Newport News High School - Anchor Yearbook (Newport News, VA)

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UIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII | JHumni Supplement HELEN ELIZABETH DELK President of the Alumni Association O EDICATED to the New and Greater Newport News High School with all her Splendid History, Sacred Traditions and Precious Memories, which as her past, are the glowing promise and faithful prophecy of a future even more glorious in the Service of Mankind. n llllllllllllllllllllllltllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllMlllllllllllllllllllllllllMMllllllll 1JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIMIIIIIIIIIII Lj

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104 THE BEACON “Who steals my purse, steals trash; ’tis something, nothing; ’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands; But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him And makes me poor indeed.” This serves to prove that the plagiarist is worse than the ordinary thief. It is useless for him to whisper to himself, “No one will ever know.” Even if his plagiarism should remain undiscovered, the blot will be on his character and will show in other ways. It is most singular that anyone can deliberately rob himself of that which should be to him the most precious thing in life, namely, reputation. For he who will plagiarize will also steal other things besides literary material. And the person who steals a line from another’s paper is as much a plagiarist as one who steals a story or copies the whole of another’s work. Plagiarism seems often to be a failure on the part of some people to realize the seriousness or the nature of purloining the material or ideas of others. But it is indicative of a lack of scrupulousness, of a looseness of morals, of a falsity in ideals. Just what is the degree of guilt of the petty plagariast we may not judge, but we do know that one who practices plagiarism in any way what- ever, bids fair to increase the scope of his Satanic activities. Cheating Cheating is the scapegoat son of Satan, the blacksheep of the family of Evil. It is the most degrading, the most loathing habit to which mankind has ever been susceptible. It is a thousandfold worse than the lowest form of crime — for there can be honor among thieves, but, a cheat loses all honor, all self respect, and casts those omnipotent traits and bene- dictions which God has bestowed upon us, to the winds. We will agree that man is, at one time or another, tempted to steal what is not morally, physically or mentally his own property. But, remember those words of the wise prophet and sage, “Yield not to temptation.” Bear in mind that “all that glitters is not gold.” The man in front of you may have an answer written so perfectly, that you really believe his is the best answer. You copy it and receive a good mark. You are happy that you have obtained such a high standard. Do you realize that you are doing yourself an injustice ? Don’t you know that you have actually stolen another man’s thoughts ? Can’t you realize that you are bluffing yourself and that you are the ready and most ignorant dupe of Satan, that you are the personfication of the lowest hypocracy? Give your own thoughts a little exercise. Originality is as abundant as the sands of the seashore, but as priceless and as sacred as the most precious of God’s gifts. Remember that to yield to temptation is to make yourself the greatest of hypocrites, the lowest of thieves. Originality is a blessing of God, imitation an attribute to Satan.

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THE PAPYRUS PLANT Margaret Jenkins, ’12 (From “The Student,” October, 1912) Paper is today a necessary article. It is so commonly used by everyone that we would not know what to do without it. In ancient times paper was only used for the writing of books and im- portant documents. It could be pur- chased by the rich only. Strange it is today that we are suffering from an insufficient supply as did the peo- ple of ancient times. There are many materials from which paper is made, and many grades of paper. Most of our paper is made from wood pulp. Soft, tender shoots of the willow and other woods are cut and manufactured into paper. From Egypt we get many things that influences modern life. Mathe- matics is said to have originated in Egypt. Much of the learning of to- days dates back to Egyptian history. The first great library of the world was at Alexandria in Egypt. This library w ' as not composed of books such as we have, but of rolls. The leaves were not pasted together and twenty leaves were joined together, making a larger roll or volume. These sheets were made from the papyrus plant, one of the many in- teresting things of Egypt. This plant has many species and is found in many places. When it was extensive- ly used it was cultivated in large quantities in a delta on the Nile. It has now disappeared from the lower Nile entirely and is found near the sources of that river only. A species of the plant grows in Sicily and that is the variety that is commonly known by botanists of today. Our word paper is derived from papyrus and our word Bible from the Greek word for the same plant. Our words charter, chart and card are de- rived from the Roman name for papy- rus. The papyrus thickets on the upper Nile are said to present a wonderful sight. One described it as follows: “Here was lifted up a forest without branches; these bushes without leaves; this harvest in the waters; this ornament of the swamps.” Strabo describes it as, “A bare pale supporting a bench on the top.” The roots of the papyrus are quite large from which there come numbers of small rootlets extending into the low grounds or water. The plant grows up from a root, a bare pole from ten to twenty feet above the water or ground. From the top of it there appeared a head of small leaves. The architectual ornamental de- signs of the ancients were taken largely from the Satus flower, but the papyrus is seen on their tomb and in many places as a decoration. In the time of the pyramids we find the harvest of the papyrus represented, and in the oldest inscriptions we find