Wakefield High School - Oracle Yearbook (Wakefield, MA)

Page 18 text:

Ifi THE W. H. S. DKHATHK MISS JlIl.DUK CAKLSON Valedictory MISS ETHEL MacMASTKU Salutatory HKNKV KUHAKDS Honor Part THE HONOR PARTS THE DKiiATi-.K wishes to congiiitiilato the thi-ec Seniofs who have this year eaiiied the Honofs. It tai es four long yeai ' s of iiard, pei-severino ' work to earn tliis distinction. Only tliose who come prepared every day in every lesson during the whole four years may compete for such a prize. Those who are acquainted with the honor winners know tliat (piiet perseverance is charac- teristic of each. The Valedictorian is Miss Hildur Carlson. Miss Carlson obtained 720fi units, as they are called. The Salutatory was awarded Miss Ethel MacMaster, wlio obtained 7 lot! units. The Honor part was won by Henry Richards with 7051 tuiits. The reason for giving these figines is to show th - closeness of the race for Honors this year. What praise might l)e given one must be given all. In order to realize the small dinereiie ' between these figures one should know tin; ollicial rules goveiiiiug the choice of the Honors. They may also be of interest to lower class pupils who desire an Honor in their last year. Eollowing is the method of determining the parts at gitul tuition, as adopted by the School Commitlee : 1. Kind the average mark in each subject by dividing the sum of the marks received in the subject dtiiing the year by tiie number of times nuirks are received. 2. Midtiply the ([uotients ascertained above by the number of points at which the subject is rated. . ' 5. A ld these products. 4. The V aledictory shall be assigned to the i)upil having the largest total, the Salutatory to the one having the next largest, and the Honor part to that one having the third largest total. It will be observed that the ii(iiiHti of work done is taken into consideration as well as the tfiutlitf . It is probable that imder these rules no one tloing the mini- mtun amount of work only, viz. Of |)i)ints, woidd re- ceive an honor. The Senior class will, no iloubl, watch with interest the progress of its Honor memliers. ' ith tiuir tine start they have much to hope for in college or elsewhere. We wish them every success in the futurt ' and congratu- late them anew upon tiie honors obtained already in their High Scliool career.

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THE W. H. S. DEBATER 1 ) never tried to make one, we little realize the hours of patient labor for which it stands. Therefore, it seems to me that we should not only consider the neatness and originality of the design but also the sticktoitiveness of the designer which made the finished product possible. Grimm ' s Fairy Tales At the English conference held lately in Wakefield, Professor William A. Neilson made a statement which has caused much comment all over the country. The statement is as follows : The stories by the brothers Grimm, were, written many years ago, and perhaps the most charitable way of dismissing them wotdd be to say that for their time they were all right. The fact remains, Iiowever, that they are standard and classic, and that there is still a profita- able business in publishing them. Sooner or later they fall into the hands of our little folk. I believe that these stories should be discarded because their suggestion to the childish mind is that every wrong was avenged. Revenge is a bad enough vice to exist in any of us, with- out being suggested and inlaid in the childish mind by a fairy tale. The Dial criticises this statement for several reasons. First, because such precautions against teaching revenge are unnecessary with the world in its present condition. vSi ' Ccmd, the ordinary child does not take Grimm ' s tales literally. And, again, the impression of pleasure at the justice shown supercedes any thought as to incentive. Rather than state our opinion upon this matter we will point out what another great educator thought on the question of harmful books. Ruskin evidently did not fear any bad iuHuence from books, and trusted to tht child ' s innocence to spurn any harmful suggestions. In Lilies h(! says of the girl: Let her loose in the library, I say, as you do a fawn in a field. It knows the ]);ul weeds twenty times better than you, and the good ones, too; and will eat some bitter and prickly ones, good for it, which you had not the slightest thought would have been so. It seems, upon such authority, as if we might risk any chance of harm from the thought of revense contained in Grimm ' s tales. The Labor Question If occurs to some people that there are other (piestions involved in a labor disturbance besides the question of labor against capital. How about the community in which the fight is going on? What riglit have any persons to instigate scenes of violence in a community? Every means should be used to discourage all attempts toward a settlement of difficulties through mob violence. Such a proceeding shows a revertance to the methods of five or six centuries ago, when law and order were little respected. The hurling of missiles and threatening personal violence take us back to the reign of terror in Paris. The means employed by the I. W. W. in Law- rence have checked our progress toward a peaceful settlement of labor difficulties. They planted the germs of mob violence in many an uncultivated European head, which need only the nursing of skillful labor leaders to develop into anarchy. Another question to be considered in connection with the use of violence is that of the cost. Who pays for it? The town ! Consider the big city of Lawrence. It was overwhelmed with debt through the expenses imposed by its recent strike. It was obliged to protect its citi- zens from the violence of the strikers and did so at a tremendous cost. Who pays for the extra police pro- tection in Wakefield? The town ! In other words, the people of Wakefield, whether interested in the labor question or not, must pay the ])rice. For this reason, if for no other, violence during labor troubles should not be countenanced. Violent methods are unfair to the citizens of a community, and they must give way to peaceful ones. Without doubt in the end a cure will be found in the ballot: in the establishment of courts of arbitrati(m to which all questions will be sub- mitted. Then we shall have peace, but not until then. A LI, interested in the welfare of the Dkuatkk wish to thank their friends who make possible, financially, the pul)lication of the paper. The last number was so great a financial success that the business managers were obliged to solicit only a few advertisements for this number. We wish to burden the business men as little as possible. Every bit received is put into the paper ; there is no surplus left over as profit. Again, we wish to thank our patrons. SOME of our pupils are gaining a name for themselves. When a man gets famous you begin to see his name in the newsp pers. A freshman reports having seen an article in the Mail concerning a Mr. C. Garett Feenil, said to be of the Wakefield High School. The article in fitting terms described the settling of a warm dispute between the Senior and Junior boys, said C. (iaiett Feend being the central figure. It seems that this Feend carried about with him a (jueer looking thing which the Seniors claimed was a down, while the .Juniors declared it was a moustache. The argument became strenuous and wjir was imminent. I?ut at last a method of settlement was found. The down or moustache, so- called, was divided. The Seniors took half of it, which they called down; and the Juniors took the other half, which was called moustache. How ever, the Seniors hist their half in the grass on the common and ould not find it again, while the aforesaid C. Gai-ett Feend went otf with the other half, the moustache, so-called. Now they are questioning who won the argument. We believe the whole story is fal.se, anyway.

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THE W. II. S. DEBATER 17 The Event of a Night I TIF large, old fashioned house in which I was living;, A flanked, almost too cloi-ely, on one side by a siniilar residence and on the front and other side by a wide expanse of lawn and shrubberies, presented an un- usually beautiful ai)pearance that wintei ' s afternoon, for the ground was white with the snow which had been fall- ing during tiie night and most of the morning. It had been a dull and uneventful da} ' , and when night came, I went to bed with the added sense of security usually felt by one well sheltered from the elements. 1 seemed to have been asleep only a few moments when I was aroused by a sound of shouting and by a bright, red light, which siione persistently in my eyes. Dressing hastily I hurried out of doors. The next house was on tire and the yard was filled witl. fire apparatus, firemen, and a crowd of interested lookers on. The wind w:»s blowing ti gale and although the firemen did their best, the sparks were blown directly in our direction and soon the old f:n in house also was one mass of flames. On seeing our roof begin to burn, I went back into the house, got as many of my possessions as I could carry, and hurried out again. I wandered aimlessly al)out, dimly realizing the scene of destruction I was witnessing. At last, wearied by the excitement, I sat down on a pile of hose in front of the burning house. Suddenly I heard confused shouts and cries as from a great distance and looked up, to see a gieat blazing mass, tottering perilously above my head. I gazed up at it too dazed to move or speak. Flames were darting from every window and it was evident that the wall would soon fall. My fascinated eyes watchful it bend fartlier and farther at each blast of wind. Bits of burn- ing wood fell in a shower all around me. The flames mounted higher and higher and it became almost un- bearably hot. Now the ujiper i)art of the wull was crumbling, Iiending, falling, and I found myself drawn back just in time to escape the great, fiei ' y mass which came crashing down, barely missing some firemen who were standing near. After that the fire began gradually to die out, and at dayl)reak all that remained was a charred ruin like a great black smudge on the white surface of the surroimd- ing country. Ill Til Eaton, ' 16 Miss Ci.kmknt Let us see, who is ahseiit? Class Dillaway. ' Miss Clement Anyone else? Class Miss O ' Connor. ' Miss Clement Well, I wonder if that is eo-ineidental. Miss Gilmore to pupil Was selist Herr O ? . Pupil, somewiiat confused ' -leh — icli — dinna ken. The Light that Failed ON the darkened stage all was noise and confusion. The subdued hammering of the stage hands min- gled with the unseemly mirth of minor members of the cast, who, having few worries of their own, were prone to make merry at those of others. In front, the orches- tra was beginning the overture for the third time, and from the audience came soft murmurs and rustles of anticipation. At eight o ' clock the much talked of Senior Play was to begin, and it lacked only three minutes of the time. Just before the curtain rose, the distracted chairman of the committee burst into the green loom . Anybody here seen Kitty ? she demanded breath- lessly. Yes, volunteered the fiercely moustached villain, she was here a minute ago, but forgot her light and had to go back after it. Said to tell you not to worry, she ' d be here for the great act. Well, here ' s hoping, said the chairman, hopelessly. Having roomed with Kitty for a year she knew her well, and was beginning to rue the rash impulse that had made her entrust such an important part to that young lady. For Kitty ' s part, although her name did not appear on the program, was important. The pivot upon which the whole play turned was the flashing of a light, at the end of the second act, giving to the much persecuted hero and heroine the signal for escape. Kilty, as she herself, with reckless disregard for grammar and logic, expressed it, was the light. That is to say, she sat behind the scenes and at the critical moment flashed a large electric search-light, belonging to her room-mate, upon the field of action. It was perilously near the end of the second act, when a breathless girl, tightly clutching a black, cylindrical object, brushed by such members of the cast as were waiting in the wings, and cautiously ensconced herself in the narrow space between the painted wall of the scenery and the actual one of the house. There she crouched, haidly daring to move, and directing her burden towards the darkened stage, awaited her cue. The hero and heroine were discussing their chances of esrape, and the former in a near-bass voice, was speak- ing words of encouragement to his sweetheart, telling her of the light which a friend of his was to flash into their prison when the guard had become so conveniently inenpacitaled by wine and wassail as to make a dash for liberty expedient. ' ' — Now, at the end of the next line — Kitty slipped her finger over the smooth, hard surface of her light towards the button. There was no button there 1 Incredulously, with dawning terror, she felt again, — and again, with the same result.