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

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nn eee nnE nn NEESER EIRENE EI EERIE 4 THE ECHO OF THE SANTA ROSA HIGH SCHOOL so it came to be known as the Shasta daisy. The men who aid him in tending his plants are chosen with the greatest care. They must love their work or they would fail to do it well. Mr. Burbank moves in and out among the plants, noticing a thousand things that we should pass by without a glance. Mr. Burbank has always taken a great interest in the schools of Santa Rosa. He gave to Santa Rosa High School Auditorium the moving picture machine which has been used for the pleasure of the whole community. In nineteen-twelve he presented a fine Victrola to every public school in town. These instruments have not only taught the pupils to appreci- ate good music, but have given them much enjoyment. Mr. Burbank always seems happy when attending the en- tertainments given by the children Especially is it true of the pageant given in his honor May day at Santa Rosa High School. The purpose of the pageant was two-fold; first, to honor the great plant genius; and second, to sow the seed that will grow into a Luther Burbank Memorial Vocational Agricultural Build- ing. Mr. Burbank seemed happy when he saw portrayed his Shasta daisy and Burbank potato. Mr. Burbank has realized the value of the sun in his work among the plants and flowers. Mr. Burbank once said, “The great dynamo, the sun, is the source of all life, light, motion, warmth; the producer of all food and clothing. No wonder the ancients were inspired to worship the sun.” So spoke the dedicator, the worker and flower magician of the world. Josephine F. Cummings, ’20.

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THE ECHO OF THE SANTA ROSA HIGH SCHOOL many wild floweres grew. As a boy Mr. Burbank loved them all. He watched for their coming in the springtime. He knew how late in the autumn he could find them. They were his friends, and among them was the little field daisy so common that many pass it by without noticing its beauty. After Luther Burbank came to Santa Rosa, he remembered this little friend of his childhood. He thought, “I will make a daisy which every one will admire.” He learned that in Eng- land there are daisies which are larger and have coarser stems than those he had always known. In far-away Japan the daisy is small, but of the purest white. The New England daisy, though neither large nor perfectly white, is strong. He would join together the best daisies of the three continents, and make a fourth one which would possess the best qualities of each. He trusted Nature to help him. Before Mr. Burbank could make what he wished he had to plant thousands of daisies. He had to give them the most careful care. Again and again one out of a thousand was chosen on account of improved qualities. Season after season the bees gave their aid in carrying the pollen from the blossoms of one plant to the blossoms of another. Only the best and strongest and strongest plants were allowed to live, for first of all the new daisy must be strong. At last the wonderful Shasta daisy was created. There was never such a daisy before. It will grow in the cold lands of the north as well as close to the equator. The flower will re- main fresh in, water for weeks after it has been cut from the plant. It is very large and beautiful, with snow white petals and a center of velvety yellow. It is now grown all over the world. In northern California there is a high mountain peak whose summit is always covered with snow. It is called Mt. Shasta, the word meaning snow. “I will call my new daisy after the mountain peak that I love so well,” Mr. Burbank said, and

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THE ECHO OF THE SANTA ROSA HIGH SCHOOL A Gruesome Ladder First Prize ANY years ago my uncle, who is a naturalist, left his home to study the habits and collect the eggs of sea birds found on the rocky coast of Hum- boldt county. When a week or so had passed we became anxious for a letter or some word of him, but none came. Finally a searching party was sent to find him. After weeks of searching it was decided that he had been killed in a fall from the rocks, and the sea had carried away the body. To our great surprise and joy he came home about three months after the time of his leaving for the cliffs. He had changed so that it was hard to believe h e was the same happy, energetic young man who had left us not a long time before. Ifis hair had turned almost entirely gray, and his face was drawn and haggard. He spoke with an almost uncanny slow- ness and gravity. He looked to be a man at least fifty years old, while he was but thirty. After the family was through embracing him, ‘and his wife through crying, we eagerly asked what had happened, and where he had been. He said, “If there is a hell I have been in a place these three months which would rival any hell for its awfulness.” My uncle was not a well man for many months after his return. He never told his story from beginning to end; in fact he did not like to talk about it at all. But bit by bit I gathered parts of it together and pieced it into the complete account of his incredible adventure on the cliffs of the Humboldt County Coast. I shall tell it in the first person as I heard it told.