Memphis State University - DeSoto Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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power and prosperity. She stands upright, full statured and equal among people of the earth, breathing the keen air and looking out upon the expanded horizon ; she understands that her emancipation of ignorance will come only through the inscrutable wisdom of God and her educational institutions, and has made provisions for the development of these wonderful factories. The responsibility is our heritage. What shall we do? Mav the words of Ella Wheeler Wilcox ever serve as our guide and standard, as it has done in the past: ' ' Tis easy enough to be pleasant When life Hows along like a song : But the man worth while is the one who will smile When everything goes dead wrong. For the test of the heart is trouble, And it always comes with the years, And the smile that is worth the praise of the earth Is the smile that comes through tears. It is easy enough to be prudent When nothing tempts you to stray ; When without or within no voice of sin Is luring 3 ' our soul away. But it ' s only a negative virtue Until it is tried by fire, And the life that is worth the honor of earth Is the one that resists desire. By the cynic, the sad, the fallen. Who had no strength for the strife, The world ' s highway is encumbered today ; They make up the item of life. But the virtue that conquers passion, And the sorrow that hides in a smile — It is these that are worth the homage of earth, . For we find them once in a while. 21

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®l e (ElaoB of ' 17. Another page in the history of the West Tennessee State Normal School has been finished and the heritage of the Great Volunteer State enriched. For six long years the embryo has been in the process of formation — resulting in 1917 in the magnificent class of sixty-four members. The school, the faithful instructors, and the general State of Tennessee, have erected to their memory a monument which time itself cannot erase and which future generations will look upon with inspiration and reverence. If all the energy, enthusiasm, and determination of this august body is dedicated to the cause of race enlighten- ment, there is every reason to expect with great anticipation the decay of illiteracy. This great body has waged stormy battles, encountered numerous ob- stacles, and made attacks and counter-attacks, but now the turbulent sea is calm, the battlefield silent, and peace declared. Democracy, equal justice to our fellow creatures, whether rich or poor, learned or ignorant, are firmly fixed upon us, and the problems of mankind now require our serious considera- tion. These are times that try men ' s souls. The summer soldier, the pussy- footed pacifist, the sunshine patriot, will in crises, shrink from the service of their country, their State, their school; but he that faces assailants and foes wi th an unfaltering trust and unparalleled bravery deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly ; ' tis dearness only that gives everything its value. But duty and perseverance are not the only attributes which this en- thusiastic and patriotic class possess. There was a realization of that greatest of all things, responsibility. At no time in the history of the institution was there a more responsive, sympathetic, ambitious body than this company of pedagogues of ' 17. Responsive to all requests from authority, deeply sym- pathetic with the needs of the institution, ambitious to so succeed that they might be an honor to instructors, school, State, and nation, it battled as a unit, denouncing wrong and championing right. Caesar met his Brutus, Charles II. his Cromwell, Napoleon his Wellington, and ignorance is doomed to meet the Normal graduates. Beyond the Alps lies Italy. The future lies before us. The soul of Tennessee is stirred with the breath of a new life. The light of a grander day is falling fair upon her face. She is thrilling with the consciousness of growing 20

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Coral tinted clouds, set in an ocean of blue, hung low over dear old Normal. Their nearness gave an ethereal glow that transformed my little world into a mystic realm of dreams. I saw dim shadows of spacious dormitories loom up in the distance. Soft strains of music floated through my window upon per- fumed breezes, and at my feet, softly dropped from dream cloud, was a bunch of rich red roses. Ah ! What memories their loveliness enfolds. Holding them gently in my arms, I buried my face in their soft petals and was en- chanted with a message from another world. The breezes whispered, each rose a prayer that the years promised to answer. The first red rose I slowly untwined from the others, almost afraid of the phantoms it was to reveal, softly and oh ! so gently I fondled its petals, fearing, yet longing to find the heart of this perfect rose. In a spell, I gazed at the flower and saw the years unfold before me. I trembled with deliffht and held tightly to my rose. My familiar room slowly vanished and I was left among my flowers. In an enchanted moment I saw before me in my dream cloud, a fairy surrounded by roses. Wonderingly, I heard the fairy speak to me and invite me to her bower. Soon I recognized the fairy who held the destinies of my classmates in her roses, and she told me that in the hearts of these beautiful blossoms I might call ten years from out the future and see the Class of 1917. Selecting a tiny bud from the garland she held, I beheld it open and re- ceive me into the future. I found myself in a large city. The noise and strange scenes at first bewildered me. Not knowing where I was, I eagerly scanned the faces of the hurrying crowd. A taxi rolled up and stopped beside me. Its only occupant was a well-dressed individual who even in his tall silk hat, accompanied by a cane, looked familial - . Ah! Yes, it was Mr. C. S. Austin of the 1917 Class of the W. T. S. X. I heard him say, ' Must a minute driver, looking absently at his watch, ' ' I must take my seat in the Senate in ten min- utes. I was in the capital city. The taxi passed on with our prominent senator from Tennessee. Hearing a chuckle near me, I turned to see the outstretched hand of Walter Richardson. He told me he had just established an information Bureau in the White House and was giving much help to the ladies. Being one of them, I enlisted his services and we started out to see the city. Our conversa- tion turned to the Class of 1917, and I found tiiat he had been keeping up with our class president. In fact that was why he was in Washington. He told me that Miss Newland was interested in the feeble-minded and was making talks in Parent-Teachers ' Associations on how to train them. Being tired from so much excitement, we decided to visit our capitol and hear some of the speakers of the day. Whom should we see but George Sim- mons defending a bill that would allow a man to marry as many times as he pleased. I did not wish to hear more on this weighty question, and bade Mr. Richardson goodby. 22