Petersburg High School - Missile Yearbook (Petersburg, VA)

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.

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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

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The Missile 13 IFrottt a CUrnaa Nurap Ypres, France, May 2, 1916. To the Editor of The Third Year Weekly News: Wishing to give you a true conception of the state of affairs now going on, I write you the following. It was almost night, but the roar of the cannon, the shouting of the officers, and the groans of the dying could all be heard, as they are heard every minute, nay, every sec- ond, throughout the whole day. I was sitting on a little camp-stool in one of the hospital camps, and was about to read a letter addressed to one of my patients, when a great thud, as if someone had fallen, drew my attention to the tent entrance; and there lay a young, dying soldier. I went to him immediately, and with hard drawn words he told me that his officer was wounded, and was in need of my atten- tion. He put his hand to his breast, indicating that something was there for me to get, and the next instant his glassy-fixed eyes were closed forever. War nurses should be accustomed to such scenes, but the youth of the boy and his awful death filled my heart with grief and my eyes with tears. I opened his coat, and from his pocket near his breast I took out two papers. One was a crumpled bit of paper, and had these words, “Come to me at once. — Captain Le Grand,” written in blood. The other was a sealed envelope, addressed to the commanding general. I immediately went to officer Le Grand, who was lying in a trench half dead. I got two men to take him to my tent, and after I had given him a stimulant, he told me, in a weak voice, that the sealed document was to be taken to the general. He then fell into an unconscious state. But how was I to send the document to the general ? Every man was needed in the trenches. The only thing to do was to go alone. I left my patients in charge of another nurse, mounted a horse, and flew like wind towards the general’s