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

Page 13 text:

THE ACADEMY STUDENT 11 equaled, even though modern violin-makers have at their command a more varied and more abundant supply of wood, a much greater knowledge of science, and a wider market for their products than had Stradivari. The secret of his varnish and the method of its use died with him, and scientists are still striving in vain to rediscover it. Unlike these practical arts which seem to he completely lost are those fine arts, literature, sculpture, painting and others, which have not really vanished but which point to the past as the period of greatest accomplishment. There is always the hope that our civilization can sometime surpass these accomplishments, but until that time the triumph of the past must he conceded. All these vanished arts and crafts serve as a warning and a challenge to the people of our world. Almost without exception these lost skills were in the possession of a privileged few, and so were easily forgotten. No greater lesson than this should he needed to urge the preservation of our democratic institutions, an extensive public school system and an unhampered press. The challenge of former ages has already been partly met by the recovery of many once-lost arts, such as road-building and the manufacture of stained glass. It remains now to determine whether the heights reached in times gone by can be attained once again and surpassed. —Robert White CA u tog rap hs

Page 12 text:

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

Page 14 text:

12 THE ACADEMY STUDENT CLASS PROPHECY Time: 1960 Setting: Aboard the yacht “Spirit of ’36” in New York Harbor Characters: Emily Healey—an old maid Verona Tripp—a gay divorcee Albert Bahrt—captain of the yacht Eddie Olliver—private orchestra leader (The two ladies have become suddenly rich by holding a joint ticket on the winning horse in the Irish Sweepstakes. They have bought a yacht and are going on a cruising trip.) Verona: Eddie, you know you have charge of the musical en- tertainment. and we want it to be good. Edmund: Yes. I know, and I’ve hired Althea McFarland. You remember her. don’t you? She has become the most Emily: Albert: Emily: Verona: Eddie: Verona: famous torch singer in the United States. Also Martin Granger is going to help on the vocals by crooning. That will be nice. Don’t you think it would be grand to have Fleurette and Woodrow Roy come and do some of their famous dances? Who are the guests? You’ll have so many entertainers that you won’t be able to have much of an audience. You know' Eddie’s orchestra is quite large. For guests we are having old classmates, the famous Dr. Miltimore and his wife, the former Frances Marshall. Also Edward Brough, a professor of psychology at Wellesley. His wife is Lillian Lindsley. They make a nice looking couple. Boy, how' the old class has changed! In one night club where I w'as playing this spring I w'as astonished to see Betty Lou Witters as checkroom girl and Dotty Lee Higgins as a cigarette girl. I attended the Turner and Chase Circus last month. Two of the barkers were Sammy Weiner and Paul Benoit. Sam was inviting everybody to come in to his “magnificent, gigantic, colossal sideshow.” I entered and there sat Donald Bovee chaiming snakes by playing his clarinet.