Westmont Hilltop Senior High School - Phoenician Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

Page 23 text:

arms. and. kissing her, said that she was glad to see her baby again. The child knew her mother’s love was true and many of her kindly deeds later were done in the remembrance of that love. We are usually made up more of other people than of ourselves. Our deeds and actions are prompted by something that we have learned or taken from someone else. I challenge whether we would ever do a friendly act to another if someone had not first rendered one to us; for we are but re- flections of another’s character. We see a trait that our friend has which we would like to possess and we immediately try to copy it; we build the many by-products of another’s nature into our own so that it becomes a real part of us. If it is a real part of us. we will surely reflect it again and our human traits are not for us alone, but for the benefit of all mankind. What is it that we remember of Lincoln—the most beloved of all American statesmen? Not so much the fact that he freed the slaves, and severed the plan that would have made the north and south forever separate countries, but that he was ever himself, always keeping his spontaneous humor, and not losing his interest in people, although he had far greater deeds to perform than merelv helping his people personallv. FLORENCE STUTZMAN. ’25. TRAGEDY A deadly calm was in the night air. The moon had clisappeared behind an ominously black cloud. An ideal night for murder, I would say. And on this warm night in July a great disaster was destined to occur, one which was to mean the death of certain ideals which we pupils once upheld. I was the only outside witness to the tragedy. Ah. me, that I must be the one to relate to the public the events of that evening. My first inkling of something unusual had oc- curred at the factory that morning. Behind the thin partition between the rooms I could hear faint whispered words. Then a loud angry voice cried, “At the old field at the crossing tonight then.” I hastily resolved to be present when the plotters ar- rived. and if possible, to prevent a calamity. I went to the place mentioned at eight-thirty that evening and waited. The air was growing chilly and the moon had gone behind the clouds for the last time. I was becoming restless, when suddenly a sound broke the silence. The smooth purring of a powerful engine came to my ears and I saw, coming down the highway, a Ford straight-eight. It stopped at the edge of the field and two men disembarked. Almost immediately I heard another sound on the Theodore Roosevelt Highway (noted for its rough- riding qualities). A roaring noise filled the atmos- phere and from the smooth pulsating sound of the engine, I knew a high-powered car was approach- ing. I was not disappointed, for just then a machine hove in sight, and as it drew nearer I found that it was a Chevrolet twin-six, with aluminum-plated fin- ishings. It came to a stop steadily by jerks. Two old men got out and, to my horror. I saw, under- neath the arm of one, a closely and carefully wrapped bundle. Both parties moved to the middle of the field and there the article was set down carefully and the cover removed. There in the cool night air stood a highly polished object. I immediately started think- ing as hard as I could (the smell of burning wood almost gave my hiding place away). What could