St Johns College - Ozanam Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

Page 19 text:

The Senior's Lament By OTTO F. WENZLER My heart is full, I sit here sad tonightg My days at school will soon have fled away- The feeling that is mine surpasses words- I leave St. john's, for time forbids I stay. In early years my studies were a task: They're now an opportunity, a joy, What treasures lie before the lad beginning! I wish that I could start again, a boy. An empty wish for rather must I go, And going, for youth's vanished springtime grieve Scarce realized, when lost! What memories Return of things that were! Yet I must leave. Yes, soon I'm through, and O how I will miss The laughter and the work of college days, Those pals, whose smiling faces I have known, Those saintly men whom only heaven pays. I wish, I hope, I pray that when I'm gone, And in the world amidst its haste and greed, I'11 live as I've been taught, forever true To old St. john's, in thought, in word, in deed.

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10 THE amine a statement of the late Senator Hoar, long a leader in the United States Senate, who declared in his old age: The longer I live, the more I have come to value the gift of elo- quence. . . . Every American youth, if he desires for any purpose to get influence over his country-men in an honorable way, will seek to become a good public speaker. Perhaps one of the outstanding groups of college men apparently lacking a complete training in public speaking may be said to be those grad- uating from purely scientific courses. The dean of a certain college of civil engineering has stated that if gradu- ates in engineering could have thor- ough training in speaking, and some training in law, they could take their places as presidents of all the corpora- tions in the land. So keenly are the alumni of scientific colleges realizing this fact that they are noticeably ac- tive in establishing prizes and medals in speaking at their respective insti- tutions, and are even assisting to en- dow chairs in this particular branch. It is noticeable that in a certain col- lege the only students required to take a course in public speaking are those in architecture. The reason for this apparently far-fetched regulation is that the faculty concerned has been impressed with the failures of certain men in this profession to secure ac- ceptance for excellent plans when pre- senting them before boards and com- mittees. It almost goes without saying that in the structure of our present day civilization certain elements of adver- tising enter into all our activities. Whether we preach, teach, solicit, or sell-in a word if we at all seek to exert any influence over others we OZANAM must advertise new ideas. President Lowell of Harvard expressed this opinion when he wrote in an article, For any one who desires to advocate a new idea, the difficulty is not so much to convince as to get a hearing, not so much to be judged fairly as' to be judged at all. Each day seems to demonstrate more clearly the truth that no mere haphazard system of elocution or bom- bastic oratory will suilice or suit the needs of the times. For all who would succeed must of necessity have a sci- entific training in the art of speaking. Today the college man even studies athletics, and rightly so. From this view-point it seems most reasonable that he be given the opportunity to develop his powers of eloquence. A college course, by its very nature, sup- poses a training that is essentially complete and it is for this reason, if for none other, that the public is to- day demanding that the products of colleges be able to express clearly and intelligently their views from the platform. To the college man this training ought to mean much, and in fact ought to be a point of special interest in his course. The late Andrew D. White of Cornell declared: Let every stu- dent worthy of the name-whether fraternity man or not-make the most of his university opportunities for de- bate and public speech. Such chances and training he will not easily find again. . To the credit of our institutions let it be said that they are doing very creditable work along these lines, and it is to be hoped that each scholastic year will mark an even keener interest in public speaking both on the part of colleges and also of their students.

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The Phantom Rider' By PAUL A. ELNEN Dimmed in the twilight of myth comes to us an old legend of the Phantom Rider of the Night. No one has ever seen him but the hoof-beats of his ebony horse have been echoing through the night for ages in the hearts of men. On clear and starlit nights when silver and black ripples along the shore whisper soft songs of a thousand old loves to the amber sands, men have heard the Phantom Rider gallop by in the stillness of the moonlight, and have paused to listen until the rythmic hoof-beats faded in the distance as he rode down the path- way of dreams. He rode last night and will ride again tonight, though you nor I may not hear him, but many of those who did hear the musical beat in their hearts have followed wheresoever he wished to lead, and tonight many more will answer his call from the purple ridges of the western sky. The fable connected with the Phan- tom Rider comes from the heart of Africa and is perhaps as old as the African tongue itself. Little dusky native children delight in listening to the tale, and turning their eyes-sable pools of glistening blackness in which the infinite depths of the African night is saturated-ask the same ques- tion their fathers asked when First they heard the story: Who is the Phantom Rider?,' Centuries and ages ago, long before the clamor of Babel was heard and again after its downfall when the wrath of the Lord sent forth the con- founded nations of the earth upon their newest quest, then the common quest of men-Solitude, the Phantom Rider beckoned across the chartless expanse of the waters to those who would but hear. He led them to the same spot to which he is leading men today, only to disappoint them. He holds out lofty hopes, only to shatter them at the end of the trailg he calls, only to deceiveg he leads, but only to a land of sorrow, heartaches, misery, want, emptiness, hunger. At the end of the road lies the Place. Here is that legendary Place which every ivory hunter hopes to stumble on, the place where an almost unimag- inable wealth of ivory has accumu- lated, the place where the elephants are said to have gone away to die of old age. And here the Phantom Rider keeps solitary guard over the coveted wealth which no man has even seen. Skeletons, whitened by the bleaching sun, mark the perilous path of shat- tered successes. The heart-sickening drone of black swarms of carrion flies, and the circling swoop of vultures are the only signs of life and activity and the only sounds that drift back to those who laborously press onward. Night after night the Phantom Rider paces his way across the face of mys- terious Africa luring men to the Place. Not merely in Africa does he ride but throughout the entire world, lur- ing men to the Place, yea to every spot where wealth is said to be hidden or buried, wealth which perhaps was the bloody loot of pirates or the plun- der of the conquerors of yesterday. It was the Phantom Rider who beckoned to the traders of King Solomon, who sent Vasco da Gama to conquer and