Robert Louis Stevenson School - Circus Yearbook (New York, NY)

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The Tale of the Headstrong Worm The flowers bloomed And the birds had sung, When out of the earth, There suddenly sprung A large and remarkable worm. He called to his brothers len million strong, And he spoke of the terrible deeds of wrong Which the creatures on top of the earth had done, To the cultured and civilized worms. They use us for bait to catch hshf' said he, And all other kinds of unpleasantry, For they feed us to birds, and they plow up nests, And they never give us a momenfs rest, Went the doleful tail of the worm. So let us unite, and fight, fight, hght, And demand of these people our natural rights The equality of the worm. Then all at once, from the sky, so blue, A star dropped down and cut in two this patriotic worm. The head part began to cry aloud, Go back in your crack, like the rest of the crowd While I say a thing or three. But the tail part said, Though you are the head, Youarenotasnearl wellb 'l fl y ru , or ff 1 , or as rnannerty as me. So on they fought, the live long night, While the other worms crawled to their holes in fright! In fact the blood worms turned quite white At this whimsical fiddle-dee-dee. Then down from a tree, flew a well mannered bird, Whose rest these fellows had quite disturbed, And he swallowed them silently. Now the moral ofthis story is to have you be prepared When you're cut in two, Don't fight with you, But have yourself repaired. Jael? .jJar-rid Q 43 O AI nano JI, an Jr, 9

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THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY BY HENRY' JAMES The Portrait of a Lady by Henry james is indeed a portrait of one lady Isabel Archer Osmond surrounded by her intimates. After reading nine hundred and some odd pages you will be able to see this portrait-Isabel and everyone who has affected her life grouped around her. You will be intimately acquainted with these persons' intellect and personality, but their physical proportions will have been supplied by your imagina- tion for Henry James doesn't describe his characters' features, except once or twice when he alludes to some very prominent point that emphasizes a specific personality trait. Henry james takes an insignificant plot that can be described in a dozen words. lt's the kind of plot that Faith Baldwin might stretch into two hundred pages of fiction. The characters, too, would be insignificant in the hands of many other writers, since basically each is one or another stereotype. The wonderful part of The Portrait of a Lady is what Henry James does With such often misused material, of course, he wrote in the 18805 and it may have been fresh then, but I doubt it. The characters are skillfully described, their personalities are unfolded by the author's direct description of them and by the opinions of the novel's other characters. Thus the characters become not only individuals but related people- one affecting another. The people form a unit: meeting at each other's houses, scheming, quarrelingg and generally living. You become absorbed in the book, and forget it's just a make-believe story till suddenly, you come upon a situation which seems to be a cliche. Then you'll find yourself startled because the conventional solution doesn't appear. Upon examination, however, it's logical. You don't feel cheated. The characters are people acting according to their own personality patterns. This honest character portrayal is true to life making the whole book three di- mensional. Things happen gradually. You have waited for them so long they are anti- climaxes when they occur. Even the crisis of the book doesn't cause your heart beat to change. But it's a story involving people, real people, caught in meshes of their own weaving by their own personality, which you have thoroughly examined. Isabel Archer Osmond, the lady with whom the book is particularly concerned and around whom its situations revolve, becomes very well known to you. After the first one hundred pages I could have described her, now I'm too well acquainted to pin her down with adjectives. In the beginning I saw her outward mask: the unpretentiousness, the charm, the wit, and the imagination. Now I still see the same qualities, but also what's behind them and how they act. I could say confidentially to a friend, Isabel's very unusual. She's witty, and very imaginative. just wait till you hear her ideas! Oh, I know you'll like Isabel very much. But I would like to ponder a long time, if I had to go further. All the while you're reading, you know that Henry james has drawn his characters to scale with an eye to every one of your reactions. You feel that he really knows people and how to describe them. Henry james persuaded me Cwithout objection on my partb that people are im- portant. Important in the largest sense possible for people not only affect material things, but even more, other people. james thinks the latter of primary importance. The changes brought about in people are permanent and remain even though they may be obscured by the development of some other long hidden personality trait. The Portrait of a Lady was enjoyable for its realistic attitudes. However, I can see that its length and repititions, which might sometimes have been omitted, would annoy a reader impatient for action and escape. mia minfrau!

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ll Tl llll ill W U r 7 X. x. rj? X f l ,f li at first, you don't succeed Fudge is my favorite candy. That is-chocolate fudge. For fudge I would climb the Empire State Building-barefoot. For fudge I would turn handsprings down Broadway, or let my dentist drill down to my toe nails. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that I would rather eat fudge than listen to Frankie. I am an artist. An artist whose soul blazes anew when I have created a creation. A masterpiece. A hot tamale. Fudge and Art. Damon and Pythias. Romeo and Juliet. But genius cannot paint without first indulging in the pleasures gained by eating a piece of fudge. Chocolate fudge. But, and again l repeat, but - as all great things on this earth, fudge must be created by human hands, from ingredients of nature's bountiful products. I cannot make fudge. I cannot even make Vanilla fudge. I have tried recipes from everyone of the 48 united nations. I have traveled the length and breadth of this wide world, going to great expense of course, trying to find some creature who would convey to me the magical touch. The method. The means of producing a perfect square inch of chocolate fudge. I have tried in vain. l have been shocked to my depth. A human hand cannot produce the simple miracle. Not a human hand-But, and again I repeat, but-I find that the perfect piece of mellow sweetness is concocted by pouring powdered ingredients into a pan of milk. Fudge is now manufactured. I have only one thing more to say in this matter. May the Tootsie Fudge Manufacturing Company be blessed with eternal age and happiness. garlara munaefl fiat it fill X W of I.-5 K .fm hfvxf . Vx., jburk- M