Paxton High School - Reflector Yearbook (Paxton, IL)

Page 27 text:

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.

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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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24 THE PAXTON HIGH SCHOOL REFLECTOR (Ditr (Cnnumuimurut (Oratnr Dr. .Unlitt UJrrrtttr Driitrr The Class of 1909 are specially well pleased with the selection of Dr. Driver by the Board of Education for their commencement orator. Dr. Driver has appeared before Paxton audiences several times in the past in connection with our lecture courses, and his return is always welcome. His theme for commencement occasions this year is “Young America, and His Mission . Those who have heretofore heard him can easily imagine what an inspiring address will be delivered on this appropriate and suggestive theme. It is said of Dr. Driver that “He is one of the extremely rare paradoxes: A public man who dislikes publicity,” but the following epitome of his life history, interests, taste, and character has been obtained from one who knows him. “ A man yet under 50, born at Mt. Vernon, 111.; educated in Boston; widely-traveled; an omnivorous reader; a prodigious student; like all people possessing the artistic temperament, a man of moods and tenses; fiaming-tongued when speech is required, but usually silent; witty, humorous, companionable when finally reached, but naturally a recluse, subject (we suspect) to seasons of profound melancholy and loving the northern light and solitude of his study with its books and pictures and their treasures; a musician of international repute yet rarely touching an instrument; distinguished as a clergyman and platform -orator; in religion, broadly orthodox; in politics, a Roosevelt democrat. “His semi-invalid wife is his sweetheart, Mr. Opie Read, the famous novelist and dramatist, is his next-door neighbor and chum, and he has friends and acquaintances in many parts of the world. “He has written some successful books, composed some popular music, and acquired some valuable Chicago real estate. “He has given largely of his earnings to charity, was for years the honorary president of The American Home-Finding Association, and is especially interested in boys and young men.” The message of such a man, to a commencement audience, and to a graduating class will be of more than passing interest.