Quincy High School - Goldenrod Yearbook (Quincy, MA)

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THE GOLDEN-ROD 7 When Cupid Rules an Anarchist On Thursday, the twelfth of February, 1910. John Annislev was taking the short-cut across the -common. Suddenly his keen eves spied some- thing in the gutter. He looked down and saw, that it was a bit of silver like one part of a half- dollar cut in fourths. On it were mystic signs and a small red spot which gave it a rather grewsome appearance. Looking down again to see if there was anything else connected with the bit of silver, he saw a crumpled paper with writing on it, which he picked up. On the paper written in a sprawling hand was the following: Dear brother Shwartz: Here is the bit of silver which answers the pur- pose of a passport. Don’t lose it, for without it you can’t get in. When you reach the house, 23 Worcester Square, the street door will be open. (Jo straight on through the hall, then to the left, and straight on: and that will bring you to a small stairway. Go up and you will be in a ■circular room. Show your passport to the man in black who will take you to the three whose parts fit into yours. Give them the pass letters 0 B I R and all will be well. Your fellow worker in the glorious cause Ivan Rabinowskv. P. S. Be there before 4 A. M., as the state ■senate will convene at 9. Annislev s amazement at this letter was un- bounded What should he do? Tell the police? No, he had not much to tell for the letter might mean anything. Finally the daring spirit in him conquered and he decided to go himself. Next morning he presented himself at No. 23 Worcester Square at the unearthly hour of quar- ter to four A. M. He followed the directions of the letter and showing the bit of silver was led to a table at which three people sat. bearing the pieces which fitted his. He observed his group closely. There was a fat woman who talked in a wheezy whisper of the “cause” and plied him with questions. The other man at the table was. as he sup- posed. the Ivan Rabinowskv of the letter and intercepted the questions on the ground that he was just let in to the society. The second woman seemed scarcely more than a girl and asked Rabinowskv to introduce him to.her. This. Rabinowskv did. to the girl’s sat- isfaction but not to Annislev’s. for while he learned her name was Valda Gerard he did not know his own first name. Valda arose and called the meeting to order and gave the rules which governed the drawing These were, first, each group should choose a representative. The group whose representative drew the red ball should have charge of the bomb. Next, the youngest one in each group, that is. the newest to the society should place the bomb. Horrors! at the drawing, Annislev’s group drew the red ball; his was the task of placing the bomb. He dared not refuse; refusal meant death for disclosure of a secret society is not wished by its members. He heartily wished he had kept out of trouble. With the infernal machine in his grip and with a heavy heart, he walked toward Beacon street. The bomb was set to explode in half an hour and he did not understand the workings enough to avert the coming catastrophe. Suddenly he heard a peal of laughter. Turn- ing around he saw Valda hurrying toward him. At that moment he became somewhat peevish and asked what was so uproariously funny. At this she answered. “Come sit down and I’ll tell you.” “I can't though I’d like to,” he said, “for this thing is going off in exactly four and three- quarters minutes.” and a woebegone expression came over his face. “Foolish! foolish!” laughed Valda. “Did you think that that was the real bomb that you have? I knew you came for a lark and so I put water for nitro-glyccrine in yours and Ivan has the right one.” Just at that moment, there arose a great com- motion. Policemen both mounted and on foot, hurried hither and thither. Soon the cry of “Down with the anarchists.” could be distin- guished.

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6 THE GOLDEN-ROD IN MEMORIAM WILLIAM HAROLD PROUT, 'U EDWINA RANDLETT SWEETLAND, '13 EDWIN WILLIAMS BEAL, '12 RALPH ELWIN WEYMOUTH, ’IS

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8 THE GOLDEN-ROD Annisley turned quickly to Valda. She paled slightly and tremblingly pointed to the police- men hurrying Ivan away. “Are you in any danger? he whispered to the girl. “No! We never inform against each other.” she said “and we are too well concealed to he found out by the detective force. Just the same. I’ve played my last game with a government. I shall leave the society.” Annisley caught her in his arms. Let’s start a little government of our own, dear,” he whispered, “and everything it does will be under your supervision and you shall rule as queen.” The wee word that meant so much would have been unheard to a third person but Annisley heard and his heart sang for joy. Now he says that Friday the 13th, is his luckiest day. Beatrice Costello, ’13. He Lecture given by Principal of the Malden High School at Shorthand Convention, May 1, 1912 Students, friends, and teachers: I wish first to express my kind appreciation of having the great pleasure of being before you this morning at the ninth annual convention of the Chandler Shorthand. In my mind there is nothing more inspiring than an audience of young people ready to go out for their life work. There is all the youthful enthusiasm of joy before you. Many of you as you will progress in your profession will come in contact with men of great affairs, men who are of great usefulness in the business world. In the case of one man whom I know, he first started out as a mere office boy, later lie went to a business college and received a position as a shorthand writer, then from that position as stenographer, he became secretary of the state of New York, and later lie was made postmaster general. I shall now bring back to your mind many facts which you have heard over and over again, although there is no copyright on what I shall say. I want to emphasize many of those things as they appear to the business man. First is the one that is of most importance, and that is spell- ing. Now absolute accuracy does not mean a standing of A or B. or 95 per cent, it means 100 per cent. I)o not be satisfied with one per cent less than 1(10. This is not the standing for spell- ing alone but for all other work you undertake. It does not mean to spell nine words out of eveery ten right, it means the entire ten. You must be able to spell all your words correctly in your typewriting, for if you take a position, and spell words wrong, that position is far above you. Always have a dictionary near at hand, and when you are doubtful, do not be ashamed to use it. Try not to have as many doubtful cases the sec- ond time you visit the dictionary as you had the first. 1. myself, think a good plan is to make a list of words which you have had to look up more than twice, and learn them so thoroughly that you will never as long as you live, find it necessa- ry to look them up. The next thing I would like to say to you is just as important, and that is on punctuation. Thousands of dollars have been lost in the Tinted States because of the misplacement of one comma. There is one. or I may say two marks of punctuation which all should know and they are the comma and the semicolon. We all know where a period is placed, and also where a ques- tion mark is placed, but we all do not know where the comma and the semicolon are placed. I have found it a very valuable exercise to take a page of a magazine, or a book, and go over that page noticing where and how the marks of punctua- tion are used. Another important thing is the use of the par- agraph. It is a matter of great importance to have a paragraph well arranged. The idea is not a guess to get it half right, but to work it