McKinley High School - Nugget Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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THE CARNATION On the Road to Success A g1rl who was obllged by clrcumstances to leave McKinley and take a short preparatory course for teachxng m rural schools wrote the followrng letter to a frrend here wlthout any thought of publncatron It shows plamly the enthusiasm that leads to success and The Carna tlon believes that 1ts readers w1ll be lnterested 1n seexng lt St Louls Mo March 26 1916 Dear Mlss Probably you will be surprlsed to ind that I am st11l rn the land of the lrvmg because I havent Wrltten for so long But really I ve been so busy that I don t have t1me to wrlte I have been teachmg smce September whxle Mamma worked mn an office and Grandma stayed w1th the chlldren But Grandma dred sud denly two weeks ago and of course thmgs are worse than ever now As I dont thlnk of anythrng but school I cant Write about any thmg else To begln wlth every body d1d h1s best to scare me They told me harr ralsmg tales of the puplls I would have That K boy xs slmply msane youll have George B and you know about that family and that blg S boy you know the horse butchers son and that W boy IS as w1ld as they make them and so on and so forth as long as I would llsten I sald to myself Well maybe the rest wrll murder me but l1ttle Wxlde w1l1 be the worst He used to come and play 1n our back yard ard I hated to think of what he would do to my d1SClpl1l'1C But he dld not greet me wlth Hello Ann and he behaved beautlfully He was well coached at home but the rest weren t Most of the A class were ten or twelve years old Cm second grade' and considerably older ln experlence They sald thmgs that slmply stunned me George B m partzcular always started such messy sub jects 1n our conversatron perxod Im not very iinxcky but when a second grader glves me the detalls of the best way to k1ll a calf that s a l1tt1e too much Flnally I got at the explanatlon he works for a butcher untll 8 p m every day and the butcher lets h1m help the men ln the slaughter house' ust xmagme trylng to teach that boy the ordx nary sxmple mnocent chlld thmgs' I had the gang of b1g tough boys and s1x pronounced deficnents one very very bad And I never call anybody bad rf I can help It There was one boy who was reported deficlent and who puzzled me very much He got to be a wonder 1n arlthmetlc but seemed terr1b1y self conscrous when he tr1ed to read Frnally I found the clew He had been told he was a fool and the whole famxly accepted that as a fact I beheve I earned thelr eternal love and gratltude when I d1d say he was all rlght Really I dldn t have any trouble at all wlth those Bad boys The boy who had been tormented half to death because he was Irlsh naturally approved of me And of course every boy rn the d1str1ct knew and llked Papa A perfectly n1ce g1rl from town xs a mysterxous bemg probably a secret enemy but the whole crowd sxmply took lt for granted . a , . , - . , ., , . . . , L , v - v , . . V 7 9 9 ' , . . , . ! 1 . , . . . . . H . . . , v is . . , s 1 ' 1 X ' ' 77 '11 r 1 . H . . Y 7 9 . . ,, . ' i . . , ' IC 97 ' 9 s - 7 , . . . . . , . - v . . . , . . , U . . . ,, . , . , -. , . . I ' x - 1 , . ' 7 ' KC 11 , . ' s v ' . - U ,, . . . ' s D Twenty-l-'our

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THE CARNATION to the Reform School for at least slx months my txme s valuable I can t come back here every day Mr Wanger replxed the Judge the funct1on of the juvemle Court IS to correct not to pumsh That evenm Harry brooded over h1s troubles untxl he finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustlon In the mornmg as he was passlng one of the guards who was readlng a paper he saw the head11nes Multl m1ll1ona1re W H Wanger MlSSlHg No Clew Obtamable After ten fmnutes reHect1on Harry recalled the last words h1s mother had sa1d to h1m Always be truthful my son I want to see the Judge I want to see the Jud e' he crred and made an attempt to run to the office You cannot' was the reply you must wa1t a few days Not dlsheartened by these words he pleaded and pleaded unt11 Hnally he was taken to court As they entered the door Harry tore away from h1s guard and called Judge judge let me tell Well what IS It young man? asked the Judge The other mght after they threw me out I lxstened and heard them say son-e nng bout Wanger and kxdnappmg Before that they told me to steal whatever I could lay hands on Go to I6 South Thlrd Street w1th some cops as soon as you can The Judge ordered a squad of pollcemen to that address led by Harry As they approached the ne1ghborhood they went through an alley and cllmbed over a fence surroundmg a dmgy hut pomted out by Harry Upon knock1ng they recelved no answer and proceeded to pound 1n the door whlch yxelded to the sturdy blows of the olhcers When the door fell they saw Mr Wanger bound hand and foot and three of the an A week later the tr1a1 of these men came up 1n the Crrmmal Court and as Harry was on the wxtness stand tellmg h1s story a letter was brought m addressed to hmm The judge wlth Harry s consent opened and read It xt was from Mrs Stevenson and stated that she had recovered and would be home wxthm a week It was dlscovered that the gang had commltteed many other cr1mes Bach of the prlsoners was sent to Jall for dlfferent perlods accordlng to h1s offense jack Stevenson was sentenced for l1fe on a murder charge Mr Wanger was so pleased wlth Harry for causxng h1s early llbera t1on that he took hlm and h1s mother to l1ve 1n the beautiful Wanger resldence and now Harry Cratcher IS worklng to the top wxth the firm of Wan er 8: Scupper regarded as one of the best Flrm of lawyers 1n the state of Ill1no1s Gustavus Buder T t'll I I 9 l ' 1 Y I 7 H ,, vu - - as ' ' ' S 9 ' ' 57 , . O' b ' Y . . H . of Y 7 . . . . . . H . . , - . , . . . ' Sb Y 7! 9 3 ' N . . O' ,, . a b ' Y sn 97 Ki ' 17 . , - - y w 9 is n 7, ! F 7 ' GI ' ' 3, ' y 1 - ' U . . I 5 L, . R . . I .t. a . , ' C Y VV ! ' 9 l O' 7 ' 1 , . ' 9 V o' cr. za za Y ! . . . . , ' 1 1 7 ' 7 , . . . . . . 9 . , cr U . t, v wen y- ' uw'-e

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THE CARNATION that s G1rl would be a perfectly safe reposltory for troubles would understand everythmg and would be fa1r about everythrng Of course that helped When there was a row they told me fan' and square all about It If the lrate prmcxpal appeared on the scene well they re used to thrashmgs Besxdes they lrke to be treated llke men and grven some respon s1b111ty The two worst ln the crowd when put first 1n lme and told they were b1g enough to hold the lmes back certamly made a better job of It than I could I took the poster patterns from the Normal mstructor and put them and the construct1on paper handy When work was done they were prxv1leged to make plctures I had the best decorated room you ever saw Some of those terr1ble ch1ldren had the best 1deas for posters As long as they were g1ven somethmg to do and trusted they were line And they d1dnt need talkmg to If there was anythmg to be done a glance or a gesture of the hand was enough And work' Oh my' You know when that kmd take to you and work for you they work hard We had one rather funny lncldent I sent the same crowd of boys to the pr1nc1pal four txmes for beatxng a l1ttle boy because he was a jew The r1ng leaders of course were George of the Hend1sh Irlsh tem per and Henry of the Sw1tzer stolxdxty The pr1nc1pal dutrfully wh1pped them all around Now those ch1ldren are used to bemg clubbed w1th anythmg that comes handy and naturally the whxppmg dldnt bother them The rule ln school IS that all fightmg must be sent to the pr1nc1pal but the fifth t1me I thought It was t1me to suspend rules I had all books put away and then proceeded to lecture It had never occurred to any of them that lt was cowardly to beat lxttle Saul and they weren t proud of themselves when they saw It Most of them were afrard to Justlfy themselves but George sa1d D1dnt you ever get mad and want to fight? CI know the little fellow provoked them but he drdn t tellj I aid calmly Of course Ive felt that way but I thmk I d take some body my own sxze That was not qunte concrete enough The cr1m mals wnggled and prepared to be murdered George asked What ll I do when I get mad and want to light? I knew preachmg peace wouldnt do any good so I sa1d Well whenever you feel that you just have to iight remember that youre Irlsh and Henrys a Sw1tzer fthey re chums by the wayj and get out m the road take off your coats and settle the war That restored the room to 1fS orlgmal cheerfulness and when I sa1d Remember though you re to st1ck to Henry as a fightmg partner and let the lnttle fellows alone they agreed and moreover they kept the others from bothermg them I was a l1ttle afrald they mlght take my suggestlon too seriously but they dldn t They understood that kmd of language Another thmg they like good plctures and good storxes and a lot of them are acqulrmg llbrary cards My walk to the llbrary IS gettlng to be a regular processlon a few small boys a lot of gxrls of var1ous 1zes and about a dozen of the b1g boys They belong to the hxgher teachers but somehow I seem to be the1r confidante and the hbrarlans refer to them collect1vely as my ch1ldren They fall back on me when they can t get the books they want or don t know what they want and I have an Lncomfortable feellng that I am dlrectlng the readlng of half Tntll 1 KG 7 ' ii ' 1- , , . ! ' 9 7 7 ' U , . ' ' as ' n - y . . . . . . ' 9 3 ' 9 ' - as - as 9 9 . , . . , . . , . 1 a ' ' ' ! 1 J 1 9 - . . . . , 9 ' 9 , . . . , 3 I ' sc - 9 7 7 YY ' ' ! ' 7 C - u 9 , - x 1 9 7 I . . ,, . . . . H , , ' 9 17 ' 7 ' 66 , 7 ! ' 1 5 . , . , - as 1 v - . . . . H 3 7 ' , . . . 9 YI 7 9 . . , . .. , . . , , ' ss ' 1, - S , . 9 9 5 , . 9 s 9 1 V . . . . we y- 'ive