Petaluma High School - Trojans Yearbook (Petaluma, CA)

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(Eonatrurttim of % marmot Utrrlraa Station On the shores of Tomales Bay, in a beautiful spot one mile from Marshall, is built the plant of the Marconi Wireless. Little did people ever think that a wireless would be built in that vicinity, but in February of 1913 the Marconi people showed themselves and bought about twelve hundred acres of fine dairy land from a prominent Marshall dairyman. This place fronts on Tomales Bay for about a mile, on which, in a beautiful spot, the Marconi built their plant. People would be surprised to see what they have accomplished in just one year’s time. On March of that year with a few hired helpers they broke the ground for their roads with plows, scrapers or any other thing that could be used. After this they hired many men and teams and started to work on the hotel and towers. It was impossible to accommodate all of these people in this vicinity, so the Marconi people hired a cooking and lodging department, called a commissary. All the people working on this construction were com¬ pelled to board and lodge there. Meanwhile the towers and buildings were going for¬ ward. One would first observe a massive hotel built of concrete with tiling roof. It would take too long to de¬ scribe the construction of it, but it is built of steel with cement walls and pillars and finished inside with polished oak. There are about forty rooms in this structure. Much labor and material have been furnished by Petaluma peo¬ ple and firms. Northwest a short distance from the hotel aie built two beautiful concrete, tile-roofed cottages, which are to be occupied by the superintendents who will oversee the operating of the wireless plant. On a cliff back of the two cottages they built their operating build¬ ing of concrete with tiled roof overlooking Tomales Bay and the Pacific Ocean, “A most beautiful sight.” Back of the operating building in a southeasterly direc¬ tion are built what are called masts, seven in number. T. hey are three hundred feet high and are tied with cables to an anchor cemented on the ground. It was a fine sight to see these big masts built, as they were put up in half sections of ten feet long; these sections were hoisted up by a donkey engine to men who were in a square cage and did the bolting, placing and tying of the cables. On the top of these masts are stretched two lines, which are called aerial lines. In a northern direction from the operating building are built so far six steel tow¬ ers, also constructed of steel sections, somewhat on the plan of a windmill tower. These are one hundred and twenty-five feet high and are used as balancing lines. South of the hotel they have built a concrete, tile-roofed power house, where they generate their electricity, and also a heating system to supply all of their other buildings. Their work is drawing very close to a finish and the wireless plant will soon be in operation. C. MAGGETTI, T6. 24

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forward to meet us. “Why do you linger ?” said she, “Your guests await you.” “Forgive us,” my companion answered. “I found her di earning by the way and—” “And I am now joyously awake!” I cried. Together we passed into the ball room and were at once the center of an animated group. Soon the strains of music were heard, my companion claimed me and the dance began. And such dancing— men and maidens seemed to float through space. One after another came up to claim a dance, and the hours flew swiftly past. Again he who had brought me there came and together we sought the moonlit garden, where laughing couples strolled here and there. Presently my companion said, “Let us go to the bridge over the brook. Do you not remember our old rustic seat?” Yes, I remembered, and we strolled out of the garden into a path that lay through scented woods. Fol¬ lowing it we soon came to the bridge and found the rustic seat. Here we lingered looking down into the stream whose waters glistened here and there in the moonlight. We talked of Spain’s glorious past, of the part our own ancestors had played in it, and of our hopes for our coun¬ try’s future. After a while I suggested that we return to his guests. Relunctantly he arose and turning to me said, “We will return, but another time we will come and talk not of our country’s glorious past, nor yet of its unknown future, but of ourselves. There is much I must say to you of—” The sentence remained unfinished; there was a sudden shaking of the bridge and before I could cry out it collapsed, and I found myself falling, falling, falling down. After a period of oblivion I came to myself, opened my eyes, and looking around for my companion. Alas! he was not there. Slowly I arose and gazed about me. Where was the bridge, the path, the garden, the beautiful Haci¬ enda? Gone! all gone! and above all the handsome Span¬ iard. Around me lay vast poppy fields. The sun was low in the heavens, at my feet lay a great armload of poppies, now sadly withered. “Then,” said I, “I am no dark-eyed Spanish maiden in a beautiful costume, floating through the maze of the dance on the arm of a Spaniard, or listening to low tones and broken sentences on a bridge over a moonlit stream, but a plain American girl and a school girl at that.” Slowly I gathered up my treasures and started home. “Ah! well!” thought I, “there is a long road ahead of me called life; just around that curve are other vast poppy fields. I may again wander forth to gather them, again fall asleep to open my eyes upon “castles in Spain,” from which there will be no rude awakening. B. W. D., ’ 17 .

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uTmtaur? “If we could only find a big rock, it would be the greatest joke I ever heard of. Won’t it be sport to see Uncle George dig?” Of course we can find a rock. You don’t suppose there’s a seashore without a rock near by, do you? Get that paper out and lets look at it once more. We may have a chance to bury it later this evening.” 1 he two boys, Ned and Roy, who were speaking in low tones, were walking some distance behind the covered camp wagon on the way to. their annual place of camp¬ ing. This camping place was near the coast at the edge of a great pine forest, solemn and full of murmuring voices. Pastures filled with birches, which gleamed silvery in the shades of the summer evening, stretched to the one side, while on the other a little river almost hidden by trees leaped and rushed on to the seashore less than half a mile away. Ned opened a small, hardwood box, bound with iron bands. The corners of the box had been tipped with iron, as could be seen in one or two places; but the whole thing was so covered with rust, shells, and sand hardened into stone that it was difficult to tell of what it was made. Plainly, the box had been buried in wet sand on the sea¬ shore for many years. It contained a folded sheet of parchment every bit as old and worn as the box itself. On the center of this parchment three lines were drawn, and beneath this in a half-illegible hand the following di¬ rections were written: “From the Great Rock to the Eastward, twelve paces. To the North, four paces, There Digge.” “Isn’t that great!” Roy exclaimed under his breath. If I found that I d spend half my life looking for the Great Rock;’ and the other half digging. It will set Uncle George crazy.” “I sa w it in that curiosity shop in Broadway a dozen times, but it just struck me when we were getting ready for this trip. There’s the thing to play a little joke on Uncle George with, so I bought it,” answered Ned. “I tell you how we will do it,” said Roy. “We’ll slip out tonight and run down to the beach when the tide is out, and bury it in the sand with one corner sticking out, so they will be sure to find it in the morning. The tide will wash our footprints and all the marks of our digging away.” “That’s it exactly,” Ned whispered. When the boy’s attentions turned to the wagon again they found that they were being watched by their two sisters. They were at a loss as to what to do, but finally decided to tell them their plans, and make the girls prom¬ ise to keep the secret and not even tell their mother. They succeeded, as all were ready to see a joke played on Uncle George. Their father and uncle were riding upon the front seat with the driver. Their uncle was a wealthy man with so little to do that he devoted almost his entire time to the 25