Plainfield High School - Hermiad Yearbook (Central Village, CT)

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fi THE Hl-IRMIAD MUD CElizabeth VVi1de-19305 NE warm Sunday afternoon. early in the month of March, Mrs. Vanderbilt was seized with an insatiable desire to visit her sister-in-law, who lived in a neighboring town. Mr. Vanderbilt, however. did not share his wife's desire, as most devoted husbands are supposed to do, for he was blissfully wandering in the proverbial Land of Nod. Upon being awakened by his better half and requested to drive the family to the fraternal mansion he QFOWICCI. blinked, yawned and finally said, Let Teddy do it. Teddy was the oldest son and had just reached the advanced age of fifteen. But Percival dear, you know that Teddy has no driver's license, although he drives as well as you do, remonstrated his wife. Now Percival Vanderbilt regarded Sunday as his day of rest ton the old couchl and did not intend to be persuaded into driving his family anywhere, even if it did happen to be to his sister's house, so he replied, Go by the back road. No one will see you there. If you see a state cop, stop by the side of the road and tell him you are waiting for your father, he said to Teddy. Mrs. Vanderbilt feared that the back road in question would be very muddy for it had rained all the previous day, and she did not hesitate to tell her husband so. But at last all of her misgivings were overcome and she timidly set out with her father and two daughters for the seven mile trin to the neierhborinyr town. Teddy, of course was at the wheel of the family coach, whirh happened in this modern day and age to be a Willys-Knight. The first quarter of the iourney was traversed in safety. Mrs. Vanderbilt gave a sigh of relief and remarked upon the good condition of the road. but, alas! she had spoken too soon. Before them was a large pool of mud. Teddy stepped on the gas and was nearly across it when the ear gave a shudder and groan and then stopped entirely. In vain did Teddy attempt to extricate the noble and valiant Knight. Such mud! A little way up the road was a farmhouse. and imagine the surprise of Mrs. Vanderbilt to see a strong work horse, led by half a dozen small urchins rome galloping down the road. But the attempts of old Dobbin to rr-move the car from its bed in the mire were as fruitless as those of Teddy. The urchins returned the horse to a well-earned rest in the barn and reappeared a few minutes later with a large tractor. It was but a short time after this that the Knirrht and its occupants were once more merrily rolling down the road. But not for long. for another and much worse mud-hole appeared before their eyes. Teddy gritted his teeth and muttered, I won't get stuck this time ! True to his word he plowed the car through the mud although Mrs. Vander- bilt and her father preferred walking through. This performance was repeated every few rods along the well-paved CPU road. Two hours later the party reached its destination. Mrs. Vanderbilt's first act was to call her Sleeping Beauty on the telephone, and order him to come up on the next bus to drive the family home. Mr. Vanderbilt did so and the return journey was safely made via the state road.

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A THE H11RM1An 5 LABOR OMN IA VINCIT CDorothy Mortimer-19325 F GREAT success were possible only to ers . E , D ons o great talents, there would be very little .success in the world. It has been said that talent is quite as much the ability to stick to a thing, as the aptitude to do it better than any . other. It matters not what talent or genius a person may possess, no natural gift can compensate for hard, persistent toil. Th , G I . A . . e ormer has a tireless capacity for patient, hard work, while the latter regards effort as a painful exaction 1 ' l l , anf is a ways looking forward to the time when he may rest. Thomas. A. Edison, speaking of his success said: I had, when I started out, all the patience and perseverance that I have now, but I lacked the experience. Seeing that I had only ten weeks of schooling in all my life, I can say with truth that experience has been my only school. My failures have exceeded my suc- cesses a hundred to one. but even the experience of these failures has been in e difference between the genius and the ordinary person is tlnt th f itself an educator. The Labor omnia vincit, Perserverance overcomes everything. Romans had a maxim, as true today as it was when first uttered: We must not underestimate the value of education and learning. Although not the same kind, there is as much difference between education and learning as there is between character and reputation. Education is the harmonious de- velopment of all our faculties. It begins in the nurserv and goes on at school: but it does not end there. It continues through life. Gibbon says, Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and another, more im- portant, which he gives himself. Learning is the knowledge obtained by study. It is mental capital, in the way of accumulated facts. It should not be inferred that learning is not of the greatest value, or that facts obtained from the proper books are to be ignored. The best investment that a person can make is in books, which are valuable not only for the informa- tion they giveg when they do not instruct they elevate and refine. To the person uhungering and thirstingn for learning and education there are no books more helpful than the biographies of those whom it is well to imitate. Longfellow says: Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime, And departing leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time. Footprints which perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, may take heart again. Great men of science, literature and art have belonged to no exclusive class or rank in life. They have come alike from colleges, workshops and farm-houses -from the huts of the poor and the mansions of the rich. Their very difficulties in many instances would seem to have br-en their best lielDCX'S,.f0l' UIICY CV0kCfl their powers of labor and endurance, and developed talents which nnght other- wise have lain dormant.

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THE HERMIAD 7 TO A PENCIL CFrank Koss-19325 I know not where thou art. I only know Thou rested on my desk, Beautiful and contented, A moment back. And as I turned my head To view the clock, Some heartless wretch Went West with thee. I know not who he was Nor shall I ask Perchance, It may have been The man I stole thee from tie CONCILIATION WITH MR. CHAPMAN fWalter Reese-19303 HOPE Sir, that notwithstanding the Supreme power of your principalship. your exceeding good nature will incline you to some degree of indulgence to- wards your unruly pupils. As I came into your ofnce full of anxiety about the event of my plea and found to my inhnite surprise that your secretary treated me as a royal visitor instead of the humble petitioner that I am, I took this treat- ment as a providential favor and hope secretly to get some more like it. By the granting of this interview you have given us an opportunity to make an earnest plea for the elimination of a menace very detrimental to the pupils of this beloved institution. This menace we speak of is the final examinations. Snre'y examinations are an awful subject or there is none this side of the grave. Sir, the student body, by the practice of these examinations is kept in continued and constant agitation. One of my worthy schoolmates has already submitted a plan by which the exams may be eliminated for some students. He would have such pupils as have a high average for their work throughout the year excused from the examination. This, Sir, I call outrageous, refined policy which has ever been the parent of confusion. Plain good intention, very easily detected from the hrst, is my ideal. You, Sir, have admitted that there are grounds for our plea by carefully considering, as we know you did, that plan: you have gone further, you have given us to believe that the examinations may be eliminated upon the presenta- tion of proof of their deplorable intiuences.