Scituate High School - Chimes Yearbook (Scituate, MA)

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8 THE CHIMES beautiful, leap along the wood hungrily. They seem undaunted by the quantity of water being used to extinguish them. While people stand in awe gazing at the dreaded menace leaping and destroying, they are com- pletely oblivious of its terrible significance. How pitiful for those whose property has been destroyed or damaged! How hazardous for the firemen! And yet, how thrilling to the spectators! This is not a nation composed of cruel individuals — as it appears — eager for spectacular sights which wreak destruction. But fires are an exciting diversion from the ordinary occur- rences of life. As one wanders among the crowd, various rumors are heard as to the cause of the fire. Generally no one knows how it began, but all make pretenses of having heard of the authentic origin. Soon the fire is under control. Only a great ocean of smoke and the blackened building are visible signs of a disaster. The majority of the crowd begin to disperse. The excitement is over, and the firemen pick up their kit and depart. The fire horn blows tw ice. All out. SPRING Eleanor Secor, ' 38 I like the gay spring weather, It makes my heart so light; I like the April showers That patter every night. I like the little violets, That now are all in bloom; I like the yellow daffodils, That come and go so soon. I like the soft green carpets, That nature now has spread ; And the beautiful blue heaven, High above my head. THE LAW, THE LAYMAN AND THE LAWYER Sherman Gates, ' 40 Undoubtedly you have heard of certain hard-to-believe incidents which have arisen because of loopholes in our present-day law. You have heard of the notorious Joe Davin, who for five times in succession escaped the hand of justice because of technicalities in one branch of the law. You have

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THE CHIMES 7 to have her mother or father say, What in the world is the matter with you lately? You act so listless and depressed. Do you think you ought to see the doctor? She was so disgusted with their commonness of mind; it seemed per- fectly obvious that she was not ill, but that her soul was troubled. How stupid of everyone ! It seemed ridiculous that romance had passed her by, that her Prince Charming whom she had always visioned as riding upon his white horse and carrying her away, had as yet entirely failed to put in his appearance. It was getting to be a very serious matter, and if her Mr. Right didn ' t come along soon, she would be classed in the town ' s category of old maids. Not that she didn ' t have enough boy friends, if Chuck, Johnny, and the others could be termed as such. But they were so unromantic and — why. they weren ' t serious about her or marriage or anything, so she had elim- inated them as possibilities. She guessed that they were too young to really feel serious about those things. Besides, she preferred her men to be older and more sophisticated, so it was just as well they hadn ' t brought matters to a head by proposing to her. Perhaps in order to escape from the bore- dom of her present life she might have accepted and made the rest of her life miserable by feeling intellectually superior to her husband. She thought that a great mistake. When she got married, she wanted to be able to look up to her husband. Sometimes she thought, Perhaps it will be better if I don ' t marry. Maybe I ' m not fitted for married life. Then she would think of the loneli- ness in store for her should she take this course, and she would immediately start to worry and plan again. Now there was a new fellow that just moved in dowm the street that looked rather interesting. He was the tall, dark, and distinguished type, but he didn ' t look as if he was interested in women — Oh, this was getting to be terrible. After all, she was within a month of being twelve years old. FIRE! Louise Chessia, ' 38 Fire! 388 — er-a — that ' s Yarmouth Road. Come on! Cars are speeding with amazing rapidity towards the momentary cen- ter of attraction. As soon as their vehicles are parked, people jump out and dash in the direction of the black columns of smoke. Small boys arrive on bicycles, drop them in any convenient spot, and speed towards the flames. Firemen, policemen, politicians, civilians, youths — all gather to watch the sinister flames do their destructive work. A fire is truly a spectacular sight. The flames, which are really quite

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THE CHIMES 9 heard the case of Mr. X, who found a defect in the title of an estate and suc- ceeded in winning it over for the same reason. You have heard these cases and many others of the same nature. However, technicalities of the law have been the objects of unfair criticisms. While many injustices have been wrought by complicated laws, constant effort is being made to correct and readjust them. In the United States, the laws are made in Congress; in Great Britain, in the Parliament; in France, in the Chamber of Deputies — but wherever they are being made, the intention is to meet the demands of the people, to repeal and amend laws to meet modern and social conditions. People are demanding that the laws be written in the language of the people. The generalities of com- mon speech, however, need to be avoided. The generalizing of the law will not better its administration and application, but it will call for more opinions and interpretations and, as you know, these are seldom precise and similar. There must be exactness in law for the same reason that there must be exactness in any field of science. In connection with the law we find no person more important than the lawyer. On him lies the trust of his community and of his fellow practi- tioners. His profession is one of great learning and dignity. His duty is to interpret the laws and to defend or ascertain the rights of anyone seek- ing justice. Of course, every profession has its incompetents, and the law is not without exception though the more stringent and exacting applica- tion of bar examinations and rules has reduced this number of undesirables. These few have chosen to disregard the ethics of their profession, but the stirring up of litigation for personal advancement is never in the mind of a true lawyer. Every lawyer is under an obligation to the people and to the community; his office is a public office. It is not due to delay on the part of your attorney if a great time elapses before your case is finally tried. This is primarily due to over- crowded courts. Thus a great lawyer of the past has said that a bad settle- ment is as good as the best law suit, a court trial which entails so much ex- pense being hardly worth the time and effort. This statement, however, could hardly be applied to this present day and age. Many people have been led to believe that a lawyer earns his dollars about as easily as any professional man could honestly do. However, thev have been, indeed, misled; for with few exceptions no one earns such a well- deserved fee. While little manual labor is attached to this business of law. the time, effort and mental agitation connected with preparing a case or doing any other such law work entails as much labor as any glutton for work might ask. Dwyer: Well, Bob, I graduate at the end of this year. Surprised? Ewell : No, I ' ve been expecting it for years.