Quincy High School - Goldenrod Yearbook (Quincy, MA)

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THE GOLDEN-ROD Fhe New Building “Off with the old and on with the new” is a thought that fills teachers and pupils of the Ouincy High School with no feelings of regret, but rather with anticipations of great happiness. Seven years of crowding without proper accommo- dations for recitations or for study have tended to kill those finer emotions which endear a school building to a community and to replace them with an indifference that is unfortunate, to say the least. The time of awakening however is at hand. Dreams arc coming true. The foundations are laid and the rising walls give promise that soon class and recitation rooms will be provided for all, and that corridors and laboratories will no longer be used for purposes other than those for which they were intended. The new building with its twenty-three class, rooms, three laboratories, three commercial rooms, three manual training rooms, drawing room, science lecture room, library, reception room, teachers' rooms, office, gymnasium, lunch counter and assembly hall will give Quincy a high school building consistent with its educational reputation and as fine as any in New England. The new class-rooms are larger than the old and will accommodate forty-nine pupils each — making it possible to use the front of the rooms for recitation and the back for study. Each room will be well-lighted, heated, ventilated, and equipped with book cases and closets. The com- mercial rooms are large enough to accommodate regular divisions provided with business desks. The new laboratories have ample supply and apparatus rooms, and will be used for the chemi- cal, physical and biological sciences. An adjoin- ing room will be furnished to meet the needs of demonstration work in science classes. No longer will it be necessary to use the chemical laboratory as a kitchen for the cooking classes. In the basement there will be room for domestic science, with a neighboring lunch counter pro- viding an opportunity for the application of the useful knowledge gained. The manual training rooms and gymnasium will open the way for developing the bodies as well as the minds of the pupils. In the gymna- sium, round shoulders, narrow chests and bad postures will be corrected and young men and women taught to walk, stand and sit correctly. In the manual training rooms, the hands will be trained to express what the mind sees and to obey accurately what the will dictates. Finally the assembly hall with accommodations ample for a thousand pupils, will provide a place where the whole school can assemble for general exercises, or where classes can meet for special purposes.

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THE GOLDEN - ROD half the kitchen, and without delay Don pro- ceeded to ransack the shelves, closets, and every nook and corner that could be found, and was re- warded by the finding of a small rusty screw- driver which he pocketed. “Not much here, Joe. Let’s see the next room.” Opening a door on the right we saw a room which had served as a parlor, but now was bare and dismal. As Don was leading, he first spied the closet, and again began a keen search for anything that might have been left behind. As for myself, I had no part in the search, and took good care to leave all the doors open behind me, so that I could easily gain the door by which we entered, and I walked on tip-toe, listening to the least sound. Yet, I wasn’t afraid of ghosts! “ Don, you would make a good detective.” “ Thanks, Joe. Say, you look very pale.” “ I feel sick, Don, I would like to go out into the fresh air.” “Come, come, don’t show the white feather Joe,” the lad said smiling. “ Now we’ll go down cellar.” My heart sank within me as he opened the door leading to the depths. Down we went, the rickety stairs ready to collapse at any moment. Such a cellar—if it could be called one! for the base of the huge chimney formed a small circular track which served as a cellar. Don had an idea there was money hidden there, and was poking out several stones of the cellar wall in hopes of finding some. I was examining a large jug, which, judging by the odor coming from it, had contained hard- cider. I was trying to put on a brave appearance, examining the jug, and was about to put it down when a scurrying, creaking noise reached my ears. I let the jug drop and it smashed into a hundred fragments. I grew pale as death. Don came softly over and even he was pale. He was the first to break the silence. “ We must get out of here, Joe.” Without another word he ascended the stairs while I followed at his heels. Reaching the kitchen, we found the noise was coming from up- stairs. “ I’ll dare you to go up, Joe.” “ Come on and skidoo, Don. I have had enough of this house. I will have to take nerve- tonic for a year.” “ You are a squealer, Joe. I’ll lead, if you are afraid.” To be called a “squealer” was more than I could endure. “Go ahead, I’ll follow.” Shaking in every limb I ascended the stairs after him. The noise was plainly heard now, and the door at the top of the stair-way was ajar. Don poked his head in and pulled it out quickly. I thought at first I perceived a smile on his face, but if there was one, it quickly vanished. “ Look in, Joe,” he said in a scared voice. The sight I saw I shall never forget. Fully a hundred, yes fully two hundred rats were holding a mass meeting. A loud laugh escaped my lips, and the rats stopped their meeting. Two hun- dred pairs of eyes were directed towards the door, and in another moment two hundred rat- tails were disappearing from view. On turning towards Don, I was surprised to find that he had disappeared. I heard a foot- step in the next room and went in. Don was procuring a small mantel-piece with the aid of his screw-driver. His face wore a serious look almost as if he were ashamed. “What’s the matter, Don? ” I asked. “ Not much, Joe, but to think we were frightened by rats! ” “ You were not frightened, Don. It was I who was frightened.” “Yes, Joe, to all appearances I wasn’t, but within I was frightened.” “ Well, Don, no one shall know how we were frightened by rats, or our thrilling experience in the Haunted House.” c j AS ADVERTISED. Annual sale nowon; don’t go elsewhere to be cheated, come in here. A lady wants to sell her piano as she is going abroad in a strong iron frame. Wanted: By a respectable girl, her pas- sage to New York, willing to take care of chil- dren and a good sailor. Lost: Near Highgate archway, an umbrella belonging to a gentleman with a bent rib and a bone handle. Mr. Brown, furrier, begs to announce that he will make up gowns, capes, etc., for ladies out of their own skins. — Ex.

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THE GOLDEN-HOD Alumni Notes Saroent School of physical B ucatton In the fall of 1904 the new Sargent Gym- nasium was opened which is in every way adapted to the needs of a modern school of physical education. The new building has two independent gym- nasiums, shower baths, several locker rooms and a gallery for special apparatus. On the middle floor between the two gymnasiums is an assembly hall, library, laboratory, lecture rooms and a “ rest room.” The work of the school is divided into a three years’ course. The first year is the Freshman year; the second, the Junior, and the last, the Senior year. In the Freshman year the girls are trained in the lighter gymnastics including free exercises, Delsartc movements, chest weights, Indian clubs and dumb bells, in the elementary athletics and heavy gymnastics, also military marching which is a feature. The theory during the first year is difficult and important, as it forms the fundamental basis of the theory of the next two years. The course consists of anatomy, physiology, histology and a brief study of physics and chemistry. In the junior year follow the more complicated drills in Indian clubs, wands and dumb-bells. Intermediate heavy gymnastics on the parallel bars, German horse-back and horizontal bar, are performed by the Juniors in excellent form. The theory is also advanced. The pupil is taught how to make a physical examination and how to analyze any form of exercise. The voice is cul- tivated in such a way that it may be used in long continued efforts without fatigue, especially in giving the commands necessary in all forms of gymnastics. The Senior is taught how to teach physical training in almost all its branches. She must be able to instruct a class from the simpler forms of free exercises to the most difficult movements of fencing. She receives practice in teaching corrective, medical and heavy gymnastics with instruction as to the best methods of assisting pupils. The Senior can diagnose disease and can give one the progress and decline of physical education from the Greek and Roman to the athlete of the present day. The Freshmen and Juniors look upon the wise Senior as a “star” in esthetic dancing, “ dandy ” in swinging clubs and “great” in fencing. If anything in her theory puzzles the little “ Freshy ” let her run to the noble Senior who is as wise as an M. D. and her troubles are over. Hut, with work we must have play and there’s always a time for play at old Sargent’s. Basket ball is played throughout the year. Great is the enthusiasm when the teams come out for a class game. In the autumn and spring tennis is an amusement on Jarvis Field. A class tournament causes much excitement. Every year an athletic meet is conducted by the Seniors and here the class rivalry is very evident. Occasionally a real dance is given in the evening. The lower gym. is a fairyland decorated with Japanese lanterns and flags from the different colleges with a huge Sargent banner over all. The swimming tank opens in the early spring. On a hot May day the following is a familiar scene : Swimming Tank. Water,—three or four feet deep. In it,—one-half dozen girls eating ice cream from paper boxes. Costumes,—wet bathing suits. So from October to June one hundred Sar- gent girls are growing both mentally and physi- cally, preparing themselves in the theory and practice of physical training in its broadest acceptation with the purpose of teaching this much neglected branch of education. Lois Elmer Williams, ’04. TfClellesle It is almost impossible to try to give any idea of Wellesley in a few words, for it is so large itself, and so many-sided, that if I once get started on such a subject, I can go on forever. There is no reason for speaking of the academic side of college, for one can learn that from the catalogue, but w'hat one cannot learn from any book or catalogue, are the good times, the free and easy, informal social “events,” where the girls can meet in that sweet good fellowship, which is one of the strongest tics of college life. “ The Barn Swallows ” is the most representative social organization, for this includes every girl in college, who is willing to pay the small fee re- quired. The meetings are held in a huge barn,