Reading Memorial High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Reading, MA)

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The Pioneer EDITORIAL. The year just past has been an -eve.ntful one for Reading High School. After two years of shortened periods and crowded classrooms we have, this year, carried on our work under con¬ ditions which compared with our for¬ mer circumstances seem almost ideal. The new building which has been so anxiously awaited has proved all that was anticipated. Some may remember with regret the double seats of the old iDuilding, but all must admit that the present method of seating is much more conducive to study. The longer periods also, give more time for work in class and shorten “home lessons,” so that a full year’s work which the greatest effort could barely accomplish dast year, has been performed without •difficulty. The harmonious surround¬ ings and greater facilities not only add to the ease and rapidity of school work but make it pleasanter. We now look back on our old days of trial with pleasure as things past and gone, never to return. We are sorry for the classes which have known our day of :gloom and not our day of gladness, but for ourselves we do not lament. The new building was worth waiting for. School spirit although it is mani¬ fested in every branch of school activi¬ ty, is perhaps, displayed to its best advantage in athletics, for here all that is good or bad in a school usually comes to the surface. We may call attention, therefore, to the attitude of our school in athletic matters, as a thing, not only good in itself, but reflecting the general atmosphere of the school. During the past year the Tight sort of interest has been evident in all our sports, among both players and spectators. All our teams, wheth¬ er representing the school or the dif¬ ferent classes, have been heartily sup¬ ported by the student body and, at the same time, enthusiasm has never de- igenerated into hoodlumism. Fair and igenerous treatment of the opposing learn has been a feature of our con¬ tests with other schools. Almost everyone in the school is a member of the athletic association and by the promptness with which the dues have been paid and the efforts of the students to make the annual concert given for the benefit of this organization a success, the R. H. S. A. A. is, for the first time in its his¬ tory, clear of debt, with a substantial balance in the treasury. Without doubt the influence of our new surroundings has had a good deal to do with bringing these’ things to pass. With the advantage gained by a year’s residence in the new building, we may look forward to accomplishing even more next year than we have this. Interclass basket ball is an innova¬ tion made possible by our gymnasium, which has been available for practice though not for games. By means of the two leagues, one for boys and one for girls, about sixty pupils have been able to take part in this popular sport and the whole school has been furn¬ ished amusement, once a week, throughout the winter. Next year the interest promises to be even greater. It looks as if this form of school ath¬ letics were here to stay. After the town had spent ninety-two thousand dollars for a building there was no money left for interior decora¬ tion and the works of art which we brought with us were scarcely enouigh to relieve the bareness. The work of beautifying the interior of our new structure must, therefore, fall to the lot of others. The greatest interest has been taken in this work by the public-spirited individuals and organi¬ zations of the town. To all who have thus assisted us we wish to extend the hearty thanks of the school. “A sensitive fellow named Paul. Danced one eve at a very swell ball. But he wasn’t the fad So he went crazy mad. Then the ambulance came— and that’s all!” ’10.

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ponfpr PUBLISHED BY STUDENTS OF THE READING HIGH SCHOOL’ SINGLE COPIES FIFTEEN CENTS BOARD OF EDITORS Editor-in-chief - - - Violet B. Robinsont Associate Editor - - - Marion E. Walsh Advisory Editor - - v Nathalie A. Smith Bernice Batchelder ’07 Raymond Moses ’08 Genevieve Bosson ’07 Elizabeth Smith ’09 Ethel Trask ’08 Marion Flint ’09 Oscar Rounds ’08 Charles Field ’19 CONTENTS EDITORIAL ..... AN ATTEMPT THAT FAILED THE SOPHOMORES AS SEEN BY A FRESHMAN ALPHABET OF CLASS ’07 GREAT AUNT ORISSA SCHOOL IN 2000 A. D. VEXATIONS OF THE TELEPHONE EDMUND RANDOLPHE BROWNE QUOTATIONS Ella M. Doyle Dorothy Davies Bernice A. Batchelder A. G. Winship Florence Turner Genevieve Bosson 8 9 9 10 11 12 13 13 16 JUST BIRDS, a poem ATHLETICS . R. H. S. ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BASE BALL RESULTS VERSES SIGNED ’10 . Henry Mullarky 18 18 21 27 Norman Kilby

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The Pioneer AN ATTEMPT THAT FAILED. “At last,” exclaimed Tobias Jinks, “my work is completed. This great and wonderful flying machine is now quite ready for a trip to the Planets. Today I shall bid farewell to my friends. Ah, they will laugh and sneer! They are behind the times. They do not understand the power of the greatest invention of the twentieth century. Let them laugh and sneer and call me a fool if they will! To¬ morrow Tob Jinks will have soared far above this earth, and be king and con¬ queror of Jupiter and Mars.” The morrow came. Rain fell and wind moaned. It was the day that Tobias Jinks was to bid farewell to earthly things. Men, women and chil¬ dren turned out to shout a doubtful “Bon voyage” to the future king of higher realms. At last he made his appearance arrayed for the journey. He stepped into the “Soarer,” holding a blue cotton umbrella in one hand and a lever with the other. A tear glittered sadly in his eye and trailed its course down his brown cheek. Af¬ ter all it was a great irndertaking,— and Tobias loved a warm bed ' and a good dinner. The good parson bade him read his Bible and say his prayers ever y night, and a kind-hearted matron filled his pockets with seed cakes. Tobias pushed the lever ever so little, and the wonderful “Soarer” began to soar. The crowd shrieked their last adieus. Earth and earthly things soon faded out of his sight. A ravenous gale seized the fragile craft and blew the umbrella into space. The explorer charrged his mind at this exciting point and would have returned to resume his lowly position, but fate decreed higher things for him. Upward and upward the little bark flew. The “Soarer” was made to soar, and soar it did, far above the little birds, far above the fleecy clouds. The left and the right, above and below, was cold dark space. Not a star twinkled in the blackness. “I am lost,” groaned Tobias, “I shall go on forever into eternity, — supperless and bedless.” Then there was a migh¬ ty roar! Then a vivid flash of flames,, and a great volume of fire shot down upon him. Tobias opened his eyes. The mellow sunbeams were streaming through his curtains. He was in his own warm bed. “Ah, this is the day I was to start out on my perilous journey,” sighed Tobias. “But Jinks is a wiser man.’” Like a thief in the night he sneaked down the stairs and into the workshop where the innocent “Soarer” awaited his majesty. With a horrible grin on, his face he struck it a blow with the. axe which shattered its slender rig¬ ging to splinters and threads. “If dreams came true,” murmured Tobias, as he gazed on the humble wreck. ETTA M. DOYLE- THE SOPHOMORES AS SEEN BY A FRESHMAN. The Sophomore year in the high school is known as the period of great changes. Old methods of living are discarded as “childish,” “outgrown,’” and things new and strange take their places. It is during this year that the boys make their first appear¬ ance in long trousers, amidst the jeers of their companions. The girls, too, go through the trying process of hav¬ ing their skirts lengthened, and they greatly increase their hair ribbons, perhaps better to fit the enlarged heads that accompany this period of development. A Sophomore girl who appears in public with anything less than three yards loses caste imme¬ diately. The boys begin to adopt individual styles of hair-dressing, which by the time they are Seniors will have de¬ veloped into some distinctive crea¬ tion like that known as the Canty pompadour or the Weston fluff. The girls, too, are initiated into all the