St Johns College - Ozanam Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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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

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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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THE OZANAM 13 plunder the wealth of Zanzibar, where years before the rendezvous of Sind- bad glittered in its abundance of riches and booty. It was the Rider who lured Drake into the Caribbean, his hulls filled with eager and stout hearts singing songs of youth, and health, and strength, and joy, and time that's on the wing. It was he who led the Spanish galleons in search of the untold wealth of a New World. When the Roman legions landed for the first time on the shores of Britain, the Phantom Rider led the way. He rode at the head of the Huns and Vandals with Attila when they scoured the face of Europe. He rode with Alex- ander in his campaigns and when he had conquered the world, sat beside him on the throne, and Alexander died and his empire fell into decay, but the Phantom Rider stole away in the stillness of the night unseen as he had come. He knows all nations alike, their peculiar defects and foibles. All men follow, yet none know the -leader. They have seen thousands before them go at the beck of the Phantom into the darkness of unknown lands never to return, and yet, they follow eagerly to those same shores. In the wake he leaves behind fol- lows a train of sorrowing and weep- ing women, who with tear-stained eyes and quivering voice ask each other, as they weep the ages through, what lure of opiate art can cast such a spell over their sons and lovers to carelessly brave the dangers of the hidden reef and the barren shores of distant and savage lands. Today men ask the same question as those little black eyed savage chil- dren, and receive no better answer. Still he rides through the night call- ing to the sons of men and still we ask, and ask again and again: Who is the Phantom Rider? Some call him Conquest, some Lure, Youth, The Twin Siren, others again Daring, Life, and Adventure. But who is, for us, the Phantom Rider of the Night? I wonder. To a Goldfish By IOSEPH A. GELIN Little goldfish in the bowl Swimming 'round and 'round. Many men oft play your role, Little goldfish in the bowl, 'Round and 'round, how very droll! I wonder if the end you've found, Little goldfish in the bowl Swimming 'round and 'round.