Roosevelt High School - Sagamore Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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8 THE MIRROR All the girls would want to be Laughing Water and all the boys want to be Hiawatha. Then there would be more Indian pictures and a close-up of the spot where the school now stands just to see if there are any signs of a school yet to be seen. Nothing in sight, however, but prairie grass, gophers and fragrant Indian puccoon. And now it becomes difficult to choose the pictures. We want, of course, Father Hennepin, Joseph Nicollet and Pierre Radisson, but we cannot get evidence to show that they were at all connected with our district. If we could only find something enabling us to claim them for our school. We may show them anyway because they belong to Minneapolis, and are good looking adventurers. Time moves quickly on the silver sheet. With the next picture, The Township of Minneapolis, ,we are coming down to modern days. In this we see that forty years ago the entire region from Lake Street to Fifty- fourth, from the river to Hennepin was merely the township of Minneapolis. Here were beautiful farms, .neat white houses, green shutters, and wide lawns. Farmers long since tarrying by other shores, set out the oak and elms bordering Minnehaha Avenue. Here these sturdy pioneers lived quietly, contributed their part to the progress of thetimes and then left the scene as the new era was opening. f Pictures of these farmers--George Sibley, who farmed at Thirty-first Street and Minnehahag ,C. T. Moifet and Abram S. Adams at Minnehaha and Forty-second and Forty-fifth, respectively, would be of interest. A close- up should be given of the farm of Milton Brown, a Quaker, whose land was the present site of our high school building. The first school in the district should be shown, one room, located at Forty-sixth and Minnehaha. This picture will bring a round of applause, for everyone just loves tolook at schoolhouses. So exciting and thrilling, don't you think so? A quaint little horse car line used to accommodate traffic on Minnehaha Avenue and a picture of it might cut in on traiiic as it is at present. Duck hunting around Lake'Amelia QNokomisj was once popular, and it is said that fifty pounds of bird shot was afterward taken from the lake. A Township Disappearsu flickers before us and we see real estate men persuading the farmers to come into the city of Minneapolis. .In 1887 the farms were platted into city lots and thereafter the city with its encroachments drives farther and farther out all those who dislike soot flakes on their faces, and love to breathe fresh air and to hear the Falls of Minnehaha, see them Flash and gleam among the oak trees Laugh and leap into the valley. And now there comes, as some slangy person Qnot at our schooll would say, a peach of a picture. It shows twelve enterprising citizens with their helpers making a house to house canvass of the district March, 1921. What can they be doing?

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THE MIRROR 7 An 1Hn111ritie11 Svrenarin OW should you like to go to a movie called The Story of Fortieth Street and Twenty-eighth Avenue ? This film in beautiful pictures, would give some high lights on the history and changing fortunes of the school district and especially that part of it whereon our fine new high school now stands. Our own boys and girls might be trained to act in such a picture and what stolid Indians, gay Frenchmen, dignified Englishmen and dashing Spaniards they would make! The scenery could be that around our famous Falls of Minnehaha. We could surely borrow a dozen or two fat buffalo, throw in lots of striped gophers, have a few scalpings and stage a buffalo hunt. This history could extend back ages and ages ago and, skipping over time lightly, close with a grand climax on a certain September morn, in 1922. The first picture might be called No School Today, and it would show the present site of our high school deep buried under the ice sheet of that huge glacier which in some remote age covered the northern part of North America. Just think! In the mind of no creature then living did there exist the idea of a high school at Fortieth Street and Twenty-eighth'Avenue. Br-r-r! That's too chilly. Let's have the next one. Minnesota, Land of the Sky Blue Water, flashes on the screen. Were there ever such skies with such cloud squadrons sailing over them? The ice sheet has melted. Time passes quickly at a movie. To explain the name, thousands of lakes flash by each as blue as the sky' above them. Now comes the title, Hiawatha Enters the Kingdom of the West Wind. A grand picture of the Falls, with water a foot deep swirling broad and white down fifty feet of sheer descent and dashing into foam on the crags below. There should be a Hne roar manufactured to accompany this scene. Not another high school in the city, maybe in the state, maybe in America pos- sesses such a wealth oftradition, poetry, legend and romanceas does ours. When Nature has given us such falls. we surely ought to be able to furnish the roar to go with them: ' A A picture of Longfellow at the Falls would be interesting but the fact is he never saw more than a rather poor picture of them taken by a Chicago man, Alexander 'Kester, August 15, 1862. This picture was given the poet by his friend, Senator Sumner. So deep an impression has the poem made on the imagination that one is unwilling to think that Hiawatha and his Star- light perhaps never existed. . lt is difficult to get the right titles inimovies. The more words you have, the greater the expense. How about The Wooing of Starlight, Moonlight, Firelight, Sunlight? A bit long, but it sounds so nice and dreamy, don't you think so? 4.1

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THE MIRROR 9 As they ring door bells and disappear into houses, they look so serious. When they come out again, they look so happy. Perhaps they are getting up a picnic and asking for cakes, sandwiches and salads. Or are they taking orders for something? No, if that were the case they wouldn't always look so happy as they emerge. lt's a great mystery and everyone is terribly keyed up about it. Then on the screen is flashed a picture of a petition with 7,000 signatures asking that work be hastened for the building of a splendid new High School at Fortieth Street and Twenty-eighth Avenue! The reason these parents looked so serious before the names were secured was because their boys and girls were so crowded at other schools that they felt they must have their own high school and have it as soon as possible. Then follow fast and follow faster, pictures of boosters for the new school, teams of horses breaking land for the new school, citizens with spades for the new school, citizens slapping each other on the back because of the new school, citizens talking with the schoolboard anent the new school, loads of material being dumped on Milton Brown's old Quaker farm and finally there appears the foundation for the new school! And now last scene of all to end this strange, eventful history-8:30 a. m., September 4, 1922. About 1,500 boys and girls, a few dogs, some 60 teachers, one principal, a sprinkling of parents-all swarming up the steps of the huge brick building. Gone is the ice sheet, gone are the French, the Spanish, the English flags that might once have floated, and see from the tower flies the Stars and Stripes forever! The new school, the pride and joy of every man, woman and child in the district is a reality. How much will you give to see this show when we put it on? WW B. FERGUSON.