Manual Training High School - Prospect Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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The question of how to spend vaca- tion is, we believe, worthy of much consideration. Shall you Vacations make your vacation a And real or a sham vacation? Vacations VVill it leave you men- tally and physically stronger, or weaker and less tit to re- sume your high-school studies or carry on your chosen line of work 'I By de- grees, the vacation idea is changing, Happily, it is becoming a more sensible one. Picture school boys and girls spend- ing several weeks at a summer hotel. They find there artificial attractions, and usually seek no other kind. A feast of sodas and sweets forms part of their daily program. The girl, per- haps more than the boy, is a constant member of the rocking chair brigade, where she gossips about worthless nothings. They too often keep late hours-the boy may play pool, the girl dance. They end in becoming gen- erally bored, physically tired and men- tally dull. Turn now to an organized summer camp. You find here boys and girls of entirely different stamp. Keenly enjoying outdoor life, daily perform- ing definitely assigned tasks, they find Twenty-six DITORIALS their pleasures and duties satis- factorily equalized. Early hours, wholesome food, mental relaxation, and the best form of phys- ical recreation, give these campers last- ing benefit. Besides acquiring alert- ness, enthusiasm, energy, a spirit of self'-reliance and self-restraint, they learn much of practical value. The dangers in canoeing, the necessity of being able to swim, lessons in first aid to the injured, and general camp knowledge are all absorbed and appre- ciated by them. Do they wind up be- coming bored of everything in life? Not they! VVith a never ending source of exercise and entertainment in the great out-of-doors, they waste no idle moments, and return to tasks of a more serious nature, in school or business, with vigor and added capability. lf you may choose, which vacation will you take? What will you make of your opportunities? The good old summer time has again arrived, and with it comes a welcome vacation. Some of us Be Sure will go to the moun- To Return tains, others to the sea- shore, Cof course, none will go to Europej, and still others will remain right here in Brooklyn. Many will go to work for the summer months, and have a taste of business life. It is to these that we wish to say something, and that something is this: Don't forget to come back. Time and again Manualites have gone to

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bottom twenty-nine and a half hours from now, or at four o'clock tomor- row afternoon. This box is weighted with iron, and there is seven feet of water at the bottom of the silo. You will be dead long before you touch bottom, and I shall be revenged. You stole part of my brain, when you took that invei .tion long ago. I shall watch your fact as you go down, and be hapnv. J' t five in the morning T will leave to catch the seven o'clock train to the city. I will leave orders for someone to come for you at five in the afternoon. He will get here, find a note directing him to the silo and will discover your corpse on the box, completely submerged in water. And I shall be bound for South America perhaps, 'cr Japan. They will never find me. M first I tried to reason with him, then I cursed him violently, and finally numb with cold, feverishly hot at other times I looked at him. And he talked on and on, boring me through and through with his mad man eyes. His talk was punctuated with the little clicks. After a while I could see him no more but heard him above me. Then he moved down to another landing. I lost all idea of time. The raving talk of that crazed inventor, the clicking seemed to be something I had long heard when John prodded me to at- tention. It is a quarter after five, he spoke gruesomely, I leave, you 'll see me no more. But I depart satisfied at last, you will pay for your theft! He left, and ere long I became in- sensible to everything. At length cold water around my legs caused me to take notice. From John's figures, I suppose it was about ten o'elock Sun- day morning. I heard a click, and felt the water rise a little. I shrieked, I wept, I prayed. ,Do you know, can you imagine, what it is like to be compelled to drown, to be absolutely powerless to prevent it? My brain told me I was drowning. I struggled against my bonds. I put every bit of vigor in me into these terrific efforts. With a last super- numan heave, I felt them give. I sat up in bed in a hospital. A couple of husky attendants had been holding me down. My brain was full of questions, but it was a long time before I learned the full history of my miraculous deliverance from death. John had told the livery man to call for me at five. He had done so and after a search, found me on the chest floating in the water. John had some- how forgotten to put the scrap-iron in the box, for it was found in the barn. But even so, I came near dying as he wished. I had a severe case of pneu- monia complicated by brain fever. All that medical skill could do has since been done. Now I am here, in this delightful California air, regaining every day more of my former strength. It is like a page from Poe. ,il..i-i-l- I wonder why this poet speaks of the stream this way: The sleepy river drowsed and dreamed. Probably because it was confined to its bed. Reason for Haste. McCloskey- Phat is yure hoarry, Mike? McGowan-Con sprinkling cartj Sure it's 'goin t' rain, Pat, an it's me that wants t' git me wur-rk done befoor it comes. Twenty-five

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N some business firm and secured tem- porary positions, more often called jobs, just for the summer months, but either because their salary was raised from four dollars to four-fifty a week, or just because they thought they liked business better, they failed to re- turn to school when it re-opened. A year or two after, these same fellows have come back to Manual to see their old friends here, disgusted with them- selves and sometimes with the whole world in general because they have not yet become the presidents of their concerns and are still earning, or rather getting, the same salary with which they started. Take a hint from what others have done before you, and if you do go to work this summer, don't forget nor neglect to return to Manual when school opens next September. Thrift is a word which is passing from mouth to mouth. And what does it mean? According to the Thrift dictionary, thrift is the sav- ing of money which would otherwise be uselessly spent. lt also has the meaning of spending wisely and giving generously. According to such famous men as Alba Johnson, Henry Ford, Franklin K. Lane and others, this little word of six letters contains the secret of success in this world. The quotation on the cover from a speech of James J. Hill voices this information. When a student comes to Manual, he must have spending money. Some may have more than others, but every- one has at least a little. What is done with this? The candy and soda stores around this neighborhood seem to be doing a thriving business during the lunch recess. Others eat too much. Still others purchase various things which mad desire craves for. A great' deal of the money could be more ad- vantageously used if it were placed in our School Bank. Soon small sums will accumulate into larger sums and a savings bank account may be started. Many of you students, wish to go to college but you don't know where the money is coming from. You would be surprised if you knew how much can be saved by putting a little away every week. Some will work this summer. Here, also, is an excellent opportunity to save money. Every one has to buy some things, of course, but then is the time when discrimination should be used. Another thing that cannot be passed over with a word is giving generously. Select a worthy cause and help it? You will be rewarded. Every student knows that he ought to be thrifty. He has seen what has been done because of thrift and he has seen what has been undone because of lack of thrift. Therefore, why don't you become more so? We notice among a number of the students at Manual this philosophy of life. Me first, then, after me myself. In vari- ous places and at different times this attitude is evident. When the bell rings at 2:15 Mondays and Tuesdays, there are those who rush and push, run and race, trip and tug to get a good position on line and, hence, a good seat for the aan'!i- torium exercises. They do not respect the welfare of others, the rules of the sehool and common courtesy, but rush for their own interests regardless of And The Rights of Others Twenty-seven