Lincoln High School - Lincolnian Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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June THE LINCOLNIAN P53917 have any talent, and most people have some, I could not develop it, as a farmer raises his pigs, and sell it for money. I have lately come to look upon ambition as the ancient Romans did. To be ambitious is to have desire for power or wealth or fame. It is to want to be something, or to have something which gives one power over other people. It was the thwart- ing of an ambition when Caesar was murdered, when Napoleon was ex- iled, and it will be the defeat of the kaiser's ambition when this war is done. When men grow ambitious, there comes the lust for power over other men, the struggle for suprema- cy, strife, and finally, temporary vic- tory for one. There is enough in the world, I think, for every one to have plenty of the necessities, and the immaterial riches of the mind and spirit are limitless. The problem whose solu- tion is most important is that of dis- tributing the necessities so that every one has plentyg and this the future shall, at least in part, solve. The day when men believed the Prussian doc- trine that life is a struggle for ex- istence in which only the fittest in material and physical senses can sur- vive, is past. The new faith in the Brotherhood of Man is coming with the future. A new meaning of democracy is coming. Men who once believed that the might of the majority made right, will change their beliefs to a broader democratic spirit which shall recog- nize, the rights of every individual, and which shall give every man a ,voice in the decision of political and economic questions. Majority rule .willwpass a-awayfand in its place 'will come the rule by all. 4 Many changes are coming in the future. More important even than the political changes will be the gradual solution of economic troubles, and the improvement of the welfare' of society. I have been looking somewhat into the future, for I am soon to go. The future holds a charm for every one, and I have been yielding to it. It is the charm of the unknown. IV. ,I AM OFF OMMENCEMENT is over, and I have launched out into the fu- ture. As I sat on the platform during the exercises, I was musing on the futures of my classmates around me. lc was the last time the students of my class would all be gathered together. Some l should never see again. More I would meet occasionally. Some I would associate with as I had in the past four years. Perhaps, I thot as I sat there, the boy in the seat ahead of me will some day be a white-haired old man, mellowed with the philosophy and knowledge of the sweetness of living, which comes with years. He might become a minister to a congregation of the Brotherhood of Man. Per- haps the girl who sits not far from him in the same row will be a sweet old lady, his wife and helper. I won- der if their youthful comradeship will last thru the years! I believe the best thing I got out of my high-school course is friend- ship. Friends are the best posses- sions, and I have found many at high school. There is the Professor, whom I met only six months ago, but whom I should never have known had I not come to high school. Hs has been a teacher to me, and a friend. He has helped me, and shown me the best ideals. -There is the English Teacher, a delightful, philosophic man who lives in that charmed land called Content- ment-a man without ambition to be,

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P18216 THE LINCOLNIAN June covered' what I liked best. What I considered more important, I had formed a desire to learn more. I wondered what hand had guided me in choosing my course. Up to my Junior year I had not done any great amount of reasoning. l had taken the subjects I did mainly be- cause they were in my course. I could not now say why I chose that particular course. When I started for home darkness had settled, and the new moon risen. lt was an ideal night for a walk alone. Ill. I MAKE SOME DECISIONS N the next few days after my talk with the Professor, I kept think- ing along the same lines, and I repeated over and over some of the things he had said. I formed certain opinions which I suppose I have pos- sessed a long time, yet have never ex- pressed. The boy that I used to be had in his early years formed many ambi- tions. There are times when some thot of the future makes even the small boy form desires for the future. But as long as a man has hope, he is building futures.'As he gains in years he discards one ambition or hope for another: and when he has reached that stage where he no longer con- tinues to form new ideals and hopes, and has ceased to dream of the future here, but clings to one conception-of another life--he is truly old. Life would be worthless if we were able to see into the vastness of the future. All our expectations, hopes, dreams, would be swept aw-ay in abso- lute knowledge. I like to imagine a future, for the anticipation is as val- uable as the realization. Ideals would cease with the doubt as to what the future holds, for they would be use- less in a life previously planned out. Working would go unrewurded. Our futures would not be our own, but in the hands of fate. There was a time when the boy said, , I will be rich. But before he was rich he wondered if, after all, it paid to be rich. He tried to think of some lasting pleasure he had purchased with money, but he could not remember one. I'Ie remembered many tasks he had done in order to get the money for some desired ob- ject, but the joy of anticipation and the work it took were far more last- ing than the object itself. And he decided that money was valuable only because of the labor which had earned it. He did not care to spend a lifetime working for money. Once he had said-this boy that I used to be- l am going to be President, and at other times, I am going to be famous. But when he was older he remembered how in high school he had reached some positions in the school life which bore the relation to the school that being an executive bore to the larger world. And the prominence which attended them had been only worldly feelings with the novelty, and the fame took the form of humdrum of small value, for it left the owner poorer than before. that wore off labor. It was No, the boy did not want these things, he decided. Worldly successes, at times so glittering, faded into un- reality in the weary hours of realiza- tion. When the body was weary from work, only the mental contentment of the spirit could bring a feeling of comfort. Q I DO not want to be President. I I would rather be rather ordinary than famous, or rich in material be- longings. Even ordinary people may possess a wealth of the things really worth while. - l have not tried to get an educa- tion to make money. I feel that if I

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Y L P11013 THE LINCOLNIAN -Tun' but happy in the knowledge that to do'is better. He is a man that has traveled into the future. and he is far ahead of most. I cannot forget the time l knocked at his door and was invited in with all neighborli- ness, nor of the picture of content- ment l saw, with the English Teacher leaning against the mantel, his wife sitting in her rocker before the fire, with her sewing in her lap, and their little girl playing with her doll on the rug. There was the true American home as it shall be in the future. when the Brotherhood of Man is su- preme. There are the two boys, who have become my closest comrades since l entered high school, but whom l had never known before. Our meeting in high school brot each of us fuller enjoyment of the school life because of a friendship existing. There is a certain little girl on the platform. If high schood had brot me nothing but her friendship, that was enough to pay me for the full four years. Friends are the most prized pos- sessions, and-l believe l have gained more in high school because of the friendships l have formed, than the man, richest in money, has accumu- lated in a lifetime. Thru high school, too, I became better acquainted with my other friends, the books. During the four years spent here, l learned to discard the cheap and worthless, and to know the best in literature. Good books are among the most constant of friends. SO li go out into the future. All l take with me is the knowledge of these good friends, and the good books which cheer me and help me when my personal friends are far away. l take, too, my thotx and the memories' of four years well spent. 'MAYBE at the end of my journey. when l have ceased to wander, il will be contented to own a little farm in a neighborhood which is not trying to grow up into a metropolis. l would not want my mansion to be more than a cottage, with a few vines over the porch, and some old-fash- ioned roses and forget-me-nots. l think it would be delightful to have two big cherry trees in front, with massive limbs able to hold a half- dozen boys. lnside the cottage, l would have a large living-room, with a good-sized fireplace at one side, a hearth in- tended for something more than deco- ration, and a group of windows op- posite. ln front of the fireplace must be an armchair, upholstered with comfort. Over the mantel must be a shelf of really good books, of the kind which delight one more with each reading, but not one among them which has not won a place for itself on my shelf. I think l would choose a few of Poe's tales, certainly Tom Sawyer, and a few other vol- umes of Mark Twain: The Count of Monte Cristo, Tale of Two Cities, poems by Riley, and Burns, and Shel- ley: Vanity Fair, A Christmas Carol, and collections of essays by Holmes and Emerson. Above all. l would not forget David Grayson's books. To fit into 'the picture, and keep discord and 'chaos out, there must be that most important of all people, the Cook. 'She must be able to make pies, and see to it that l don't leave my collars on every chair in the house, or put my feet on the table: bring me back to earth when l get philosophic or poetic, and in other ways manage me properly. l believe that then l would be con- tentg in my independence more pow- erful than any king, my own boss- except for my Commander, the in- dispensable Cook!