Manchester High School - Somanhis Yearbook (Manchester, CT)

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SOMANHLES EVENTS Z N a successful banker, but he may lack this necessary zeal and education and simply use his shrewdness in the manipulation of a little pop-corn stand that he pushes about the streets. It has been noted by critics that authors and poets in describing their characters bring out only single features to portray them to their readers. One poet has mentioned “a quiet forehead, serene with wisdom”; and an- other, “the smouldering eyes” of the heroine or her “shimmering hair.” Authors very seldom describe the mouth of a character, probably be- cause they have already narrated so much of what the lips say that they are afraid of becoming monotonous. The reason why these gifted men give so few details is because they are aware that everyone has his own ideals. Each one of us has tucked away in his mind a picture of just how a hero or heroine should look, and more details would disturb that picture and dis- appoint us. People often wonder about the difference between portraiture and pho- tography. Some prefer portraiture but do not know the cause of their preference. The reason is plain enough. An artist can put into his pictures all the varying expressions that cross the face and lighten the countenance. A photographer, on the other hand, is able to get only one expression in his picture. That is why very often we say that a photograph does not resemble someone because we are thinking of that person's face as its expression changes. Because of their lack of wordly knowledge, people were once the credu- lous victims of swindlers, fakers, fortune-tellers, montebanks, and others ex- perienced in the art of chicanery. Now, instead of going to a clairvoyant, a business man depends on his own knowledge based upon facts, to fore- cast the future. Manufacturing concerns today have employment bureaus on which they depend to employ the kind of men adapted to certain positions. Besides requiring the applicants to take examinations, the employment agents study their faces and decide for themselves their suitability. Furniture stores and similar companies require their employment agents to study character reading. Gradually the whole world is recognizing the value of character study. Estelle Keith ‘22. AMERICAN JOURNALISM: ITS HISTORY AND IMPORTANCE. The first real American newspaper came into existence on April 24, 1704, in a small New England book-shop in Boston, It was printed on a crude wooden press in the form of a half sheet of pot paper, and was called “The Boston-News-Letter.” The meagre news which it contained was a week late and of no special significance to the people about the community. It was nevertheless the beginning of one of the best and largest assets which any of our modern cities possesses. The monotonous work of type setting, inking by hand, and operating by muscle, caused the circulation of the papers to be limited. A circulation of five hundred papers was, at that time, thought to be exceedingly large. Poor postal service and miry roads, combined with the isolation of the communities, caused the extension of publications to be greatly retarded, un- til a later period when political, social, and traveling conditions were im- proved It would seem strange to us today if we should read a newspaper with no advertisements. The public today demands advertising in order that it

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26 SOMANHIS EVENTS man, an intimate friend of our conversant, may pass, however, and we sur- prise a bewitching smile on her face as she greets him over our shoulder. Then her face immediately becomes a model of conventional sobriety as she continues her conversation with us. Dr. Holmes W. Merton, the vocational analyst, has a theory about character study. He claims that there is a decided relations hip between the mental faculties and the regions of the face. His ability to analyze has been called intuition, but he himself says he has attained it through hours of hard study. He has done much analysis by means of photographs. For instance, he once took the pictures of fifty lawyers and studied them very carefully, There was not much resemblance in the faces at the first glance but a closer view showed a similarity in the size and contour of the features which in- dicate mental qualities necessary for this profession. Each one resembled the others in some minute detail as Dr. Merton’s study showed. This serves only to prove that our occupation and inner thoughts determine the lines and expressions of our faces. It is an established belief that a protruding upper lip shows extravagance and that high cheek bones denote caution. Nature decreed that the Indian should be a cautious but fearless warrior so she endowed him with prom- inent high cheek bones as our study of him has taught us. Although the Indian warrior is almost extinct, the high cheek bones are manifested in motormen who have been in that profession very long. Of course this must not be taken too literally, nor does one who becomes a motorman suddenly develop high cheek bones, but it is true that one who lacks high cheek bones seldom is successful in this profession. He lacks the caution necessary for the position. Have you ever studied the pictures of prominent baseball players and noticed their chins? They have, as a rule, broad, long chins. This indicates their knack of handling themselves in motion, their quick co-ordination of brains and muscles, and their ready apprehension. Their muscles are train- ed to respond instantly to their slightest thought. The broad, long chin also shows an ability to foresee what size curve will be described by the ball in motion, even before the ball leaves the hand. If thes e baseball play- ers care to be automobile drivers, they will surely make a success of it, because of this ability to think quickly: or they might become expert loco- motive engineers for the same reason. But the difference in feature is often due to heredity as well as to en- vironment. The type of human nose of persons living in warm climates is low and flat, with large, short passageways directly to the lungs, Such people have little need of great energy for their climate does not demand it. Therefore we may say, that a person having a low, flat nose is indolent. Persons living in a cold , dry climate, on the other hand, have noses that are high in the bridge, with thin nostrils, so that the air may be both warm- ed and moistened before reaching the lungs. Thus a large nose, high in the bridge is, an indication of energy and aggressiveness, for a cold climate demands energetic people. Character analysts have told us, however, that the face must be stu- died as a whole for any success. For example, a man may have a protrud- ing chin) which taken alone, means aggressiveness; but he may also have kind eyes which show his amiability. This may make him thought- ful of others, and, as he is unwilling to hurt his own popularity, he uncon- sciously does away with his aggressiveness. A man with a large nose which curves outward from his face may be said to have much native shrewdness, if this feature alone is taken into con- sideration. If this man also had zeal and a good education, he might become

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28 SOMANBRIS HVIEN TS may find where to trade for the best values. The newspapers of the olden days were not considered a necessity, and merchants gave their advertise- ments grudgingly as though it were a charitable institution to which they felt obliged to contribute. News gathering was neglected and not handled in the manner in which it is done today, Topics were not followed up, and no organized mechanism existed by which the complete story could be derived from a happening. [Practically every paper could be identified by its editorial sheets which were written by the editor who voiced only his own personal views on important political issues. But this old order of narrow-minded journalism could not last for- ever, and a new régime started in 1835. 9 With the coming of the railroad, fresh territory for exploration was opened and the circulation multiplied by thousands so that the demand could not be satisfied. Mechanical experts under the terrific pressure, developed the stereotyping process. ‘Today pa- pers are printed on presses marvelously transformed from those of forty years ago. In the new multiple machine, six or eight presses are combined in one that prints, folds, cuts, pastes, and counts newspapers at the rate of ninety-six thousand copies per hour. The Atlantic Cable, the telegraph and the linotype machine turn a tele- scope eye on every village, town, or city, and no expense is spared to gath- er news. Today there are twenty-five thousand newspapers in the United States; two thousand three hundred are published daily, and they are the most vital force in making the public opinion of America. Advertising is no longer an obligation; today it is done because it is absolutely necessary for the people that they may see where and what to buy. Were it not for advertis- ing, the papers could not exist. Advertising at the present time is enorm- ous, and because of the revenues derived from it we are able to buy a news- paper for one or two cents. Today the newspaper is beginning to respond to the demand of enlight- ened readers who have learned the habit of weighing evidence. They de- mand fresh, accurate news, free from personal or party tendencies that they may form their own opinion from whatever evidence they read. More can- did, more fearless, and more secure is the American newspaper of today. Clifford Symington ‘22. SMILES. Did you ever stop to consider what is meant by a smile? Webster de- fines the word for us. He says a smile is “a look of pleasure.” “A look of pleasure,” but that is merely the outward expression, the one great faculty we possess for conveying to each other our feeling of joy and pleasure. This is not all it means to the one who smiles. For him there is a deeper, a graver satisfaction, that satisfaction which a smile brings to the mind by relieving it, for the moment, of those more burdensome thoughts, the satisfaction that it brings to the body, for you must realize that an ache or a pain is easier to Lear if you smile and turn your thoughts aside than if you frown and think of nothing but your miserable self. Since Webster says that a smile is “a look of pleasure”, we must in- terpret him as meaning that pleasure is the cause of a smile. There are many things that make us smile, but pleasure, to be sure, is the chiefest of them all in producing a genuine smile. Pleasure, then, which every one seeks and which most people find, is the secret of smiles, but what pro- duces pleasure? First, think of it as awarded by others. Kind deeds, kind