Wakefield High School - Oracle Yearbook (Wakefield, MA)

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spaik came out of that stormy night, SOS de WBP, it said. Florence reported this by telephone to the officer on watch on the bridge. In a minute (it seemed hours) the answer came to receive exact position and condition of the vessel. Florence made everything ready; and as the spark roared merrily across the spark gap, he said, WBP de KWC. As he lis- tened, the answer came with details. Flor- ence reported. On the Hermosa, the captain entered the wireless station looking grim and sober. Soon a light sprang into his eyes and he realized that the girl was really getting help. As the captain of the Morro Castle answered, We ' ll be at your side in 6 hours, the captain of the Hermosa said Thank God, and went out. In the meantime, the Morro Castle surged forward, forced on by the powerful engines never ceasing in their work of push- ing that vessel on. The stokers, water ten- ders, engineers, and oilers busied themselves at their work under the bright incandescent lamps, as the steamer, seeming to be alive, rushed on at the call of that faint spark. On the Hermosa, all was quiet save for the little direct current generator which supplied power for the wireless set. Florence stood by and copied KWC, CANNOT LAST LONG, SETTLING FAST GENERATOR ALMOST UNDER WAT- — here the spark died out. Florence called in vain, for the other set was dead. As dawn was breaking in the east, the officer on watch saw a steamer on the hori- zon, settled so low that the waves dashed over the decks. The crew were lowering the boats. As the last boat left the old ship ' s side, Florence saw a girl, of abov.r 20 years, in the stern wearing a big li e belt, which seemed to hamper her movements. Florence leaned on the rail of the promenade deck, watched the bobbing lifeboats, and the girl. As he looked, he drew a handkerchief from his pocket and waved. She waved back. So Florence received his first look at the Cape May operator. As he looked, the old Norwegian freighter, Hermosa settled, reared and plunged headlong down through the raging waters of King Neptune ' s unconcjuered domain, an- other victim. Davis, ' 18 LOGGING IN THE MAINE WOODS Early one morning, two four-horse teams, each with a driver and three choppers, start- ed for a place eight miles distant, five of which must be covered on land and three over a lake. The ice being very thick, the men were able to cross, thus making the trip shorter by two miles. After the head of the lake was reached, the difficulties began; the snow was five feet deep on the level, and the drifts were some- times as high as ten feet. The norses were unhitched from the logger, (as the sled up- on which the logs are piled, is called) and then driven after a man who went on snow shoes to pick out the way. Behind the wad- ing horses came the rest of the men, tramp- ing down the path, which the horses had made, and also cutting the small bushes and trees that were in the way. When they had reached a good clump of trees, the driver went back after the logger, while the chop- pers began their work. One of the choppers began to chop on the side toward which he wished the tree to fall and chopped till he was about five- eighths of the way through. He then left that tree and went on to another. The other two choppers then came along with a larger buck-saw, finished the cut, and sawed the tree into fifteen foot lengths, thus saving a large amount of lumber that would be wasted if chopped, beside taking a much shorter time. When the driver got back, the hardest work began. The logs had to be loaded on the logger and then chained. On the first load, the driver only attempted to lake about fif- teen medium sized logs. But on the second and all afterward, when the road was worn ■ down hard and .smooth, he took about twen- ty or twenty-five. When he reached the dam,he loosened the chain and the logs fell off. They were put inside a number of boom- logs that were chained together, so that when the ice went out, the logs would be ready to float to the mill, there to be sawed into planks or boards. The logs that are too small to be sawed into planks or boards are sawed into four- foot lengths and made into shook, that is, staves for barrels, that are knocked down into small bundles and fastened with wire 22

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to kill the Kaiser, the world ' s most dan- gerous menace. All these patriotic positions should be paid with Thrift and War Savings Stamps. I say patriotic positions because each one who fills them is helping to turn the wheel of War. Work like this wouldn ' t hurt some of the popular stars. Helen M. Barton, ' 20 A WIRELESS ROMANCE The fast ocean freighter, Morro Castle swung out from her pier drawn i)y two pulTing little tow boats, which headed her down the North River. At a signal from the bridge telegraph the big engines pushed the vessel slowly down the river, past the Statue of Liberty, through the busy harbor, which echoed and reechoed with the . ound of many whistles, past the pufiTin.;; tow boats and long, snake-like line.i of coal barges, and stopped to leave the i)i!ot. Then the Morro Castle .steamed steadily southward, leaving the busy metropolis far astern, as the sun set with a gaudy display of red and gold. The stars peeped out and the moon lay low upon the eastern horizon, :diedding her mellow silver radiance upon the deep Atlantic. So the steamer mad.? her way southward. As she moved swiftly along, pushed i y the polished, well-oiled machinery, Florence, the wireless operator, sat in the quiet sta- tion, listening to the many ships in or around New York harbor. Now r. high toned navai station sent out a weather report. When it had stopped, Florence threw in the an- tenna switch and called Cape May, New Jer.sey, WCY WCY WCY De KWC KWC KWC. Upon receiving an answer, he asked for the baseball scores and the stock mar- ket report, upon receipt of which he said G. N. 0. M. (good night old man) KWC and Cape May said G. N. When, about a week later, Florence came within range of Cape May again, he called WCY De KWC and on receiving an an- swer, he began, SAOM (Say, old man) WILL YOU PSE (please) SEND ME PRESSE? Cape May replied that it was SAYL (say, young lady) and not SAOM and continued with the weather and press reports. After this when the Morro Castle passed Cape May, Florence would always pick up the shore station to chew the fat. For a steamer was south bound, he picked up Cape May and said, SAYL, AM COMING DOWN 2 CU NEXT TRIP, OK? She re- plied, SORRY OM (old man) BUT MY lime this continued until one day when the FATHER LEAVES NY TOMORROW ON A SHIP FOR JAPAN AND I GO AS OPR (operator), NAME HERMOSA, CALL WBP. Florence read it over and said, GNYL, I WISH U GOOD LUCK CUL (see you later) 73 (best regards) KWC. and the shore station replied, GNOM CUL 73, so the giant steamer made her way southward in the mellow moonlight of a cool September evening. Four days later, the Morro Castle cleared Havana, bound north. She ran along the coast of Cuba, past the Florida Keys, where she ran into a heavy sea, in- creasing all the time. The wind blew fierce- ly and the steamer steamed on, the spray flying in all directions. Florence received press from Miami, Fla., and a northwest storm warning from St. Augustine, which he reported to the bridge. About this time the Hermo.sa rolled and wallowed badly in the heavy seas. The strain was too much. Her plates began to give and she began to leak. At last the master stood in the door of the wireless sta- tion and said in a grave voice, Well, girl, I think this blow is our last. There he paused. You will call for help. The girl responded. SOS de WBP. No answering spark was heard. Again she tried with no results. A third time and her father came in, bringing a gust of wind along with him. Girl, you will have to hurry, the water is fast reaching the engine room generator, he said. She threw in the antenna switch and listened for the long lost answer, but ho! what ' s that? A faint spark like a guid- ing light came out of the dark windy night. Even the wind and rain did not bother that persevering little spark. On board the Morro Castle, all was warm and cosy. Florence sat at the set and listened to the wnnd and rain out in that wild night, thought of what the girl on the Hermosa might be doing just then, when his meditations were broken up by the stew- ard, who entered with Florence ' s supper. Florence told the steward that he wished coffee at midnight, and as he went out, Florence put on the ' phones ' and listened. At first all was still. Then a faint little 21

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tape. The birch is separated from the rest and taken to a spool mill to be made into spools. Norman W. Rickards IMPRESSIONS I was given an opportunity to take a trip to a prominent school near Boston where medicine and dentistry are taught. I went a few weeks ago and am now passing along my recollections of the trip. We reached school in time to hear a lec- ture. The lecture room was in the form of a Greek theatre, as all modern lecture rooms are. The seats were arranged in a semi-circle and the tiers of seats in the rear were higher than those in front. In front were colored charts, showing magnified dia- grams of various parts of the body. Before the lecture three assistants rolled the speci- mens in on trays. In the first tray were two human legs with the skin removed but the flesh still remaining. On another was a great number of knee bo .es; on the third, a heap of hip bones. At the side of the stage was a skeleton, hanging by a cord. The lecturer would occasionally take hold of the skeleton and point out the position of a certain part of the body. After he released his hold, the body began to swing, reminding me of a clothesline on a breezy day. The lecture itself was very interesting, I suppose. The professor might have known what he was talking about, but I didn ' t. He, however, wrote some of his terms on the blackboard and I noticed a few of them. They were gastronimius flexorlongusdigit- orum, tibialis anterior flexorlongushallu- cis. There were, besides, a host of other posterior and anterior muscles, joints, and articulations. The lecturer at one time wanted to get the leg into a certain posi- tion. He took it up, handled it exactly as a butcher slings a side of beef, and bounced it onto the table. After the lecture we went to the labora tory in which the students dissect their own subjects as they have already seen the in- structor do. This room was even more in- teresting than the lecture room. There were about a dozen stone tables in this one room and on every table was a dead body. The skin was taken off so that one could see the flesh and muscles, and arteries. It was interesting to watch the fellows cut up their stiffs. Part of the work was to cut open and separate the knee joint from the rest of the body. One fellow couldn ' t do this very well with his subject. He took the whole leg in his hands, just as he would take a stick of wood or a baseball bat, and broke it against the side of the wall. Another took a leg in his hands, one hand at e ach end. and put his foot on the knee joint and pushed against it. After the dissecting was finished, they cleaned up the blood with large sponges. After a while they began throwing these sponges at one another. The real treat of the day, however, was reserved for the last. One of the fellows wanted me to look at the head of his subject. The heads of all were bound up. He removed the covering and showed the head. The subject must have been killed in an accident, for the nose was flattened out and the eyes had been gouged out. The teeth were perfect. Because of the injecting fluid used in embalming, the flesh was as hard as wood. Needless to say, I was sorry that no one was allowed to take pictures. When, at last, we had to go home, I really found it hard to tear myself away from such enjoyable surroundi ngs. R. Drugan, ' 18 THE DEBATER KNOWS That the class of 1918 is the best class. That certain members of the senior class committee would like to choose another pic- ture for the school. That the picture which was given by the class is hanging in room 9. That everybody is looking forward to the reception. That the class is reducing expenses as much as possible for graduation and recep- tion. That the sophomores won the inter-class meet by one point. That Bill Burke is quite a fine little runner. THE DEBATER WOULD LIKE TO KNOW Where Red Wilkins bought the flowers for Miss Wilson. What Miss Andrews has against D , H , B . — By Count Meant 23