Willard Middle School - Target Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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THE TARGET 27 THE LARK. Hark! Hark! the lark is singing this morn, O list to his cheerful song, It sounds like a flute in the morning breeze, As the melody floats along. He rises from the meadow green. And warbling as he soars. He wakes a voice within, to thank Our God for blessings poured. Long may those noble notes be heard, For sorrow, grief and pain. Will vanish then, when the lark pours forth His notes like summer rain. HELEN SAYLOR. THE NIGHT OPERATOR ' S STORY. As the night operator drew near the circle around the stove in the waiting room, he was received with chorus of “Give us a story, Fred.” “All right, I will tell you of an ex- perience I had on the old ‘B. and S.’ ” “I had been on the railroad only a short time and was still pretty green. As it had been snowing heavily, mak- ing little traffic, I was much surprised to receive, at nine o’clock one cold, bleak night, an order to hold a freight train at my station to allow a fast train to pass. It was no fan turning- out in the cold, and I was in a hurry to get back to my warm room. In my hurry I grabbed a white lantern in- stead of a red one. A few minutes later, the freight rumbled through the station, the engi- neer seeing the white light. I was stunned, but I knew I must stop the train, and ran after it. I managed to grab the hand rail of the caboose, but the train gave a sudden jerk, and I was dragged several hundred yards before I could pull myself up on the plaform. I put up my hand to jerk the air-cord, when I remembered there was no such thing on freight trains. 1 must walk over the cars, as there was no one in the caboose. The tops of the cars were very slippery and it was with the greatest difficulty that I kept my footing. At one time I lost it but I managed somehow to keep on. But the worst was to come. I had to jump from a box to a flat car. As I jumped, the train hit a curve and I landed on my back. I was senseless for five or ten minutes. A little later, I reached the engine and told the engineer my story. He stopped the train and none too soon for the “flyer” appeared a little while afterwards. We had to back to my station as there was no switch and the passenger train was already five hours late.” RICHARD HISCOX. A VISIT TO THE NEVADA STATE PRISON. While in Nevada, I visited the State Prison which is in Carson. I think it is one of the best managed prisons that I know of. There was hardly a man in the cells of the prison. Most Oi them were out working either on farms, or repairing roads. When you passed them on the road you would never dream that they were convicts. They wore no stripes and they did not have a guard. They had a fore- man, but he too was a convict. Once a tragic but humorous thing occurred. A horse and buggy with two men in it, fell over a precipice near the place where the convicts were working. Dropping their picks and shovels, the men rushed to their aid, and succeed- ed in dragging the horse and buggy back to the road. When all was in or- der again, the men, not knowing that they had been helped by convicts, of-

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“TARGE T” STAFF. Upper Row. left to right — Elliott Cook, Isidoro Cereghino, Donald Morris, Mr. Biedenbach, Anthony Folger, Raymond Muenter, Norman Heinz, Randolph Nickerson. Lower Row, left to right — Dorothy Critzer, Katherine Stone, Catherine Dela- mere, Genevieve Ocheltree, Laurinne Mattern, Miss Christy, May Dor- nin, Helen Marr, Corinne Painter, Margaret Geary. Laurinne Mattern Editor-in-Chief Isidoro Cereghino, Anthony Folger, Randolph Nickerson Managers Mr. Biedenbach and Miss Christy Advisory Board Mr. Biedenbach, the students wish in the “Target to express their ap- preciation for all that you have done for McKinley School. When you first came here, eleven years ago, you were principal of what was known as the Dwight Way School, one insignificant in every way. You allowed the people of that school to express themselves two or three times a term as they would, in a school paper, called the “Target.” This brought out the liter- ary instincts of the pupils and gave them much pleasure. Then, not con- sidering that enough for the student body, you had a self-government plan started which united all the interests of the pupils in the eight grades. This made us known throughout the coun- try, and people came to see the work- ing of this miniature city. The plan of government proved successful and, when the ninth grades were added, it was found to be still more beneficial, owing to your interest and splendid management. You promoted the unity and good spirit of the student body by the large assembly meetings which are such a source of pleasure and in- spiration, and we heartily thank you for them. But words can ill express all you have done for us. Our School, now called the McKin- ley Lower High School, is one of which we and our city may be justly proud, due to our principal ' s enthu- siastic and able leadership. Mr. Bied- enback, our friend, owing to your un- tiring and efficient efforts, memories of “McKinley” will long be cherished.

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28 r H E TARGET fered whiskey in payment. But the reply was, “No, thank you, we won ' t take it. Besides, we are convicts.” With that the men whipped up their horse and you couldn’t see anything for dust. Once a convict went to the warden and said, “Here are a hundred opium pills which I have been selling for a dollar a piece. I can’t do it now. You are giving us the square deal and I want to give you the square deal.” DONALD WRIGHT. THE BORING OF A TUNNEL. The Oakland Antioch Railway Com- pany is building a tunnel five miles from Berkeley. Work was begun on it a year ago. This tunnel is almost a mile long, and fifteen feet wide. An electric drill is used to bore the rock and earth, and the men bore on an average of five to ten feet per day. The earth is carried out by an elec- tric truck ten feet long, and five feet wide; the power to run this, and the other machinery being from large wires which cross the hills. On the other side of the tunnel there is a steam locomotive, which will pull ten cars loaded with rock. The rock and earth taken out of the tunnel, is dumped along the track where there are bridges and low places. The men working in the tunnel, would be unable to work if they did not have air pumped into where they are working, so they have a motor in- side the entrance which pumps the air through pipes, such as we have m the school rooms. Sometimes the flow of water is so great that the men cannot work. They wear boots, because there is always a fool or so of water to work in. In order to make the men work faster, the company pays them a cer- tain amount for every extra foot they bore out. They have bored about a thousand feet altogether. WALTER PARONI. SPRING ' S AWAKENING. Awake! Arise! for merry Spring has come. The earth has slumbered neath her snowy gown. For weeks the feathered songsters have been dumb, But now, their voices o’er the land resound. The daffodil in regal yellow crown. The blossoms bursting forth in full array. The pussy-willow with her furry down, Are harbingers of Spring, and so we may Rejoice and sing our lay, “All hail to Spring today!” ELEANOR LUX. THE INDIAN MAIDEN. The day had been cloudless, and as the sun sank, the landscape was soft ened by the long shadows of evening. The rays of the sun lingered tenderly on the towering range of mountains which were silhouetted against the glowing sky. In the glow, Tamalpais becomes a fairy mountain, bathed in a flood of amethyst light, which, as the shadows deepen, becomes violet. At its fcot lies the bay, a sapphire blue, reflecting the everchanging sky, and the railroad winding up the moun- tain side, is a narrow ribbon, which shines like silver in the twilight. Slowly the light dies, mist creeps in from the sleeping sea, and the rugged features of the mountain be- come softened in the afterglow. Through the ever-deepening twilight the fairy range becomes the majestic form of an Indian maiden, and an old tradition comes to mind.