Rome Free Academy - De O Wain Sta Yearbook (Rome, NY)

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THE 1919 SENIOR ANNUAL CLASS POEM On the threshold of l..ife's portals, with our youthful minds serene, Happiest of all happy mortals, stands the Class l9l9. Four long years we've toiled and striven, helped by teachers kind and true, Who've their strength and talent given solving problems old and new. We have passed through Trig. and Latin, Algebra and English IV, Geometry us long enchanted, for we tried it o'er and o'erg Through the French and English grammar hurried we with ready ease, While a few learned how to hammer or to play typewriter keys. Young are we, but brave and eager, ready to begin Life's work, To give help though it be meager, and to daily toil, nor shirk. Some of us will go to college, there to study and learn more, That we may obtain the knowledge which will swell our golden store. Some will seek for fame and glory in our country or in others, Some will toil among the lowly, helping lift their weaker brothers, We shall all have toil and trouble as we fight in life's great fray, But it will our strength redouble just to think of R. F. A. For 'tis here we've learned the lesson that all things come to those who try If we only keep on working we must conquer by and by. Here we've striven hard to master that great ogre Concentration, And perhaps we'll learn its value some time after graduation. Some great scholars, history tells us, through the years our school has seen, But we're sure that none had greater than our Class I9l9g High of aim, with true endeavor, never daunted by the way, We shall prove to all forever we're the pride of R. F. A. M. E. R., 'I9. 25

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THE 1919 SENIOR ANNUAL CLASS HISTORY, 1919 It was in September, l9l5, that our contingent under the command of Corporal Barnard left the preparatory schools of Mr. Barringer and Mr. l..owerre for the officers' training camp of R. F. A. At the first sound of the bugle each squad immediately fell into line, and file after file marched in review before the stand where sat our commander-in- chief, Mr. Harris. From the lieutenants and higher officers of the camp we received scarcely a glance, but from the new sergeants fslangily called Sophsl we received heartiest applause. These sergeants were extremely anxious to exercise the privileges of their recently acquired offices, and as we passed before them they stared unceasingly in our ranks for recruits for their awkward squad. Their blazing, snappy eyes, their haughty glances, and turned-up noses, convinced us that we had exhibited none of the desired elements, but that our polished appearance had smitten them to the core. The inspection completed, we were assigned to our barracks, to which we retreated with almost uncontrollable haste. Here under the direction of our colonels we studied long and hard to master the rudiments of camp life and did not halt until just before Christmas. We then decorated the Study Hall in a most artistic and tempting manner. It was remarked afterward that the abundance of holly and mistletoe brought so much Christmas cheer that only the order of the commander-in-chief prevented its being carried bodily away from our barracks to officers' headquarters. All too soon came our june Regents', but none too soon came our summer vacation. Yet happy were we to return in the fall to receive our promotion, The day had at last arrived when we might expose our ability in training the fresh rookies. However, during our Sophomore year we were so laden with work that we paid little attention to anything, but winged fleeting time, and soon we were again charging into Regents', to come out crowned with the laurels of victory. Our Junior year was a year which will long be remembered, not only by the members of our class, but by the peoples of the world. It is the year our country entered into the great world war. Our hopes for this year were of the highest. We had planned many a school activity, but the spirit of patriotism so thrilled us that we turned our attention to war and entered into Red Cross work with vigor, to be of some service to our country. Those were the days when every girl came to school with her knitting bag on her arm, and felt aggrieved if any of the generalissimo's aides- de-camp ordered all needles of industry into the kit 1 out of sight. 27