Main Avenue High School - El Sombrero Yearbook (San Antonio, TX)

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To My Dear Young Friends: Life is measured by deeds—years themselves having very little significance as an indication of usefulness, of fulness, of completeness. Methuselah “was”, we read, “nine hundred and fifty and nine years, and he died”. Moses lived one hundred twenty years only, but the angels of God went forth to his funeral. The significant difference in these two lives is the fact that Moses was ever challenging the world in deeds, while Methuselah was occupied mainly in counting the years. The foundation principle of all society is that labor is uplifting. The very slaves who bore dead Caesar home were by that act ennobled. Work is the everlasting adamant, the eternal cornerstone on which the wreck of crumbling things shall ever build anew and again; work is life, idleness an intolerant mischief. When the Savior Himself was to be led into the temptation, the first thing the devil thought of was to get him into the wilderness, that is to say, away from His work. When we want a man for mischief and strife, we find an idle brain. You young people want an education so that you can be more capable. This capability, or competency, which you desire to obtain, is a most wonderful and useful thing. What is it? It is the power to do the job assigned to you. The only capability, and the only competency, which can always be sold, is the power to stay on the job until it is finished. Attractive personality, bright conversation, the art of being a pleasant companion, are valuable accessories to capability, but never think for a moment that they are evidences of capability. 'I'he power to stay on a job until it is finished will prevent the slowest of you from ever being called stupid; that power will, as sure as fate, lift its possessor over the heads of all who do not havc.it. Are you elever; arc you smart; can you compete; will you be successful? Write boldly in the hand of the future the amount which you have of this power, and the answer to these cpiestions can plainly and surely be read. President School Board. Sixteen

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Alma Mater • »» As we prepare to leave this hallowed spot, what fond memories we carry away with us. The third, or Manual Training Building, contains the room of rooms, mystery and queer symbols—the chemistry laboratory. Upstairs are the departments that turn out the future housewives,—the sewing and cooking rooms. In the basement arc the saws that buzz and twang. The buffer, the second building, with its wooden steps worn into grooves, contains Miss E. Stone’s room with its walls plastered with pictures and caricatures of our favorite writers and poets. Here, also, are the study halls and library. Connecting the first and second buildings is the old stone bridge; then up a flight of steps and behold the roomy front hall with its cross-word puzzle tiles. Branching off from it are the office, with its “mourners’ bench”, and the auditorium, where we passed many happy hours, and the museum with its curios. Upstairs is that haven of rest—Mother Clark’s office, where every thing can be mended from broken hearts to broken arms. Last, but not least, come the imposing front steps where “the bunch” gathered before school, at noon and in the evening to discuss the events of the day. Fifteen

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Seventeen