St Thomas More High School - Utopian Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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'Q E SHI W7 BY ALEX DE ANGELIS, '53 AR OFF in a mid-Western railroad office, a tired, old man had just heard the crushing news that his years of faithful service had come to an end. His boss had broken the news as kindly as he could. Pop', Mullin thanked him and tried to smile. Lifting his battered hat from the big mahogany desk, he bade farewell to his fellow-workers, and reso- lutely left the office. His feet were leaden as he went down familiar steps that suddenly seemed strange and unfriendly. Pop made his way through the small town, downcast and dejected, hardly noticing those who called out the Hi, 'Pop,' that always made him so happy. The dreaded news had clouded his mind. He had hoped that somehow -somehow-they wouldn't tell him to go. If it weren't for the loud whistle of the Rawlings Express, he might have walked right past his respectable little shanty, which looked even more pathetic because of the few weedish look- ing flowers Pop had coaxed to grow about it. The cabin belonged to the railroad. As he stood there with his eyes Exed on his home, he could not help recalling the first time he entered it, years before. They might have been lonely years, but they weren't. His mind raced back to the time he Hrst started. It was during the depression years of the early thirties. He had considered himself rather fortlmate in getting this job. He liked the workg he liked to see great gargantuan trains stop as he flagged them down. He did his work well, so well that The Michigan and West- ern held on to him. But now a new mechan- ical-device-age had arrived, and the company didn't need him or his kind any longer. The boss had given him one night to get his belongings together. He would have to leave. The shack was to be destroyed. Progress knew no mercy. The old had to make way for the anew. He would be provided for. A pension - yes, quite ample. But what pension can satisfy the spirit taken out of a man's heart? Old Pop Mullin felt very old for the first time in his long life. 62. xk x Very old -- very old - his heart-beats ,. -1 seemed to say in agreement. i L He slowly opened the door to his shack, and there in a glance he saw his neatly kept quarters of not more than 100 square feet. A bed, a closet, a wash- '. . 1 . 43 1 Us X S X X. x .L x -Q Ny X5 X, X XX xX . X 5 X . ,xg XZX X- X rl 3 .-f y r X',. fv XX 'Qi .x ' bt- sxf lu X' S? K. -Lg - , s f if A if ' I basin, a stove, and a cherished picture of the Sacred Heart had been his home for all these long years. Pop took off his heavy, gray jacket and stumbled to his bed and stretched out on it. He thought this would be a good time to thinkg to think about his long past, about his uncertain future. He recalled all his hardships misfortunes, calamities, he thought of his happy moments, too, even though they were very few and numbered. He would have even tried to figure out where he would go from here, if he had not suddenly fallen asleep from sheer ex- 4P'4 ' '. -Y. M 1 ,, ' Es-sit - ' 'T I , jg. u, '35,P. 91, ,T . l vp, 34:39 .' if 4, 421: .,f'f??'1rN?f'-7' agar? .fi11- 0,1 , 4. 5, - . ff? J' 1'-gn ,SN fit- TQ- 'r 13' .J 5-1.v.r5, . . ,tag-:, -7-1 4, -1-fav, , I' u-,11.'vl'A' - ,.- . -.M f , -ig, A s ,fix .41 I M haustion. Old Pop Mullin dreamt a terrifying dream this night. He dreamt a dying man's dreamg a dream of Heaven, of God, the angels, of what it would be like, far up there in the skies. He dreamt of good and evil, of trains, and whistles. He dreamt, yes, even of his death and the moment of it. It seemed that he was drifting back, back to the time of a long winter's night, the time of that terrible blizzard of a snowstorm of a couple of years ago. He had buttoned his overcoat and gone outside to see if the 12:50 Express was coming. He walked up the tracks a few feet and stopped dead. What was this? He couldn't be- lieve his eyes - a large oil truck with a big red INFLAMMABLE sign on its body. The huge truck was stranded on the railroad tracks. Doubtless the driver had run out of gas and had gone to fetch some more, thought Pop Mullin. But what happens if the 12:50 Express arrives before the truck driver returns? The hands on his old pocket watch were drawing close to 12:45, and in five minutes the Express was due. His first thought prompted him to run towards the neighboring gas station, but just then he halted, remembering that it would take . THE CHELSEA REVIEW ll? 'Wil 'lilllll v

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On this basis and on the basis of the capacity of each candidate, the people voted. Many things may be said during a campaign which are ques- tionable, but the people finally have the oppor- tunity to evaluate any issue involved and express their opinion on it by selecting the candidate of their particular choice. It is this primarily that makes America the land of freedom that it is. One important fact that helped to heal the temporary split made during the campaign was the way both candidates pledged themselves to do all in their power to help to make America a better country, without regard to political alliliations. Governor Stevenson, in his conced- ing speech, made the people of the United States realize that America still has a great statesman on whom she may later depend to serve her. General Eisenhower likewise showed the nation that being the victor is almost asdistressing a job as being the vanquished. He realized acutely the difficult road ahead of him, and his fore- most desire was to unite the difference of opin- ion between both political parties on domestic issues in order that he might pursue a united program on international issues for the good of the United States as a member of the family of nations. Two other important considerations stood out prominently in the election campaign of 1952. The first was the variety of trustworthy political leaders throughout the country who supported either candidate, the second was the matter of governmental transition that would take place should the Republican Party be given the reins of government. Would these leaders join hands and support the new admin- istration? How would the change of adminis- tration affect the national political economy? Concerning the political leaders, it is for them to decide which must come first-the good of their party or the good of the Country as a whole. That the national good must come first was evidenced by the way in which the second consideration-the transition of governmental change-was treated. To make the transfer of government more effective, the incumbent Dem- ocratic Administration, led by former President Truman, did all in its power to make it the most orderly change, many believe, that ever took THE CHELSEA REVIEW . place in our history. But it had to be so! It had to be in order that we, as a nation, might stand united, in the eyes of a questioning and watchful world, against the ever-present threat of the increasing danger of Communist tyranny. For it is clear beyond doubt, that Divine Providence has cloaked over the broad shoulders of our Country the toga of leadership. It is our re- sponsibility as a nation, therefore, to prove our- selves worthy of that awesome dignity. Thus we must stand united, Americans all. No patriotic American, conscious of our en- forced position in world alfairs, can afford to have an anti feeling, especially at this crucial moment in our Nationis history, against the new party in control, at least, not until it has had the opportunity to prove itself to be the worthy guardian of the rights of the people at home and abroad. lf it does not, then we shall be able eventually to censure the party in power in the approved American way, and go on, united nonetheless as before. No thinking citizen can close his eyes to the fact that thc main obstacle in the troublesome days ahead is the evil of Communism, which threatens the very survival of the human race. Communism has no regard for the freedoms that we hold dear, nor does it have any regard for the Chris- tian concept that the state is the servant of the people, instead, it holds that freedom belongs only to the state, and that people, in turn, exist only for the state. We all hope sincerely that the new administration will continue to further the ends of the Christian concept of democratic freedom. It can and it will, but only with the full and intelligent support of a people who are determined never to accept anything less than complete freedom, no matter how great the responsibilities of such freedom are. The saying: United we stand, divided we fall,', may have all the earmarks of a cliche to the modern mind. But cliche or not, the fact is that united we must stand, lest in division we contribute to the fall of the most highly dedi- cated nation the world has ever known, a nation that has dedicated herself to the ideal of ma- turing a free people-free to live, free to speak, free to worship, with a dignity and purpose that reHects the Divine Intelligence working in us all. .61

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Z f 2,4 ?. 'q-173: .ri-iiiglyl' . W: A I ? 2 2 '51?5fi-3Y2fF1i-551, ' .:.j'.7ffiiEL.,?,, f' rg 73? - . V If QL'-QTY L... -A: It S-LT.-ix, X f EF , -- -fw '-1l.E--- .-Y--ff: ' - him at least fifteen minutes to get there, and he had only about five minutes before the loud, long whistle of the speeding train would be heard. His mind, trained to the hazards of his job, told him that in a blizzard like this, the engineer of the train could not possibly see the oil truck until it was too late. Something had to be done, and it had to be done quickly, else the catastrophe would be inevitable. His mind, working feverishly, suddenly rewarded him with an idea. 4'It's got to work, 4'Pop muttered to himself. Hustling into his little house, he grabbed the red lantern, ever ready for emergencies, that was hanging on the wall. The lantern slipped from Pop's moist hand and fell to the ground THE CHELSEA REVIEW . . ,',,, J K' X 2 X as he hurried out the door. He picked it up and dashed toward the handcar that was stationed on a side track, just past the oil truck, it lead into the main-road track. He quickly boarded it and started up the tracks in the direc- tion of the on-coming 12:50 Express. If the Express were on schedule, he would have four minutes in which to get far enough up the tracks to signal the engineer so that he would be sure to stop a safe distance from the truck. Pumping the handle desperately, he slowly made his way up the tracks. With the snow blowing in his eyes, he could just about see six feet ahead. Praying earnestly as he travelled farther and farther from the big oil truck, he dedicated his thoughts to God that the engineer .63