Port Huron High School - Student Yearbook (Port Huron, MI)

Page 13 text:

President s Message ELSIE PRESSPRICH, Vice-President, ’17 Every student’s problem at present is how to be efficient. Consciously or unconsciously we are asking ourselves “How can I make the most oi myself at this crucial time?” We should not wish to be great for the sake of our own personal gains, but for the sake of usefulness io our country and the world. If this war goes on and our men are called to the front, many of our schoolmates will be with them, not only as soldiers but also as nurses. Before they will be ready to go, there will be a great deal of training necessary. Training is very important but habit is more so. Shakespeare makes Hamlet say that “Habit is a second nature.” Albert Beveridge says, “Rules for good work fail without good habits. Habit is the most powerful influence in human life.” More men fail in their undertakings, more neglect of public duty re- sults, more bad work of any kind is produced by bad habits than by any othen cause. No man with bad habits can do much work of any kind, or any work of a good kind. It is our own fault if we are not at our best. Never blame anybody else for your own misfortunes. Occasionally there is such a thing as misfortune that seems to follow us, but, generally speaking, we are the architects of our own failures. In one of Maeterlinck’s wonderful stories lie tells of a powerful man of the middle ages who conceived great plans and executed them, but always with difficulty. Erequently he almost failed, and succeeded only by super- human effort. Finally he found that a secret enemy was always working against his most careful plans, neutralizing his most strenuous e xertions. As the years passed, he determined to find and destroy this enemy. Life was not worth living with this hidden foe forever encircling him with difficulties. One evening as he was out walking, he saw another man approaching him. By that strange instinct which warns us of danger, he knew that this man was his lifelong enemy, and he resolved to kill him. As he approached, he ob- served that this man wore a mask. But conscious that this was the antago- nist of his life, he said, as they met: “You are the man w r ho from my youth till now has been pursuing me. thwarting me, almost defeating me. I mean to kill you, but I will give you a chance for your life. Draw and defend your- self.” The stranger said, as he drew his sword ,“I am at your service, but first see who it is that you would fight.” He removed his mask, and the man stood before himself. This fable is true of every one of us. Where you think an enemy has injured you, look closely, and nine times out of. ten you will find yourself in some evil guise, but oftenest you will find yourself in the form of your habits. Just how efficient we have become the future alone can reveal. But may the class of 1917 continue unceasingly in their efficiency formation, so as not only to be able to acquire the good habits, but also to eliminate the bad ones or in the words of the poet to “know ourselves.” 9

Page 12 text:

Program of Commencement Baccalaureate Sermon CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH RALPH MACLAY CRISSMAN, D. D. JUNE io, 1917 Class Day AUDITORIUM, 3:00 P. M. JUNE 13, 1917 Commencement AUDITORIUM, 8:00 P. M. JUNE 13, 1917 Class Banquet HARRINGTON HOTEL, 6:30 P. M. JUNE 14, 1917 Senior Hop AUDITORIUM JUNE 15, 1917

Page 14 text:

The Crystal Sphere DOROTHY DUNCAN, ’17 There was a new crescent moon in the west which, with the star above it, made an agreeable oriental combination. In the haze over bay and river enough rose and purple remained to veil the awakening glitter of the city, sprawling supine between river, sound amt sea. And its incessant monotone pulsated, groaning, dying, ceaseless, inter- minable in the light-shot depths of its darkening streets. The sky-drawing-room windows of the Countess Zimma were all wide open, but the only light in the room came from a crystal sphere poised on a tripod. It had the quality and lustre of moonlight, but I could not find out its source, for no electric wires were visible, and one could move the tripod about the room. The crystal sphere itself appeared to be luminous, yet it ' remained per- fectly transparent, whatever the source of its silvery phosphorescence. As usual the Countess was curled up by the open window among her silken cushions, one smooth little gem-laden hand playing with the green jade god, her still dark eyes, w hich slanted a little, fixed dreamily upon infi- nite distance. No one ever seemed to know just what she was looking at even when she turned her dark eves on them or on her crystal sphere cradled upon its slender tripod. Some one brought the tripod with its crystal ball and set it down in the middle of the room. As its mild ray ' s fell on the marble basin of a tiny foun- tain, I heard Zimma asking me what I wished to hear. ‘‘Of all the visions which have passed before your eyes within the depths of that crystal globe ’ said I — “of all the histories of men and women which, seated here in this silent, silk-hung place, I desire to hear only the fates of my P. H. H. S. class- mates whom I graduated with eight years ago.” She glanced about the room and smilingly began: “Don’t ask me how I know what these people are doing; that is my con cern, not yours. Don’t ask me how I know who they are; that is my affair Nor how I seem to be perfectly acquainted with their past histories ; for that is part of my profession. And now I will tell you all I know of the class of ’17’’ and, gazing into the depths of the crystal globe, she began in a low musi- cal voice : “Erwin Weaver is making himself famous in Shakespearean plays and is greeted as the actor of the twentieth century. In private life, he is happily married and has a large family. Florence Jones is at present in charge of armor cataloguing in the Metropolitan Museum but she wears a large diamond solitaire on the fourth finger of her left hand. Helen Manuel gave up re- search work in fossil bones to marry a young lawyer of Sarnia, Out. Marshall Draper and Claire Tripp are officers in the Marine Corps, both having joined but a few months after graduation. Florence Gibbs and Grace Donaldson are doing settlement work in Chicago this year under the direction of Anna Camercu. Anna has been there for six years and is happily married to a Methodist minister. Also in Chicago are Thomas Reid, professor of physics in the University, and Max Colter, popular model for “.Society Brand Clothes.” 10