Manchester High School - Somanhis Yearbook (Manchester, CT)

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SO MAAN Ss EVEN iS 31 Opt: I bet you can’t crab over “The Piquonian.” Pes: Yes, I can. They have no poems—at least in the issue I read. 1 think every issue ought to have a few poems, if they are only jingles. Opt: “Green Witch” next. Pes: She is so fearfully thin! Opt: She will fill out as she grows older. (The cave is gradually becoming darker and darker). Opt: We should give one more criticism before we go to sleep, my friend. Pes: (eagerly) What paper is that? Opt: (trembling) Somanhis. (For the first time Pessimism loses his “savoir faire.” It floats from his bonnet in the shape of a green beetle. Optimism precipitantly deserts the cave. The foot-lights go out, and where Pessimism stood so arrogantly on the pile of papers, appears only a glow, like a hot coal. It grows deeper, deeper, until the whole cave is a weird red. It is all that remains of Pessimism—a blush.) (Curtain).

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30 SOMANHIS EVENTS EXCHANGES A PLAY IN ONE ACT. Time: Late in May. Place: The Interior of an Exchange Editor’s Brain. Persons: Optimism, Pessimism. Scene. A musty, arched cave, hollowed from rock. Stalactites hang giittering from the roof: there is no other decoration; only one tiny beam of light. The ground is littered waist-deep with papers and envelopes, empty ink-wells, broken pencils, and dust. The atmosphere is heavy with silence. Suddenly, there is a rustle among the papers and a smile bobs up. Oua: Hey there! Hey! A growl below the papers: What’s the matter? Opt: Hey, wake up! Wake up and get to work. Pes: (his shaggy head appearing reluctantly) | Work! always work! Can't a feller sleep? Opt: We are going to have the fun of telling all these school papers how splendid they are. Pes: (sarcastically) How original! Why do that? Opt: To encourage them of course. Come get to work. (He picks up a heavy volume). Not many papers have such well-written stories and interesting notes! And funny—listen to this joke! Pes: That’s no use, telling them their good points. The staff must know that by watching the faces of the subscribers when they are reading. | What every Exchange department in the country needs is the audacity to give lots of adverse criticism. Opt: All right, let’s try. Pes: Yes, and get it fired back at us! Opt: But that is exactly what we want. Pes: We'll be swimming in it by next month. Don’t worry! Opt: Good! Now let’s begin. I was criticising one of the best first: The Rayen Record. Pes: Put down: “Space or lines needed between jokes to distinguish for the witless where one ends and the next begins.” Opt: (writing busily) ‘Doggerels excellent.” Pes: We've got to cut the praise for the present: Put down: “Secretarial reports a bit too long and formal. An interesting write-up of the club meetings would make better reading.” Opt: Why pick on the Rayen Record so much? Here’s another good paper: “The Pennant.” Pes: Too bad such good material is not bound in magazine style. It looks better and lasts for future generations to set their literary standard by. Opt: See if you can find anything the matter with the “Orange and Black.” Pes: ‘The last number I read didn’t have a single poem in it, and there was not a story with a plot either.

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22 SOMANHIS EVENTS THE AMERICAN SPIRIT HE American Spirit! What does that suggest to us? It is something that @ is big, broad and noble, but hardly to be expressed in words. It is not « new invention of the modern day, but something which has been going on for ages. Our Forefathers, the Pilgrims, laid the foundation of that Spirit which has risen to such a height. We have three visions before us; in the first we see the Spirit of 76. This is where the Americans showed their loyalty to country, and a true democratic Spirit. The American people are a peace-loving nation and have a high sense of truth and justice. To maintain their rights they en- tered into war, which was inevitable, with a whole-hearted spirit, determined to attain their ideals. We have as an ideal, George Washington, the father of our country who suffered the hardships of war to preserve the ideals of his people. Many a time the road was long, weary, and rough: for, to lead a people is not all joy. He might have let another undertake this responsibility, but the Americanism, the bigmindedness of the man called him to the colors. As a reward for his services he claimed nothing but to partake “in the midst of his fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever favorite object of his heart.” The people gave their all, the dearest they had, that the Spirit might live ; and though the American Revolution is the work of men, it seems to be but the work of one man. In the second vision we see the Spirit of 61, here again is shown that same loyal, sacrificing Spirit. Though the American people cherished peace, their sense of freedom and liberty would not permit them to sce their fellow men enslaved. We have two sides of the American Spirit shown, but it is ever noble, each seeking to uphold its ideals. The ideals of the South were just as noble as those of the North, yet it was right that all should suffer to uphold the true ideals of the whole nation. The Civil War suggests Abraham Lincoln, the Emancipator of his fellow-men, who took up his presidential duties prepared for the great crisis that was at hand. Though he had Quaker blood in him and preferred peace to war, he thought that justice and liberty should triumph at any cost. The people realized the leader they had, under whose guidance no evil would come, so they willingly gave themselves up to his com- mand, entering into the duty with a whole-hearted Spirit, so characteristic of the American people. He called for troops, throughout the North there was but one cry, “To arms! To arms!” The call was immediately responded to, as were also the many others that followed. Because the people realized what a leader they had, they trusted in him absolutely, sacrificing everything to aid him and the cause for which they were fighting. As a result since ‘In union there is strength,” the cause was won. But had it not been for the cool guidance and sympathy of Lincoln, many a day would have been more disastrous, and the outcome might have been different. Lastly we see the Spirit of TO-DAY and the important part it played in the struggle which has just closed. For a typical American representing the true American Spirit we have Woodrow Wilson, the upholder of Democracy. The people have recognized him as a capable leader; he in turn has understood the standards of the people he was leading and no words of his own can express