St Johnsbury Academy - Lamp Yearbook (St Johnsbury, VT)

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THE ACADEMY STUDENT 9 SALUTATORY ESSAY VANISHED ARTS The Class of 1936 is glad to welcome you to the 93rd Commencement exercises of St. Johnsbury Academy. During the years from the first to this 93rd graduation the world, and in particular the United States, has achieved a degree of industrial, scientific, and cultural civilization g-enerally considered to be the highest ever attained in the history of the world. Huge structures of every kind have been built; unbelievable discoveries have been made in the fields of chemistry, physics, medicine, and many related sciences; and—by way of a new, democratic culture—the products of industry and science have been distributed in an ever-increasing volume to the citizens of the New World. But in spite of the much-lauded efficiency and perfection of modern industry, there are some of its branches, engineering for example, in which the ancients can meet us on our own ground and by some forgotten skill even surpass our achievements. Probably modern engineers could, if necessary, reproduce the pyramids, but it is doubtful if in doing so they could employ the Egyptian trick of cementing together huge sixteen-ton blocks of stone with a layer of mortar so thin that the ioint is practically invisible — and even this art is bunglingly amateurish compared with the ability of a pre-Inca people in Peru to join Avith-out mortar enormous stones so perfectly that the thinnest knife blade cannot be inserted between them, and so stoutly that the conquering Spaniards, unable tc overthrow those walls, were obliged to build their own houses on them. In the familiar pictures of those smooth, somewhat curved stones, credit for this type of architecture is sometimes mistakenly gi -en to the race of the Inca kings. However, not only is present-day industry unable to do more than crudely imitate these and other lost arts, but there are some instances where modern engineering skill is completely

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8 THE ACADEMY STUDENT Elbert Hubbard expressed this idea well when he wrote: “We are all fools until we know That in the common plan Nothing- is worth the making If it does not make the man. Why build these temples glorious If man unbuilded goes? We build the world in vain Unless the builder grows.” That is also a thought for the Class of 1936. We are about to leave St. Johnsbury Academy to go out and build for ourselves. We hope the trustees, the principal, and the teachers may be proud of the structure that we raise. It is a tribute we owe to our sojourn here. —Kathleen Smith CLASS SONG CLASSMATES TOGETHER Classmates stand together. One big loyal band. Classmates stand together; We’ll never cease to lend a helping hand. Though we drift apart. And separate be our lots, And we leave St. J. behind us, Memories always will remind us Of those bygone days. Classmates stand together; We will have no fear. Classmates stand together; Success for all of us is very near. Though we have to say farewell, Forever we’ll be pals. Though the blue sea may divide us, St. J. A. please don’t forget us. Seniors must depart. Words: Marian Lumbra and Ruth Jenne Music: “Don’t Give Up the Ship”

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10 THE ACADEMY STUDENT baffled. The ancient Egyptians transported their stone obelisks and sarcophagi many, many miles and erected them uninjured; yet nearly all the obelisks and other stone monuments which have been brought from Egypt to modern lands have been damaged in the process. Not many years ago a British official found it impossible, even with modern machinery, to remove one of those stone sarcophagi more than part way from an Egyptian tomb where slaves under the direction of engineer-priests had. by some now unknown and forgotten means, placed it, along with many others. The huge coffin remains where the British official left it. obstructing the tunnel of the tomb. Apparently some ancient skill, perhaps patience, has been lost in the ages. The practice of inimitable handcraft has perished as an industry from many if not from most sections of the world, but nowhere so much as among the once highly civilized peoples of America. Not much, in fact, is heard about pre-colonial American jewelry, but specimens exist which are the marvel and the despair of modern jewelers. How the Aztecs carved their gems and quartz-rock figures without machinery will probably remain an everlasting mystery. Similarly wonderful are the little pieces of gold found in Equador. at first thought to be small nuggets but revealed by the microscope as tiny carved pictures. Tapestry with fine, almost invisible stitches was left by this prehistoric Equador race, and gorgeous feather garments and mosaics by the Aztecs. Neither can machinery equal the exquisitely fine tapestry of the pre-Inca inhabitants, with its colors fresh and bright even today. However humiliating be the record in industry, one would expect the modern age to excel all others in the realm of chemistry and other sciences, but there are many remarkable substances whose formulas have been lost. The never-fading colors with which the Egyptians decorated their walls would be the envy of any home-owner when that three-thousand year paint is compared with the short-lived paints manufactured today, while the dyes used by the pre-Inca Indians in their tapestries surpass to this very day the coal-tar products of the present. The violins of Stradivari and his Italian contemporaries have never been