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

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'fa :fr- Phcto by Harold White Studio NELSON HALL DURING the last year I have had the honour of being house captain of Nelson Hall. Nelson has had a good year and although we are not on top of everything I feel that the support of all the girls in the house has been behind me. Barbara Drybrough has been an excellent secretary, and Joan Mitchell has been a good sports captain. Nelson has had the privilege of having Jocelyn Robb, our sports captain, among its ranks. There were many excellent track athletes in the House who made the Winning of the Senior Field Day possible. We have high hopes of winning the tennis and badminton cups as well .The girls have cooperated willingly in all sports. Although at Christmas we did not do too well in the house-point race. I feel sure that we have brought up our total. Each girl has tried her hardest to bring in house-points and each girl has succeeded admirably, especially in the term just passed. At Christmas the girls were most generous in providing for a hamper for a needy family. Due to a mix-up in addresses the hamper got to the wrong family. However, the girls of the whole school were so unselfish as to provide another hamper for the family that was sup- posed to get it. For the cooperation, house spirit, spirt of good sportsmanship and the generosity of all the girls in Nelson for this year 1948-49, I give my most heartfelt thanks. DAPHNE A. WHITE. Pace Nineteen

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Photo by Harold White Studio GARRY HALL IT is almost the end of another year and sum- mer holidays are not far off. We may thrill at the thought of freedom in the great outdoors but we will always look fondly upon those wonderful times we had at school. Which one of you could ever forget those completely ex- exhausting but completely marvellous basket- ball games or those tantalizing moments in volley ball when the ball barely dribbled over the net. Yes, we played our part in inter-House games and although we didn't draw the blue ribbon there, we did carry home the Junior Field Day and bowling cups, and to show that we were not solely athleitically-minded, we successfully secured first place in the housepoint race at Christmas. Then, at this same season of the year, all the girls at Garry Hall con- tributed with great enthusiasm to our annual hamper-a hamper that would have warmed the hearts of any family. But we could not have achieved this success by ourselves, We are greatly indebted to our teachers, Mrs. Price, Mrs. McEwen, and Miss Arnold for their understanding and helping hand through all the year, to Betty Anne Run- ner, our sports captain, for her continuous en- thusiasm throughout all our sportsg and to Cecily Ann Gunn, our secretary, who has so ably fulfilled her position during the past school months. The unfailing sportsmanship and complete cooperation of Garry Hall have helped to make this year an unforgetable period in the history of Riverbend school. I will always remember the wonderful times we have had together, at Garry, and can so honestly say that I have been extremely proud to have been your prefect for the year 1948-1949. CAROLE WALLICK. Page Eighteen

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VICTORY In the library of the school, there is a statuette called Winged Victory which was donated by Colonel Harold Aikins in memory of Sir James Aikins. The Winged Victory is competed for among the four house-s each year. We print below information about VICTORY-by Nina Holland, taken from The Canadian Red Cross Junior. Greece is the home of beautiful statues be- cause it was the Greeks who, five hundred years before Christ, first saw the possibilities that lay in the white marble quarries of their land. They also saw first the beauty and the grace of the human body and made it live again by means of hammer and chisel. Thousands of statues remain which were the work of their hands, some few of them are still perfect, most of them are broken or mutilated, but all bear the mark of genius which ranks above all later efforts. On the landing of the grand stair case of the Louvre, Paris, stands an immense statue, which thousands admire year by year as they wander through that splendid picture gallery. The ceil- ing above is decorated with mosaics and the building is a handsome one, but even in these costly surroundings the Victory is an exile, and, could she burst her prison walls, we can imagine those mighty wings carrying her swiftly and surely back to her home in Greece on the high rocky cliffs of Samonthrace. Here she would alight and rest amidst the flowers of spring- time, the blue vault of heaven above her, the deep blue of the Mediterranean at her feet and the breeze playing through th-e graceful drapery which floats around her. Beautiful where she now is, she was ten times more beautiful in such ta setting, fitted to be the dwelling place of such a triumphant bit of sculpture! Who is this majestic figure? She represents Nike, the Goddess of Victory. In those days the Greeks believed that the gods directed the affairs of the world. Zeus and Athena were the special ones who controlled war, and Nike was their winged attendant. For the history of this particular statue we must go back to the time of Alexander the Great. After his death there was much disputing about his empire amongst his generals. It was decided that the Greek cities should be free. But Ptolemy broke this agreement and entered Greece. Demetrius was sent to Athens with a flee-t of two hundred and fifty ships, and con- quered. He then turned his attention to the Island of Cyprus and once again routed Ptolemy in 306 B.C. It was to Nike that the victory was attributed, so to her a monument was raised on ' 1-. 'IPX 1 .fr ' ' A v the island of Samothrace in the Aegean Sea. - What she looked like when finished we cane only imagine, for the Roman army devastated the land, destroyed the temples and statues, and she was hurled to the ground and shattered to fragments. . In 1865 a Frenchman was wandering about the island of Samothrace, probably enjoying. the View which its' highest point commands. Looking down, he noticed a small bit of White marble sticking out of the ground. Very care- fully .he dug it out, onlygto find another bit appear and still another until he had collected 1 together 118 pieces. These he put into the hands- of trained experts, who, with infinite pauena-i,. fitted one part into another, fastening them - together securely with cement. What was their reward? Gradually this splendid figure was built up and the Victory was saved. 5 Ten years later the pedestal was foundf broken into twenty-three pieces. That also was- restored and the statue placed upon it. Repair- ing it would have been a hopeless task had there been nothing to guide the workmen, but happily a coin had also' been struck off at the same time to commemorate this Victory, and' one side bore a picture of this very statue. She. was represented standing on the forecastle deck of a shipg in her right hand she holds a trumpet to her lips, in the left a torch in the form of a wooden cross, such as is used at night by fisher men of the Aegean Sea. This coin was a great help in the work of restoration. '-1 In those days the vessels of war were calledf! priremes. They were propelled by rowers Who, sat in three tiers at their oars. At the prowy on the middle deck, stood the goddess, and thisi was probably the origin of the figure-heady' which for so long orn-amented the bow of ga Ship, 2 1. The artist, with marvellous ingenuity, has puts! life and motion into the stone. With little imf agination we can see her pursue her course, battling through wind and wave, no eyes with which to see the way, trusting to guidance. Y' that will not fail, with dauntless courage press-,l ing onward. There is power and assurance .inf every part of her being. She brings to m-ind that poem of Robert Browning's which might almost have been dedicated to her- X . - One who never turned his back X but marched breast forward, ,' ' Never doubted clouds would break If 5 Never dreamed, tho' right were ' an worsted, wrong would triumph, Held we fall to rise, are baffled ' to fight better, ' Sleep to wake. A J. Page Twenty 4 ,- I xv. g . - -.15 ,t :r s.