memories of Chicago Latin are of course associated with UR. P. and Doc McLeod and Percy Whiting and Tom Bosworth. For me, however, they aren't merely memories but ideals. But I know I got a lot of Latin from those men, and I haven't seen anything that I would rather have had. I have no doubt that their spirit is being carried on in the new Latin and that you fellows are sharing the same privilege and the same tradition. Success to the School and to this interesting anniversary event!