Santa Rosa High School - Echo Yearbook (Santa Rosa, CA)

Page 12 text:

éniturial Commencement time draws near! The work of four years is completed, and looking back for an in- stant over those years we feel we have done well. And now the future is before us'| What will it bring? To some it will bring the opportunity of higher edu- cation; to others it will mean taking part in the busy community life around us. Yet whatever our plans for the future, no matter what line of education or work we enter upon, perseverance in the pursuit of that work is necessary. It is the hinge of all other virtues, being simply the habit of trying over and over again the steady and determined pursuit of a plan! We have all been told there is no royal road to learn- ing, and we have all doubtless recognized this during our four years of high school work. Tremendous dif- ficulties should, least of all, discourage, for the things best worth achieving are always surrounded by con- ditions the most difficult to surmount—the difficulty frequently measuring the worth. To know how to wrest victory from defeat and use our failures as stepping stones to better things, is the true secret of success. It is said that the difference between perseverance and obstinacy is, that one comes from, a strong will and the other from a strong won't. One of the things we can be absolutely sure will be developed, while persevering in whatever line of work we undertake, is the knowledge that each year will transform us into more able and competent workers, and we can do easily what seems impossible today. The benefits of a popular government are not at- tained without effort. If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, eternal perseverance is the price of excel- lence, and is the duty of every lover of his country. So let us say, as the little drummer boy did when taken prisoner and led into the camp of the enemy. They rold him to beat the drum. “Yes,” said he, “I will beat the drum, though you ask me to do it in insult,” and he beat a reveille. “Now,” said they, “beat an ad- vance,” and he did so. “Now beat a charge,” and he beat the charge. “Now,” said they, “beat a retreat.” “No,” said the little fellow, “I never learned to beat a retreat.” Let us have no such word as “retreat” in our vocabulary; but, aided by perseverance, let it be all enward, upward, and victory. The joys, the sorrows, the triumphs and defeats of the years 1913-17 have passed and gone. Each coming day will push them farther and farther back into the shadowy recesses of time. But these years of achievement must live forever, not only in the his- tory of the school, but in your memory. And so, if this book but serves as a guide and reminder of those years and ever binds us more closely to dear old Santa Rosa Hi, its mission will indeed, be well performed.

Page 11 text:

FRANCES PAYNE GEORGE MARVIN

Page 13 text:

SRE WY a! wi ae iy eae” | i ¥, yy) ) ch YAS 4, LOMA WN “ TAM 3 SOV eR UX NON.