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

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we are v rate, f num- Herald 1 man- :. Be- Herald .en the and of in con- Jol was urricu- I aired. other ings of school, raining There is kind t down o years tmental r pages literary uch ar- nd that .he stu- ng, any- m alto- : events d. The THE WESTPGRT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 17 Herald undertakes to give you a re- sume of these things, but it is only a resume. We have only given you the out- standing events. For a more detailed ac- count of any of them you will have to turn to your old Crier files. We are giv- ing you a great many groups of people who have done things. Not only are we giving you the pictures of all of the Sen- iors, that alone ought to be worth the price of the book, but pictures of all of those who belong to the different societies and who have represented the school in her va- rious activities. We ask your kindest consideration for The 1917 Herald-Westport's First Year Book. The Crier While we are talking about Westport's publications, allow us to say something for the 1916-1917 Crier. Perhaps you have noticed that the Crier has carried more news this year than formerly. We have tried to do two things with this news. We knew that a great many of the students would want to keep their Crier files com- plete, and so would want to have therein a record of all the doings of the year. For that reason we have been obliged to chronicle a great many news items that the readers already -knew some- thing about. We have tried, however, to not make these of unnecessary length-just long enough to give you the necessary facts. In addition to these we have tried to give many articles of news that would really be news. Almost any number of the Crier has carried close to five thousand words of news out of a total of considerably less than seven thou- sand words. To do this we have been obliged to run very few stories. We often wished that We could run some stories, too, but the news took up all of the space. Westporters write a good many excellent stories each year. Probably enough subscriptions may be handed in next year to enable us to run several double numbers that will contain some of the best stories. Three or four such numbers in the year would be a great thing. . The Crier wants to take this opportun- ity to thank those who have contributed material throughout the year. - . Our New Vice-Principal Most of us had a great surprise waiting for us when we came to enroll last Sep- tember. Instead of the usual good natured Vice-Principal, Mr. Stigall, we found an equally good natured, but entirely differ- ent person. In answer to our question as to what had become of Mr. Stigall, we were told that he had been promoted to the Vice-Principalship of Polytechnic Institute, and that Mr. Beckmann had been promot- ed to the Vice-Principalship of Westport. At first we were not only surprised, but quite a little hurt to think that our Mr. Stigall had been taken from us. In his few years at Westport he had endeared himself to every one of the numerous stu- dent body. All had found that he was never too busy to sit down with them and give them liberally of both his time and his friendly advice. Many had visions of what would happen to them when it came time to ask for the third admit. When we had had time to think it over, and had discovered that the new position offered to Mr. Stigall meant ever so much to him in the way of advancement, we began to reconcile ourselves to our loss and think how thankful we werethat our own Mr. Beckmann had been selected to take his place. Many of us had long known that Mr. Beckmann is one of the best friends that the students have. We just opened our young hearts to him and they are now full to overflowing.

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N, , ,. -4 , ,W-.2-mumps ,.- , , , rua- :rata-:f1::1:L:::ze-sz-.r.:.,.1. --xv ,. in EDI TORIALS OUR DEBUT Oh, Gee! I'm glad I'm free, Just college now for me! So say we all of us-the mighty Class of 1917-for that is what is before us. We are by nature a very quiet, unassuming group of celebrities, but when the Juniors stretch forth their tiny hands in naughty efforts to annoy, we quell them with wondrous power and squelch their puny attempts at notoriety. As we said before, we are naturally very modest, but since we will soon be gone, but not forgotten, we trust, it is our duty to let the school and the remainder of the world know what we are and what we have done. We are the class that put the do in doings, for it was we who made the Mixers the things that they are. It was the glorious Class of '17 that started the Senior-Junior Field Day-a thing never to be forgotten, and a prece- dent that probably will be followed in lat- er years. It was during our administra- tion that the boys took up Military Train- ing and the girls, First Aid. We furnished five of the first eight on the Basketball Team. Most of the points in the big track meets were won 'oy the Seniors. Practic- ally all of the debaters on both teams be- longed to the Senior Class. Last, but one of the greatest of our achievements, is this-The 1917 Herald. We have worked hard on it, and have been helped right nobly by the Juniors and Sophomores on the staff. Perhaps we are prejudiced in its favor, but, at any rate, we think that it is a pretty classy num- ber. It is the first number of the Herald that has ever been constructed in a man- ner to be really called a Year Book. Be- fore the days of the Crier, the Herald came out twice a year. It was then the only record of the year's doings, and of course all of these were written up in con- siderable detail. Then, too, the school was new, and there was much in the curricu- lum that was new and had to be aired. The old type of Herald, among other things, was a chronicle of the doings of the various departments of the school, particularly those of the Manual Training and Domestic Arts Departments. There has been less and less need of this kind of Writeup, and so it has been cut down from year to year. For the last two years there have been almost no departmental articles. Last year there were fewer pages devoted to articles of a strictly literary nature. This year there are no such ar- ticles. We made inquiry and found that only a very small percentage of the stu- dent body ever read that sort of thing, any- way, so we have omitted them alto- gether. ' The Crier has taken care of the events of the year as they have happened. The Herald sume resuml standii count turn tl ing yi who h giving iors, tl of the who lc who h rious We The 1 Book. Wh public the 1 notice news tried knew woulc plete, a rec For to ch that thing to 1 lengt the r we h news any 1 to fi' total sand To very we c news Write

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4... ... - - -- , --rs a--5:-f-+:',-'1:fi.'1:'rl-E1--a-'-'- -' - - - -4'- -' 7 TI 18 THE WESTPORT HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. ' We all hated to lose Mr. Stigall. Of course we did! But it was not long be- fore we began to hear that the almost one hundred Westport graduates at Poly- technic were just as glad to get Mr. Stigall as we were sorry to give him up, so that in a slight measure consoled us. Mr. Beckmann has now taken his place in our thoughts and actions, and we have all pledged him our allegiance. The one thing that we hope most is that he will not be taken away from us as Mr. Stigall was. Mr. Beckmann has been with us for nine years. He came the year that Westport first entered the new building. During all these years he has had charge of the Mod- ern Language Department. Those of our number who have been fortunate enough to be enrolled in his German classes have come to know him well. His long residence at Westport has made him familiar with us and our methods of procedure, so it is little wonder that he has fitted into things as though he had always been Vice-Prin- cipal. Mr. Beckmann, we are for you! The Seven Hour Day Somebody has said that it never rains but it pours. We felt that the rain had been a deluge when we came in on that first enrollment day last September and found that Mr. Stigall was not to be with us, but as soon as we got down to the actual business of enrolling, we discovered that the dark cloud had a bit of silver lin- ing after all. An innovation had been put into force-a seven-hour day. Instead of the old program of -.eight hours that let the unlucky holders of high numbers out at two-fifty, we were to have a much more convenient program of seven hours. Under the new program we were told that we could come either the first or second hours, and that we would have to stay at least six hours. The new arrangement has appealed to all of us. Not only has it allowed us to get out earlier than we used to be able to do, but on days when the societies meet, or when some have to remain for play re- hearsals or debate practice or some other of the numerous school activities, we have not had to wait around the building so long before we could begin. It has amount- ed to a great saving of time for a great many people, and we sincerely hope that the same plan may be continued next year. New Things of the Year Just think of the new things that have been started at Westport this year. In fact it has been a year of new things. They began right at the beginning of the year. We started the new year with a new program under a new vice-principal, and we have been adding new things ever since. One of the first things was the Book Exchange conducted by Mr. Harman. Later in the year came Military Training for the boys and First Aid to the Injured for the girls. In the meantime the girls had established a Bible Class that met after school once a week with Miss Wes- ton as leader. The Mixers have been more numerous. The Senior-Junior Field Day finished off the year. Last, but not least by any means, are the three new clubs that have been formed during the year. These additions bring the number of clubs at Westport up to twelve. Really and truly this has been a year of innovations. Military Training Perhaps the greatest of the new things started this year is the Military Training. The movement started late in the year, but vt Westp school Cadet. 178. and N has c clares ress f ing, a favor. elsewi traini In traini is on start short clude state instii boys high same they cours State that may Th will : rious Milit their Ri Trai girls givei how woui actu of a surg witl