Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

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Pyramids. VALEDICTORY ORATION, CLASS OF ’90. Build today then, strong and tture, With a firm and ample haw, And ascending and secure, Hindi tomorrow find its place. This simple stanza contains the rule according to which all th» great, stable pyramids of the world are erected; shaken throughout every liber by the muscular arm of labor, they stand, in after ages, imposing monuments of the energy expended ui on them. Thus it was with those great edifices which adorn the valley of the Nile. In the time of King Menea, these regions were made to echo for years and years with the stroke of chisel and hammer, but today standing guard over the ruins of many dynasties, loom up the world renowned pyramids of Kgypt, uncovered by the shifting sands of time, fitting memoirs of ancient genius. These were builded of rock to render them stable, but today then exist pyramids, composed, not of rock, but of great events, which may be call national pyramids. Observe the towering grandeur of that nation we are proud to call our mother country. England stands without a peer among the nations of the old world, attesting the strength of her foundations by the many centuries she has existed in spite of domestic violence and foreign wars. Ink every national monument, the English pyramid was not erected in a day. It is the result of ages of work and strife and seeming failures. The foundations were laid in the old Anglo-Saxon love of liberty, in the traditions and customs brought from their wild German home. The genius of Alfred the Great did much to bind the Saxon nations into one; his work was continued by the stong but arbitrary laws of William the Conqueror, and afterwards more effectually by the common interests of a united people.

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28 the milestone. he represents, or makes promises he has no intention of keeping or who attempts to prejudice a people by falsehood or incendiary utterances, is as much a traitor to his country’s best interests as was the contemptible Arnold. “Let us burn and destroy the idols of party worship; banish politics from the municipality and county, limiting it to questions affecting principles in the state and nation; place competency and integrity at ever)’ part of the public service. Let us adorn our courts with judges worthiest to wield the attributes of God; elect representatives that will reflect the majority of a free people, send to the senate statesmen whom history will immortalize and nations make their models, uphold them with a patriotism that will never tire, and guard them with a vigilance that will never sleep.” Let Young America be taught such principles as these from the cradle up, and our national fiber will ever grow stronger, our government better and more just, and our people happier and more prosperous. Lynn M. Scofield.

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30 THE MILESTONE. The age of Elizabeth stands out like a marble structure on a foundation of granite; the writings of Bacon, Spencer and Shakespeare and the spirit of industry and literary research, pervading the whole nation, gave to the period a lustre which is not bedimmed by the progress of four centuries. Glancing along up the succeeding steps, the names and events become more and more important. Here and there are great rents marking some struggle for popular rights, but the reforms which followed, fill those rents with lasting crystal, leaving the structure stronger than before; high upon the uppermost blocks shine the names of Bright and Davitt and Gladstone, of Newton, Tyndall, Darwin and Huxley. We read the story of the success of popular education and the wonderful development of commerce and manufactures. The names of Watt and Davy mark the time when men learned to bring the elements under control, yoking the sun to their chariots and building with the energy of ages passed. As a result of the strife of generations, the people of Britain stand high up.,n their national pyramid and scan an empire upon which, in the language of Edmund Burke, “the sun never sets. It remains for the art and wisdom and statesmanship of the present generation to carry out imperial federation and thus add the cap stone to the pyramid which shall enable it to withstand the storms of iiges to come Four centuries ag the little H et b siring the renowned Columbus, spread its sails to the gentle August breeze and glided from the rugged shores of the old world in quest of the spices of India. They found, instead, a new continent, and began the foundation of a national pyramid, which for rapidity of building and beauty of outline, is second to none the world has known The ambitious, the restless, the venturesome, the enterprising, the hardy of every nation were gradually to congregate on this new field of activity. The Mayflower landed its band of home-seekers on the rough coast of New England, the Virginia colony planted its little settlement at Jamestown, and here and there, along the coast, the work of subduing a continent was begun. Many were the privations of these pioneers of America. In the forest, thirsting for human blood, lurked myriads of savage foes, while in the