Rye Neck High School - Scraps Yearbook (Mamaroneck, NY)

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REACHING FOR THE CLOUDS As one stands casually gazing up at one of New York's latest skyscrapers thinking of its beauty of arhcitecture and marveling at its height, one usually thinks of it not as the result of slow development, but as the marvel of this twentieth century alone. One never dreams that people centuries ago fancied such skyscrapers as those which now exist. But just as transportation has progressed from the stage coach to the railroad, so has the skyscraper been of slow development. Centuries and centuries back we are told in fables, legends and poems that the people of the ancient nations dreamed of erecting tall towers. For example, we have the Bible story of the Babylonians, who dreamed of a tower that would reach the heavens. People came from all over the known world to help in constructing it. There was the din of hammering stones, the babble of voices and strange tongues, and all the bizzarre of the East. Because of the lack of machinery and the incomprehension of the various strange languages the tower was never completed. This may be considered, however, as the first vision of the skyscraper. Some nations which had this desire to reach out into the clouds have left us monu' ments which contain their dreams and visions. Mysterious Egypt has left the Pyramids, ex' cellent examples of their engineering skill. In Greece the temples, such as the Parthenon whose grace and beauty still influence archif tccture are, are still standing. Rome has left the Colesium as a monument of her civilizaf tiong the middle ages-its castles and Gothic Cathedrals. But all these may be considered as part of the age of visions or legends. The people either dreamed of constructing enorf mous buildings or partially succeeded in doing so. Let due credit be given these former attempts, but let us remember that it is we, the people of the twentieth century, who have Hnally made the skyscraper a reality. That which was the fancy of yesterday is the reality of today. We have taken the various principles left by the countless ages and have combined them with the miraculous engineer' ing feats of today. The skyscraper incor' porates the setback or tower principle of the Pyramids, the grace of the Greek temples, the enduring quality of the Colesium, com' bined with this age's engineering skill. One of the iirst skyscraper marvels was the Woolworth building of New York. Since then New York has become a forest of sky' scrapers. In 1929 the Chanin building was erected but it held its supremacy as the tallest building in New York only for a short time. For in 1930 the Chrysler building sprang up even taller than the former two. In this same year Europe followed in the footsteps of the United States by constructing her first skyscraper in Antwerp, the twenty stories of which make it the tallest building on the Continent. It is especially noteworthy that Antwerp should be the first continental city to allow the construction of a tall commercial building, since it is one of the oldest cities on the continent. Then in the year 1931 among the hundreds of skyscrapers which were completed, there appeared one which will probably be rememf bered for many years to come as the tallest building ever erected by man. The Empire State building 1,248 feet tall, the highest structure in New York's forest of skyscrapers, is well fitted to be the Hnale in this reaching towards the clouds. With its 200 foot moorf ing mast, which is a unique feature of thc building, it connects with its only manfmadc rivals for soaring honors-airships. Whether this mooring mast is practical or not has yet to be proved. But it certainly is spectacular. One can easily imagine what a thrill passenf gers would get coming out of the nose of a Zeppelin and entering a slender tower a slender tower a quarter of a mile ahove the street. just as in former centuries people had the desire to raise their buildings into the air, so we have the tendency of raising our traffic into the air along with our buildings and reaching further into the clouds. In 1930 air traffic was quarupled as compared with that of 1929. And the culmination of this increase was expressed in the air maneuvers recently held throughout the United States. The earth has become so crowded, and traffic so Page Twenty-five

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A DESERT MYSTERY Outlined against the sun, setting behind an Arizona desert scene, was the silhouette of a a man dressed in the picturesque Western garb. He had a dirty gray sombrero pulled over his eyes to protect them from the flying sand and the glare of the passing sun. His pants were torn, worn, and tucked into his high runfdown shoes. The handkerchief around his neck was of the same color as the sky surrounding the sun. He was leading a tired but patient burrow carrying a light pack with no prospecting tools, showing that the wanderer was not led on by a search for gold. He glanced about him, and seeing the un' usual deepness of the red sky, knew that he was to suffer another dreaded desert storm. He found a small valley betweeen two small dunes and proceeded to unload his pack and protect himself as best he could from the fly' ing sand. About a halffmile away, another wanderer saw him make camp and quickened his step in order to have company before the storm broke. In a few minutes he had arrived there and the usual, Howdy, Stranger , the calm salutation of the desert passed between them. The storm broke, and a beating, driving, cutting sand drove them closer to each other for protection. After six hours the storm continued with unabated fury. To keep up their courage, they began to talk guardedly at first, but as the conditions of their com' radeship continued, they spoke more freely. The first told his story, of why he had come into the desert. He told of a brother of his, mercilessly killed two years before. His brother, Godfrey, had been showing a friend of his, his African collection. He, reading in the other room, had heard a heated argument, a brief silence, a shot, a scream and a crash of breaking glass. He rushed into the room and the friend had fled, leaving his brother with a shot through his lung. He had never seen the friend, but had heard that he had gone West. He had come out here search' ing for him. During the telling of this tale, his voice had become low, husky, trying to hide his emotion. A look at the other showed him to be astonished, turned to stone and staring into the darkness. At the completion of the story, he leaped to his feet and paced up and down. After a terrific struggle with himself, he planted himself directly before the other and spoke: Stranger, he said, for the past two years, I have wandered through this desert, trying to escape the past. I've been seeing the face of the man I killed accidentally. Now is my chance to get it off my mind, and at least live in peace for the little time I have to live In this storm we can never escape. Albert Howe, I killed your brother! Howe gathered himself into a ball and leaped at his throat. A terrific struggle ensued with Howe having the advantage, because of his two years' desire for revenge. He had the other by the throat. The stranger tore his hands from his throat and shrieked, Don't, Howe, it was accidental. I tell you the gun went off without my knowing it. I was un' familiar with the old trading guns and I Ered it accidentally. It was an accident. Man, don't you see that one who is about to die can't lie? How slowly loosed his grip and stood up. He walked slowly away, and drawing a blanf ket over his head, sat still. The stranger slowly arose and taking his own blanket, sat beside him. The storm continued for fortyfeight hours and finally broke, leaving as it had comef suddenly. A beautiful desert moon shone down upon two bodies, side by side. Richard Gainey LOW TIDE Wet sands, where the silvery waves have dashed- Glistening rocks, and the cry of the gulls As they sweep o'er the glitt'ring expanse- The moan of the winds and the gentle swish Of the endlessly moving waves. Nancy Reinke Page Twenty-four

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congested that we have been forced to utilize the the broad expanse of air and have made another fancy of past ages a reality by raising our traffic to the upper spaces. It is difficult to foretell the future. The people will continue to struggles toward the clouds, erecting taller and taller buildings. Air traffic will increase and some day people will be accustomed to step from a sky' scraper a half a mile in the air into a waiting plane. Perhaps in thousands of years, our skyscrapers will be considered lust such inf affectual attempts as we consider the tower of Babel. Scientists, although this seems too fanciful, may even journey to Mars, that planet about which they are now puzzled. But one thing seems certain, where we now speak of reaching further into the clouds, they will speak of reaching into infinity. Anna Kuhn A CHOCOLATE FANTASY fBy one who 'earned her quota for the Washhigton Trip, I A monstrous old man who called himself Mr. Schrafft appeared from somewhere. His chocolate brown appearance frightened me as he thrust a sticky rag into my mouth and proceeded to wind celophane paper about me. I started to laugh hysterically at my silly en' casement but my laugh faded as I saw day' light slowly disappearing. Mr. 'Schrafft had not ceased, as I thought he would, when the celophane was wrapped about me once, but he kept winding the shiny, airftight paper about me till I was almost stifled and blinded by the silvery mass. I felt myself lifted and carried upside down till it seemed the blood would burst from my head. Finally, when I thought I could stand no more I felt the paper being pulled away and I felt damp air on my face. When I became accustomed to the darkness, I noticed small things like mice crawling around on the damp earthen floor. They crept nearer and nearer to me and I could see that they were not gray, like mice, but some were bloodfred, ghastly white, greenishfsilver, blue and brown. Some looked as if their skin would fall from them as they crept, like snakes, closer and closer to me. They were chocolate bars-alive! ! I heard a harsh laugh, my captor came for' ward and dragged me to my feet. He led me to a small green tent, which was wallfpapered with a queer design of electric numbers which kept changing with such rapidity it confused me, so that I did not realize I was being ushered into a larger green tent with the same lined and numbered wall pattern as the one before. I noticed with astonished that the other members of the Class of '31 were present. A huge banner with the word Quota waved over a stage in front of us. That was the name of the play which was going to be presented that evening Mr. Schrafft told us. Then he screamed to me, Why are you standing there like that? Get busy and direct your dance number. I was astonished to see some of the wall figures come down and stand on the stage. Mr. Schrafft brought forward a huge man whom he called Mr Trip. They told me to arrange the figures attractively and produce several good numf bers or the play, Quota , would not be presented, nor would they lead us out of the tent-like houses we were in. I found the figures were plentiful enough but they were poor actors. I struggled for hours. My friends came to my aid, and after much screaming and ordering about, the figures formed themselves into a number we were proud of. The quiet Mr. Trip now smiled at us and came our way. I awoke from a slumber which came upon me while looking over my note books for the last time, and I laughed at my nightmare. Our number proved large enough, we pref sented our quota , and Mr. Washington Trip loomed ahead of us. Ho! What fun! Lucille T ocknell Page Twenty-sim