Selwyn House School - Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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SELWYN HOUSE SCHOOL MAGAZINE Glbristmas Christmas Day falls on the twenty-fifth of December annually, and is the feast of the birth of Christ. The use of holly, mistletoe and the Yule log for decorative purposes at Christmas was probably a Pagan, rather than a Christian, custom. Christmas was celebrated on the sixth of January until the new calendar was in- troduced, but now we call the sixth of January l.ittle Christmas . ln most countries Christmas Day is a public holiday. The custom of giving presents at Christmas dates back to an old heathen usage. The sending of Christmas cards by way of friendly greeting and remembrance commenced only in the last century. The Christmas-tree originated in the days of the Romans, and went from Germany to Great Britain, and now is common in a great many parts of the world. Santa Claus is an imaginary person who is supposed to fill Children's stockings with presents at Christmas. Often at a cliildren's Christmas party some one dresses up as Santa Claus and distributes toys from the Christmas-tree. The name Santa Claus is derived from Saint Nicholas, a rich young man who tried, because he so much admired the kind and gentle character of Christ, to make his money give other people happiness. He went about placing coins and gifts in the homes of the poor, and when he died people called him Saint Nicholas. XY. B., Form 5. Zleruplanes bor hundreds of years men have had a great desire to fly. blany attempts were made, with various kinds of mechanisms but with no success. In l7S'l and V733 two Frenchmen named Montgolfier made balloons, which rose high in the air. They were inflated with hot air produced by burning straw. Two men dared to go up in one of these in 1793 and afterwards many voyages were made in several countries. Soon, however, hydrogen gas was found to be better than hot air, and large balloons were built. John Stringfellow in 1843 built the first power-driven model aeroplane to achieve a short free Hight. The motive power was a tiny steam engine. Then in l896 Otto Lilienthal, known as the father of aeroplanesn, was killed in an accident, after a series of motorless gliding experiments in Germany, which paved the way for the power-driven, man-carrying aeroplane. lt was in 1900 that Wilbur and Orville Wright, in America, began their motorless gliding experiments. When, on December l7th, i903 Wilbur and Orville Wright actually Hew with a power-driven aeroplane, they undoubtedly did the greatest thing that had ever been accomplished in flight. That first flight lasted for just twelve seconds, four trials in all were made that day and the fourth Hight was a matter of only fifty nine seconds. It was not until September 26th, 1905 that the Wright brothers Hew thirty eight minutes and covered in one flight, a distance of twenty-five miles without alighting. Santos Dumont achieved short flights, with a fifty horse-power biplane in France in 1906. llil

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FOR THE SCHOOL YE.-KR 1933-1934 The afternoon saw the chief event of our programme in full swing. The Slalom Competition was held on the Golf Course Hill instead of at the house of Mr. A. Purvis to which - although we had been warmly invited- we were at the last moment unable to go. A fairly stili' course was worked out with flags, and the juniors were sent down first. Their falls and the lowering of the temperature made the course quite hard and fast. Scout K. Porter won with fastest time 21-3 '5 , Scout P. Mackenzie came second with 24 , while Scout F. Frosst's performance of 30-2 '5 was so good that it merited a consolation prize which has since been awarded. At dinner, Mr. Wianstall presented a silver cup each to Scouts K. Porter and P. Mac- kenzie for their prowess in Slalom Racing. On the 30th we played St. George's Scout Troop at Hockey at the Coliseum. The visitors beat us by 5 goals to l, Scout Chambers scoring our only goal off a pass from the T.L. The visitors out-skated us most of the timeg our own team was considerably weakened as three of our senior Scouts were absent. Februzzrlv. We played a Match against the Montreal High School Troop at the Coliseum. Our speed and team work made up for the visitors' strength and size. P.L. Leslie, our Captain, scored two goals. The result was a draw. :Xt a return Played against the St. Georges Troop at Atwater Park we won by 5 goals to 4. It was an exciting and fast game, and our opponents in a last attempt to win dis- pensed with their Goal-keeper, playing six men on the ice during the last two minutes. Leslie scored -I goals and Kingstone I goal. On the 21st the Troop Photo was taken in the afternoon at Headquarters. In the evening the T.L., P.Ls and Scotmaster attended the annual P.Ls. Banquet at the Windsor Hotel and heard a very witty speech by the Hon. Charles A. Dunning, one time Minister of Finance in the Dominion Parliament. T.L. Barott and P.L. Little passed Part II of their Sphinx Training Course. Cerzfral District. A Seconds Rally was held at Headquarters. Five of our Seconds attended what proved to be a most interesting series of talks on Scouting from the Second's point of view. We met the lNIontreal High School Hockey team at the Coliseum on the 27th for a return lNIatch. Our visitors played a determined game, but the score remained 5 goals to 3 in our favour. Our Captain scored -l goals and Scout Savage the other. Those who had difiiculty in grasping the Scouting Ideal, will, we are sure, have bene- fitted much by the fine address given by Mr. Jackson Dodds over the Radio early in Febru- ary. Xve would end these notes with sincere wishes for the speedy return to health of our Chief Scout Lord Baden-Powell, and we look forward to seeing him when he visits Montreal next year. llll

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FOR THE SCHOOL YEAR 1933-1934 On July 25th. 1909 M. Louis Bleriot, the Frenchman, made the first journey above the English Channel in a heavier-than-air machine ascending from Les Baragues near Calais, and alighting at a point near Dover Castle. This historic flight, accomplished, in a small twenty-five horse-power monoplane lasted thirty-seven minutes. In August of the same year the world's First flying meeting was at Rheims, in France. A giant Handley biplane flew over London carrying forty passengers in November 1918. In June 1919 Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur W. Brown, in a twin-engined Vickers- Vimy-Rolls biplane, won a 510,000 prize by a non-stop flight ofone thousand eight hundred and ninety miles from St. John's, Newfoundland, to the west coast of Ireland, covering this distance in sixteen hours twelve minutes, the average speed being one hundred and eighteen miles per hour. This was the first trans-Atlantic crossing. Sir Alan Cobham's five thousand miles' air-tour of Europe, was accomplished in three weeks in the year 1921. Lieut-Commander R.E. Byrd in 1926, starting and returning to Spitzbergen, flew over the North Pole and back in a three motored Fokker's plane, being in the air fifteen and a half hours and covering one thousand three hundred miles. Capt. C. Lindbergh flew alone from New York to Paris in a small monoplane, doing three thousand six hundred and thirty nine miles in thirty-three and a half hours in 1927. In 1928 Flt-Lieut. S.N. lvebster won for Britain, the International Schneider Trophy, at a speed of two hundred and eighty-two miles per hour. In the same year Mr. Bert. Hinkler flew from England to Australia in fifteen and a half days in a thirty horse-power light aeroplane. Flt-Lieut. lYaghorn on September 7th, 1929 won the Schneider Trophy at a speed of three hundred and twenty-eight miles an hour. Flt-Lieutenant George H. Stainforth held the world's speed record from 1931 to 1933 for Great Britain, when he created a speed of four hundred and fifteen miles per hour. This record, however. has recently been eclipsed by an Italian oflicer. Amy Johnson, born in Yorkshire, England, is probably the greatest woman who ever took the air. She flew alone from London to Australia in 1930, and in November, 1932, broke the record of the fastest time from England to South Africa by flying from Lympne to Cape Town, 6220 miles, in four days, six hours and fifty-four minutes. Her husband, Captain Mollison is also one of the best and most popular aviators living. I-Ie has many air records to his credit. Perhaps the most outstanding aviator of our day is Air-Commodore Kingsford Smith. He has broken record after record in his air-mail flights. I-Ie has recently flown from England to Darwin, Australia, in the remarkably short time of twelve and a half days. He has since been knighted by the King for this marvellous feat. R.C., Form -1. eu llvl