Quincy High School - Goldenrod Yearbook (Quincy, MA)

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THE GOLDEN-ROD. in some cases, flirt outrageously, with the phantoms. You may treat anything, from a Viceroy to a Vernacular Paper, with levity, but you must behave reverently toward a ghost. There are in this land ghosts who hide in trees near the road- side till a traveller passes. Then they drop upon his neck and remain. There are also terrible ghosts of women who wander along the pathways at dusk, or hide in the copse near a village, and call seductively. There are ghosts of little children who wail under the stars. The older Provinces simply bristle with haunted houses, and march phantom armies along their main thoroughfares.” Kipling’s ghosts are gloomy ghosts and his haunted houses are mostly Indian bungalows, where terrible ghosts haunt grewsome places and it gives one a “creepy” feeling to read about them. But the ghost of this story is of an en- tirely different kind. Having within its borders such spots as Squantum, where Miles Standish landed with his Indian guide, Squanto; Ma-re or Merry Mount where Thomas Morton held his unholy revels and was banished because of them; Penn’s Hill of Abigail Adams fame ; and many old houses, each one of which has at some time sheltered men whose uames have since become famous :—John Adams and his son John Quincy, John Hancock who married Dorothy Quincy, a niece of the famous Dorothy Quincy of whom Holmes wrote so beautifully, and many, many more,—is it strange that a ghost story has crept in among the numerous interesting tales told of Old Quincy? Mauy years ago there was built, not far from the site of the “ Chappel of Ease,” a modest, two-storied, lean-to-house. In the course of time this house passed from the original owner’s family into other hands. Until about a century ago, it was owned by a man who has left his name attached to several well known places about Quincy. Could the builder have seen his house at that time he would not have recognized it, for an ell had been added here and a bay window there, and, from a small house of perhaps five rooms it was now a mansion of pretentious size. The interior was very quaint with its narrow halls and short, crooked flights of stairs which were dangerously steep, and its many odd nooks and corners. One almost needed a guide in order not to get lost. Just the place that a ghost would choose, however. Men prominent in political history prior to and during the Revolutionary war have lived there, and without doubt many a knotty question has been discussed within the walls of this house. What interesting stories the old house could have told. How night after night, when war rumors were thick, in a closely shuttered room above stairs were gathered hot tempered youths who denounced King George in strongest terms, and soberer men who acted as a restraining hand upon their more firey tempered brothers. Here they discussed the Stamp Act, the Boston Massacre, the tea party, and, when the call to arms came, they said goodbye to the home of their youth, not knowing when, if ever, they would see its hospitable doors again. Here, too, the mother and her daughter daily went about their household tasks with New England thrift, but always with anxiety in their hearts for news of the loved ones on the distant battlefields. And after peace came, what happy times the old place witnessed. The mistress was famous for her hospi- tality and it was seldom that the house was not filled with guests from nearby Boston town and the county hereabout. During this time there had been grow- ing up a maiden who was destined to fill a prominent place in history as a beauty and noted belle. She was a frequent visitor in Quincy and spent many happy

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Vol. IX. Whole No. 72 Quincy, Mass., Dec., 1899. Holiday Extra. No. 2. Estab. 189 1. Zbc (5olbcn=1Rob WILL BE PUBLISHED MONTHLY DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR IN THE INTEREST OF THE QUINGY HIQH SCHOOL . SUBSCRIPTION RATES : jfor tbc year, 50 Cents. » Simile Copies, 10 Cents. For Sale at V. C. Hartwell’s, Quincy, and John Shunk’s, Wollaston. EDITORS: Annie Pinkiiam, ’00; Lucy Luard, ’01. ASSISTANTS: Ruth Hayden, 00: Franklin Nichols, '01- and Julia Roche, ’02. BUSINESS MANAGERS: John Idk, ’00; Charles McGilvary, ’01, and Walter Whittemore. ’02. REPORTERS: John B. Keyes, ’00; Sadie Adams, ’01; Eleanor Nelson, ’02; Mollik Brown, ’03. Entered at the Quincy (Mass.) Post Office as Second Class Matter. EDITORIALS. As the Christmas season passes with its jollity and mirth and our thoughts turn to the New Year, let us include in our reso- lutions, at this fresh start of time, one in the interest of the school. Perhaps the best one will be a strengthened determina- tion to make the school year the most successful.possible. This will require the interest and assistance of everyone in the various phases of the work. The Golden- Rod, the symbol of the school work, should also be included, since its prosperity and success are dependent upon the hearty support of the school. : v v Perfection is the goal of all mankind. It is a mount whose summit no human person has yet reached. The constant elimination of faults and blemishes in the struggle inspires renewed efforts for its attainment. There is an adage, “ Habit is a cable, everyday we weave a thread and soon cannot break it.” If each new thread forms a good habit and the bad ones are gradually severed, a series of cables may soon be made strong enough when fastened to the summit of perfection to sustain us when we slip and to aid us when we climb. Habits are contagious and a time may come when through co- operation and mutual sympathy, cables shall be wrought so strong that mankind shall attain to the Great Goal. .jt .jt A Haunted House. In one of his stories Kipling says: “ Somewhere in the Other World, where there are books and pictures and plays and shop-windows to look at, and thousands of men who spend their lives in building up all four, lives a gentleman who writes real stories about the real insides of people, and his name is Mr. Walter Besant. But lie will insist upon treating his ghosts—he has published half a workshopful of them—with levity. He makes his ghost-seers talk familiarly, and,

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THE GOEDKN-KOD. summers in the old house of this story. “ She was a most lovable example of the old-fashioned girl,” with her dainty fig- ure, deep-brown hair and rosy cheeks. Many hearts both young and old, were captivated by a glance from her laughing brown eyes. At an early age she married a young Bostonian, the playmate of her childhood. They were happy until money troubles broke up their home and compelled the young husband to flee to another country, where he died. For many years his widow lived a secluded life and finally went to live with the fam- ily of a former school.mate. Here she died about half a century ago and her body lies in the old cemetery on the hill near where she had lived. Servants who have lived in the Quincy home within the past forty years claim to have seen her walking in the garden. A gentle woman in life, she was gentle in her visitations, inspiring a feeling of awe rather than one of fear in those who saw her; and perhaps that is why it was not known until recently that the place had been called haunted. One old man says, “she was a bonny lady, although sad beyond words, and always dressed in the habiliments of woe.” Why did she haunt this Quincy home ? Was there some secret left untold at her death ; did she hide some of her treasures in the old home; or, were the years spent there such happy ones that she was loth to part from the memory of them and returned to live again the merry days of her youth ? This we may never know, for these events are fast fading into oblivion. v A Winter in the Northwest. Several years ago a party of young men, after graduating from an Eastern High School, decided to spend a few months on a farm before engaging in fur- ther study. Accordingly, the latter part of July found them enjoying the novelties of farm life on a ranch in the southeastern part of South Dakota. The ranch was situated on the uplands near the Missouri river and comprised five hundred acres of land. The buildings were a brick residence, half a mile from which were a large barn and a building occupied by the farm hands. The boys found much to occupy their minds and August and early September passed rapidly away and then came the Indian summer, the most enjoyable season of the year in the Northwest. The pleas- ant weather continued until well into October and it had been so warm, the far- mers had taken no thought of preparing for the winter. The pumpkins and squashes dotted the fields here and there with patches of yellow, and very little corn had been harvested. But all this unusually pleasant weather was the calm before the storm. On the fifteenth of October the worst blizzard known in the history of the Northwest swept across Dakota. The snow fell con- tinually for three days and nights and the thermometer registered far below zero. During the storm our party was confined to the house, but when the snow ceased falling they ventured out on snow shoes. They found the snow averaged eight feet on the level, and on reaching the barn discovered on one side, a drift measuring twenty-eight feet in height. At the front of the barn, they found all the farm hands digging at a large drift which cov- ered the pig pen. The breath of the pigs had melted numerous holes up through the snow, and through these an occasional squeal could be heard. The boys obtained shovels, and with their help the animals were soon liberated. Those above were safe, but the lower ones had been smoth- ered. A number of sheep perished in the same manner. This is but one instance