West High School - Hesperian Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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SHADOWS The sky is dark o'erhung in leafy arch. By lowering trees, with shadows thick and gray. That troop in vague, confused, and endless march. Along the silent, hidden, moonlit way. Where you can see the moon there also may You see her dark twin sisters’ shadows shifting; The one so fair, more beautiful than day. The others always shifting, never lifting From the path their soft black feet, but always drifting. Winifred Lynskey. AFTER THE STORM A sweep of snowy plain To the western sun A mist of threat’ning sky Although the storm is done. A group of eerie ghosts That yesterday were trees. Weird wailing of the winds Across the frozen seas. Now the storm King’s power Has wrought its mighty will. Wrapt in its shroud of white The world is passive, still. Save from yonder thicket A flitting opal flame— Against the dreary background A blue-jay calls for rain. Page 12 Loleta Stout.

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THE VERDICT OF THE KU KLUX KLAN THE inmates of Tanglelodge were having a hilarious time. Shrieks of feminine laughter floated through the open windows. The bright lights streaming out into the dense foliage of the woods cast many a spookish shadow. The tall poplars softly whispered among themselves, while the grave oaks shook their heads in dire disapproval of the evening’s proceedings. Summery clad figures swayed to and fro in rhythm to the popular music that was being ground out by the Jazzerettes. Now when twelve of Tangleville’s most promising young women students of the largest high school, take it upon themselves to decide that man has become an old-fashioned ornament, something is bound to happen among the male population. At the height of the evening’s amusements, while dancing was still in its sway and refreshments were ready to be served, the door of Tanglelodge was suddenly thrust open and twelve white figures solemnly marched before the horror stricken gaze of girls and chaperon; the chief spoke. ’’We, the members of the High and Mighty Order of the Ku Klux Klan. do hereby order and ordain that these young women participating in annoying and unnecessary noise, and other actions known to ourselves, on this evening of June, nineteen hundred and twenty-two, have made it necessary for the male inhabitants of Tangleville to protest in the name of the law set down by the High Chief Potentate. A regular court session will take place. The organization will then remove to another apartment, returning within three minutes with verdict for said prisoners.” (Signed) HOKUS POKUM, High Chief of the Ku Klux Klan. Three minutes of anguish and terror had elapsed when the doors opened and the jurors filed in. The head juror, in a very dignified and solemn manner, handed over their written verdict. No need for requesting silence; the room was like death itself. Unrolling the document, the judge of the evening gravely glanced over the contents and shook his head. “It is decreed by my fellow Klansmen that this verdict be put in force because of the following transgressions of the listed delinquents. Mary Clemens, on Tuesday the ninth, came to her Virgil class unprepared; Gladys King, on Monday, reported with a failure in mathematics; Betty Mums on the seventh of said month snubbed our high and glorious basketball captain, Jim Dow; Dorothy Konn refused an invitation from our most lovable of football heroes, Dan Kenzie; Sally Mac, on same date was seen throwing paper wads at our illustrious instructor. Mr. Percival McProof; Dot, Betty, and Mitzel dared to call members of this Klan by undignified names that have never been used in the family Bible. Because of these violations, along with the unnecessary noises, disorderly conduct of the participants and the omission of the protecting male, it has been found necessary for me to read the following verdict: ‘That the condemned participants shall be made to dance for at least two hours with the members of this Klan.’ The watchful oaks and sleepy poplars heard many happy and relieved cries when the bogus Klansmen removed their masks and familiar faces were brought to light. Page II A arcella Rossiter.

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MARTIAN LEARNING (Being an excerpt from the novel, Looking Down,” by Snosrap Yeldud. Edited by E. Dudley Parsons.) (( A ND what are they?” asked the Martian. They are students,” I replied, focussing the etherscope upon West High School, and putting the etherphone attachments on our heads. ‘Students? What are students?” “They are boys and girls who run from room to room in the great building that you see and tell persons called teachers what facts they have gleaned. Do these students learn to think by this method? No. There are too many of them for that. A student now and again forms independent opinions. Usually they think what their teachers think and the teachers don’t think much because they were trained in the same way.” We could never tolerate a system like that! How do you teach your young? No one can be taught; he must teach himself, chiefly through observation. No one teaches a baby to rub his eyes, to walk or to talk. Every child on our planet is guaranteed not only sustenance but opportunity to learn. In fact, we make it easier to learn than not to learn. In every neighborhood there is a playground, workshop, garden, picture-gallery, laboratory, museum, music-hall and library. Therefore our children reason about scientific, artistic, literary, or mechanical matters as easily as your children reason about their play. Or do your children reason? Oh yes. outside of school they do. As infants they are often wonderful with imagination and joy, quick in observing, ready at response. One of our philosophers has said that they come into being with memories of a former and richer experience, ‘trailing clouds of glory,’ but that as they grow into the cares of our earth, ‘shades of the prison-house begin to close’ upon them. At any rate they begin to lose originality as they become older. What do you Martians do about your higher education? There is no ‘higher education' any more than there is a ‘higher’ thought, ‘higher’ beauty, ‘higher’ love. These savages, as you called the denizens of the jungle that you showed me yesterday, were doing as reasonable things as your West High students—feasting, decorating themselves and chattering —and they seem to be building and destroying without so much self-conscious worry as what your civilized people betray. And you? I asked. Ah, we Martians solved the problem of living so many ages ago that what you show me of the earth is almost unbelievable-----cities where people starve, while a little distance away, farmers burn food. Electric heat, light, and power passing over the heads of millions who crave these boons; the careful salvation of idiots, while your best young men are slaughtered in meaningless war, or heedless industry; laughter smothered by murderous assault and song choked by pain. And you? I repeated. We are the angels of whom you dream dimly. Of us your little children have heart-knowledge and are happy. Among us nature moves with calm, and life is balanced. -------- Page 13