Towle High School - Spirit Yearbook (Newport, NH)

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THE SPIRI 'r OF TOWLE PAGE9 dote. He has given us the faculty of reason, whose especial office and function it is, to dis- cover the connection between causes and effectsg and thereby .to enable us so to regulate the causes of today, as to predestinate the effects of to- morrow. In the eye of reason, causes and effects exist in proximity. They lie side by side, what- ever length of time, or distance of space, comes in between .them. If I am guilty of an act or a neglect, today, which will certainly cause the in- iiict-ion of a wrong, it matters not whether that wrong happened, on the other side of the globe, or in the next century. Whenever or wherever it happens, it is mineg it belongs to meg my con- science owns i'tg and no sophistry can give me absolution. Who would think of acquitting an incendiary, because the train which he had laid and lighted, first circuited the globe before it reached and consumed his neighbor's dwelling? From the nature of the case, in education, the effects are widely separated from the causes. T-hey happen so long afterwards, that the reason of the community loses sight of the connection between them. It does not bring the cause and the effect together, and lay them, and look at them, side by side. If, instead of twenty-one years, the course of Nature allowed but 'twenty-one days, to rear an infant to the full stature of man-hood, and to sow in his bosom, the seeds of unbounded happi- ness or of unspeakable misery,-I suppose, in that case, the merchant would abandon his bargains, and the drunkard would hie homeward from the midst of his revel, and that twenty-one days would be spent, without much sleep, and with many prayers. And yet, it cannot be denied, that the consequences of a vicious educa- tion, inflicted upon a child, are now precisely the same as they would be, if, a't the end of twenty-one days after an infanlt's birth, his tongue were already roughened with oaths and blasphemy, or he were seen skulking through society, obtaining credit upon false pretences, or with rolls of counterfeit bills in his pockets, or were already expiating his offences in the bond- age and infamy of a prison. And the conse- quences of a virtuous education, at the endf of twenty-one years, are now precisely the same as they would be, if, at the end of twenty-one days after his birth, .the infant had risen from his cradle into the majestic form of manhood, and were possessed of all those qualities and attrib- utes, which a being created in the image of God ought to have 9-with a power of fifty years of beneficen-t labor compacted into his frame 3-with nerves of sympathy, reaching out from his ovsm heart and twining around the heart of society, so that the great social wants of men should be a part of his .consciousnessg-and with a mind able to perceive what is right, prompt to defend it, or, if need be, to die for it. It ought to be univer- sally understoo-d and intimately felt, that, in regard to children, all precept and exarnpleg all kindness and harshnessg all rebuke and commen- dationg all forms, indeed, of direct or indirect education, affect mental growth, just as dew, and sun, and shower, or untimely frost, affects vegetable growth. Indeed, so pervading and enduring is the eHect of education upon the youthful soul, that it may well be compared to a certain species of writing-ink, whose color, a't first, is scarcely perceptible, but which penetrates deeper and grows blacker by age, until if you consume the scroll over a coal-fire, the character will still be legible in the cinders. It ought to be understood and felt, that, however it may be, in a social or jurisprudential sense, it is nevertheless true, in the most solemn and dread- inspiring sense, that, by an irrepealable law of Nature, the iniquities of the fathers are still visited upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation. Nor do the children suffer for the iniquities only, of their parents, they suffer for their neglect and even for their ignorance. Hence, I have always admired that law of the Icelanders, by which, when a minor child commits an offence, the courts first make judicial inquiry, whether -his parents have given him a good education 5 and, if it be proved they have not, the child is acquitted and the parents are punished. In both the Old Colonies of Plymouth, and of Massachusetts Bay, if a child, over sixteen, and under twenty-one years of age, committed a certain capital offence against father or mother, he was allowed to arrest judgment of death upon himself, by showing that his parents, in the language of the law, had been very un- christianly negligent in his education. LOUI BONACCOISI. 3133133

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. PAGE8 THE SPIRIT OF TOWLE reading through it casually, but imagine my surprise when I learned that David Chase is principal of Stevens High School! Her gossip column also stated that Muriel Bell is married and manages her husband quite as efficiently as she managed in Towle. In the political News section was a picture of Wal'ter Wirkkala and an article by him, as the presi-dent of the Farm Bureau. I finally came to the amusement page, where a photograph of Miriam Vaughan appear- ed, under which the caption was, Katherine Hepburn's Successor. Frank Stankiewicz is named the best bet in the coming wrestling match in Madison Square Gardens. Bob Hurd has become the champion golf pro of the New Eng- land states and is looking for new worlds to conquer. - Well, Dear Diary, I'm safe at home again. As I descended from the train, I heard some startling news. Willena Hastings inherited a fortune, so she is financing a botanical expedition, with Richard Smith and John Upham as her trusty guides. Added to that, on my arrival in town I saw a policeman, somewhat shorter than our former one, and when he turned toward me, I realized I was gazing upon the countenance of Dick Purmort, Chief of the Police Force. I'1n prepared for almost any surprise now, but all of our classmates are accounted for, so tl1at's that. Goodnight, Diary. Ladies and Gentlemen: You have just listened to a special program in the absence of your regu- lar commentator, who will be back tomorrow at the same time, .to give all you listeners the latest news, hot from the press. Thank you for listening, and Cheerio! ESTHER CUTTING. Education: The Debt Eternal By Horact Mmm ORATION Some eulogize our system of Popular Educa- tion, as though worthy to be universally admired and imitated. Others pronounce it circumscribed in its action, and feeble, even where it acts. Let us waste no time in composing this strife. If good, let us improve it, if bad, let us reform it. It is of human institutions, as of men,-not any is so good that it cannot be made better, nor so bad, that it may not become worse. Our system of education is not to be compared with those of other states or countries, merely to determine whether it may be a little more or a little less perfect than theyg but it is to be contrasted with our highest ideas of perfection, and then the pain of the contrast to be assuaged, by improving it, forthwith and continually. The love of excellence looks ever upward towards a higher standard, it is unimproving pride and arrogance only, that are satisfied with being superior to a lower. No community should rest contented, with being superior to other communities, while it is in- ferior to its own capabili'ties. The science and the art of Education, like every thing human, depend upon culture, for advance- ment. And they would be more cultivated, if the rewards for attention, and the penalties fO1 neglect, were better understood. When effects follow causes,-quick as thunder, lightning,- even infants and idiots learn to beware, or they act, to enjoy. Now, in this world, the entire succession of events, which fills time and makes up life, is nothing but causes and effects. These causes an-d efects are bound and linked 'together by an adamantine law. And the Deity has given us power over the effects, by giving us power over the causes. This power .consists in a knowledge of the connection established between causes and effects,-enabling us to foresee the future conse- quences of present conduct. If' you show to me a handful of perfect seeds, I know that, with appro- priate culture, those seeds will produce a growth after their kind, whether it be of pulse, which is ripened for human use in a month, or of oaks, whose lifetime is centuries. So, in some of the actions of men, consequences follow conduct with a lock-step: in others, the effects of youthful ac- tions first burst forth as from a subterranean current, in advanced life. In those great rela- tions which subsist between different generations, -between ancestors and posterity,-effects are usually separated from their causes, by long intervals of time. The pulsations of a nation's heart are to be counted, not by seconds, but by years. Now, it is between our conduct and its consequences, where one generation sows, and another generation reapsg-it is in this class of cases, that the greatest and most sorrowful of human errors originate. Yet, even for these, a benevolent Creator has supplied us with an anti-

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4 PAGE 10 THE SPIRIT OF TOWLE Commercial Course Activities: Glee Club 1, 2, 3, 4, Girl Reserve 3, 4, A. A. 1, 2, 3, Div. Forel. FRANK BEAUCHAINE Boots General Course MURIEL BELL College Preparatory Course Activities: French Club 1, 2, 3, 4, Vice President 4, Latin Club 1, 2, 3, 4, Stu-dent Council 3, 4, Theta Lambda Sigma, Prize Speaking, Senior Play, Glee Club 1, 3, 4, A. A. 1, 2, 3, -4, Junior Prom Com- mittee. LOUI BONACCORSI , General Course i Activities: , l Football 3, 4, Basketball 3, Band 2, 3 ', Orchestra 2, 3, 4, Latin Club 1, 2, Theta Lambda Sigma 4, Prize Speaking, Senior Play, Business Manager School Paper. l l l BERTHA ANTILLA Bert