St Johns College - Ozanam Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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38 THE 'OZANAM Latin or Greek. What good will it do you? they ask. It won't make you a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer, or any- thing else for that matter. Such people should be informed that a person with in- tellectuality, with skill in conversation which results from a knowledge of his language when coupled with intellectuality, with char- acter and morality. with culture and refine- ment, will make an infinitely better doctor, engineer, baker, lawyer, or Candlestick maker. L. W. K. Cheerfulness The quality Of being cheerful exists in every normal person. That is to say that each and every one of us can whistle to the tune of lt Ain't Gonna Rain No More even though a cloudburst is turning our streets into rivers. In our every day intercourse we have, no doubt, run across many different kinds of peopleg some normal, others peculiar. There is Mr. Crabb, fault-finder, growler, pessimist -call him what you will: and we loathe him, we detest him. Have we not the right to avoid such a person when we see his unwel- come countenance peering from around a cor- ner, or spy him darting from a nearby place of business? As an opposite example, take Mr. Pleas- ant, a cheerful sort of person whose agreeable character makes him a likeable chap. Every time we come across this Mr. Pleasant he seems to be smiling, with an inexhaustible supply of wit and humor. This may explain why we are willing to include the Pleasants among our intimates while we rigorously ex- clude the Crabbs. This brings up the question: How do others receive us? We prefer our friends to be cheerful, but do we make the effort to be amiable ourselves? But are we, ourselves, Crabbs or Pleasants? We are the directors of our own lives, for the class to which others assign us depends largely on how we act. Let us learn then, to discount the miseries and discomforts of our lives and at the same time to appreciate the goodness, gladness and beauty. A certain doctor, a specialist in nervous diseases, is said to have found a new remedy for the blues. His prescription may be summarized thus: Keep the corners of your mouth turned up: then you can't feel 'Blue'. However, a more simple direction for this is: Smile: keep on smiling, don't stop smiling. It may sound ridiculous, but it isn't. Just try it. Moreover our cheerfulness and amiability is a help to others as well as ourselves. A cheerful person creates, as it were, a whole- some moral atmosphere in his vicinity which exerts an invigorating influence on those around him. We'll admit that it requires self-control and self-denial to maintain a cheery exterior under all circumstances--in sickness, in pain, in sorrow, in poverty, in unpleasant sur- misunderstanding, and .in roundings, but real, sincere cheerfulness im- plies something more than natural tempera- mentg it means self-denial It is no secret that we are and self-control. all refreshed by the presence of cheerful persons: so why not make earnest efforts to be helpful to others by our own cheerfulness and amiability. We can all acquire greater cheerfulness by assuming the right mental attitude toward our environment and circumstance, by look- ing habitually at the bright side of things, by training ourselves persistently to see the good and the pleasant things in our common, daily lifes Some persons seem to have eyes only for the disagreeable things. Overlooking their blessings, they brood over their trials and misfortunes. A good suggestion in regard to any past trouble or set-back is this: Let it go! For- get itl If you had an unfortunate expe- rience yesterday, forget it. If you have failed in one or more of your studies, forget, and do

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THE OZANAM 37 prise. However it is the greatest of them all. Because it is instructive it is constructive: and because it is constructive it is a medium of prosperity. We ought to be proud of it and make more of it. It deserves a place in our life equally with the more energetic neigh- bors among whom it is situated. It is our public library. F. T. W. The Classics and In this Clay Of USC- The Student ful and superficial education, the ten- dency seems to be to drop every branch of study not directly beneficial to the student. Consequenlty the future lawyer or journalist forsakes the sciencesg the future doctor or engineer forsakes the classics: and the future business man forsakes almost everything. Of course dropping the sciences is not such a grave matter. Even the science teachers themselves will admit that their class is not the most important in the process of educa- tion. But ignoring the classics is a far more serious affair. In the first place, the classics have been for many centuries the principal factor in training the mental powers of young students. It stands to reason that the constant pursuit of a difficult and exact study will familiarize a mind with concentration and exactness. And what can be more exacting than the study of the classics, in which a single letter may ruin a whole sentence, or give it a wrong meaning? Any student of Latin and Creek will tell you how far, how very far, these studies are from being easy. It stands to reason that the constant and conscientious pursuit of a diflicult branch of study will create charac- ter, if for no other reason than simply because the pursuit of that study is difficult. As we all know, it goes against the grain to do any- thing hard, and when we have overcome this natural tendency to laziness, we are said to have character and self-control. The expe- rience of hundreds of years has abundantly proved that this is one effect of the study of Latin and Greek. If studied correctly, Latin and Greek will help us morally. In the poems and stories by the ancient authors we read of the lives and customs of the Creeks and Romans, their virtues and their vices, and how these helped or undermined their persons and their govern- ments. Naturally, unless we be of stone, we are impressed by the fact that a clean living people has ever been a successful people, and that a land of vice and corruption has always ended in a failure. There is no better teach- er than experience, they sell us: and the ex- perience of the ancients will benefit us, if we are willing to take a lesson from them. Another reason for studying the classics is to improve our English. We are frequently asked how Latin and Greek can possibly in- crease our knowledge of our native tongue. Stop to consider the fact that four-sevenths of our English words are derived from ancient Latin and Greek and you have a sufficient answer to the query. But that is not all. By studying the syntax of the classical languages we see how they agree with, or differ from, our own, and by learning their constructions we get a better insight into the construction of English. It is undeniable that the classics give the student a culture and refinement to be ob- tained by no other means. In the study of them one associates with the best and noblest personalities of ancient times. First in order are Cicero and Demosthenes, egotists un- doubtedly, yet nevertheless men of principle and cleanness, in an age when morality was almost unknown: again there is Virgil, quiet, retiring, a real poet, and a philosopher of the highest degree attainable without a knowl- edge of the true Cod: these and many others like them are the companions of the classical student. ls it any wonder that he is sur- rounded with an air ofquiet refinement and dignified culture? And yet people will ask why we study

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THE OZANAM 39 better next time. If you have been deceived and hurt by one whom you have looked upon as a true friend, if you have been slandered and abused. do not dwell upon it, do not brood over it: don't harbor it in your thoughts. Forget itl Do not make yourself unhappy by keeping in your mind memories of past failures and dead hopes. When gloom assails you count the blessings that God has bestowed upon you. We must be tolerant. It is necessary for others, and all the more for ourselves. For- get the little troubles others may cause you: cherish no resentment for the inconsiderate words that may have been said about you: excuse the mistakes and awkward blunders of which you are the victim: in a word smile at everything: show a pleasant face on all occasions. A weary heart goes all the day, A sad tires in a mile. E. B. Are Wg Not so very long ago two Awake? brothers began working on a so-called impossibility. Un- doubtedly they knew that if perfected it would revolutionize transportation. They may have even foreseen its effects on methods of warfare. But had they known the extreme deadliness of this latter effect, they might have desisted from their efforts. This, though, is hardly plausible, for they were more in- terested in the success of their invention than in its drastic results. So the Wright brothers brought out their air-plane. A public gave this invention its keen in- terest, but withheld its faith. This lack of faith did not discourage the inventors, how- ever, who well knew that public opinion had ever received great achievement with mis- giving. Aviation has since gone forward in leaps and bounds, until at present we find it com- paratively perfect. Proofs of this are pat- ent: our government transports mail by plane: regular passenger service has been established in many parts of the world: a round-the- world flight has been accomplished, under the most trying conditions, by our government. Aviation is stable: the airplane has come to stay: its achievement is fact, its place in modern civilization undisputed. And yet our officials at Washington fail to see its import- ance. France, Great'Britain, Japan, and even Red Russia, with all its misgovernment -each of these has carefully and amply pro- vided for an efficient air force. All realize that air force alone will protect the nation of the future. Not one of the nations just mentioned is as able Enancially to maintain an air fleet as the United States. Armies have become second- ary, and millions are wasted annually on navies that are obsolete before they are launched. In respect for human intelligence I hesitate to think that our officials at Wash- ington can not realize that a superior air force could destroy our whole fleet in a few hours. Are they unaware that any of the larger European powers could send ships across the sea equipped with air-planes, an- chor them within a few hundred miles of our shores, dot our skies with their planes and raze or snuff our principal cities out of exist- ence, their air-guarded base-ships standing by, ready with reenforcement. Consider a relay of these ships keeping up a constant bombardment of our principal cities, from coast to coast and from Canada to the Gulf. That this should take place may seem, at present, impossible to some, but it is not only not impossible, it is quite possible, and more probable than our smug pacifist concedes. Great Britain now has air-plane carriers as regular naval equipment. Our navy boasts but a few of these. America was caught unprepared in the late war. Gigantic tardy preparations were made after hostilities had gotten under way. Such tardy preparations will be difficult in the next conflict. The nation that is caught unprepared in the next war will be lost.