Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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8 SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR. A Summer Evening. cues teh no Lit hook brows, s. l. a., iooi. Slowly down behind the mountains Sinks’the sun in all his splendor ; Shafts of gold upon the water, Shafts of gold upon the mountains, breaking through the purple cloud-rifts, Purple cloud-rifts lined with silver. Golden lights now change to crimson, Now to violet, now to azure, Deepening, as the sun,descending, Seeks the far off eastern countries. Till two clouds alone remaining, Rosy with the sun's last kisses. Pictured in the lake's smooth mirror, Seem like stately swans reposing— Two pink swans upon the surface. Into the cool water shoving My canoe, I paddle slowly, Softly, through the reeds and grasses, Through the nodding Hags and rushes, Out among the water lilies. There awhile to sit and ponder. Pondering, to watch the moon rise Down across the swampy meadow, From the forest covered hillsides, From the glades among the pine trees, borne along upon the west wind Comes the sweetest of bird-voices, Comes the hermit thrush's singing, Falling like a benediction; breathes of peace and of contentment. Tells his love of God and Nature. Everything is dark and silent: All the birds have ceased their singing : Stealthily across the meadow Comes the west wind lightly treading; breathes upon the sleeping water, And the tiny waves, awaking. Follow in each other's footsteps To the edges of the lakelet, Rippling softly 'cross the sand bars, babbling lightly o’er the pebbles, Lappmg gently on the marshes, Singing lullabies to Nature, Drowsy murmurings of slumber. Everything is dark and silent: Not a sound provokes the stillness Save the crickets in the grasses. Save the frogs among the marshes, Save the murmur of the water. And the humming of mosquitoes. In and out among the alders, To and fro beneath the willows, Dance the fireflies by thousands, Flashing, sparkling like diamonds. Deep down in the swampy places, Where the water brown and stagnant Lies with shadow green upon it, burns the fox-lire glistening, gleaming, Camp fires of the gnomes and eif-folk, Of the gnomes that haunt the marshes. O’er the summit of black Mountain. O'er the heights of spruce and hemlock. First a light flooding the treetops— Now a narrow strip of silver, Now a cimeter of silver, Growing larger, larger, larger, Comes the full moon slowly sailing Silently across the heavens. Slowly, then, I paddle shoreward. Shoulder my canoe and turning, Look upon the silent lakelet. Molten silver in the moonlight. On the shore across the water Stands a venerable spruce tree, Scarred by thunderbolt and tempest. Patriarch among its neighbors. Lifting its bare arms to heaven Like a spectre in the moonlight. From among its scraggy branches Comes the whip-poor-will's complaining ; Sad and mournful, weird and ghost like. Echoing across the water. Two Departures. The “vacant chair” has been most unusually in evidence among the E.II.S. faculty the present year. Two impor- tant positions, those of master and sub- master, were left vacant by the de- parture of Mr. Getchell for the principal- ship of the Hyde Park High School, and of Mr. Akers for that of Holyoke. Both gentlemen had been connected with the E. II. S. since an early period of its existence, and by their hearty sympathy in all departments, both scholastic and athletic, as well as by their masterly instruction, had made their work one of influence and power. 2 The New Master. That the School Board of Somerville believe in Civil Service is plainly proven by their action in advancing Sub-Master Avery to the vacant master’s position. Mr. Avery has been connected with the E- H. S. since its opening and has been an indefatigable worker and a most suc- cessful instructor. He is thoroughly conversant with the working manage- ment of the school and is heartily in sympathy with its policy in every par- ticular. Committee and school arc for- tunate to have in our midst the needed man for the important vacancy in the master’s position.

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sum hr ville high school radiator. 7 New Teachers at the English High School FRONTISPIECE. FRED O. SMALL. Mr. Small was born in Madrid, 1867; his early education was obtained in the Phillips High School and at Fryeburg A cad emy. Th e y ea r ’ 89 sa w h im g rad u - ated from the Farmington State Normal School. He entered Bowdoin as one of the class of ’95, joining the fraternity, ‘Alpha Delta Phi. Mr. Small has had nine years’ experience in teaching, vary- ing from ungraded schools to academies. He resigned the principalship of Gould Academy to accept that of Washington Academy, Machias, the State prepara- tory school for Bowdoin. From this position, after three years' service, he was called to Somerville as a sub-mas- ter in the English High School. WILLIAM IRVING CORTHELL. Mr. Wm. Irving Corthell, who has recently become a sub-master, is a native of the historic “ Old Colony, having been born in Hingham, where his early life was passed. Mr. Cor- thell was graduated from Williams College in ’93 as an “ honor man,” and passed the following year in the Gradu- ate School at Harvard, pursuing courses in the History and Art of Teaching and in Pedagogy. Mr. Corthell’s experience in teaching has been obtained in the Nichols School, Buffalo, N. Y., in Richmond, Va., and in Leominster, Mass. He re- signed the sub-mastership of the High School at Leominster to accept his pres- ent position in the S. E. H. S. HARRIET E. TUELL. The department of History at the English High School suffered a severe loss when Sub-Master Getchell left. “History, however, “repeats itself,” and under the efficient management of Miss Tuell, the excellent work of the department goes on unchecked. Miss Tuell is a native of Blackstone, Mass. She prepared for college in the Milton High School, and received the degree of B..A. from Wellesley in ’91. In '94 Cornell University made Miss Tuell a Ph. D. Miss Tuell has taught in the Gilbert School, Winsted, Conn., and the Durfee High, Fall River, from which place she comes to the English High. HILA HELEN SMALL. That a prophet is sometimes not without honor even in his own country is proven from the fact that two of the new members of the E. H. S. faculty are from Somerville. Miss Hila Helen Small early removed to this city from Boston, and received her preparatory education in the Forster Grammar and Latin High Schools. In '96 Miss Small was graduated from Boston University, where she showed marked ability in her present specialty, English, ranking prominently among prize and com- mencement speakers. Since then she has taught three years in the Ayer High School. In June of the present year she was elected to the Fitchburg High School, but gave preference to the posi- tion offered her here. BESSIE L. FORBES. Miss Bessie L. Forbes is the second of the Somerville teachers, and the first of the graduates of the English High School to become one of its instructors. Miss Forbes was graduated from the school in '97, and has since been con- nected with it in the several capacities of post-graduate and student teacher. This year she has been elected a regu- lar instructor in the department of stenography. Miss Forbes is a member of the Chandler Shorthand Association, whose excellent system is so success- fully used in the English High School. BERTHA PHILLIPS MARVEL. Miss Bertha Phillips Marvel, the addi- tion to the faculty in the French depart- ment, is a native of Taunton, and pre- pared for college at the High School of that city, entering Boston University in ’92. She received the degree of A. B in '96, and during the following year re- mained at the university pursuing post- graduate courses. Miss Marvel has taught in the high schools of Ashland and Winchendon, from the latter place coming to Somerville.

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SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR. 9 TLhe Sophomore's IDream. CLAM. Arid August had just blown into sur- reptitious September. Classical applica- tion had just succeeded irresponsible freedom. The Sophomore parted with his vacation feeling as only a Sopho- more can. Having served his one year’s apprenticeship, he returned to his Alma Mater with the mistaken idea that he was a factor in her institutions, that he was something a little lower than a Senior and immeasurably greater than a Freshman, and that he was a subject to be regarded with wonder and admiration by the existing class of inexperienced youngsters. In fact, his whole appear- ance suggested the idea that internally the estimate placed upon his general value was “ O.K.” For a time this indomitable self-satis- faction wore well. It always does. It might have lasted indefinitely but for circumstances. The present Freshman class, like all other Freshman classes (possibly like the very Freshman class in which our Sophomore had once begun an unsuccessful stern chase after knowl- edge), despite its glaring greenness, its natural and child-like freshness, ceased to do many things which smack of our more cosmopolitan grammar school education, ceased to feel out of place in its classical surroundings, and ceased to look upon a Sophomore as a rare and happy possi- bility, reverencing only a few tall Seniors and the busy Radiator men. This reaction had a bad effect upon the Sophomore in question. He medi- tated upon his wrongs daily in long and tedious study periods, and nightly in calm and peaceful sleep. One night, after participation in a little game of whist, a happy, blissful dream seemed to reveal a method of solving the whole difficulty. The vision appeared about midnight. The first sensation was motion, that vague, indescribable feeling of motion that carries us through all our nocturnal travels, in a mass of darkness which sometimes resolves itself into night, and sometimes remains shapeless, boundless space. Then the dreamy student be- came conscious of a ludicrous feeling of compulsion. He was sailing through the air at a track-sprinter’s pace, but not because he wanted to. Yet he seemed to be driving something,— what it was the gloom effectually concealed, but he held a line in each hand. Still he wasn’t exactly “pushing on the reins,’’ the reins were pulling him. “Somebody’s got me on a string,— no, two strings,— perhaps they’re apron strings,” he mused. The reins dropped. The scene shifted. He found himself in a grove— a grove of pines and firs and hemlocks, whose bristling branches, in the moon’s gentle light, shut out the heavens in patches resembling irregular daubs of ink. Between the two battalions of silent, listening shadows was an open space. The ground was covered with young fellows, who from their number and disorder could be nothing but stu- dents. They were supported by long laboratory settees grouped in a semi- circle around a carefully built centre- piece, a black speaker's platform, bear- ing in long gold letters upon its face, “ Tandem.” About this stand, pro- tected by this motto, was a group of tall, sober boys. The main body was in three divisions. A motley crowd of grinning, twisting, wriggling children in the middle was flanked on the right by a haughty array under the proud banner, “Knowledge is Power,” and on the left by a sedate, well-behaving coterie who unpretentiously displayed the standard, “Our Trust Is in the Seniors.” In his vision the Sophomore was standing near the platform. The feel- ing of restraint was gone. He was par- ticipating in th° shifting scene as a spec- tator ; he was walking, listening, seeing, and thinking. 11 is fancy soon revealed