Westville High School - Janus Yearbook (Westville, IL)

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19 MEMOIRS 21 Class Oration Ten years ago a High School was started in Westville. Six years later a new' building was dedicated and we, the class of 1921 have the exclusive honor of being the first class to spend four years in this new edifice of learning. Thus far in life we have succeeded, although our diploma does not guarantee success, in a life which is to follow. Some people think that being able to read and to write is enough education; but you will find that almost all of the great men in our country have had educations superior to our High School education. Many of them didn’t have a chance most of us have today, but just stuck to their ideals and work. We must aim to a goal which cannot be possibly reached at once. Strive for something so high that a life time will be required for attaining it. As Robert Browning has appropriately said: “What I aspired to be, And was not, comforts me; A brute I might have been, but Would not sink i’ the scale.” If the world can recognize in us men and women by ‘divine ambition puffed’ it will regard our efforts with the greatest of respect and admiration. Some one has said, “If the elevator to success is not running, take the stairs.” Why not, then adopt that as our motto. If the road isn’t paved pick the dry spots, and ‘get there’, regardless of obstacles. The more of these barriers you break down the stronger you will be to meet those which are ahead of you. A High School education gives us a broader vision and understanding. It acquaints us with the world’s great writers, and tells of the deeds of great men of earlier times. It tends to brighten the future of the government both national and local, because it points the good works as well as the mistakes of our former law makers. If we are awake we shall profit by their errors. Now that we are nearly through we look back on our four years which seemed so long at times but now seem to have been only too short. We wonder into what our lives will be moulded, and rather shudder at the thought of going out on to the seemingly unchartered sea of life. Before we part with Dear Old Westville High School, let us say that we have done our best to better and uphold the traditions handed down by our predecessors and w'e reluctantly surrender our places to our contemporaries and success- ors. Barthel Williams ’21

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MEMOIRS 21 A Psalm of Life Adopted by the Senior Class ’21 Tell me not, in mournful numbers. Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each to-morrow Finds us farther than to-day. Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us. Footprints on the sands of time. Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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19 MEMOIRS 21 Class Prophecy Arriving in Washington D. C. on the New York Limited, on a fine summer day in June of the year 1940, Paul and I found our old chum Julius anxiously waiting as we had planned. After a hearty hand shake, Julius beckoned to his “Rolls Royce” which was waiting at the curb. Soon we were speeding down the Avenue talking away about olden times. Driving us to his apartments Julius exclaimed. “Tell me about your experiences in South America.” There upon we told him all our trials and troubles during our five years stay in the tropical regions as government surveyors. After a bounteous repast prepared by Julius’ fond wife, we heard all about his successful career as a high government official in Washington. “Who do you think was commissioned to Alaska to do work in Civil Engineering?” asked Julius. “Who was it?” came our reply in unison. “No one but our dear High School pal “Buck” Williams. For, after graduating from an engineering school, he soon earned fame in that line. We were sorry we could not see “Buck” before he left, but we sent our best wishes for his success.” “How about the rest of our class, are they all becoming famous?” asked Paul. I keep tab on all of them, said Julius, here are numerous clippings from the Satuida.v Blade which will tell you lots of news.” Our eyes popped open when we read that our old chum Agatha Yur-gi;tis rr.tede such a hit, as a Mezzo soprano singer, that she was in great demand in all the leading cities of Europe. Julius confided that soon after she graduated from the W. T. H. S. she had married a High School sweetheart. but her later career was just cause for divorce. “How about that pretty blonde who Paul thought a lot about?” I asked. “Oh, you mean Mildred Ord? “She was too pretty to remain single,” replied Julius. “After refusing a rich nobleman from England, she married a faimer in Illinois and settled down to a life of luxury and ease. She seems very happy with her pretty Pome and sweet children.” Just then there was a knock at the door, and in walked an important looking gentleman, whom Paul recognized instantly. “Why. Jess Warnagis,” w’e cried, “How does it happen that you are here? That s a pait of my plot, said Julius. “Our President (who by the way is a woman of superior renown) asked Jess to come to Washington to make an oil painting of her at the White House. Knowing he was in town I asked him here to spend the evening with us. From all this we easily surmised that Jess had become one of the best artists of his time.