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

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OAK, LILY AND IVY 11 a Graduates’ Association in continuous existence for nearly fifty years must sure¬ ly have, right in the home town, enough graduates to create a demand to be ac¬ ceded to. If you do not see in the school what you want, ask for it. Ask loud¬ ly enough and often enough and you will get it. To you also, young friends, the Oak, Lily and Ivy ought to be the best high school paper ever published. If it is not, make it so. You have the power; use it. How, do you say? Why simple enough. First, subscribe and pay your subscription. Second, write for the paper. Send the editor the kind of articles you would like to see in its columns. After having done these two things, if the paper is not all that you wish it were, “kick.” Every newspaper man knows that subscribers, like football men, are sometimes entitled to free kicks. If enough of you kick hard enough and often enough, defects will vanish. Make the school paper the organ of the whole school , of which the alumni should be the strongest branch. As you are proud of the long life of the Graduates’ Association, so are you proud of the Oak, Lily and Ivy’s twenty-four volumes. Let the good work go on ; do your part. Fraternally yours, John C. Hull. The Soul of the School. it is a principle of Mechanics that you cannot get more work out of a machine than you put into it potentially. It would seem that we might similarly say that you cannot get more success out of an undertaking than you put into it in the form of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm has been defined as that “which accomplishes things.” School spirit is a form of enthusiasm, and of a most laudable kind. Its aim is always the good of the school; its means, a union of interest. Now this inter¬ est is of at least two classes : That which relates to the immediate work of a stu¬ dent, namely his studies, and that which concerns what we may call his outside work. The first, scholarly spirit, is absolutely essential. If a man does not be¬ lieve that his studies are worth doing well, he should not remain at school under false pretences. It is impossible to imagine true school spirit which does not include this intention to learn something; any enthusiasm without it is an un¬ healthy growth. The second class of interest, that in other school matters, is very important for a different reason. It is practically the only index which the public has of the spirit of the school. It is the great manifesting sign to those outside, and by it their opinion of the standard of the school is largely regulated. Hence the necessity of having as good athletic teams as possible, ol having the school at¬ tend the games in numbers, of issuing and supporting a school paper which shall represent something, and of encouraging public speaking. Besides, it is Ire-

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IO OAK, LILY AND IVY A Reminiscence. Twenty-four years ago this fall, the Senior class of the Milford High School, under the inspiring influence of Principal Herbert W. Lull, issued the first num¬ ber of the Oak, Lily and Ivy. Well do we remember the anxiety with which we awaited the result of our venture and our joy when we found that its success was greater than we had dared anticipate, for 400 copies of the little four-page paper were sold at once. What a year of work that was! Principal and pupils bent all their energies to the good cause of making the paper one to reflect credit on the school and the class, and our efforts were so well supported by advertisers and subscribers that at the end of the year we were able to donate to the school a $90 present as the result of our labors. Since then the Oak, Lily and Ivy has been an established fact in the history of the school, and succeeding classes have gained pleasure and profit from their connection with it. Have we alumni all realized, as our direct connection with the school and the paper has ceased, how important our continued interest is to their prosperity and success, and how much our support means to those who have taken our places ? Though our years of study in the school may have long since passed, it is still our school and the school paper is still our paper, to which in the old days we gladly gave our best efforts. Let 11s rally to its support, as never before, and by our subscriptions and contributions to its columns, help to make this twenty- fifth volume of the Oak, Lily and Ivy, the most successful in all its history. To encourage contributions from the undergraduates and to promote greater excellence in writing, I offer a prize of five dollars to be awarded in June, either for the best single article contributed by a pupil of the school to the Oak, Lily and Ivy, or in case no article shows especial merit, to that pupil whose literary work has been of greatest value to the paper, the decision to be made by judges chosen by the Principal, and not connected with the school. Inez L. Gay, ’85. - ' «- To The Alumni. By invitation of the Editor I write a few words to the younger alumni. This is a pleasant task, because of my interest in you. And in that word “interest” lies the key to the whole situation. Are you, “fellow graduates” of the Milford High school interested in your school? Are you interested in the Oak, Lily and Ivy? I am sure you are, and I am sure you ought to be. To you the Milford high school ought to be the best in the state. If it is not, it is your duty to make it so. You have the power; use it. A school with

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OAK, LILY AND IVY. I 2 quently a great mistake to attend to lessons exclusively. After all, they are but means to an end,—and there are other means. The experience gained in out¬ side interests is something as valuable as anything learned from books. There is one thing especially opposed to good school spirit. It is the chron¬ ic habit of grumbling, finding fault and doing nothing. We may quote Cicero’s words, “Est ridiculum ad ea quae habemus nihil dicere, quaerere quae habere non possumus,” and twist the Latin enough to torture out for a translation, ‘It is absurd to shut our eyes to the good we have and howl for what we cannot possi¬ bly have.’ No doubt Cicero meant that, whether he said as much or not. If one advances to a higher institution, the need of school spirit is more and more impressed upon him. Such spirit is the vital principle, the very soul, of a school. By it, and by it alone, can Milford High be what we all want it to be. Accordingly, there must be support of school undertakings, thorough, earnest, and continuous; the result w ill be brighter school days and pleasant memories. Both are worth the trouble. John E. Doherty, ’ 06 . School Notes FOOT BALL. In dedicating this number of the Oak, Lily and Ivy to the Alumni of the Milford High school, it is the purpose of the editors to acquaint the graduates with all the phases of the present school life. As the recollections of athletic contests in which he took part or witnessed while in school are among the most pleasant memories of an alumnus, it may not be out of place to say a few words concerning the present day athletics. For three years past we have maintained a supremacy in the two great branches, baseball and football, and we enter upon our present school year with great prospects for athletic success. We need the co-operation and aid of the graduates as well as that of our fellow students in order to achieve this scccess. Many of the Alumni are able to help us financially and to these we make a strong appeal for aid. Because of the fact that the town gives no financial aid to athletics in the schools, we are wholly dependent upon the persistent work of the pupils, the assistance of the principal and teachers and the encouragment of alumni and friends. We have started in our present football season under somewhat discourag¬ ing prospects, but the boys have tried hard and deserve commendation for what they have done and should not be criticised for what they have failed to do. Remember your failing interest in the high school athletics; remember that in whatever way you aid and help them, you are adding to the name and fame 01 the Milford High School, your Alma Mater. Thomas F. Dempsey, ’ 09 .