Petersburg High School - Missile Yearbook (Petersburg, VA)

Page 17 text:

The Missile 11 ®tr Sogpr’0 Itatt to Prtprafattrg Iftgl; rl;ool r all times a person should make himself as agreeable as possible, and especially when visiting strangers, because they are unaccus- tomed to that person ' s habits and eccen- tricities and usually judge him by the im- pressions made upon them. In this respect. Sir Eoger is in the zenith of his talents, as he is one of the most agreeable and entertaining people that have ever come under my observation. One incident in particular I will re- late, to show how favorable an impression he made upon the pupils of the Petersburg High School, total stangers to him, as he had never seen them before, nor has he ever since. On account of some delicate transactions in mining stock, in which Sir Eoger was deeply concerned, he was forced to cross over to New York and personally interview his Wall Street broker. I was cordially invited to accom- pany him, but was unfortunately detained here in London. Therefore I was not on hand to witness personally the recep- tion of Sir Eoger at the High School, but I received an ac- count of it later verbatim from Sir Eoger himself. We were walking in his garden one evening when I received the fol- lowing account of his experiences there. “After completing the transactions successfully,” went on Sir Eoger, “I decided to visit different cities of the United States to satisfy my curiosity as to what I had heard and to broaden my knowledge, as it was my first trip to America. Accordingly, I stopped at Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington, Eichmond, and hosts of other cities, but was most pleased with Petersburg, which, by its quaintness, re- minded me more than any of the others of our English towns. “Arriving there one afternoon, I arranged for my board and lodging at a hotel, and then proceeded to survey the

Page 16 text:

10 The Missile Spring liaoito far as I can tell, no one has been able, as yet, to describe the witchery of the woods in Spring. But the fact remains that there is such a thing. Just go into any wood dur- ing the month of April and see for your- self, Perhaps, it may seem a little damp and dark at first to unaccustomed eyes, but before you know it, you are scrambling around over the rocks looking for ferns. The tiny pink arbutus trailing upon the ground gives you the first feeling of joy, and by the time you have found Jack-in-the-pulpits and lady slippers, you are completely en- chanted. Three lazy lizzards basking in the sun and blink- ing their funny little eyes scurry away at your approach. And on every side the songs of many birds can be heard, and the blended fragrance of flowers and new earth floats to you. The bright sunbeams finding their way through the fresh new leaves dance along until they glance back into your eyes from the little stream on whose bank you are standing. The murmur of this brook now swollen by the spring rains seems to call you on. And you follow along its twisting bank, every minute some new joy. Here you s a diminutive red squirrel on an old log chattering away to his mate, who is hidden up in a nearby tree, and there you see a clump of white and pink azalia beckoning to you to come and gather it. But you follow your little guide the brook, until it turns traitor and leads you from the joy of the woods out into the open again. Franobs Tucker Bryan, ’ 18 . We laugh at teachers’ jokes. No matter what they be. Not because they’re funny. But because it’s policy.

Page 18 text:

12 The Missile town. All the various places of interest were visited, and at last I decided to pay a call at the High School. As I ascended the steep incline to the front entrance, I noticed several scores painted on the walks and elsewhere — presum- ably cricket scores, as we used to do likewise when I was at Eton in my younger days. The building itself was a ram- shackled affair and looked as if it were on the verge of collapse. But I will pass over the unkept condition of the exterior and interior and go on to my reception by the stu- dents of that institution. “Just as I arrived, I met an officer of the school — the Superintendent, I believe — who informed me that the morn- ing assembly was then in progress, and he would be delighted and so would the pupils, if I would care to give them a talk. I acquiesced and proceeded to follow him up three flights of rickety steps to the assembly hall, where the students were packed like sardines in a can. Although noting all these signs of lack of improvement, I wisely refrained from discoursing upon them, as I realized that remarks of that kind were not suitable to the occasion. So I rambled on about the harmless- ness of painting the cricket scores on all conspicuous and avail- able place around the school and gave some humorous inci- dents of my courses at Eton and Oxford. Evidently I had struck the right chord in the students composition, so I en- larged upon my theme and broadened it out. I showed that petty mischief was harmless, but that, if overdone, it would lead to disgrace and ruin. My speech was not dry and un- interesting as those of professional reformere are, but was full of ‘pep,’ as they say over there, and quite entertaining. “When I concluded my remarks, the pupils unanimously clapped and applauded me until I thou ght I could feel the building begin to totter and fall. This tends to show, as I have often told you, that when a person is among strangers, he must not talk of disagreeable things or keep aloof from the company, but must discourse on interesting and appro- priate topics that are familiar to both the speaker and the audience.” Montgomery C. Jaokson, Jr., ’17.