Wakefield High School - Oracle Yearbook (Wakefield, MA)

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care to see a picture I have seen? The others having- answered in the affirm- ative, he showed them a snapshot. They stared, horrified, at a young xjorporal on a barn door. His feet and hands were flung- apart and through each was a bayonet. A rifle shot had torn through his breast; and they could see that when the picture was taken, the boy was not dead. Do any of you know him? asked their comrade. I am trying to locate his people. But they didn ' t. Was he an American? We Go not know, but it is possible! What if ' ae were? The Huns are committing crimes like this every day. Will yon allow those fiends to come over here to kill yovr fathers and mothers, and mutilate yoiir little brothers? Shall our boys suffer needless discomforts, while ve are idle? In the agony of your sympathetic souls you cry out, What can we do? What can do? This is the crisis of the world! Do the High School boys and girls know what cri- sis means? Wake up! Help end the war! It is merely a question of time before we win — so let us stop this slaughter now. Do this: take one or all of these oppor- tunities and prevent autocracy from ruling the world. Give your all — the soldiers give even more. Buy thrift stamps — the loss of the mov- ing pictures is nothing. Buy war savings stamps — and put another clip of bullets Hunward. Buy a bond — there never was a safer in- vestment. Work for and give to the Red Cross — you may bring a dying soldier safely home again. Dorothy Winter, ' 20 SIGNS OF SPRING The spring of nineteen eighteen has more significant signs than those of other years. Wherever you go, you may see them. As one walks to school, he may see such signs as Do you bit: buy war savings stamps, Raise war gardens, Save wheat and win the war. On arriving at school, he sees posters and signs in the different class rooms, Join United States Boys ' Working Reserve, Have eggs when eggs are scarce: i-aise hens, Save an( send to our allies. If one goes into the Postoffice, Bank, and Government Buildings, he sees bright colored posters facing him. Don ' t be a miser and help the Kaiser, Buy Liberty Bonds to escape German bonds, and Buy to win ' over there ' . Then, as we pick up our own Daily Item, we are faced v ith signs such as, Raise Pigs, and Start your garden early. These signs of spring that will help Uncle Sam next summer are seen everywhere. No slacker can help seeing them, and no true American boy or girl can help obey- ing those signs that are in his or her power to obey. Let us do our utmost and help the United States win for uemocracy and peace. Emily Boody, ' 20 BUY A BOND Oh, hear, all you lenders! Oh, hear, all you spenders! Come buy a bond! They ' ll help our soldiers fight To win the cause of right. They work with all their might. You buy a bond. Every bond does its bit To keep our soldiers fit. Come buy a bond! They ' ll give you many thanks. They ' re sold at all the banks. If you can ' t join the ranks, Then buy a bond! Olive Cartland, ' 21 Boys and girls, and grown folks, too. Uncle Sam needs all of you. Yes, there ' s something we can C!o. Tons of wheat must go across. Helping to replace their loss; Right away, there ' s no delay! ir we ' re to save, begin today. Fight steadily the demon waste; Thrift defeats, so let ' s make haste. Saving serves old Glory well, ' Tis thus we ring the Kaiser ' s knell And save our country from his power. Might joined with Right shall never cower, Please help our nation win this war, And see democracy is the law. D. H. Prescott, ' 19 14

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WHY BUY LIBERTY BONDS? Two of the most important factors in car- rying on a great war like the present one, are men and money. The men, the flower of our nation, have gladly offered their lives for the service of their country, and for the maintenance of the sacred principles of democracy. They have offered up their all, their business po- sitions, their loved ones, and if need be, even their very lives. This is the supreme sacri- fice! We, at home, in comparison with the boys over there , take life easy. They fight in the mud of the trenches, sleep in the muck of the dug-outs amid all kinds of vermin, en- dure the stench of the battle-field, often liv- ing on the poorest of rations, and being shot down by thousands of hostile bullets. We speak of the hard times, of the high cost of living. So it is, but how small and cheap a sacrifice we make, in compari- son with our boys, over there. We let them do all of the fighting for us, and let them endure all of the real, bitter hardships. Why not look at the situation, as seriously as we should if invading armies landed on our shores. There would be terror-stricken refugees, fleeing westward from all parts of the invaded territory. As the troops marched inland, our dwellings would be looted, and burned to the ground. As soon as they had their clutch on the nation, they would not let go! They would place a Ger- man officer or magistrate in every individ- ual town and city! Their troops would be quartered and maintained at our expense! To emphasize the barbarous methods used by the Germans, I will quote a passage tak- en from a diary of a captured German. This is true. In the. night of August 18-19, the village of Saint-Maurice was punished for having fired on German soldiers by being burnt to the ground by the German troops (two regi- ments, the 12th Landwehr and the 17th). The village was surrounded, men po.sted about a yard fi om one another, so that no one could get out. Then the Uhlans set fire to it, house by house. Neither man, woman, nor child could escape ; only the greater pai-t of the live stock was carried off, as that could be used. Anyone who ventured to come out, was shot down. All the inhabi- tants left in the village were burnt with the houses. (From the diary of Private Karl 13 Scheufele, of the Third Bavarian Regiment of Ijandwchr Infantry.) Therefore, should we not, as loyal, patri- otic Americans gladly lend our money to our government? Should we not buy as many Thrift Stamps, Liberty Bonds, and War Savings Certificates, as we possibly can, even if we do have to sacrifice a little? It is a vital question!! Vital to all of us!! Are we going to allow Prussianism to choke, strangle, and literally trample the life out of everything that is noble, good, pure, and righteous; or are we going to fight the Hun, till the last ounce of our strength is spent, and the last drop of our blood is spilled? Frederic B. Snyder, ' 20 To buy or not to buy: that is the question; Whether it is less patriotic on the whole ' io invest your gold in Liberty Bonds, Than to take up arms against Autocracy, And by opposing, end it. To buy — to invest, — and thus by buying To say we do our part to end The heartaches, the miseries Of this unrighteous warfare. Miriam E. Crosby, ' 18 WILL IT HAPPEN HERE? NO! A group of wounded officers were sitting- together in a Canadian hospital. Some of them had been hurt accidentally, some wounded in battles overseas. They were talking of their experiences and the horrors of war. They told how the soldiers had no way of changing their dripping clothes, of the terrible vermin, how the men were forced to shave in their daily ration of tea, and how they sometimes found a little rain water in a shell crater, witli which they washed their muddy faces and hands. One man told of the racks in the trenches, where the men occasionally had a chance to sleep. These racks were narrow boards, about one half inch apart, one board allot- ted to a man. Some of the restless chaps fell overboard, down into the mud, and their clothes had to dry on them. Another officer, a Belgian, anu a mere boy, stepped forward and said, My mother and father were murdered. My little brother ' s right hand was cut off, so that he could never use a rifle. They held me and forced me to watch these cruelties, but I have es- caped. A quiet, sad man then spoke, Would you

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WAR BOOKS The incidents of the great war have been so unusual and so important that a great many books have been written about them. The young students would do well to read some of these war books which, while giving much information on the war, are really very interesting. In the first place, one should have a good idea of the general history of the war. A book giving much interesting information is America and the Great War for Freedom and Humanity, by W. F. Johnson. This book tells of some of the causes of this War, relates briefly the history of its first three years, and outlines the part America is playing and must play in it. Many war-correspondents have written on the events of this war and their books are worthy of attention. One of these is From Antwerp to Gallipoli, by Arthur Ruhl. He describes what he saw on the different war fronts that he visited and he visited most of them. He was in Belgium, France, Ger- many, Austria, and Russia during the first two years of the war, and he also witnessed the Gallipoli campaign from both the British and the Turkish sides. Italy at War, by E. Alexander Powell is another interesting story of a non-com- batant. The author saw different parts of the front where the valiant Italians are fighting at great odds on the snow-clad Alps, and he describes vividly what he saw. Richard Harding Davis also visited the war fronts, going to Belgium at the very be- ginning of the war. He tells of the sights that he saw in Belgium and France in his book, With the Allies. Because of his eag- erness to see as much as possible of the fighting, he stayed behind the German lines in Belgium. He was suspected by the Ger- mans of being a spy and hfc was all but con- demned to death. This true adventure of his renders the book more interesting read- ing than most boys ' books of adventure. He continues his account of the scenes on the western battlefront and goes on to describe the Anglo-French expedition in Salonika in With the French in France and Salonika. About the actual conditions in Germany, we are told in Ambassador Gerard ' s famous books, My Four Years in Germany and Face to Face with Kaiserism. Inside the German Empire, by H. B. Swope, also des- cribes the position of Germany at the end of 1916. This book is important, as it tells the attitude of the German people toward the war after more than two years of fight- ing. Cut however important or interesting the stories of civilians and non-combatants may be, the tales that appeal to us most are the personal narratives of the boys who have fought at the posts of danger for the sake of humanity. Over the Top, by Harry G. Empey, is now so well known, that it needs little ex- planation. It is the frank story of an Amer- ican who enlisted in the English Army in 1915 and went over the top and was wounded in action. Kitchener ' s Mob, by J. N. Hall, is also an account of an American who joined the British army and fought side by side with Tommy Atkins until he is wounded. The valiant work of the American Ambu- lance drivers is described in At the front in a flivver, by W. Y. Stevenson, who drove the famous Ambulance No. 10 in 1916. Another American, C. D. Winslow, in his book, With the French Flying Corps, des- cribes the part played by the flyers in the fighting in France. The gallant fighting on the Hills of the Gallipoli peninsula by the Dominion troops, the New Foundlanders, and the Anzacs is related in Trenching at Gallipoli, by John Gallishaw. He tells of the desperate holding on of these soldiers, and he des- cribes the wonderful care given to the woundtd men on their way to England. ' The First 100,000, by Ian Hay, is a true account of the doings of some Scotch kilties in Kitchener ' s first forces. The author, who wrote several books before the war, re- lates in his clever and humorous style, the adventures of his own battalion in training, in France, and lastly, in the attack at Loos in September, 1915. He continues the ad- ventures of these sturdy Scots in All In It, and he goes on to describe the cam- paign in the summer of 1916 ending with the battle of the Somme. These two books are very popular and justly so, for they portray the humorous and optimistic side of of the Great War. This war has brought out much hidden literary talent where it was least expected, in the plain soldier. The war books have, therefore, an added interest, as many of them are written by men who never wrote 15