Soldan High School - Scrip Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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n -xg 12 - , liffiixi- . e ea ,-, I see the frontiers and boundaries of the old aristocra- cies broken, I see the landmarks of European kings removed. Are all nations communing? is there going to be but one heart to the globe? Is humanity forming en-masse? for lo, tyrants trem- ble, crowns grow dim, The earth restive, confronts a new era. The perform'd America and Europe grow dim, retir- ing in shadow behind me. The unperform'd, more gigantic than ever, advance. And has this prophecy come to pass? This terrible war of four years is the answer. There is now one heart to the globe. Democracy has almost real- ized the vision of fifty years ago, the prophecy of her bard, Walt Whitman. -Frances Vivian Feldkamp. A War Definition , ,, 5-A S it not true that with experience some commonplace words Q:l 33'1 F7 . . 'Q grow heavy with new mean1ng? Recently, I learned to ,' thrill at the sound of an old-fashioned word. For this rea- ES' ' son, I dare to bring it to your attention, you who have learned the meaning of the word and the value of the habit expressed, and I, whose attention has been arrested in recent months through a new insight given by war. The immediate thought which comes to many, is that thrift is simply a fact of saving money and material substance. But thrift is an attitude of mind toward life. It means the exercising of the rules of reason with regard to things about us. It warns against yielding to our natural whims and impulses. Thrift must not be thought of as a means of accumulating a fortune only. A thrifty man need not accumulate a fortune, large or small. The object of thrift is to make us masters of all material things that we may enjoy, that these things may not master us. True happiness consists, not in satisfying many wants, but in having fewer wants to satisfy. It is said that people go through life discontented, chiefly because of artificially created and stim- ulated wants. The war taught us to be thrifty in the satisfaction of our wants, that we might lavish our souls and our savings on our country. And then, too, it is necessary that a man uphold thrift as the basis of sound living. He will be a better craftsmang he will do more with 11

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Whitman's tutor in Democracy ultimately was war. His creed forbade his fighting. But as he lived and worked with the soldier in the hospital, or cheered him in the field, and as he wrote of him, there came to him war's deep meaning. As war had tutored him in Democracy, now Democracy tutors him in war. He fully conceived that war was forging the unity of the states. He studied closely the characteristics of his age-Lincoln's age. He knew the souls, passions, ideas and flame-like results. He studied Lincoln closely and caught the deep, subtle and indirect expres- sion reflected in the face of this greatest man of the people. He sang divinely of Lincoln's death. In a vision he saw the coffin of Lincoln carried through the whole country, greeted by the States as crape- veiled women, accompanied by the bareheaded, grief-stricken eloquent throng. He heard dirges, the tolling of bells, the sweet, solemn music of the organs in every church in the land. And surrounding all, a black cloud hanging as a pall over our whole nation. Yet here it did not end. There is another vision: A Phantom arose before me with distrustful aspect, Terrible in beauty, age, and power, The genius of poets of old lands, With finger pointing to many immortal songs, And menacing voice. 'What singest thou?' it saidg 'Know'st thou not there is but one theme for ever- enduring bards? And that is the theme of War, the fortune of battles, The making of perfect soldiers. ' Now we might say the years with Whitman take a great leap. It was the time of the Civil War. He had come to realize the meaning of war, the terrible necessity of the last war against war. Again the veil lifts-and shows a vista of fifty years, and then he says: I see not America only, not only Liberty's nation, but other nations preparing, I see tremendous entrances and exits, new combina- tions, the solidarity of races, I see that force advancing with irresistible power on the world's stage, I see Freedom, completely arm'd and victorious and very haughty, with Law on one side and Peace on the other, A stupendous trio. I see men marching and countermarching by swift mil- lions, 10

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'. .. T -5 ff: AW- 1--T LY -L -f f .:L-,fa-f ri - :- his materials. He will be a better father, for he will do more for the souls of his children. He will be a better citizen for he will hoard and make usable to all the resources of his state. The doors of pros- perity may be open to such a man, but it will not tempt him to turn this prosperity to selfish ends. It is not what you save, but what you do with your treasure: This is the new light on the word thrift. Did you ever think it your duty to be thrifty? It is one of the strongest calls of duty. It is a duty not only to those that may be dependent upon you, but also to your country and to your higher self. You need hardly be told the methods of thrift. The beasts and the insects lay aside for a period of want. They are taught by instinct. But, with us, it must be a matter of thought and education. It does not mean that we are to be miserly or that we must forego the pleasures of life. As a young American Lieutenant, just returned from overseas service, said: We are learning that many things deemed indispensable before this war can now be readily dispensed with. We are not going back to where we were before the war. We are going to have a new world, a better managed world, a rescued world of beauty, contrib- uted to and shared by all. We are a nation of spendthrifts. Out of every thousand people in this country, so our statistician tells us, only one hundred and eight have grasped the wisdom of thrift. It is said: To save is to know wisdom, to know wisdom is to live well, to live well is to enjoy life. Our great method of thrift is our national conservation. Bills on conservation already passed, show that we are moving in the right direction. But the idea of conserving our human and spiritual forces is yet undeveloped. There are, indeed, obstacles to thrift, the love of luxury, the im- pulse to buy whatever pleases the fancy, and the habit of gambling and intemperance in the precious things of life. But thrift is really com- paratively easy and may soon become a habit. War is the greatest spendthrift. It is then necessary to call for all that thrift implies to offset this great waste. Surely, there can be no greater foundation for democracy than thrift -thrift means to save and to share. It means a square deal from man to man. Self-abnegation is one of the assets of the war and the complement of thrift. There is a new world about us. The rich woman who scrubbed and served at the canteensg the boy who lived gloriously in the trenchg the woman who at grey dawn giving up all comforts, cared for the French re-patriatesg these know the meaning of self-abnegation and of thrift. War, then, has given new dignity to this old Benjamin Franklin word. Never again can it drop' to its old materialistic mean- ing, this new, inspiring, word Thrift -Gertrude Kehl. 12