Riverbend School for Girls - Vox Fluminis Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

Page 5 text:

Vox Fluminis '70 MMA Bell . . . who through her kindness and interest has won a place in the hearts of all Riverbend girls, this edition of Vox Fluminis is lovingly dedicated.

Page 4 text:

2 Vox Fluminis '70 My Quemla IN LEZSS than a week from when the idea was first mooted I was at sea with ten children. Perhaps, figuratively speaking, I was at sea before, for it would be easy to go adrift amid the numerous questions to be answered before departing. Passing from one inquisitive official to another I became intimately acquainted with my physical attributes and details of my own un- eventful existence. At first timidly, conscientiously I pondered over these many forms. Should one make allow- ance for wear and tear? And just how many pounds would be lost before my papers had to identify me under the scrutiny of an official eye? Now I enter into the spirit of the thing and know most likely the document will be shelved anyway. I had been to many movies before but never one that seemed quite so real, one almost felt as though one were part of it. Enchanted always by the present scene, on episode followed another and so became the past, already forgotten in the imminent prospect of a still unpredictable future. Thus I viewed my Canadian life from the standpoint of my previous background. It was real and as yet unassimilated. Perhaps you will remember when Alice stepped through the looking- glass she found nothing she hadn't known before, yet it was surprising, everything had a slightly different lo-ok and the oddest things happened, yet nobody seemed to worry. When they wore their summer dresses and had ice cream with chocolate sauce for supper, although the temperature was 20 de- grees below zero, Alice found it very good. The point to remember, said Alice Cto herself? is that almost anything may happen an-d after that almos-t any- thing again. Looking-glass land was like a huge plum pudding made in the Victorian style, the plums came fro-m every part of Europe but over it all was the sauce o-f an eager New World. And this reminds me of the ration- ing of food and of clothes and many other things as yet unexperienced. I wonder what it will be like when I try to go back through the Lo-oking- glass again. Isit possible? I do not think so-. I shall go forward into an- other country like the first yet s-een by the light reflected from the second, familiar, yet full of jolting surprises. I went to visit many places and many friends scattered over Britain from Cornwall in the very south of Eng- land, to the Kingdom of Fife in Scot- land. Always one seems to be separated from some friends and soon the dis- tances will be greater than ever as I leave Canada behind. If only all of them could be assembled together in one place Con-e can imagine the mutual repulsion of some memlbersl, then I would know that this place were Heaven indeed! Which reminds me of the story of the Sunday School teacher who asked the class to put up their hands if they wished to go to heaven, all did except one little boy. Well, sonny, don't you want to go to Heaven? said he. NOT if all that gang is going to be there. M. C. Bell.

Page 6 text:

Vox Flumints .falffea Dear Girls: I I THOUGHT I should like to say just a few words about our Sir James Aikins' Trophy-the Winged Victory which stands in the hall of the White House. You all know that your weekly House points go towards the winning or the losing of that trophy for your House. I hope you have taken the trouble to look at the trophy with more than a passing glance. The story of it was printed in the Vox Fluminis some years ago, but it bears repeating. The immense original-or what remains of the original- stands in the Louvre, in Paris, and represents Nike, the Goddess of Victory. It was made about 300 B.C. by a Greek to cele-brate a great Greek victory, and was set up on the island of Samo- thrace, in the Mediterranean. In later years the Roman army devastated the land, and destroyed all the monuments. In 1865 a Frenchman came upon pieces of white marble which experts put together to form the beautiful statue as we have it today. The head and arms were never found. On a coin which was struck about the same period this same statue is represented standing on the deck of a ship, in her right hand she holds a trumpet to her lips and in her left a torch in the form of a wooden cross. If you look at the statue you will admire the clever moulding of the wings, and the beautiful drapery which appears to be blown by the wind as if she were the figure head of some great ship battling through wind and wave with power and assurance. The statue brings to mind a poem of Robert Browning which might almost have been dedicated to her: One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph Held we fall to rise, are baiiied to fight better, Sleep to wake. Let us all try to live with that spirit of confidence. Yours affectionately, J. MAY CARTER.