Paxton High School - Reflector Yearbook (Paxton, IL)

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22 THE PAXTON HIGH SCHOOL RE ELECTOR Are you absent? Are you absent without a good excuse? If you are, this means you. There is a job for every man in this country, and all jobs are alike aren’t they? Hold on: you say, they’re not. You say some fellows hold down snaps. You say jobs are not all alike? Oh yes, they are all alike, every one of them. You’ve got to work to hold any job, unless you’re the exception, in which case the job has to work to hold you and in any case the job is just a little bit larger than you are whether you think so or not. Now you fellows who are holding down jobs on Main street eevrv night and holding them down so tight that it wears out the seats of your breeches—let’s quit work a little while and do a little figuring. Suppose we take, for example, .John and Willie. John comes to school every day, gets his lessons, we’ll say, just average well, nothing extraordinary. John likes books and likes his teachers He’s a boy, too, he likes to fish and hunt, and play base ball, and fight just like any other boy, but he comes to school He don’t smoke cigarettes, and he don’t know a billiard ball from a sky-rocket. Now John goes his four years to high school and all the while he’s getting a tendency toward some special line of work After while he makes a little money and goes to college Well he gets through college somehow and comes back home to make a living. He don’t know so very much but he gets along and one day he meets Willie. Now all this time Willie’s been living, too, but things don’t seem to go quite the same with him. He never went to school unless he had o, he smoked cigarettes, he drank a little now and then—not much, but then a little,—he played pool and billiards and didn’t care much for books, or base ball, or fishing. When he finished high school—if he did—he didn’t get through very strong. The teacher said, “we had to be charitable with Willie; and the other boys said, “he got through but I guess he left a good deal of hair on the fence.” He didn’t go to college and never wanted to. He wanted to get to work. Oh yes, he wanted to have some money in his pocket. He didn’t want to be embarrassed by mixing with fellows who had the money and he didn’t care to give up their company. So he got a job in a factory. He sneered at hard-grinding John and called hint a snot).

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The Paxton High School Reflector Published monthly by the PAXTON HIGH SCHOOL (Office with Eastern Illinois Register) Subscription Rates Single Copies ...........................................................cents Yearly Subscription .................................................75 cents Editors-in-Chief .............................. Esther Engstrom, Leon Kelso Exchange Editor ................................................. Ella Morgan Athletic Editor ................................................ Walter Nelson Faculty Adviser ............................................... O. J. Bainum Business Manager ...........................................Tohn Karl Moffett Assistant Manager ................................... Melvin Frankford Froyd REPORTERS Junior Class ..................... Howard McCracken, Lou Hammerlund Sophomore Class .......................... Elam Stewart, Nanny Fuller Freshman Class ....................... Edgar McKegney, Lois Richards MAY, 1909 The Reflector wishes to acknowledge its obligation to the business men of Paxton for their liberal patronage and support of its advertising columns. Without their good will the Reflector could not be published, as the annual subscriptions would not meet more than one-half the expense of publication. We trust that the expense incurred by them has been more than balanced by increased sales, but if not we still believe that the good will of Reflector readers will in the end make good the shortage. PAXTON HIGH SCHOOL FACULTY FOR NEXT YEAR. Only a few changes will occur in the personnel of the high school faculty for next year. Mr. Langworthy having resigned his position as principal to enter upon a college professorship in his native state, will be succeeded by V. E. Dudman, who has been selected by the Board of Education to fill the vacancy. Miss Hepburn will continue in the department of biological science and bookkeeping which she has so acceprably filled during the past five years. Miss Good will remain in the department of foreign language, where she nas done highly creditable work during the past year. Miss Fordyce will still have charge of the music, and Miss Jennie Thomson of the University of Illinois, will have charge of classes in “free hand” and mechanical drawing in the high school in connection with her work as supervisor of drawing in the grades. Miss Thomson is a graduate of P. H. S. —class of 1904 For three years she has been studying art at the University of Illinois with the view of becoming a special teacher and supervisor of drawing and art in public school work. Prof. Bainum will enter upon his thirteenth year as superintendent of the Paxton schools and as teacher of a number of high school classes.

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THE PAXTON HIGH SCHOOL REFLECTOR 23 Now one morning about four years after John had graduated, Willie got into a little row with the foreman and was sent to the Superintendent’s office. He scraped his s»hoe3. took off his hat. assumed a very humble air and respectfully sidled into the office. He stood with his hat in his hand for about ten minutes while the superintendent’s pen scratched, and then gathering courage he addressed the writer. The superintendent looked up. Willie was staggered; there sat John. He put on his hat and shamefacedly walked out. Now my friend, you may not be one of these, but I want to tell you that you’re liable to be and you’ll find that it’s harder to talk to a hard-hearted boss than it is to a sympathetic good-hearted teacher every time. So just remember this. Tobacco may be all right for a disinfectant, but it’s mighty poor for a steady diet Schlitz may be the beer that made Milwaukee famous, but it won’t make you just the same. Again, its a w'hole lot easier to solve arithmetic with your head than it is to break rocks with your fists; and finally, your teachers and your books are the best friends you’ve got, outside your father and your mother, and they always want you to go to school. How about it? Can you controvert this? OBSERVE Tradition has it that “all Seniors shall occupy back seats.” But Mr. Rainum has it A B C D E F G, and you come just where the initial letter of your family name happens to jibe with the alphabet. Observe; This school is a democracy, consequently we are all (democrats?) Observe again: There are five pedagogues who are dumped into one ivasket and called “the faculty” for short, likewise every one who is caught whispering is always “talking to himself?” therefore there are about one hundred-forty monologues. There is a faculty board, also there is a faculty strap, both are synonomous. You come up before one and come down before the other. Like all “elevators” this one comes down faster than it goes up. Observe again; There are three feet in a yard. Freshmen then will answer this question. How many feet are there in a school yard? No, don’t go ask the janitor how many trips he makes when he cuts the lawn, and then try to figure it out. The answer is this: there are as many feet as a Freshman could count if he counted the feet of everybody who comes to school.