Vandergrift High School - Spectator Yearbook (Vandergrift, PA)

Page 25 text:

THE SPECTATOR 23 may fail to do him justice, but the instinct of mankind will not fail. The real hero needs not books to give him worshippers. George Washington will alw’ays receive the love and reverence of men, because they see embodied in him the noblest possibilities of humanity. —Tresa Ferrari, ’28. GENERAL ROBERT LEE OBERT Lee wras a son of the Famous Light Horse Harry Lee. He was born on the nineteenth of January, 1807 in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on the Potomac River. He was a brave, strong, manly lad and was always in love with his mother. His father moved from his native State to Washington near the National Capitol. Here Robert w'ent to school. When he was eleven years old his father died. He resolved to hold up his father’s honor, so he went to West Point on the Hudson River. Four years later he graduated as Lieutenant Lee. He joined the Engineering Corps and was stationed on the Atlantic Coast. On the third day of June, thirty-three years later, he was made General of the Army of Virginia. He w'on the Battle of Malvern Hill and second Battle of Bull Run. However, at Gettysburg, Pa., in the following year, he was defeated by General Meade. He kept the Union soldiers out of Richmond for three yeai-s and he fought many other battles. At last he was defeated by General U. S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, on the ninth day of April, 1865. Here the war ended; the South w’as a waste. For five years he wfas President of Washington College. He died on the twelfth day of October, five years after his surrender and he is honored to this day. —Leland Balsiger, ’28. “THE OLD BLOCK HOUSE” wonder how many of the readers of this paper ever knew' that it was unnecessary to go a hundred or more miles to see a place of national interest? How many could find within the walls of Pittsburgh at least one place of interest? How' many ever heard of “The Old Block House”, in Pittsburgh? Suppose the next time you go shopping you look for it. It is a tiny brick building, a five sided construction, such as we see in our history books when viewing pictures of the Revolutionary days. It is about thirty-five feet wide and has an underground passage running to the fort and one out to the river. It is built of brick, a pagoda in shape, having two floors each showing a row of horizontal slits as loopholes. Over the door there is a stone upon which is inscribed: COL. BOUQUET 1764 In 1785 the structure was converted into a dwelling and continued to be so for 109 years, when the building and surrounding sites were deeded to the Daughters of the American Revolution, who restored it to its original state. Upon entering, one steps back two centuries as he steps down the two steps at the entrance. The interior, paved with flag stone, contains a narrow, twisting staircase leading to the second floor and has a vault-like appearance. A few' historical facts would do no harm. Upon this site rested one of the six places that determined the geographical and political institution wre call the United States. In 1754 the French began building forts to show their power west of the Alleghanies. The two most military dominions of that interior wrere at Niagara and Pittsburgh, but strange as it seems, no fort was made at Pittsburgh until the Virginians had made a fort there in 1754. Gov. Dinwiddie of Virginia, decided to investigate these activities and sent George Washington with a letter asking the French to cease operation on English-American soil but the French politely refused. The following year a body of Virginians were defeated and the French then erected Fort Duquesne. In 1758 the French left this fort in the face of their enemies and the English arriving a few days later began Fort Pitt, naming it in honor of the Prime Minister.

Page 24 text:

22 THE SPECTATOR met to hear the reading of the great Declaration of Independence. When it was read the multitude gave a mighty shout. But above the roar of human voices rang out, sharp and bold, the great bell. Its tongue spoke defiance to tyranny and comfort to the colonists. Its stern voice sounded from sea to sea. It called the men of Georgia to join the men of Massachusetts. It sounded through city and forest, calling merchant and farmer and forester to the front. Its notes rang across the rugged sea and sent a shudder through England. The Liberty Bell it was. It called the men of America to their duty. It rang for Independence! In 1777 it was hastily placed on a wagon and hurried to Allentown, that the British might not break it up and cast it into cannon. It was returned late in 1778. For fifty years it rang the glad tidings of liberty on every anniversary! On the morning of July 8th, 1835, while it was tolling the solemn news of the death of Chief Justice Marshall, who died in Philadelphia two days before, it cracked. On February 22, 1843, it was rang to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the greatest American. But the old bell could not bear the strain, the crack lengthened and widened, and its tongue became silent forever. —Martha Staniek, ’28. THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN N April 14th., the manager of Ford’s Theatre invited the President and General Grant to witness the representation of “Our American Cousin” and it was announced that they both would be present but Grant was obliged to leave the city. Lincoln, feeling that it would be a disappointment if he should fail, relunctantly consented to go. With his wife and two friends, he reached the theatre a little before nine o’clock, and took seats in a box reserved for the party. The whole audience rose as the President entered, and he was greeted with the greatest enthusiasm. As Lincoln was listening with great interest to the play, an actor named John Wilkes Booth reached the door of the box where the President was seated, presented a pistol within a few inches of Lincoln’s head, and fired a bullet into his brain. Lincoln instantly lost all consciousness and did not move. The assassin leaped upon the stage shouting, “Sic semper tyranis”, meaning “So be it always to tyrants,” then rushed across the stage and in the confusion which ensued, mounted a fleet horse and escaped. Tne helpless form of the President was borne across the street to a private house. An examination showed that the wound was mortal. At twenty-two minutes past seven o’clock in the morning of April 15, 1865, President Lincoln, without recovering consciousness, breathed his last. The body of the President was moved to the White House where 50,000 people took a last look at his loved face. It may be truly said that the funeral train extended fifteen hundred miles—from Washington to Springfield, Illinois. Later his remains were placed in an appropriate tomb. And, so it was that our beloved President, Abraham Lincoln, met his death. —Louise Wherry, ’25. THE CHARACTER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON OR many years we have studied the career of Washington, and with every step the greatness of the man has grown upon us. We see in Washington a great soldier who fought a trying war to a successful end; a great statesman who did more than all other men to lay the foundation of a republic which has endured in prosperity for more than a century. We find in him a marvelous judgment which was never at fault, a penetrating vision which beheld the future of America when it was too dim for other eyes; a will of iron and an unequalled strength of patriotic purpose. We see in him, too, a pure high-minded gentleman of dauntless courage and stainless honor, simple and stately of manner, kind and generous of heart. Such he was in truth. The historian and biographer

Page 26 text:

24 THE SPECTATOR This new fort was situated on the same strip of land between the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers as was Duquesne. This fort was capable of sheltering a thousand men. A five angled moat surrounded the fort and on its walls were eighteen cannon. Its taking four years to build it, caused it to be considered a great stronghold for the British. In 1763 “Pontiac’s Conspiracy”, the best organized effort ever made by the American Indians to withstand the impressment of the white men was organized. Only because of the second arrival by Colonel Bouquet did this fort stand the five day attack of the enemy. While preparing for further attacks the Colonel ordered the erection of the little blockhouse in order to protect the moat on the northside where the river sometimes runs dry. Our little blockhouse is all that remains today of Fort Pitt and is the only monument of British occupancy in the surrounding country. —Annamay Risher, ’24. I LOVE TO LISTEN TO GRANDPA I love to listen to Grandpa, His tales are always so good; When he tells about himself In the days of his boyhood. Grandpa with the big white whiskers And a beard of snowy grey, Can always tell the best of stories When it comes the close of day. Grandpa sure has lots to tell you And its nothing but the truth, Stories of great adventures About when Grandpa was a youth. Soon my Grandpa will be leaving For a better place than earth, How I will miss those stories That he told me by the hearth. —Grant Marks, ’25.