San Jose High School - Bell Yearbook (San Jose, CA)

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16 THE BELL 'H' ' I III H I mul u In I 1 mn. H... . ,, ., .,,,,,,.,,,,,, ,,,,,, ,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,q - J resident S Address G CC O whom shall the world henceforth belong, and who shall go up and possess it? In the introduction to some recent verse written in 1917, when the question was facing the world as to who would be the victor in the great war, John Oxcnham asked this question and answered: To the Great Hearts-the Strong VVho will suffer no wrong, And where they find evil redress itf' But long before this poem was ever written, all through the history of the manis achievements, people have had this idea, that it is the Great Hearts who are victorious. However, this vision of victory obtained through effort has had dif- ferent applications with the development of mankind. The Greeks also believed that it was the great hearts and tl1c strong who were to possess the world and lead mankind to victory. One of the Greek heroes was Leonidas, tl1e king of Sparta, who won a spiritual victory for Greece at the time of tl1e Persian invasion. Leonidas died without gaining a material victory. But he stood for what he thought was right, and in defending his country to the last he gained for Greece a national ideal victory, the effect of which has lasted to this day. In the medieval ages, one of the great hearts and strong was Robert Bruce, who is known as the liberator of Scotland. After having lost six battles to the powerful English army, he went one day, defeated and alone, to a miserable shack in the country, to rest and to think of giving up the struggle. As he was lying on an old cot looking upward at, the dusty cob-webbed rafters, he saw a spider hanging at the end of its own thread, endeavoring to swing itself from one beam to another. He watched it as it tried six times unsuccessfully, but on the seventh swing the insect succeeded in fastening its 'thread to the beam. As he lay on the cot, wondering at the perseverance of the little creature, Bruce sud- denly thought that he too had tried six times, and six times he too had been unsuccessful. At this point we can imagine him jumping from the cot, girding on his sword, striding from the old shack, and untying his horse, which was grazing near by. History tells us that he mounted, sped to the place where he had left his troops, rallied his forces and instilled into his soldiers a renewed love of country by which they were able to defeat the well-organized English army and gain for their coun-

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THL' BELL Vinczpalpsi essage Q NOTHER year has rolled around, and again we must bid Godspeed to a large class of grad- uates. The Class of 1926 is not unlike those that have gone before. It takes out of our midst, some of our best and most promising students and leaders. Its members are looking forward to the early fulfillment of their ambitions. Some will attend college, some will enter business, and others will enter into other vocations. All, however, are hoping and expecting that success will be theirs. The faculty and remaining students of San Jose High School join with you, who are graduating from our institution, in hoping that your fondest wishes will all become realities. However, you ll1L1St bear in mind, that nothing worth while will be yours with- out effort. As you have had to put forth great effort to gain success in the past, so will you be obliged to make use of the same characteristic to accomplish your ambitions in the future. In all your future activities, remember that honesty, integrity, and steadfastness to the right are ot' far greater and more lasting value than mere riches. Your community and your state have given you much in providing for your education, they have a right to demand of you now, an effective and enthusiastic performance of the duties of citizenship. If, from your high school life, you have developed these ideals of honesty, integ- rity, and true civic leadership, we shall all be proud to point to you as the worthy examples of the pro- duct of American Public Education. Let it not be otherwise. R. B-. LELAND, Principal.

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THE BELL ' 1nuAnnnnnmmmnuunnum n I nunnnunmnmumnnnumnununnunmnuuuun nun umuun nmunuu try the right to be an independent state and to be governed by their own laws. , Years later in America another great heart was found in the person of Paul Revere, whose name has been among those connected with the American ideal ol' patriotism, and with whose story we are all familiar. Longfellow tells us: He said to his friend, 'If the British march By land or sea from the 'town to-night, Hang a lantern aloft in the helfry areh Of the North Church tower as a signal light! One, if by land, and two, if by sea, And I on the opposite shore will be Ready to ride and spread the alarm y, Through every Middlesex village and farm, For the country folk to be up tlllfl to arm! HA hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet: That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light The fate of a nation was 1'idi11g that nightg And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, Kindled the land into flame with its heat. 9 in So through the night rode Paul Revere, And so through night went his ery of alarm To every Middlesex village and farm,- A ery of deiianee and not of fear, A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door And a word that shall echo forevermore. For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, Through all our history, to the last, I11 the hour of darkness and peril and need, The people will waken and listen to hear The hurrying l100l.-l3G2llS ot' that steed, And the midnight message of Paul Revere. 9 That midnight message, a call to arms, is, as Longfellow says, as necessary forevermore as in 1775. The eall to arms today is as strong, or perhaps even stronger, than it was then, because today one ot' the biggest eonquests is that which has to be won over the ease offered by our inod- ern civilization, and that eonquest is not an easy one. The young gen- eration does not believe that these great hearts and strong of the past