Lyman Hall High school - Singer Chronicle Yearbook (Wallingford, CT)

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VI. THE CHRONICLE. lighted with the pranks of Huckleberry Finn and his fearless and reckless associa.es, or the electric humor of the Jumping Frog? As well as being a humorist in his stories, Twain was an interesting conversationalist and entertainer because he had a fund of clever and amusing anecdotes. He was not habitually a practical joker, but there were times when his temptation got the better of him. A case is cited of a friend who was traveling with the writer.- When he asked for a quiet hotel in the large city toward which they were making their way, Mark Twain replied, A good place? O-h, yes! Hotel Gilder is the place for you. Just behind the Brevoort House on Clinton Place—very small, very quiet— doesn’t take in everybody. Ring the bell and tell them what you want; if there’s any trouble, ask to see the proprietor, tell him who you are and that I sent you.” The traveler followed instructions, much to the surprise of Mr. Richard Watson Gilder, who wondered who this guest was who so persistently attempted to hire a room in his house. As a result of this incident, a warm friendship grew up between the two men, which fully compensated for any possible trouble on the part of either of them. The telling of Mark Twain's oddities is as interesting as his humor and, I thinlj, they are in a measure related. Twain reveled in display. In bis late years he wore almost exclusively, a white serge suit because it so pleased his whim. He had been presented with a crimson gown on receiving his degree at Oxford and he could have worn this all the time had he had adequate excuse. His first appearance in print was a source of great joy and each succeeding publication was an added pleasure. Yet there was nothing conceited in his attitude; it was the irrepressible youth in him that gave him to feel in this manner. We may wonder at his temperament and characteristics, yet we can but continue to love the man. It is his ever-flowing fountain of joy and fun and momentary seriousness that makes us like him. When we know of his life, his works and the many incidents—some happy, some sad—in his home fife, we wonder if a more endurable—perhaps it would be better to say a more material—monument of his life might not be left to the future generations than that which we gain from his books. These, we know, cannot die as much of the momentarily popular fiction of the present day. But doesn’t his life merit other recognition than our praise of his stories? Yes, indeed, it does'. Then let us take his home in Hartford—that home which is so like the writer in its very atmosphere—let us convert this home into a staunch and beautiful monument to this great humorist. And let us never forget what joy he has put into our lives, but help each one to preserve the memory of this lovingly eccentric, humorous, but altogether noble man— our Mark Twain. Agnes Wooding ’20 PIPPA’S MESSAGE AND ITS INFLUENCE Throughout the realm of poetry, there is perhaps no sweeter character, no more joyous singer, no freer scatterer of sunshine and unconscious influence than Browning’s little Italian peasant girl, Pippa. Pippa pulsing with joyous life, radiant with expectation, singing her song as she dances down the street going to meet adventure, is enticing; but the Pippa who, tired out with her holiday voices the great lesson of contentment she has learned, is after all the Pippa whose memory abides. Ftflipa is a young girl working in the silk mills at Asolo. For a year she has been filled with the anticipation of her one holiday. How many

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THE CHRONICLE V. ever-growing community. And looking around our town we thank (iod for the faithft 1 people who had the courage to come into the wilderness, and work and fight and pray, that future generations might have a beautiful world to live in. May we show our gratitude to these, our ancestors, by striving to live up to their ideals and on the 200th anniversary of the founding of Wallingford to pledge ourselves anew to the fulfillment of these ideals. Frances Hoff '20 MARK TWAIN On one of the most beautiful avenues in our own capitol city of Hartford. there stands a unique building which has ever attracted visitors, par.ly because of its oddity of construction, but most of all because it expresses in a living emblem, the true character of its owner. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, most familiarly known as Mark Twain, was, in part, the designer. An architect friend designed the building—which was an innovation in Hartford or even American architecture—with all its many peaks, gables, balconies, verandas and additions. But it was Mark Twain’s own idea to build the house in such a way that its back faced the street. When asked why he did this, he said in his inimitable way: “So the servants can see the circus go by without running into the front yard.’’ This was characteristic of Twain as we may easily learn by reading his books or in a study of his life. A casual glance at the story of Mark Twain shows us that he was very similar to many of our great men. He, too, was born of poor parents and though he had an opportunity to receive an education, he had such a dislate for books that he shunned them. If one wishes to learn of the boyhood of Twain, he has but to read the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which depicts with the utmost accuracy the childhood experiences of the author. No exaggerated High's of the imagination were necessary to produce these incidents. Twain had hut to draw from his own youthful days to present a book which has interested countless numbers of both young and old in the years since its publication. We find that what is true of Tom Sawyer is also true of Innocents Abroad, A Tramp Abroad and many others by the same hand. Twain is able to describe scenes of joy or sorrow because he had lived them, they were a part of his very existence. He first appeared to the American public as a humorist, yet he has written stories which show that there is a serious side to his nature and from which mirth is debarred; the author even stops, sometimes, in his joking to give a choice hit of description which flashes a picture so clearly and tells of things so definitely that one of his essayists declares it is not necessary to visit a place that has been described by Twain, because it wants nothing for exactness ; he saves one both the trouble and expense of the trip. But Mark Twain as a picture painter and Mark Twain as a writer of serious works is far outclassed by Mark Twain as a humorist. His books fairly radiate the mirth and good cheer which was so great a part of the author that his wife called him Youth throughout her lifetime. His jokes are not difficult to understand; they do not require a probing which is a sure way of destroying their pleasure, but we are convulsed with understanding enjoyment the moment the passage is completed. He has a spontaneous gayety that ripples through all his works. Who has not been de-

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THE CHRONICLE. VII. times she has thought of the rich—their joy and happiness; how often she has wondered about them, and now, to-day, she is free to imagine herself one of them. W ith care-free heart she greets Her Day, which has dawned gloriously clear, with the song, “Qh, Day, if I squander one wavelet of thee, One mite of my twelve hours’ treasure, The least of thy gazes or glances, (J’.e they grants thou art bound to or gifts above measure) ()ne of thy choices or one of thy chances, (Be they tasks God imposed thee or freaks at thy pleasure) —My Day, if I squander such labor or leisure. Then shame fall on Asolo, mischief on me!'? As she sits on the stone step of a shrub-house to pick some heartsease, she thinks of Ottima, the young wife of old Luca, who owns the silk mills. Little does Pippa know of the life of Ottima—that the woman is within this very shrub-house comforting in soothing tones, her German lover who has jusi killed her husband. As the child skips away, she sings the song which is the motto of her life: “The year’s at the spring, And day's at the morn; Morning’s at seven; The hillside’s dew-pearled ; The lark's on the wing; The snail’s on the thorn; God’s in his heaven— All’s right with the world.” In passing by these lovers, Pippa, with her song, her purity and her joy, has brought to them a realization of their baseness and of their lost youth with its ideals from which they have wandered so far. She lingers next near the home to which Jules, an Italian sculptor, and his bride are to return that morning. While waiting for them to come from the church, she hears a band of youths talking among themselves of this Jules as they hide near the house. Because of their jealousy of his talent they have conspired to deceive him and wreck his career. With wonder in her face, Pippa turns away, for she has learned that sometimes happiness is not even for brides. But again her song and utter simplicity carry their message to the hearts of the two, and they are comforted. Luigi, a young patriot noble and generous, shrinking from the high mission which has come to him, to deliver Italy, hears with his mother Pippa’s song as she passes, and answers its spirit by exclaiming, “ ’Tis God’s voice calls; how could I stay? Farewell.” The cares of Monsignor, a holy friar, seem less after the song of joy and content have come to his ears. At night while Pippa meditates the adventure of the day, her song is still contentment: “For 1 have just been the holy Monsignor: And I was you, Luigi’s gentle mother. And you, too, Luigi! And I was Jules, the sculptor’s bride. And I was O.tima beside; And now what am I?—tired of fooling.