Nixon Township High School - Nixonia Yearbook (Weldon, IL)

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THE NIXONIA 19 2 3 knew they would ruin it. Did you ever stop and look at them? They are very curious looking creatures. They knew that if they appeared before an audience the bricks and tin cans thrown by the audience would be directed at them. If I were one of you Senior boys I would wear a veil when I went out on the street. Seniors, you did not mention the class play of last year. Why ? Because it was a failure. You did not have the ability to put on a play. You seem to forget that after working three months on this play you failed to have it. It seems strange that a class of your type would try to advise one of our type. In your charge you also forget about last year’s banquet. You did not get it paid for until this year, and then only after you had received many duns. It is strange how you forget. Seniors. We always pay our debts promptly. And then you talk about the standard of your class. Seniors, I hate to say this, but I must; it almost brings tears to my eyes, but it is my duty to say this: If the Junior class and under classmen follow the standard you have set, in three years there would be no high school. You talk of the wonderful actresses in your class. If they are so good, who do the under classmen get all the leading parts in the plays? Seniors, you say our class is not organized. I can say this, and the faculty will affirm it: The Junior class is the best organized class in school. You say the girls of your class are so good in their studies, in fact, they actually carried the whole class through. Yes, we know your girls are fine. But there is something wrong with them. They seem to lack something. The young men do not go with them. The music teacher will not even have them in the Glee Club, or maybe they don’t want to be in it. There are eight girls in the Senior class and only four in the Glee Club. There are thirteen girls in the Junior class and all of them are in the Glee Club. In your charge you said all the members of your class played some musical instrument. The only musicians I ever saw in your class were a drummer and a saxophone player. When your drummer plays, which is very seldom, it sounds like Sherman’s army marching through Georgia. And that Saxophone! Here is a little poem dedicated to the famous Senior saxophonist: “When you hear the Senior moan Upon his saxophone, It sounds like the last groan Of a dying cow.” - Where is that wonderful orchestra you were talking about that would raise Beethoven from the dead? Why, Seniors, don’t you know it was such music as you produce that killed Beethoven. We have no class orchestra, but if you call that drummer and saxophone player an orchestra, we have you far outclassed. In our class we have a trombone, saxophone alto, piano and violin. If we should choose to organize an orchestra we could far exceed your orchestra. Zealous yet modest—Frances Gala way.

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19 2 3 THE NIXONIA on your face and show a set of pearly teeth that signify you have been up long enough to brush them. We advise you to come to school clean and dressed neatly, as it will make you feel better and also please your teacher. We Seniors set that example this year, but you seem to have failed to catch the significance. Now we feel as if we had given you sufficient advice to make your Senior year a successful one. We have not tried to criticize the Junior class, but we have merely shown you your mistakes and given you some methods by which to improve them. I take great honor in behalf of the Senior class in presenting you this gavel, which is handed down as an emblem of sincerity between the classes of the school. We Seniors will pledge ourselves to stand behind you in the defense of the purple and gold and extend to you our sincere wish for a successful year during your last term in X. T. H. S. Walter West, '23. JUNIOR RESPONSE Seniors:—In behalf of the Junior class, I accept this gavel and along with it the well meant advice which you have so kindly given to us. Yes, as I lock at it, I will admit that the Seniors have made a few marks of achievement. Hut, Seniors, when the Class of '24 gives the gavel to the Juniors next year, it will be so covered with our achievements that it will take three men to hold it, instead of one. We have listened attentively while you have tried to advise us as to how we are to act. You have endeavored to show us our few mistakes, but, Seniors, you have made an utter failure. The comparison of our few mistakes to your appalling, awesome, and monstrous blunders are—as the field mouse is to the elephant. Seniors, in your charge you advise us to work as a whole, and not individually. If that is what you advise us, why did you not set an example? But, furthermore, we did not need an example. When you said we worked individually you made a bad error. Look at your own class, Seniors. When you have a class meeting, people all over the northeast end of town think there is a general uprising at the schoolhouse. You are so loud and quarrel so much at your class meetings that you have two class advisers, men, at that, to keep you from fighting. When the Junior class has a class meeting they quietly and without violence settle their difficulties. Seniors, we do not quarrel over our class issues as you do—we discuss them. You say in your charge that the reason the Senior boys failed to be in the class play was because they wished to give the under classmen a chance. Seniors, do you really think that is the reason? I will tell you the real reason. The boys of your class would not be in the play because they Lover of all girls ami winner of none—Owen Tilbury

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19 2 3 THE NIXONIA Seniors, if 1 had been in your place I would not have mentioned athletics. The Junior class so far exceeds the Senior class in athletics that there is no comparison. You had one man on the basketball team, while we had two. Our men are not ordinary players such as yours. The Junior boys are all-stars. One was placed on the first all-star team at the county tournament and the other was placed on the second all-star team at the district tournament. What would the team have been without Captain Mac? Out of the six boys in our class, two made the first team. The others did not desire to play or they would have made the squad. They had the ability. Five of our six men made the first football team, while only two out of your four made the team. The captain of the basketball team was a Junior and the captain of the football team was also a Junior. Does not this prove our superiority in athletics? We are not saying this to be bragging. Seniors, you said that the public would discover us if we began bragging. The public already knows the merits of our class. We do not have to tell them as you do. In this address I am not telling the public the merits of our class, but I am telling it for your benefit. And now I will give you a little advice—practice what you preach. You say in the schoolroom the Juniors do not know how to behave. Again you have erred. Who is it that is always being called down? A Senior. For the last two years the Juniors have supplied the school with pencils and paper. Isn’t it right that we should get some of them back now? We were only doing what you have been doing for three years, and you said for us to follow your example. Seniors, you say that the Juniors answer “I don’t know” in class. Is that not better than trying to bluff the teacher as you do? We were only saving the teachers trouble. When we say “I don’t know” they give us a grade immediately, while you stammer around and try to bluff them and then get the same grade in the end. School begins at 9 a. m. By the way you Seniors act it begins at 10:30. It is nothing unusual to see two Senior boys coming in at 10:30. If a Junior is late, which is seldom, he at least gets there at 9:15. By the way the Senior boys act a visitor would think this school a hotel. Yes, Seniors, we are all creatures of circumstances, but circumstantial evidence points out the fact that the Class of ’24 will so far exceed the Class of ’23 that it is beyond comparison. I have endeavored to bring out a few of your mistakes, and if I have offended anyone I am sorfy. I have only told you a few mistakes of the Class of ’23. 1 could not begin to tell you all. In fact the whole class is a mistake. But just one more before I close. Last year in your response you accused the class of ’22 of being the survival of the fittest, because some of them were left behind. Seniors, this is what I say of you—you remind me of that which is left over. Earle Hunt. Find me a girl—Ext el Redding.