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

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Page Six The Pioneer EDI TORI ALS Special interest is awakened lately on the subject of pride in our grounds, public as well as private. This sub¬ ject is a very appropriate one owing to the time of the year and “clean-up” week. Many towns and cities set aside a special week called clean-up week. Let the pupils of Reading High School take especial pride in the grounds of the school as well as their homes and be careful in crossing the lawns and making “short-cuts.” If this is kept in mind constantly the grass will soon grow up in those paths. Care should be taken in dropping papers on the grounds. Reading is one of the clean¬ est towns and let each one of us help to keep it so. Man must give expression to that which is within him. He must have a satisfying outlet for his thoughts and ideas. He must show himself. Therefore, it was not by any studied method or artificial effort that the es¬ say was produced. It materialized of itself, for it is in the essay that we see the man. The substance of his stories, his poems, his argumentative creations may be borrowed, put on, forced and entirely apart from the true man; but in his essay we find his rea¬ sonings, his opinions, his likes and dislikes, his inner self. And so it happens that we have as . many different kinds of essays as there are different kinds of men. All I essays must have but this in common: they must be sincere, unreserved and unconventional. We have the humor¬ ous essay, bubbling up clear and fresh from the mind of the man who does not care to mutilate his humor in at¬ tempting to satisfy the restrictions of other forms of literature. He writes it just as it comes—enjoyable, and in the truest sense, his own. We have the thoughtful, stately essay, carefully pre¬ pared by the man who is naturally a deep and logical thinker. We have the original and ingenious essay, from the man with a quick mind and a keen perception. And again, just as the way men think is influenced by the cus¬ toms and environment of their day, so

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uJlu v pnttm Published four times a year by the pupils of the Reading High School. Entered as second class matter January 14, 1913, at the Post Office, Reading, Mass., under the act of March 3, 1879. MAY NUMBER, 1916 VOL. XXIV TEN CENTS A COPY no. 3 Utarh of iEMtora Editor-in-Chief Grace J. O’Kelly Business Managers Ernest MacDougall, ’17 Kilburn Holt, T7 Stewart Tuttle, ’17 Sporting Editor Chesley Stevens, ’16 Advisory Editors Miss Helen Abbott Miss Frances Brooks Alumni Editor Helen Bailey, ’15 Associate Editors Hilda Symonds, ’16 Marion Gillingham, ’17 Leland Graff, ’16 Dwight Gray , ’17 Mildred Partelow, ’18 Radcliffe Oxley, ’17 Francis Shepardson, ’18 Doris Mackenzie, ’19 Oh for a booke and a shadie nook Either in doors or out; With the grene leaves whisp’ring overhead. Or the streete cryes all about. Where I may reade all at my ease, Both of the new and old; For a jollie goode booke whereon to looke Is better to me than golde. —Old English Song

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The Pioneer Page Seven we have the balanced sentences and the five and six syllable words in the essays of those men who looked to Bacon or Taylor or Johnson as their patterns; and we have the lighter and easier trend in the most of the maga¬ zine essays of today. Essays, then, should be read, stud¬ ied and written as though they were printed representations of men’s minds. One should read an essay rather hasti¬ ly, using the text as though he himself were thinking or reasoning the con¬ tents. One should study an essay re¬ membering that he is reading the au¬ thor and not his essay only. And lastly, one should write an essay free¬ ly, informally, and confidentially; re¬ membering that a stiff essay is one of the least readable forms of litera¬ ture, while an easily-written essay is one of the most readable forms of literature. For then and only then, are essays what they are intended to be. The annual minstrel show was suc¬ cessfully given by members of the Girls’ Glee Club and Boys’ Glee Club with our already famous endmen, “Dot” Currell, Ruby Forbes, “Tom” Burns, “Ed” Quinlan, Bob MacKenna and Herbert . Esterberg, under the coaching of Mr. Howe. The High School orchestra played under the di¬ rection of Miss Young. The show was given for two nights and was a finan¬ cial success. The Girls’ Glee Club gave their an¬ nual concert Friday, May 19. The date came a little late this year. The pictures of the minstrel show have arrived and may be obtained at the office. A new department under Debating is printed in this issue. A luncheon was held, thru con¬ sent of Mr. Torre, at the Reading Spa on the evening before the Se¬ nior Play. Mary Robinson, Melvin Parsons, Chesley Stevens, Irma Mac- Davitt, Erric Turner, Harry Sawyer and Grace O’Kelly were present. (This is a memorable evening for the actors.) The luncheon was enjoyed and the actors adjourned to meet later at a long dreaded dress rehearsal. The Senior Play “She Stoops to Conquer,” was successfully given un¬ der the coaching of Miss Abbott and Miss Young. The cast was: Squire Hardcastle. .. Melvin Parsons Mrs. Hardcastle . Grace O’Kelly Tony Lumpkin . Harry Sawyer Sir Charles Marlowe Louis Whitchurch Kate Hardcastle . Mary Robinson Constance Neville ... Irma MacDavitt Young Marlowe.Erric Turner George Hastings .... Chesley Stevens Dolly.Janet Robinson Diggory ... Kenneth Dane Roger.Whitman Freeman Dick . Harold Turner Jeremy . Norman Butler Landlord of Three Pigeons, Joseph Murray Inn men, servants, etc., Harold Turn¬ er, Daniel Desmond, Norman But¬ ler, Harold Owen and John Burke. The assembly hall was filled to its utmost capacity. After the perform¬ ance a dance until twelve was en¬ joyed. The Chronicle said, “The Se-