Waltham High School - Mirror Yearbook (Waltham, MA)

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. -....,... .-. WATCH CITY BULLETIN. 13 VALEDICTORY Friends, teachers, school-mates, we the mem- bers of the class of 1904, have for the last time assembled as a. class. Tonight marks the close of our four years in the VValtham High school-four years of broad opportunities, from which we have already gained pleasure and knowledge. On such an occa- sion, it is fitting that we consider, briefly, what our aim in life should be. I am asked 4' Why have any aim in life? VVhy not let events take their course and why not be guided by present circumstances? Stop a momeri t. Did you ever make up your mind to take a week's vacation and do absolutely nothing? Did you ever try to sit perfectly still, doing nothing, for half an hour? If you succeeded, I doubt whether you felt very much benefited. It is evidently unnatural for a person to be inactive. Since, then, welmust be doing something, is it not greatly to our advantage to be working toward some end, some purpose? Therefore, I say, choose something which shall be your aim in life. Just at this point in our lives, we should look for- ward into the future and consider upon what field of life we shall enter. For some of us school-life will end here. Some intend to continue their studies. But for none of us is education finished. It has been said that not one day passes in which we do not learn something. May this daily education, together with our lessons learned from books, be carrying us toward our ideals! Firmness of purpose, and even more, energetic and faithful endeavor are requisite to attain these high ideals. In Physics we are taught the conserva- tion of energy-that no energy can be destroyed or created, but that light, heat, and other forces, are but one form of energy transformed into another. So with our work, anything worth attaining must be the' result of the transformation of our energy. The man who is always waiting for some turn' of fortune to come to him, will always be as he himself com- plains--unlucky. The fortunate man realizes that prosperity is the energy of faithful endeavor trans- formed into success. In considering the means to an end, never let the end justify the means. Make the means justify themselves and the end will more than justify them. It was the integrity of Washington, Lincoln and Franklin that set firm foundations to our national government and its prosperity. Who does not ad- mire them and who is not grateful to them for their faithful and energetic endeavors? I see with regret the time approaching when we must say Ct Farewell 'i to all our school acquaintances and friends. To His Honor, Mayor Harv.ey, to the citizens of VValtham, the school-board, and the Alumni Asso- ciation, we wish to express our deep gratitude for this privilege they have given to us in this beautiful new building in which we have studied during the past year, with its art decorations, which are them- selves an art education, and the library which the Alumni Association now intend to enlarge. In taking leave of our Superintendent, we can ex- press only sorrow at leaving the educational institu- tion of a city where they are so smoothly and suc- cessfully conducted as under Mr. Parkinson. To our Principal and teachers we must now say 44 Farewell but it is with the deepest regret that we must leave them after four years so pleasantly spent together. Part of the navigation of life's voyage we must learn from experience. The rest you have taught us, and we thank you for your patient efforts. The events of the past four years will not soon fade from our memories-landmarks of a most pleasant journey. It is with deep feelings of regret that we must say ff Good-bye but let us take advantage of this opportunity to wish you a happy restful vaca- tion, and a pleasant and agreeable school term next year. Juniors, at the close of these exercises you will have become Seniors. May you realize the responsi- bility of the position. The example that you set is likely to be followed by the rest of the school. Try to bring credit to the class of 1905. Sophomores and Freshmen, while in the earlier part of your course, renernber that first impressions are lasting. Do your work faithfully and thoroughly, and, until you have a better motto of your own, bear in mind the one we have chosen. Undergraduates, wishing you all success, we say 4' Farewell ! 7' Classmates, the time has come for us to part. Our ways here separate, yet I hope each one of us is look- ing forward to the future with eager anticipation, New environments, new ideals, but the same method unchanged for us all, earnest and honest endeavor- 'f Persta et Praesta ! 3' 4' Stand firm and ii by His aid you'll 4' Excel in

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14 NVATCH CITY BULLETIN. READING . VVhen the editor of this paper asked me to write something for this number, I felt bound to assent. It was not sufiicient excuse for denial of the request that I was already overcrowded with work or that I was in doubt what to say to so lively and exacting a company of readers, for did not the request for aid come from one engaged in a public service, from one who had in that service conquered difliculties and achieved success. Ile was entitled to such aid as I could give. But what could I say that would be of service to his readers? That was a hard question for me. They would be full of the season's thoughts, grad- uation, athletics, vacation, and of these I knew next to nothing. But the vacation season would offer op- portunities for reading as well as for play and I decided to write a little about reading. If one of the earnest young students of the lValtham schools shall be helped by what I say, I shall be abundantly repaid. It has always seemed to me that those books are most valuable in the formative period of life which teach us how men and women of noble character have acted their part in the great work of the world so far done. Books of history, if written wisely, do this in a large degree. In American history the works of .Iohn Fiske have this quality. They hold the attention and impress on the mind of the reader the strong virtues of the men and women who made that history. Historical fiction also does this for us, and Iam inclined to think in a larger degree. It seeks to make the life of a past age vivid by causing the actors to move before us in a sto1'y. Among the characters are usually men of note, great men of the time, described, and if the author is conscientious and able, he has made a careful study of these men and he invests them in his story with all the quali- ties that they possessed as makers of history, as doers of deeds that moulded the life of their times. By reading such fiction rather than the mass of ordinary fiction the student will not only enjoy recreation in the fascination of the story but will, as well, gain a good understanding of the qualities of the great personages of t.he times described. The influences thus entering into the life of the reader must be uplifting. I like American books of this sort. I suggest a few that may incite to farther search: Ilugh lVynne, Quaker, by Dr. S. lVeir Nlitc-hell, the friend of Phillips Brooks, is a fine story of the Revolution, which ought to be read. VVinston Churchill has written several of these novels: Richard Carvel, The Crisis, and The Cross- ing, just published. The first is a novel of the Ite- volution and Paul .Iones figures stoutly in its pages. The last, starting with the Revolution deals with the mighty deeds of the hunters and settlers of the lVest, and in particular with the heroic campaign of Colonel George Rogers Clark, a campaign that made great history. The Crisis IS a delightful story of the Rebellion and the authorls conception of Lincoln, Sherman and Grant, appearing in its pages, is worth a student's strong effort to gain. Cooper was one of our first literary men. It has sometimes been the fashion to gently depreciate the taste of those who like Cooper and to deprecate a tendency to read his stirring stories of frontier life. He suffered some eclipse of the immense popularity he once enjoyed, but I think that popularity still great is destined to be yet greater and justly so. He described a phase of our national life not now and never again to be seen, and his genius gave it such quality of reality that it lives again in the imagination of his readers. I heard President Roosevelt say in a public address that we are a fortunate people in hav- ing Cooper, a novelist who has put into books vivid pictures of the wild scenes in which white men and red men strove in the early history of this country. It is the distinction of Cooper that in the Leather Stocking Tales he has put in permanent form in fiction the march of the frontiersman from the banks of the Hudson westward across the country. The tales should be read with this in mind and so read they have a historic quality. The Spy and Lionel Lincoln are historical novels. The latter gives us revolutionary Boston streets, buildings and patriots. The battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill are de- scribed. The description of the latter is almost, if not quite, the best ever written. Though a little slow and not in the first rank of Cooperls novels, no student in Massachusetts schools can afford to pass it by, for it has an educational value in its local his- torical quality. Books of biography, of course, show most clearly the thing for which we are seeking, that is how men have lived who have done splendid things for man- kind. To get a liking for biography is one of the finest things that can happen to a student. It is not only entertaining, it is inspiring and ennobling read-