South High School - Index Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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FRANK HAROLD YLAISTED

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CLASS DAY ADDRESS GEORGE PELEG DIXON 2D ARENTS, TEACHERS, FRIENDS, AND CLASS- MATES:-Today ,we meet together in this building for the lst time. In the four years that we have passed here-first as the self-important Freshman, then as the happy-go-lucky Sophomore, next as the aspiring junior, and finally as the dignified and 1' ' studious Senior-in these four years we have become . so attached to the school and its surroundings that it seems like a second home to most of us. I am sure that in after years we shall look back upon these days as among the pleasantest We ever spent. IWe are glad to Welcome so many of our friends to our Class Day exercises. VVe wish you to feel that we extend to each an in- dividual welcome. ' To you, parents, who have watched and guided our High School courses, to whom we owe a debt that we can not now realize, We extend more than a formal welcome. We wish you to know that Qthe greatest pleasure of these exercises is that you are here to enjoy them with us. No less hearty is our greeting to you, Mr. Woodward, and to our teachers. You have aided us in fulfilling our parents, wishes, without your help we should not be where we are today. We thank you for the interest that you have shown in us. Friends and schoolmates, without whom this day would certain- ly be incomplete, we welcome you to our exercises and trust that you will find the pleasure in them that We have found in Class Days of other years. We wish to thank the Junior class particularly for decorating the hall so beautifully. Class Day exercises are interesting primarily to the members of the class, for to them it is a gala day. The presence, however, of this throng of friends is proof that we shall have sympathetic listen- ers. Therefore I take great pleasure in behalf of the Class of 19o8 in extending you a most cordial welcome. 9 SWL qi 5 Ev, 1' V: 'A ge- an-anmf.fc.nn5p.dr

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CLASS ORATION g A TEUTONIC INSTINCT FRANK HAROLD PLAISTED 5M,,.,.,,,. S we assemble here today, perhaps for the last time, Q we all realize that we have taken the first great step towards making ourselves useful in the world. Mingled with our regret at leaving a school where 5 we have assed four leasant ears, comes a certain .sw fa. N, 1 . . . . elation that we are fast nearing our goal-part1cipa- L ' .211-. . . . tion in world affairs. And how could we be other- p wise than elated? This desire to do something, to contribute to the world's prosperity, is an instinct inherited from our ancestors. WE desire to accomplish something original, to broaden modern conceptions, and although THEIR idea was the same, their execution of it was primative. We are descended from those forest childrenfl who in Roman times lived north of the Rhine-Danube frontier, in what is now called Germany. Lovers of war, their chief ambition found expres- sion in material conquest. For centuries they strove to conquer Rome, and when at last she became the victim of her own folly it was these peoples who hastened her downfall. In the same century, certain Teutonic Tribes crossed the narrow waters and invaded Britain. The island peoples, the Celts and Gaels, were unable to successfully oppose these newcomers and retired before their advance. Settling in southern Britain, the Teutons established kingdoms-little states destined in time to become one united England. When in IO66, William of Normandy conquered England, he realized that all his subjects must unite their separate interests into a common purpose, in order to secure national greatness, and he strove to accomplish that end. For generations the great evolution went on,-the best of the nation's strength being consumed in internal development. But it was not until the reign of the great queen Elizabeth that England saw her real mission-not in warfare, ll