Westport High School - Herald Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

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ttended smissed words: lmithf, indro-us ssouri, Smith, ind re- st rec- idiron. He is e takes other Lppro- st ad- :newl- from 1d in- e who 1' ask, :lessly 5 P90' is al- f not vill is l, the leter- ,rt of 1, but rr his Feless, , THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 15 unanswered. A man may ask for at definite piece of information, time after time, and still receive no satisfactory reply, but the o11ly way ever to succeed in his purpose is to ask and to keep on asking until he is answered. If untir- ingly he keeps on seeking, seeking for the an- swers to his questions, sooner or later all his queries will be satisfied, all his desires for knowledge gratified. Some questions seem destined never to be answered, but the zeal for information carries people on still to ask them. Philosophers are always devising theories of those evanescent questions: what are we? whence came we? whither are we going? and, although in the past no success has attended the efforts of these greatly learned men to discover the solutions to these great puzzles of life, still they are striv- ing and searching a11d hoping for the unravel- ing of the wonderful mystery. Manps curiosity is alwa.ys urging him to grasp after that which is ever beyond him, and l1is intere.st is only increased when just as he seems to have at- tained to a ta.ngible proof of some baffling prob- lem, it resolves itself into intangibility again and passes on as tantalizingly out of reach as before 5 but his pursuit of it is never-ending- his interest in it never lessens. His imagina- tion still leads him to believe that somewhere, sometime, he will be successful. The imagination is the kaleidoscope of the intellect. lt is ever presenting pictures which move and change as if endowed with life. These mind pictures arouse the man to action and infiame his interest in the acquisition of information. The creative power in a manps brain at once responds to tl1e workings of the imagination and then all the wonderful powers of an intellect are revealed and the world mar- vels at the depths of the mind of a human being. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties ra The source of a manps thoughts is always a cause of wonder even to the man himself, and although scientists have been seeking to dis- cover the magic of the workings of the mind. that instrument of the soul still hides its secret effectually, and if that secret ever be revealed, Nature will whisper it to the one whom she has endowed with fitting characteristics to receive it and use it. For every person in this world there is some knowledge, which belongs exclusively to him, and if a man dismisses everything from his mind and turns a receptive ,mood toward the information in the universe, that which is right- fully his will come to him and supply his needs. Then, after he has attained to all the knowl- edge which is his very own, he can start anew and absorb part at least of all the surplus infor- mation which is going to waste for the need of someonei to possess it. One may ask, Where is this information? It is everywhere-in the ele- ments, in the works of men, in their writings and sayings. Emerson says that everyone he meets is his master in some point, and he learns that one thing of him. It is possible to make this information one's own and to use it in the most beneficent way. Knowledge may be ab- sorbed by eve-ryone who cares to take the trou- ble to submit to the discipline it involves. Shakespeare read in such a way as to incorpo- rate into himself the knowledge acquired and to actually possess it, and as proof of his suc- cess he has left to the world literary works that will live forever. From books, then, one can gather and pos- sess unbounded knowledge. From books po-wer is transmitted to individuals and wonderful are the results. Hamilton Mabie says from Plato one gets ar certain liberation of the imagina- tion, a certain widening of experience, a cer- tain ripening of the mindf' To some people a book is an entrance into a real living world, and for the time being they live in the world which the printed page has crea.ted for them, and they gather to themselves the information contained within its covers as easily and as naturally as they would pluck flowers from a bush in their path. But to others the book is only a jumble of words or sentences, interesting, perhaps, for the moment, but leaving no impression wha.t- ever. The information which they might have gained is all lost to them. To such people the

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14 THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. fifteen years old. Every rain-storm saw him swimming and every hail-storm saw him hail- ing a policeman. He wants to learn geometry and chemistry, as he intends to go to the North Pole in an airship in 1929. Mary Mildred Hyre, born December 2, 1887, in Lexington, Illinois, and she then- well, her life was a blank until she entered Long school and attended there until ten years of a.gc. Another blank, and she entered Westport High School as a Freshman in 1900, and-that 's all, a very capable young lady and always attended to her motheris callers. One day she dismissed an especially persistent one with the wo-rds: 'fMamma. is out for sure this time, Mrs. Smithf' Olifford Bradley Smith Q Oh, wondrons name lj was born at HlCli1113H,S Will, Missouri 5 rebellious temperament. A cow kicked Smith, Sr., some ten feet, little Smith laughed and re- ceived severe punishment. Made highest rec- ord of Freshies-fi. c., played on the gridiron. Has been a president of the Olionians. He is nothing happened after that. a jolly 'fhas been. Seriously fno one takes Eunice Beard 3 born in St. Louis. She was him soj, he has hosts of friends. t ll I' ' X 'll' h e .11 1 i llama Q li... wifi as y siiuuiwreav. s Ig W i ' -fqzr mlxll ell' N' I A 'J ,, 'll 'llllllull III L lllllllllll I 'Ill I' .42 T352 1? 3 lim if ii im ...ig il n il CI llln l mu m ' :j2, Ii !il Ill g INQUIRY FOR INFORMATION. Every man, as far as he has wisdom, is curi- ous. His. curiosity may extend to the concerns of other men, in all classes, both above and be- low him: the way they live, the thoughts they think, and the de-sires they have. The wider a ma.n's contact with the life of his time and his study o-f it, the greater and more productive is the man's mind. The more he lives within him- self, for himself, theless joy he gets out of life, the more narrow-minded he becomes, and the more selfish he is. A restricted view of life be- longs more, as a rule, to the villager, for his horizon is limited and his knowledge necessar- ily narrowed. He accepts village standards as possessing the authority of universal standards, and he thinks and works on a small scale. To think and a.ct largely, to mingle with the world, to come in contact with many kinds of men-- these are the first considerations in the study of mankind. A man learns much from his own time and race and from his relatio-ns with other men, but his greatest gain is the power to- appro- pria.te the results obta.ined to his own best ad- vantage. The instinctive grasping after knowl- edge is common to everyone and has been from the beginning of the life of the world, and in- formation will not be lacking to the one who has imagination to conceive, curiosity to ask, will to have and inclination to seek. A person lacking inclination is hopelessly exiled in this world of information-seeking peo- ple. Even a desire to acquire knowledge is al- ways productive of fairly good results, if not of total success, but inclination without will is perfectly useless. Where there is no will, the way is generally wanting also. Without deter- mination, there is no getting at the heart of knowledge. One may ask for information, but if one does not have the energy to further his inquiry vigorously, his questions fall lifeless,

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l V T 16 THE VVESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. reading of a book is no beneht. lt. is said that the whole world speaks to the man through the voluines he takes from tl1e shelves if he puts himself into a. receptive 11lOOCl towards tl1e1n. tilllf only means of tltffllllldllg it. To open onets mind to receive lllf0l'l1l21'lIlOl1, to n1eet it half- way-aye, even to go out a11d seek it-tl1at to secure the whole treasure-trove of the world lhe receptive mood towards knowledge of lllfO1ll1EltlOl1. .llbmfa CHZSLLGZ7. 1 1 A ' ,jf . . a Q -E Y fm-ffsfr 1 at -so .1 Z9 .3 Q B' -0-o-an-o-0-01-Q-4:-QD Q-o-o-o-o-0-vo-o-040-O-o-3-0-0-OQQ-0-6-W rib 3 fi' TJFI LQEZDICZWORY if ' ay: fs db , V fm . ., , . 0 2vf,ff.?L11l-,'? .h -+'- 1'.' qi 1--'5'-ff? C: -- ::1':P ' 1: 153' 2'-'I' T'3'- Va :'1 7-1'if'fi-.- -- feb Q Q' -o-0-0-o-o-o-o-o-0-o-o-0-o-o -0-0-0-0-O-0-0-0 0- db - L9 bg'6'Q'Q'9'5 9'9'Q'6'Q'e'e'Q'Q'9'Q.'9'9 '9'9 '9'f9-81 'Q 3'6'Q 3 9'9-5-db COIVIMERCIALISM AND GENIUS. W 1 E I Genius, taken in the- broad and general sense, means' distinguished,.mental superiority, or uncommon i11tellectual developn1ent. But the Word, as generally understood, implies great and peculiar gifts of Nature, which impel tl1c n1ind toward special favorite kinds of mental effort. The principal implements of genius are the imagination, tl1e power of calling up mental images, and of 'conceiving and expressing the idealf It is th7rough these that new co-mbina- tions of old ideas are formed, and by the use of an intuitivepoiwer that the aims of genius are reached. E M The mind of every great genius is concen- trefd upon one particular li11e of thought, such as literature, art, or painting 5 and the intellect, like the rays of the sun, when drawn to a small focus, only gains in strength and intensity. Every genius is skilled in butone kind of Work, and with t.he experience gained by expending all his efforts along this particular line, he is prepared to bring forth his masterpieces. But the rise of genius is not effected by the concentration of the n1ind upon special lines of thought, it is rather the result of a high degree of excellence wl1ich exists around about it and forms the enviromnent in which it flourishes. Raphael or a Michael Angelo does 11ot co111e itogthe World at a. ti111e when the world isinot ready toiappreciate him. The accomplishments of such men are the result ofa 'long series of efforts on the part of previous artists. While, perhaps, t.he works of these-previous artists may have been of a minor character, there was still a merit, a. substance, an essence in them, that prepared the way for the coming of greater productions. l Think for a. moment! Did a Dante ora Milton step suddenly into the foreground of the worldps great pictures? Ts not each rather a composite portrait of a host of vague, inden- nite, pliantasmago-rial faces peering out from the a.ges that have preceded them? . E A Miltonic or a Dantesque era is distin- guished for its flourishing co-11dition o-f art and literature-. They are then considered as of real a11d valuable assistance in the development of the 111ind and character o-f the people. Works are produced with no especial aim on the part of tl1e author. The soul of the artist mustmfind expression and the masterpieces in which the soul is given free expression find a. rea.dy re- sponse in the hearts of the peo-ple. It is such masterpieces that create a love for the beauti- ful, that stir the divinity that is Within us, and that receive everlasting public approval. In ages of this kind, men struggle against poverty Elllil disadva11ta0'es that tl1ev n1av Give C' . . 'O Fr. .vp - p