Scarborough High School - Four Corners Yearbook (Scarborough, ME)

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FOUR CORNERS 9 mous decision of judges and audience alike. Both second places were awarded to Cape Elizabeth High School. The second year our preliminary speakers were Misses Small, ’20: Ruth Heald, Helen Libby, Isabelle Plummer, ’22; Gladys Higgins, Dorothy Plummer, ’23; and Messrs. Bowley, Nielsen, ’20; Nor¬ man Laughton, Clarence Larv, Leon Lary, ’21; and Harold Bennett, ’23. Our new material proved real discoveries, Harold Bennett and Helen Libby carrying off first honors, while Ruth Heald and Norman Laughton won second. Dorothy Plummer and R. Leon Lary received honorable mention. Loyal rooters filling one special car and crowding several regulars, followed our team to Cape Elizabeth Town Hall and heard them win even more decisively than the year before. Hon. Carroll Beedy, expressing the unanimous opinion of the judges, awarded the team prize to Scar¬ borough High School; the silver medals to Helen Libby and Norman Laughton ; the second prize for boys to Old Orchard High School, and for girls to Cape Elizabeth High School. 1921 was the crucial year inasmuch as it decided whether or not we were to transfer the cup to one of the other teams or retain it as our permanent possession. Due to the critical illness of one of our star speakers, Norman Laughton, considerable shifting of our division was necessary before the following preliminary speakers were selected: Misses Ruth Heald, Helen Libby, Aurelia Wentworth, ’22; Gladys Higgins, ’23; Priscilla Googins, InaSamp¬ son, ’24; and Messrs. Clarence Lary, R. Leon Lary, ’21; Leonard Emmons, ’22; Harold Bennett, Clark Libbey, ’23; Stephen Larrabee, ’24. In the contest, April 22, 1921, Ruth C. Heald and Leonard Emmons were awarded first place ; Helen Libby and R. Leon Lary, second, with Aurelia Went¬ worth and Clarence Lary for alternates. Feeling that the personnel of our team could not be surpassed we hopefully awaited the final contest. April 29th saw the K. of P. Hall packed with a crowd that taxed to the limit the seating capacity of the hall in spite of the two hundred extra chairs. The ante-room and aisles accommodated many who were willing to stand, and still others were turned away. Door receipts totalled $100. At no time in the last three years has the need of a suitable auditorium been so keenly felt as at this final contest when we had to deduct Si5.00 from our receipts to hire chairs and pay for the cartage of others so generously lent us by the Black Point Church and Grange, to say nothing of the inconvenience to those who either had to stand or leave. After an unusually good program, the audience settled down to wait for the deci¬ sion of the judges which was a novelty in the matter of brevity. After announcing a first for boys to Old Orchard High School, which received a volley of squeals and cheers from the Blue and White rooters, and a second for boys to Cape Elizabeth High School, which was greeted in like

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8 FOUR CORNERS of the Pine Point School, has conducted a music period on Monday mornings during the winter term, and this has been con¬ tinued ever since under the supervision of the regular teachers. Several songs have been written to airs selected from the new book. Our new teacher, Mrs. Arthur Stevens, has started a Glee Club for the girls, which will probably furnish part of the musical numbers for graduation. Mrs. Stevens’ knowledge of music and her energetic per¬ sonality should produce excellent results with the girls. Rubenstein’s “Melody in F,” and Hoffman’s “Beautiful Night” are the selections with which the club will start. Scarborough High School Brings Home the Bacon. Great was the rejoicing of students and townspeople alike when our team of four secured for the third time a unanimous decision in the race for the cup offered in the annual triangular prize speaking con¬ test between Cape Elizabeth High School, Old Orchard High School, and Scar¬ borough High School. The series of contests was begun in the spring of 1919 for the purpose of develop¬ ing ability in public speaking and a spirit of friendly rivalry among the three schools. It was agreed by each school that a pre¬ liminary division should be selected and trained by the teachers to compete in a public contest, and from this number a team of two boys and two girls should be chosen to compete with a similarly selected team from each of the other schools at a joint contest. In the preliminary contest the boy and girl adjudged to be the best speaker received a silver medal suitably engraved, and to the boy and girl who won second place, a similar bronze medal was given. Medals of silver for the best boy and girl, and bronze for the second choice, engraved with the names of the three schools and the date of the contest, were chosen as prizes for the final contest. A beautiful gold-lined, silver loving cup on an ebony base was to be presented for one year to the team whose uniform excellence was the highest, the trophy to be the per¬ manent possession of the school which should be the first to win it three times. Our first preliminary division consisted of Misses Abbie Small, Ethel Foster, Velma Leonard, ’20; Violet Roberts, Isabelle Plummer, Ruth Heald, ’22; and Messrs. Melville Johnson, To; Philip Bowley, Fred Richardson, Earle Willman, ’20; Clarence Lary, R. Leon Larv, ’21. The judges selected Abbie Small and Clarence Lary for first place; Ruth Heald and Melville Johnson for second, with Ethel Foster and R. Leon Lary as alternates with honorable mention. In the final con¬ test at Old Orchard, not only did Ruth Heald and Melville Johnson win a clean- cut decision for first honors, but we were awarded the team prize for the general excellence of all four speakers, an honor all the more valued as it represented the unani-

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10 FOUR CORNERS manner, Hon. Clifford McGlauflin, chair¬ man of the judges, smilingly handed out both prizes for girls to Misses Heald and Libby respectively, and brought the audi¬ ence to their - feet with a roar of cheers by announcing that the coveted cup was ours. We’d hate to say how many people had heart failure, even one of the chairs totally collapsed. Anyway, the cup is ours; we’ve wanted it; we’ve worked for it, and we believe we have fairly earned it. All Scar¬ borough has a right to feel proud of the boys and girls who could acquit themselves with such grace, ease, and earnestness as did our speakers. The friends of the school will be interested to read an account of the distribution of medals for the three years. PRELIMINARY CONTEST. Ruth Cumpston Heald, one silver, two bronze. Helen Collins Libby, one silver, one bronze. Abbie Beulah Small, one silver. Melville Johnson, one bronze. Clarence Asbury Larv, one silver. Ralph Leon Lary, one bronze. Norman Webster Laughton, one bronze. Harold Walter Bennett, one silver. Leonard Horace Emmons, one silver. FINALS. Ruth Cumpston Heald, two silver. Helen Collins Libby, one silver, one bronze. Melville Johnson, one silver. Norman Webster Laughton, one silver.