West High School - Senior Occident Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

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A Vision I know not if in the night time, Or if in the day it were, That there came to me a vision, Which caused my heart to stir With a sense of life in ages past, And the present made a blur. I know not, nor does it matter— But on a mountain’s height That overlooked the world, I stood And to the left and right I saw go on around me Life, with its surging might. And, as I looked and listened In wonderment not small, “Come sit thou with me here, my child, And I will tell thee all.” When seated on the turf beside, These words his lips let fall: “Life ever is a mystery And more so to the man Of years, than to the little child . Whose playful ways we scan; A mystery which may not be solved In the space of one brief span. “But History repeats itself And then repeats again, And what has been we see lived o’er Within the lives of men, And what is now, again shall be Lived over once again. “For instance”—and his hand he waved To hordes upon his right— “These men went forth in days long past And fought a goodly fight, Nor sheathed their swords to any call For valor, strength or might. “Still are these battles being fought Nor shall they cease, While ignorant and oppressed ones Need succor and release, Tho’ other weapons now are used In this the reign of peace. “But ever on and upward Humanity shall climb, Tho’ hard the hewing of the steps Within the walls of time. 14

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Senior Class Offichrs

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Still valiant souls and brave there be In every age and clime Who give their time, their strength, their all, And thus become sublime.” Then quickly turning toward me He said: “Oh! linger not! Within the busy, toiling world There must be some small spot Where thou art needed, go and seek Nor say you find it not.” So with quickening step I hastened From the mountain top away, Resolved to find and fill my place In the world’s work of to-day; And the spirit of the vision Shall remain with me alway. CORNELIA FARRINGTON. Class History % If the superstitious believe that there is something unlucky about the num- ber thirteen, they will have to grant that the precedent has been broken in the case of the June thirteen class; or if they are very stubborn, at least they will admit that this class is the exception which proves the rule. At any rate our class is the first class of thirteen to be graduated from West High School and it has certainly not been any less lucky than other graduating classes. But then we must not count success as due to luck since we all know it cannot come with- out good honest effort. However, we must not boast of our success without showing some facts to prove our claims, so we will proceed to give an outline of the achievements of the class in the form of a history. In September, four years ago, we entered West High for the first time. Of course the surroundings were strange and the work different from that to which we had been accustomed, but soon we became used to the new order of things. In our Freshman year, we at least accomplished one thing of note, that is, the winning of the baseball championship for our class, besides learning how to conduct a class meeting in Parliamentary form. After we had safely passed through the trials and testings of our Fresh- man year, we gave the Sophomore Dance in the corridors, according to the usual custom. On that night the library and corridors were decorated with ferns and flowers until every thing presented a festive appearance. At night, the people began to arrive and soon the halls were alive with pretty girls. The dance was informal and thoroughly enjoyable throughout. Then we entered upon the duties and pleasures of the last two years of our course. Two of the members of our class, John Remington and Glenn Ewell, made the team to debate Lafayette in the high school at Buffalo. Do you remember the outcome of that debate? Well, rather! And the boys weren’t the only persons winning laurels in the debating line. Cornelia Far- rington and Hazel Kemp were on the team to debate East High. This year the Girls’ East High Team had as members Hazel Kemp and Margaret Coleman. The boys’ team against this same school was made up of three members of our class: Glenn Ewell, Randall Matson and John Rem- ington. 16