Walkerville Collegiate Institute - Blue and White Yearbook (Windsor, Ontario Canada)

Page 25 text:

BLUE AND WHITE a, b •e 7 a g !8 « ■r iy d. f. t is ?• ft li¬ lt 2! Ig I X- IS ti¬ lt ' ill d at I a I Id st to It V- ul d, 2(i I ut d- to to ?h id A Midnight Incident The island, about five hundred miles from Walkerville, is picturesquely situ¬ ated in the blue waters of Lake Kashe- gabogamog. The island is not large, nor is it far from the mainland, but to one living upon it, the distance of two miles to the nearest neighbour seems vast. The realization of this distance was made far more clear, when while calmly fishing near the opposite shore one early morning, the only man of our party not¬ iced a large black shape moving among the bushes. This new neighbour of ours was the largest black bear he had ever seen. As could w’ell be expected, the only topic of conversation for the next week was the bear. The feelings experienced by the sightseer, who slept alone on the ground floor, can be well understood when, around two o’clock one morning, he woke to the sound of loud snuffs and snorts at the back of the cottage. After ten minutes under cover, al¬ though the noise continued, he gathered courage and made his way to his only weapon, a small .22. Candlelight only is possible there; matches evaded his seek¬ ing hands, therefore it was some time before he could find a cartridge. Find¬ ing this, yet being unable to see, he was forced to seat himself upon the edge of his bed, gun in hand, to await the dawn of the day. For nearly three hours he sat, alter¬ nately thinking and listening. At five, when dawn broke, our protector caut¬ iously advanced toward the back door. Thoughts w hich had passed through his mind while he was sitting in the dark, all were brought before him. Would the next snort that the bear gave be extra loud ? Would he accidentally rub against the ice-house, get a splinter in him, be¬ come angry, and try to break in? All s»rh thoughts became immediately pos¬ sible. Taking courage, he opened the door. He peeped around; he took a step for¬ ward. Nothing was in sight. He crossed the porch and moved slowly down the path. Suddenly he came face to face with his quarry. He shot one—the animal advanced; he shot again—though partially wound¬ ed, the beast still came forward. With the third shot he fell, and there at our brave hunter’s feet lay the sweetest lit¬ tle specimen of a porcupine that I have ever seen. —Helen Clegg. The Most Interesting Person I Have Ever Known. I do not actually know this person; I have never met him or talked to him. His image has never appeared to me, ex¬ cept in pictures which, since no two show the same features, have scarcely suc¬ ceeded in helping me visualize his face. He is Richard Wagner, the genius of opera in the ninetheenth century, the man who won so many followers and made even more enemies. The first time I read about Wagner, he created in me the heartiest dislike. Just to think that I would have to study his life, his musical compositions and his travels disgusted me. The reason he was so repelling was that he was a sup¬ reme egotist, not an ordinary egotist, for nearly everyone feels “I” to be quite important, but a SUPREME egotist. What he desired, he was certain he must have, if not by his own efforts, then through his friends. If he saw something he liked and wanted, he bought it, quite nonchalantly, charging to his friends. All through his life everything and ev¬ erybody was made to conform to his will. Then I began to study Wagner’s life. Soon the man began to become fascin¬ ating. His egotism and self-assurance still did not appeal to me, but everything else did. He had high ideals. He wanted a fellowship of artists; he wanted to im¬ prove opera; he wanted the audience to Page Twenty three

Page 24 text:

BLUE AND WHITE On Coming To Canada By Betty Ramsay, XI-F It was in the middle of July, 1940 that a telegram arrived at my home informing me that a boat to Canada would be sailing the following Wednesday. I was at school at the time, but on arriving home my little cousin who was to travel with me, excitedly told me the news. This is what I had been waiting for! It was the end of about six weeks of activity and suspense. Now that the time had come, did I want to leave my home and friends? I don’t think I shall ever be able to answer that quest¬ ion. My mind was in a whirl, so that I had no time to analyze my feelings and for this I was truly thankful. The rest of the week flew by. It was mostly spent in saying ‘Goodbye” to friends and relations, and in last minute packing. Naturally the day and time of sailing and the name of the boat were known to us, but we had strict instruct¬ ions to tell no one. I am afraid that I experienced an unholy joy at being able to tell my head mistress that I was not allowed to answer her question, when she asked me which boat I was sailing on! The day of sailing came at last, and my mother, my cousin, my friend and I went down to the Liverpool landing stage to embark. After much pushing and jostling, we got on board, found our berths, and said Goodbye to my mother. We left the landing stage that night but it was not until 10.30 on Sunday evening that we set sail for Canada. I will never forget my last glimpse of Liv¬ erpool. It was not yet dark and as we sailed down the Mersey, we could see Birkenhead and Liverpool clearly. The Liver birds, on the Liver Building, stood out against the sky. As I looked then they seemed to be bravely defying any German raiders to destroy them; they seemed to symbolize the feeling of the English people. Although Liverpool has been bombed since we left. I still pict¬ ure the Liver birds and the people of Liverpool daring their enemies to do their worst for they can take it. The next day, we left land behind us, and after that saw nothing but grey sea and skv . The passage was smooth, entirely without any excitement and we quite forgot about the possibilities of submarines. The route which we took was much to the north of the usual North Atlantic crossing, and so the voy¬ age took several days longer. We were beginning to long to set our feet on dry land again, when to our great disgust a thick fog enveloped us. It was like being wrapped in a white blanket. The sea was as smooth as glass, and the fog horn sounded like a ghostly whisper from another world. For a day and a night we scarcely moved, and we hoped to see a green field. We were moving slowly along in the af¬ ternoon when the fog began to lift. Never will I forget the sight which was unfolded before my eyes. I could imag¬ ine how Cartier and his crew must have felt when they saw the same land hun¬ dreds of years before. A new world! It was that to them, and it was that to me! I did not know’ what Canada was going to be like. What did I expect of it? I think everyone going to a new land ex¬ periences the same feelings as I did, as I stood on the deck and looked at Can¬ ada. I expected Canada to have all the good points of the Old World, and all that I had wished for in a New World. Yes, I expected to find my Utopia in that new country on the horizon. You may ask, was I disappointed I did not find my Utopia, but I did find a country where I could be happy! If I had found my Utopia I doubt if I would have been happy. All that I can say about the greatest adventure of my life is that I intend to make the best use of my privilege. It has been seen fit that I should be allow¬ ed to continue my life in a peaceful country; I intend to return to England, carrying with me what I have learned here, to help build a better world. I shall not be able to do a great deal, but what I can I will, so that no more child¬ ren will have to leave their homes to travel over 3,000 miles, or to have to live in constant terror of bombing. Together with all the other English girls and boys, I am glad to be here, and thank everyone for being so kind to us. I could not feel any more at home here than I do. page Twenty-two

Page 26 text:

BLUE AND WHITE realize that music was not for amuse¬ ment only, but that it was a self-con¬ tained art. Being human, he did not reach his ideals, but he strove after them. It was beyond his power to obtain a fellowship of artists because of his egotism. He considered Richard Wagner most important and this brought to death the idea of fellowship. Wagner had his humorous side. One night he conducted a brilliant symph¬ ony before an equally brilliant audience. To the amazement and shock of the peo¬ ple, he did not use a score. Wagner was reprimanded for this, but he said that he conducted better without the hindr¬ ance of a score. However, he had to pro¬ mise that the next time he would not do such an atrocious thing. Well and good! On the night of the next concert. Wagner conducted with the score be¬ fore him. Everyone sang his praises. He had never done so well before or con¬ ducted so brilliantly. However! what they did not know was that Wagner had had the score upside down and the mus¬ ic before him had been in no remote way connected with the music he had con¬ ducted. Wagner left behind him an outstand¬ ing heritage. His operas! At the time of his life, his music was not fully apprec¬ iated. After his death, the effect of his work was tremendous. He influenced many smaller composers. The most im¬ portant of these was Engelbert Hump- endinck whose opera “Hansel and Gret- el” is loved. Wagner’s operas exhaust the human emotions. There is his most loved one “Der Meistersinger von Nu- remburg” which is a comedy. There is the passionate love story “Lohengrin”. These are only a few of his wonderful works, all majestic, soul-stirring and beautiful. Wagner, as a man, annoys me. Wag¬ ner as a musician delights me. Wagner, as a whole, is the most interesting per¬ son I have ever known. —Anne Tukkunen. GALLIFORMES The Ruffed Grouse, or Spruce Part¬ ridge, and the Pheasant are two of Can¬ ada’s most interesting gallinaceous birds The Ruffed Grouse is a large game bird which lives almost entirely in the heavily wooded parts of Canada. Its col¬ ours are for the most part wood-brown and grey. Soft black features make a ruff at the side of the neck. The female and the male are much the same in col¬ ouration except for the tail. The male has a very beautiful, long tail, which he spreads like a fan when he flies. The basic colour of the tail is brown, finely vermiculated with black. The ends of the feathers are tipped with white. This beautiful, large bird is called a partridge by most Canadian sportsmen. Since it has learned to be extremely wa¬ ry, it is considered one of the best up¬ land game birds. It has the habit of ly¬ ing very closely in a heavy patch of cover, then bursting into the air with such a tremendous roar of wings, that its would-be tormentor is thrown into confusion. The ruffffed grouse is distinctly a bird of the woodland and is never seen far from this environment. Its drum¬ ming is well known to all frequenters of the northern bush. The drumming is a hollow, reverberating sound that ech¬ oes and re-echoes throughout the woods. It is peculiar in that the direction from which the sound comes is not easily dis¬ cernible. This drumming has been the subject of much controversy among or¬ nithologists, for although the actual drumming has been observed many times, yet the bird’s wings moved so quickly during the process that the nak¬ ed eye could not see whether the bird produced the sound by fanning the air with its wings, or whether it actually beat upon the object upon which it stood. Eventually, motion pictures were taken of a drumming grouse, and when they were reproduced in slow mot- tion it was found that the bird simply Page Twenty-four