Southwest High School - Roundup Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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Tl-IE VOYAGERS BY CAROL STEWART Sailing Today for California Ezra Smith Joseph Spaulding J ebediah Kelly William Snow Oakley Meeker John Whitman Oliver Buck Benjamin Shaw Notices such as the above appeared regularly in newspapers of the eastern seaport towns during the winter and early spring of 1849. The friends and relatives of those named flocked to the harbor to wish them Godspeed. Let us sail with a group of these Argonauts on their perilous voyage around Cape Horn. Milling and shouting, the crowds cheered as the ship began to move. Hats and white handkerchiefs waved goodby. From the ship came the sound of singing and last shouted farewells, messages, and assurances. Then the ship gathered speed. The journey began in earnest. The odyssey was a long hard one. During the first week or two, rocking of the ship made many miserably seasick. Aside from that, how- ever, the first weeks on board were the most pleasant of the entire voyage. The voyagers spent the days in singing and dancing, fishing, or just talking. Monotony and discomfort, however, soon outran novelty and interest. Calms, sometimes of a week's duration, violent tropical storms, which forced the passengers to stay below deck for days, and crowded quarters contributed to unrest. Quarrels broke out. Law and order became non-existant. To remedy this situation the voyagers elected a president, organized a police force, laid out the deck of the ship into streets, made and rigidly enforced laws, started a ship's newspaper, encouraged religious services, and practiced military drills. Finally, the travelers reached Cape Horn. Ships had to wait for calm weather before attempting the narrow, treacherous Straits of Magellen. In spite of the danger and difficulty of this passage, not one ship of the fleet that made the attempt failed to get through safely. After rounding the Horn, the sailors felt that they were almost within reach of their goal. Stops at Valparaiso, Callao, or Rio to take on fresh water and food broke the monotony of sailing once or twice during the voyage. As the shortage of fresh vegetables caused scurvy, the voyagers ate many strange fruits during these stops and were often sick when they again put out to sea. The sail up the Pacific Coast was usually slow but uneventful. Eager faces watched as, at last, signs of land began to appear: land birds, fioating branches, a cloud on the horizon that gradually grew and darkened until recognizable as land. As the ship sailed majestically into San Francisco Harbor, cheering passengers crowded her rails. Impatiently they waited to land and dash out in search of gold-their goal, for which they had been striving during the long months of the voyage. Although their goals are different from those of the forty-niners, the administrators of Southwest are making a similar voyage. Theirs is life's journey. During the calms-monotonous, repetitious days-they seem to be making no progress. Then come storms-too many things happen at once. Classes are restless, work piles up, and our Argonauts are tossed from one thing to another without adequate time for anything. Vacations-the brief stops for fresh supplies-give them a chance for recreation or more study and a time in which to replenish their stock of patience, which at times they sorely need. Still they persevere, confident that they will eventually reach their go-als. What are they seeking? Perhaps it is advancement in their field of endeavor, satisfaction of having a share in the education of our youth, or a sense of well being because of a job well done. But, whatever the gold they may be seeking, these voyagers have one goal in common-to make Southwest the best high school in this great land. VVe, the students of Southwest, stand in the harbor cheering them on, hoping they will attain their goal, and perhaps, hoping that some day we, too, will have the opportunity to reach our E1 Dorado. Eight

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Cover Lining ...... John Radaelli Title Page ...... ,.,.... S hirley Poeschel Contents and Drawings Cecilia Mueller The Pot of Gold Shirley Poeschel Cartoons . ,.... ,. .... .... , . Alice Appel DIVIDERS The Voyagers ,......,.,......... Elaine Baese Blazing the Trail Jeannette Voertman Golden Grains .... Shirley Poeschel Lighter Moments .. ....,.. Alice Webb Pay Dirt . ,. Barbara Paxton New Horizons . Bonnie Bradshaw Finis .,..... ....,... .,,., G e orgia Slingwein Seven

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