Manchester High School - Somanhis Yearbook (Manchester, CT)

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IMANHIS EVENTS 23 a name for themselves. Next year you will be in far better condition than we were this and should turn out a team second to none, from a high school of this size. Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors. S. M. H. S. has a school paper which is sent to all the leading high schools 3 over the United States, “Somanhis Events” needs your support—subscribe for it, contribute to it. You must do this if we are to continue to have a paper. Freshmen: We are proud of the spirit your class has shown this year. Spirit is what our school needs. Keep it up. Sophomores: Next fall you will be upperclassmen. Prove to the school that you are prepared to take your places in the junior class. Juniors: One year from now you will be passing over senior responsi- bility to the class below. Be sure that you can do it with a feeling that you have maintained the standard and honor of our school. Classmates: It is with sad hearts that the class of 1920 disbands. All our lives we will look back and think of the good times we have had with- in the walls of this dear old school. The ivy which we have planted to-day is symbolic of the class of 1920. It is a new root just set out in che earth ;— we too are now just entering life’s work. This ivy will grow and gain upon vigor—let us see to it that the members of the class of 1920 ie likewise in the coming years. MARTIN ALVORD. ’20. PRISONS OLD AND NEW Prisons of one kind or another have been in use as far back as history is recorded. As time has rolled on, and society has become more and more complex, the prison and the whole prison system has come to play a vastly more important role in our social life. Each generation has effected some great change. has done something to better the system of punishment. But in this day that we are pleased to call the enlightened Twentieth Cenutry, our prisons are still run by brutal, stupid systems, worked out by theorists who have gathered elaborate statistics to back their statements. Does it not seem a calamity that we, who are pleased to call ourselves enlightened, can devise no better way of preventing crime or of punishing it, if punishment is necessary, than by locking up a man or a woman away from the world, solitary, ostracized, and branded for life as one undesirable by society at large? In the Middle Ages prisons were used for the detention of those await- ing trial by the courts, rather than for the reformation of criminals, as those convicted were put to death, or deported, or set free after being branded or mutilated. The condition of these prisons is of interest and of importance in showing the progress which has been made since then. The buildings were entirely unfit for their purpose and were habitual- ly overcrowded. The prisons are described as “‘pestifereus dens, over- crowded, dark, foully dirty; not only ill-ventilated, but deprived altogether of fresh air.” ; The prisoners were herded together; the “innerent .and guilty, cor- rupt and hardened, male and female, sick and well,” 0 were thrown +to- gether, no discrimination whatever being made. The results were terrifying, but despite the efferts of conscientious reformers, it took many years to awaken pusiblic attention and to enforce the various reforms.

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eo © SOMANHIS EVENTS terest. The world is already organized for co-operation in business. Peo- p-.e already know how to work together. The Community Theater is now teaching them to live and play together, and to obey the one social command ef Christ, “Love thy neighbor, as thyself.” Perey Mackaye goes one step farther. He shows how war is a method of “creating the national mind. Its method is organization—for compe- tition; the unifying of nations—against nations.” Then he goes on to show that what the world needs is not this, but a method for creating in- ternational mind: “a method of organization for co-operation: the harmon- izing of nations with nations—of communities with communities.” He believes that the method of social service in the Community Drama will fill this need, for Community Drama is organization for co-operation. Thus we see the drama as a great social redeemer and an organized institution standing for friendship and neighborliness, and opposed to that spirit which makes war possible. But no matter to what ends it 1s used we must always remember that the greatest value of the spoken drama rests upon the ‘fact that it is an art, sprung from the soul of the com- mon people and nourished by the principles of democracy through many long ages until at last it must be hailed, “The greatest of all art.” FRANCIS STRICKLAND, ’20. IVY ORATION Undergraduates: In a few days the class of 1920 will go forth into the world to assume greater responsibility than it has ever had before. Looking back over our four years in S. M. H. S. we can see many places where, if we as a class, or as individuals had decided differently, it would have been better not only for us but for our school. We therefore deem it a privilege at this time to leave with you a word of advice. “Labor omnia vincit” Labor conquers everything. This motto of the class of 1920 is indeed a good one. It was, however, far easier to select it for a motto than it has been to live up to it. Several of the members of the senior class during the past few weeks have expressed the thought that, if it were possible to begin their high school course over again, they would study harder. See to it, under classmen, that when you stand where we are standing today, there shall be no such regret in your hearts. Within a few days 1920 will no longer be members of the student body but will be counted among that larger body, the alumni. The reputation and standing of the school therefore now rests with you. During this year much has been accomplished in our school along the line of new organizations. We have at present a dramatic club which is a credit to the school. Not only the members of this club but the student body in general have received great benefit from the activities of this or- ganization. A boys’ debating club has been formed which has proven its worth to the school. For years S. M. H. S. has competed with other high, schools in athletics and has made a good showing for itself. This year we have twice been matched against other high schools in dual interscholastic debates, and have won in both. Underclassmen—It is your duty to see that these organizations continue and improve during the coming years. Our school need not be ashamed of the record it has made in athletics this year. Being left with nothing but new and green material we have developed a basketball, baseball, and track team, all of which have made

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24 SOMANHIS EVENTS The gaol fever, cr typhus, as we now call it, was one of the most jearful and inevitable consequences of the overcrowding, misery,, and ne- glect of all sanitary requirements in the prisons. At the Black Assizes at . Oxiord, in 1577, the Lord Chief Baron, the sheriff, and 800 more died within forty hours, from the disease communicated to the court by the prisoners brought up for trial. This is only one of many similar examples on record of the havoc wrought by the disease. If such fearful calamities resulted from the trial of a few prisoners infected with the typhus, what then must have been the death toll in the prisons themselves? Not only in England but in America did these conditions exist. New- gate prison in Connecticut, the ruins of which still remain, is an example. The prison was built underground in the old Simsbury Copper Mines; the site was chosen for its security. The only entrance was by a shaft 30 feet deep. Wooden platiorms on which straw was placed were built into the sides of the cavern to be used as beds for the prisoners. The gloom and stillness of the place can scarcely be realized. The only sound was the steady drip! drip! drip! of water along the galleries. From thirty to one hundred men were placed together through the night—solitary lodging as practiced at Wethersfield after- wards, was then regarded as a punishment. At first the prisoners worked in the mines during the day, but so many dug their way out by means of the mining tools, that the practice was soon discontinued. Workshops were built above ground, where the prisoners made nails, boots, shoes, and wagons. They were all heavily ironed and secured by fetters, and were therefore unable to walk, but could move only by jumps and hops. Those who worked at the side of the forge were chained to their places by heavy iron collars which hung upon iron chains from the roof; the others were chained in pairs to wheelbarrows or benches. They were served with pickled pork for meals, a piece for each being thrown on the floor, to be washed and boiled in the water used for cooling the iron wrought at the forges. Three times the prisoners set fire to the wooden guardhouse over the entrance, and burned it to the ground. It was not until 1827 that the prisoners were all removed to Wethers- field. John Howard, an English reformer, visited the prisons in Europe, and by his books which were published in the datter part of the 18th cenutry, he forced the people to see the shocking conditions in prisons, and awaken- ed the public conscience on both sides of the Atlantic. Captain punishment for all crimes except premeditated murder was abolished in 1794 by the tate of Pennsylvania. ‘his altered the whoie theory of punishment—the whole purpose of the system, Here was a new group of men to be cared for—criminals who sooner or later were not to be hanged brt returned to society. The Quakers of Philadelphia, after trying various experiments, decided that the best solution was solitary con- finement, without work.. This system, known as the Philadelphia or Sep- arate System, has been used until very recently, in fact, it is still in use in some prisons. Now, however, there is a workroom next to the prisoner’s cell where he works alone. This and the Silent System are the two most generally used. . The Silent System is widely different from the Philadelphian. It con- sists of hard labor by day, and in solitary confinement by night. Through- out all this the most rigid silence is enforced. The only person with whom the men are allowed to converse is the clergyman, and with him on Sun- days only.