Wakefield High School - Oracle Yearbook (Wakefield, MA)

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in which they can cover themselves with glory. With the support of all the mem- bers of our school, the teams will endeavor to accomplish that which is so dear to every school, college, and university, Victory. At the March town meeting, the town voted to give the teachers a flat increase of $400 per year. Because of the in- crease in salaries, the town will be able to retain some of its most efficient teachers. There is nothing that so interferes with the good work in a school as a frequent change in teachers. We ar e glad that the High School will be spared that misfortune. THE HOME-LIFE OF THE PILGRIMS Awarded first prize by Kosmos Club The life and customs of the early Pil- grims are most interesting. Perhaps no other band of people of any age or an clime have had such distinctive and admira- ble characteristics as those of our fore- fathers, the Pilgrims. It is the home-life, so pure and righteous, the high ideals and worthy achievements of the early colon- ists, that have given America the solid foundation upon which she stands. It is fitting, indeed, to commemorate the lives and the ideals of those who so pluckily and genuinely with.stood hardships and gave their all to gain a freedom which was des- tined to last through centuries and to mark America for all time. Our Pilgrim ancestors are famed for their strict manners and their stern and rigid customs. They believed in no frivol- ities of any kind, and they carried them- selves with a simple dignity that command- ed the greatest respect. Serious-minded and stern parents instructed the little chil- dren in such a manner that they, too, were old beyond their years. They did nothin:? which could be called undignified and this calm, serious manner of our Puritan an- cestors arouses in us a feeling of great re- spect — almost reverence. It is to the religion of the Pilgrims that America is indebted for her proud and in- dependent spirit. They believed in free worship — that each had a right to think and believe for himself and that is the rea- son why they left England. They wor- shipped in tiny meeting houses as simple and unpretentious as the creed they lived by, and although they were forced to carfy arms with them to protect themselves from the Indians, yet they were a very peace- able and holy band of worshippers. Their faith was Orthodox and very strict and, of course, narrow, compared to the modern form of belief — narrow, yet how absolute- ly true and undeceiving. A little storm could not keep them from their house of worship, where they often sat for hours at a time. The Puritan homes were, of course, very simple. Builded of roughly-hewn logs, they were small but very picturesque — different, indeed, from the comfortable homes to which these people had been ac- customed in Holland and in their mother- land. It was necessary for them to be sim- ple, else how out of harmony with their surroundings. Some articles of household use they had brought with them from across the water, but, for the most part, their furniture was manufactured on this side of the Atlantic. Tables of logs and rustic chairs, straight and uncushioned, were luxuries of the little Pilgrim homes, and although perhaps more than one sighed for the many comforts they had left behind them, they did not complain. What though they suffered untold deprivations! Were they not doing it for freedom, for the love they had for their children, and as a duty they felt toward their children ' s children? Bare were their furnishings, devoid of all ornament, yet what harmony and what a beautiful spirit there was in the hearts of the people who could turn forests into homes by their love and pa- tience. Who has not been moved to patriotism by a picture of the Pilgrims? There is something almost holy about their calm attitudes and their plain costumes. Quiet, like their characters, were the dresses worn by the women, made of grey homespun adorned with plain collars and cuffs of the most snowy white linen, topped off with caps of white. The men, also, wore grey. Jackets, knee-breeches, and wide-brimmed hats made up a part of their costumes, brightened with buckles and a white collar — simple and refined, unassuming, like their faith. Their food was also very plain. Fish, venison, and such game as the men were able to get, corn and such other food as they could rai.se in the rugged, unploughed country, constituted the main part of their

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CDITOKIALS A year ago Mr. Charles J. Peterson came to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Howe, who had been principal of our school for a quarter of a century. It w.is a difficult place that Mr. Peterson had to fill, but he has shown such good judgment, such fairness, and so much consideration for teachers and students that he has won the respect and good will of all with whom he is associated. A new plan for making the standards of scholarship higher in our school was in- augurated by our new principal. The plan is this: At the end of every term an honor roll is published. Upon this honor roll ap- pear the names of pupils who have re- ceived the required averages. A pupil receiving all A ' s is placed on the honor roll with high honors; those receiving two A ' s and nothing less than a B are placed on the honor roll with honors; and those receiving honorable mention must have a grade with one A and nothing less than a B. The system is working well, and new names appear on the honor roll every term. rK r ' d i ' i In October the Kosmos Club asked the English department of the high school to give an original play, illustrating Better Speech, at a conference of the State Fed- eration of Women ' s Clubs and the Kosmos Club, to be held in Wakefield in January. Miss Hester Sharkey, a teacher in the Eng- lish department, who was formerly a pupil of Prof. Baker at Harvard, wrote a play, Tony, the Mender, which was given by members of the Senior Class. During the past month, the Mathenian Society, a dra- matic club, formed by members of the school, have been rehearsing a play, Mose, under the direction of Miss Hazel M. An- drews. We anticipate that the play will be a great success. We are glad of this great interest in dramatics, and we hope that next year we shall have a dramatic editor on the Debater Staff. At last! Athletics on a firm basis at Wakefield High School! Doesn ' t this arouse your sporting spirit? All this was made possible by the newly-organized Athletic Association, governed by a real constitution, compiled by a real sport, our teacher coach, Mr. Dower, whose untiring thought and energy have done so much in developing championship teams in our school. Luck seems to follow us every- where. Our principal is an enthusiastic fan and delights in attending our contests. Nothing pleases him more that to help out athletes bring home the bacon. Our entrance into the Mystic Valley League opens to our athletes a new field

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food — relieved by the little delicacies of culinary art that the Pilgrim mothers had learned in the land of their birth. How often they must have longed for a variety of food, such as they were unable to obtain here — another of their many sacrifices. Let us now turn to the industries of these early times. How absolutely differ- ent from the busy hurry and scurry of the modern industrial world. They co uld not depend upon importation. Everything had to be done with their own hands. The work of the men was — Clearing the forests, mak- ing the homes, building church and fort, planting and caring for the gardens, pro- curing and preparing the food, protecting their homes and their loved ones from the attacks of the savages — all these and a thousand other tasks kept busy the stalwart and plucky settlers of the early years. The women, also, had their share of work to accomplish. What would be the thoughts of a Pilgrim lady, could she be given one peep into the kitchen of today? — set tubs, running water, gas stoves, besides wash- ing machines, electric irons, toasters, sweepers, etc.! Had the little Pilgrim lady had such luxuries, perhaps she would have had too much time to spare and would not have been so content, but as it was, she did all of her work by hand, even to doing the laundry out-of-doors in the streams. The lady of today goes to the store and buys her cloth and her thread, uses her manufactured patterns and her . ' jfevinng machine ' and then her work is practically accomplished. The little Puri- tan lady had to make her own homespun first, planting the flax, plucking it, drying, seeding, baking, thrashing, combing it, and then spinning the cloth and finally making the garment, entirely by hand. We know that the Pilgrims were very cultured and refined. Many had been well- educated in their home-country and now were anxious that their children should have a similar education. However, schools were not established for ten years, but the little folks received what education they needed in their own homes from the moth- ers and fathers. Perhaps the most inspiring thing to the Pilgrims was the wonderful out-of-doors in which they lived. Children of God , they had gone back to God, for are not the for- ests God ' s first temples? Massive boulders, great and mighty trees and the open sky are always an inspiration — what must they have meant to a people who were striving amidst such terrible difficulties, who needed inspiration where there was so little of encouragement! To me, the home-life of the Pilgrims is a thing almost holy and to be revered. There is something so beautiful and so do- mestic about it all that it seems more like a beautiful poem than a fact. If only our lives had more of the simplicity, and more of the true, honest, spiritual characteristics which marked their lives, how much more of satisfaction and of real happiness, we should experience. Let their lives be to us a memorial of true living, an example of what is good and pure, and the ideal toward which we should strive. RUTH L CARLSON, ' 21 After the Debater had gone to press it was announced that Miss Ruth Carlson ' s es.say, The Daily Life of the Pilgrims, which won the first prize offered by the Kosmos Club, had also won the highest honor in the State Contest. Miss Carlson was invited to read her essay at the annual meeting of the State Federation of Wom- en ' s Clubs held a Springfield, Mass., on May 19. We congratulate Louise Smith, Herbert Hancock, and Carl Peterson on receiving honorable mention in the Pilgrim Prize Essay Contest. THE DAILY LIFE OF THE PILGRIMS Awarded second prize by Kosmos Club On a bleak December day in 1620, there landed on our shores at Plymouth, a little group of men and women known as the Pil- grims. They had braved ;a treacherous sea, and were now disembarking on soil which they had never seen before, and which held in store for them many unseen dangers and hardships. The voyage of the Mayflower had been rough and stormy, and Providence alone had enabled their little ship to survive the voyage. This lit- tle band of Pilgrims had come of their own free will that they might worship God as they thought right, and to free themselves from the corruption and formality of the Church if England.