St Paul Academy - Review Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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,I JOHN DE QUEDVILLE BRIGGS ' HEADMASTER Aside from his duties as headmaster of the St. Paul Academy, Mr. Briggs has found time to follow up a very interesting hobby in which he became interested many years ago, and it has proved itself a source of delight for him and many of his friends ever since. With an excellent camera and a few other necessary instruments, he has acquired a large picture collection of flowers, both common and rare, which are to be found through- out Minnesota, and by making them into slides for a movie projector, Mr. Briggs has been able IO to present colored pictures amazingly similar to the original flowers. His interest in this type of work was cultivated in New England, when as a boy he used to bicycle around the country collecting different kinds of plants to be put into a collection, but as an accumulation of this sort was rather unmanageable, Mr. Briggs turned to photography so as to have a more durable and at the same time more colorful collection. Having become quite ex- perienced and skillful in this art, Mr. Briggs is especially proud of a recent excursion he made into the northern part of this state in quest of a very rare orchid plant usually found in marshy terrain. Proving this to be the case, Mr. Briggs finally discovered one of these rare plants in a thick bog, and with quite a bit of difficulty, he managed to obtain a few excellent pictures, one of which he presented to a group of state naturalists who were only too glad to accept it, since it was the only one of its kind in Minesota. At the present time, his collection is quite large, and Mr. Briggs can justifiably be proud of his hobby at which he has become so proficient and which has brought him such pleasure.

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When free from his regular instructive duties at school, Mr. Sporer has found a very interesting pastime which occupies much of his summer time and occasionally gives him a rest from school chores during the fall and spring months. Early in his youth, Mr. Sporer became interested in horses, but it wasn't until recent years that he took up riding and the care of horses as a hobby. Since then, he has acquired three of them, two of which are showhorses, while the third, which was purchased from the owner of some horse-show, happens to be quite an educated and amusing animal. Mr. Sporer tells quite an entertaining story of how the horse's evident dislike for all horse-doctors usually brings on a scene. During one of these rows, a certain doctor thought that possibly a little punishment might bring them to an understanding, but at the first movement of his whip, the horse immediately went through the entire act he had once known, having apparently become tired of the futile argu- ment himself. Because of the friendly character of this horse, Mr. Sporer has become quite attached to him, and, of course, the pleasure gained through riding, itself, has prompted Mr. Sporer to take up this hobby in earnest, and he hopes to remain at it for quite a while. si' 'P' ' GEORGE A. HURD, more commonly recog- nized by his pupils as Njudgen, occasionally be- comes tired of the cold and blustery climate of Minnesota and undertakes a short visit to the milder, southern state of Florida. 'iludgen grew to like this state when introduced to it in 1908, but he feels that it is not quite so pleasant a land to live in as it is to visit. In the first place the inner country of the state is rather bleak and deso- late with only a few palmettos scattered here and there and most of the wooded land covered by live oak. Because of this fact, most of the people, except for many negroes, have entered into the tourist business which Judge declares to be very profitable. However, he points out an interesting occupation of these negroes which is that of mak- ing turpentine. They assemble in the so-called tur- pentine camps where they make turpentine through a distillation process of sap from pine trees. So, since it is because of these interesting occupations and the quaint life of all the people that Mr. Hurd is drawn to this state, he says himself that he is looking forward to another visit, preferably in the near future. ll