Milford High School - Oak Lily and Ivy Yearbook (Milford, MA)

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8 OAK, LILY AND IVY. There can be no doubt concerning the quality of our stories and essays for this year. The honor attached to the winning the prizes offered for the best es¬ says published during the year will stimulate the interest of the pupil in the paper. Prizes have been woefully neglected in the past in the Milford High School. We have always believed that if graduates, who still cherish a friendly spirit towards the school would offer prizes for excellence of scholarship in va¬ rious departments, greater interest, closer application to lessons and greater progress in general would result. This Alumni Number is issued for the Alumni of the Milford High School. We hope that the Alumni body fully appreciates the fact that we wish to enlist its favor and help. The members of the present senior class have assumed con¬ trol of the paper and are engaged in securing the subscriptions of the Alumni. Are you a subscriber? If not, why not ? We trust that you will see this matter in the proper light and feel that loyalty to your Alma Mater demands that your name be placed upon the subscription list immediately. We are sending copies to those Alumni who are non-subscribers and whom we could not otherwise reach, in the hope that they will submit their names and subscription fee to the subscription editor, Beatrice C. Turner, 48 Franklin Street, Milford, Mass. A Retrospect of Twenty-five Years. A few words for the Oak, Lily and Ivy from an old time scholar of twenty- five years ago. What shall they be? We fear the memories that have survived that lapse of busy years will interest few outside the ones directly concerned. Those were the days of “simple life,” perhaps, in High school; days for study, not for fun; when “checks” were a disgrace and misdemeanors few and well punished. Days when “Harkness’ rules must be learned,” as Submaster Sherburne so often and emphatically declared, and when to most of us at least, “ponies” were unheard of except in the barnyard. Then Seniors held their class meetings one evening a month in the school¬ room, (a dime the mighty fee), played parlor games, took turns in entertaining and, on one grand and rare occasion, enjoyed a tiny farce enacted by three young ladies. The money thus collected purchased a present for the school. No expensive class pins then, simple ribbon badges instead, and elaborate graduation outfits were the exceptions, not the rule. We are reminded, too, of the rude forerunner of this august periodical, which, in the days of 1S81 was called the High School Semi-monthly. Away in the attic, among other valuable relics, we find a copy of Vol. II, No. 4, written with pen and ink, replete with all the proper headings and titles, containing much of sense and nonsense. Compiled in the year of President Garfield’s death

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OAK, LILY AND IVY. 7 lEMtorials. ANNOUNCEMENT. The Editors of the Oak, Lily and Ivy announce the following prizes for the year 190S-09 : First prize $5, offered by Miss Inez L. Gay, for the best single article, either story or essay. Second prize, $3, offered by the Oak, Lily and Ivy, for the second best single article, either story or essay. Third prize, $2, offered by the Oak, Lily and Ivy. Competition is open to every student of the Milford High school. Each article must be at least 1200 words in length and must be wholly the work of the contributor and so subscribed to by him. The articles will be judged by competent judges, not residing in Milford. The prizes will be awarded on the night of the graduation exercises. With this issue the Oak, Lily and Ivy enters upon the twenty-fifth year of its existence. We feel that this volume, which marks the end of a quarter century of publication, should be the best series of papers which has ever represented the school. It is the ambition of the editors to place before the people a paper that will be worthy of notice and which will keep the Alumni familiar with and interested in the welfare of the school. But at the same time we realize our own inexperience, our limitations and our needs. Therefore we earnestly request that the Alumni and friends of the school make suggestions and lend their co-operation in bettering our paper. We do not see why a person should lose completely his interest in his Alma Mater upon graduation. The knowledge which a man gains at college is based upon the foundations laid in high school. For the man who does not pursue his education in a higher institution the pleasure which he draws from literature he owes to his high school course. So let not the Alumni forget the high school and the organization existing therein, and let him bear in mind that the editors will be only too glad to receive and utilize any suggestions made to them. We had hoped that former Principal Herbert W. Lull, in whose fertile brain the idea of this paper originated, and to whom the success of its eaily days was largely due, would contribute some reminiscences of the ten years of his connection with the school to this Alumni number, but he writes that pressure of school work prevents his complving at present w’ith our request. It is well, how¬ ever, to have some good things in store for the future, and we hope at a later date to be able to publish something from one whose name to so many of our Alumni stands for all that was best and most inspiring in their school days.

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OAK, LILY AND IVY. 9 and that of Dr. J. G. Holland, some space is devoted to their lives and sayings. Mention is also made of the daily papers being enjoyed by the school, and we remember that the Boston dailies were then on file in the school room that all spare moments might be profitably improved. A sense of satisfaction is ours, as we read over our youthful efforts and our sympathy goes out to the young editors of the present High school journal. This feature of school life, apart from regular study, seems to us most worthy of a deal of attention from the scholars and substantial support from those interested in them. “Bodily exercise profiteth little” says the Book of right estimates, and yet what an amount of time and attention is demanded and cheerfully given to school athletics nowadays. Doubtless many a parent fails to appreciate the “little” profit, so much of hazard, contention and exposure is connected therewith. But this journalistic effort may profit much and lacks any element of danger. Not simply pastime, indeed far from it to many of us, it furnishes a great field for the practice and display of the Rhetoric and English one has learned and in¬ cites the writer’s best endeavor on account of its public circulation. In such un- sought-for ways, one’s ability is often discovered and developed, and journalism is no mean calling in these days. Elizabeth Clark Libbey, ’S 3 . ■--—i 1 o 1- To the Editors of the “Oak, Lily and Ivy ” In assuming the editorship and management of this honored paper you are becoming the possessors of a great privilege, and are, at the same time, accept¬ ing a great responsibility. It may be yours to mould, in a great degree, the thought and the opinions of your fellow pupils. It may be yours, if you will, to inspire this school with a zeal and a love for the school’s institutions that will be felt for years to come. Let me urge you to make your influence a positive one, neither negative nor passive, but splendidly positive. Take, if possible, the in¬ itiative in each worthy cause, and lead the way; and be assured that, if you do this, you will n eed never to complain of lack of interest and support. Enthusi¬ asm inspires enthusiasm, and enthusiasm brings success. Further opportunity will come to you in that this journal will be the nexus between the alumni and the undergraduates. To the great body of the alumni the school looks for the cheering word and the helpful hand. A glorious past generally augurs a splendid future, and if the alumni maintain an active, living interest in the work and the welfare of their Alma Mater they need have no lear of its falling away from the high standards they would set for it. I congratulate you upon the opportunity that is yours, and 1 am confident that you will grasp it bravely and use it nobly. Edward R. Clarke.