Petersburg High School - Missile Yearbook (Petersburg, VA)

Page 10 text:

6 TEE MISSILE one edge of which was ragged, containing the following, writ- ten in a shady, delicate handwriting; “Dig up the grave and bury bones beside me in the old family grave-yard. A. W.” Everyone wondered why she wrote this just before dying of heart-failure as the doctors called it. Strange indeed ! How- ever, the unusual request was complied with and the bones were dug from the lonely grave and buried beside her in the family grave-yard. Around the neck of the skeleton was found a golden chain and a locket engraved with the two let- ters, “A. W.,” inside of which was a fragment of note or letter and on it was written in a delicate hand-writing the simple word, “Come.” He came not; she went to him instead. So the grave yielded up the secret of the dead. Charles Edgar Gilliam, ’ 12. LOYALTY. He who would a ruler be. Let him first this lesson gain; Loyal service pays the fee. For the Prince, as King to reign. Though we may not all be kings. All may make this wisdom fit ; Servants faithful in small things Masters will be, if they’ve wit. This truth, both for slaves and kings. Find in Book the best of any; “Faithful thou in little things. Makes the ruler over many.” F. P. Brown, llf..

Page 9 text:

THE MISSILE him his ebbing life; but he failed and his spirit slipped his grasp and fled to its God. The private looked upon the peace- ful face of his dead commander and, then, turned his eyes toward the enemy. They were nearly upon him ; he turned and fled. Ere he had gone a dozen steps, a whizzing bullet struck him down and the secret of the dead lay with the dead. The next day a nameless cross of wood was raised above the fresh grave of a nameless hero, and Nature set about to heal the bruises of w ' ar. Man in a few lioims had destroyed the beauty of a place that Nature had been centuries in decorating. After a few years, grass and wild flowers adorned the lonely grave in the calm, peaceful dell ; and the brook murmured a dirge for the dead. iy. jfc ?{C Years passed. Again the shady dell was broken by the sound of human voices, and a group of merry children scampered among the sun-patched grass, picking flowers and laughing aloud in their childish glee. With them was a woman • — a v oman who must at one time have been beautiful. Their maiden aunt set about preparing lunch while these care-free children rushed off for another game of hide-and-seek. She was Avalking across to the little stream to get some water when, suddenly, her eyes fell upon the loAvly mound. She looked and sighed. Then brushing av ay the tears that forced themselves into her eyes, she moved on with sunken head, tov ard the babbling brook. Something irresistible, however, drew her back to the side of the grave. As she went, she tore a piece of paper from a little book that she always carried with her, and wrote something upon it. For a moment she stood there, crumpling the paper in her hand. The forgotten youth rushed in her face ; she was beautiful again. Suddenlv she fell forward across the grave and, when the horrified children returned, they found their aunt dead. Older people were hastily summoned and they found in the tightly clasped hand of the dead woman a piece of paper.

Page 11 text:

THE MISSILE A Wit nf Ifistnrg OHN Randolph, one of the most brilliant men that Virginia has produced and given to her country, and of whom she is justly proud, was born at Cawson’s, near City Point. ’Twas during the “Campaign in the South,” of the Revolutionary War. that General Phillips, with two thousand British troops, landed at City Point, and burned the Randolph house. John Randolph’s father was away at the time ; but, when Mrs. Randolph saw the British coming, she dispersed her negroes, and taking her son, John Randolph, only one week old, she rode alone on horseback to “Mattoax,” where some of her kinsmen lived. There followed a long, anxious, and weary night. Several glows in the sky told the story of pillaging and plundering b) ' - the British. Mrs. Randolph, with her little son in her arms, watched for signs of the home she had left being ruined. When a dull glare was seen over the sky in the direction of City Point, she understood its purport. After the war the Randolphs made their home at “Mat- toax,” and here it was that John Randolph lived until he went to school at “Bizarre,” opposite Farmville. John had brothers, but the stories of their lives are short and pitifully sad, for not one of them was mentally strong. Mr. and Mrs. Randolph lived the rest of their lives at “Mattoax,” and their graves, together with that of a companion. Miss Martha Hall, lie side by side in a little plot in Ettrick. The epitaph on Miss Martha Hall’s tombstone is very singular and interesting; “Quern Hymen sprevit, Phoebus Caritesque colere.” The meaning, I have no doubt, is clear to all High School girls ; “Whom Hymen spurned, Apollo and the Graces courted,” which is simply this, that, although she was both pretty and attractive, she never knew the troubles of married life and died in the happy lot of a spinster A recent discussion as to the reason why Mrs. Randolph’s grave is in Ettrick has brought out the above facts. A. Riddle