Windsor Locks High School - Herald Yearbook (Windsor Locks, CT)

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12 THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. House of Representatives and the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution are ex- officio members of the board and the United States government offers the free use of its public records, museums and libraries to all persons connected with the institu¬ tion. Over $50,000 000 has been given by Mr. Carnegie to libraries in English speaking countries, and it is largely as a result of his beneficence that the public library has become a prominent institution in every community of importance in the United States and Canada. Mr. Carnegie was an illuminating ex¬ ample of what strong personality will ac¬ complish. Mr. Schwab, the man who perhaps knew Carnegie best, paid a splendid tribute to him in the following words! “Never before in the history of industry have you known a man, not himself under¬ standing the business or its working de¬ tails, making no pretense of being a tech¬ nical steel manufacturer or a special en¬ gineer, was yet able to build up such a great and wonderfully successful enterprise as Mr. Carnegie did. “It was not that he wa3 a skilled chemist, a skilled mechanic, or a skilled engineer, it was because he had the faculty of enlisting the people w’ho were skilled in those arts. And while it may be an easy thing to enlist the interests of such men in an enterprise, it is quite different to get their best efforts and loyal support. And in that Mr. Carnegie was paramount over all men.” “I wonder how many of you,” continued Mr. Schwab, have ever reflected that the-e tremendous results which Mr. Carnege secured were always obtained through a spirit of approval and never of criticism. Mr. Carnegie was one to take you by the hand and encourage and approve.” Another phase of his character was thoroughness, and that may be illustrated in a way which shows how his mind worked all around a subject. During the great war the one spirit that seemed to animate every man, no matter how great his station in life —and indeed the greater his station the more he tried to emulate it was the spirit of democracy. This is an age when a man, be he prince, king, philanthropist, merchant, manufacturer, politician or plain citizen can have nothing better said of him then that he is truly democratic. That describes Mr. Carnegie. John Shaughnessey, 21. SOME AMERICAN ARTISTS SECOND PRIZE As is only natural, whatever artists we had in our early days, were a direct re¬ flection of English methods and English ideals. During the days of the Revolution and our first few years of struggling in¬ dependence, though we resisted British soldiers, we imitated British artists. And hence we find our first American artists confining their efforts to portrait painting as this field was that most cultivated by our forerunners across the Atlantic. The earliest American artists of any re¬ nown were all portrait painters. And de¬ spite the handicaps and hardships to be encountered in the artistic arena during those troublous times, the innate artistic sense of true Americans found expression in the works of many painters. Amongst them all, however, only four stand out with any prominence: The Peales, father and son, Stuart and Copley, the last named being considered the peer of his time. The glory which now crowns the work of the Peales is due rather to the historic importance of their subjects than to any exceptional merit in their works. Both are famed for their portraits of Washington. Of the two the son is commonly considered to be the superior of his father. The elder, Charles Wilson Peale, was born in Mary¬ land but early moved to Philadelphia and took up his residence there for the greater part of his life, though he spent some years studying in England. He was distinguished for many mechan¬ ical pursuits and also displayed skill in various professions. He also held a com¬ mission in the Revolutionary War, com¬ manding a corps of volunteers. He was born in 1741 and died in 1827. Rembrandt Peale, the son, who was born in 1787, is chiefly remembered for his pic¬ ture of Washington which was purchased by the United States Senate in 1832. The arti t was only eighteen years old when Washington sat for this portrait and though Washington d ' ed before the work was com¬ pleted, nevertheless Peale carried out his original inspiration by means of busts and other portraits and his final creation is considered by all critics to surpass easily the portraits painted by his father during the general’s lifetime. The Gallery of the New York Historical Society now contain? several of the younger Peale’s works. He died in 1860.

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 11 Turner The W. L. H. S. has always been noted for adhering to its traditional customs, and, although late, we presented our annual ex¬ hibition on Friday, June 11. On May 28 a concert and dance was given in the Memorial Hall by the members of the junior class. The program, which was most carefully arranged, and which proved to be a credit to the school, was composed of the following numbers: Orchestra March Anchored Veazie High School Chorus Irish Love Song Lang Eva Colli Piano solo, “La Manola-Caprice Espagnola” C. W. Kern Francis Wallace “Pit, Pat, Pit, Pat” Bailey Girls’ Chorus “Hail, Land of Freedom” Sextette from Eighth Grade Nellie Betley, Ethel Goldfarb, Laura Parlette, Dorothy Pease, Frederick Mather, Raymond Hancock. Reading, “Last Hymn” Mrs. M. Farmingham Eva Colli The freshman class presented their final rhetorical program for the year in the as¬ sembly hall on May 28. The program was uniformly successful, and some of the mem¬ bers seem rather disappointed to think they cannot display their oratorical ability again until they are sophomores. Now that school is over the Seniors won’t have an opportunity for cutting a day or so every week. The chemistry class has made a slight transposition in the formula for Cuperic Iodide, I Cuj (I see you too). JUNIOR PRIZE ESSAYS. ANDREW CARNEGIE FIRST PRIZE. Not only the United States, but prac¬ tically the whole world was sadiened last August to hear of the death of one of our most honored citizens and one of the world’s greatest philanthropists. Andrew Carnegie was born on November 25, 1835 in Scotland. He started to work in a cotton factory for a little over a dollar a week. He learned telegraphy when he was messenger boy in Pittsburgh and he very soon became an operator and rapidly advanced to the ranks of division superin¬ tendent for the Pennsylvania railroad. By cautious investments in Pennsylvania oil lands he increased his wealth enormously. After the war of Secession he entered the iron business and soon became one of the industrial leaders of America. In 1868 he introduced the Bessemer pro¬ cess into the American steel industry. In 1899 he consolidated all his interests in the Carnegie Steel Company at that time one of the greatest industrial institutions ever established. When, later, it was merged with the United States Steel Cor¬ poration, he retired from business with a fortune estimated at a half billion dollars. The scope of his public spirit has been world wide. Besides the five institutions which receive special attention, his gifts in¬ clude $11,000,000 to the Carnegie Institute of Technology, $10,000,000 to Scotch univer¬ sities including St. Andrews and Aberdeen; $5,000,000 as a benefit fund for employees of the Carnegie Steel Company; $2,500,000 trust for Dunfermline his native town. The annual proceeds of the fund of $15,000,000 given to the Carnegie Founda¬ tion for the advancement of teaching by Mr. Carnegie in 1905, and 1908 are dis¬ tributed in pensions to teachers in the United States, Canada and New Foundland retiring from the faculties of universities and coUeges. An educational research fund of $1,250,000 was added by him in 1913. The Carnegie institute organized in 1902 to encourage in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind has an en¬ dowment of $22,000,000. The institution offers no regular class-work and no degrees. Its administration building is in Washing¬ ton, D. C. The president of the United States, the vice-president, Speaker of the

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THE HIGH SCHOOL HERALD. 13 Close upon the Peales in point of time, but far above either of them in the merit of his work, we find Gilbert Charles Stuart. He was a native of Rhode Island having been born there in 1756. In his younger years Stuart received and accepted an in¬ vitation from a Scotch artist to accompany the latter to Scotland and put himself under his instruction there. Soon after landing, however, the teacher died and Stuart re¬ turned home to finish his education. At the early age of eighteen, he went back to Edinburgh and soon after, we find him very favorably spoken of in London where many persons of social and political dis¬ tinction vied with one another to sit for the rapidly rising and much loved American. As in the case of the Peales so with Stuart it is the portraits which he made of YVashington that are mainly responsible for his fame. The finest of these is that now on exhibition in the Boston Atheneum. The leader of early American artists is generally conceded to be John Singleton Copley, who was born in Boston in 1737. From the very beginning his portraits stand out among all others for their coloring effects and in delineation of character and solidity of execution he is considered by many to be the superior of Stuart. In 1776 he transferred the scene of his work to England and remained in London until his death in 1815. He was received with open arms by the English on his arrival in that country and to the last maintained the favor and esteem with which he was wel comed. Though the best of his paint¬ ings are in England, yet there is no col¬ lection of purely American works which can be said to surpass Copley ' s earlier paintings which he completed in thii coun¬ try before leaving for England. Present descendants of the Old New England families treasure many of Copley’s portraits of local and historical characters. Often quoted but of far less importance than Stuart and Copley are the names of Benjamin West, Washington Allston, and Jonathan Trumbull. The last named de¬ serves mention as the leading painter of revolutionary history. His best work adorns the wall of the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. About the period of the Civil War, our American painters begin to show a disin¬ clination to adhere to the standards set by the pioneers and landscape work instead of portrait painting develops considerable ac¬ tivity. As is to be expected the first offer¬ ings are to be cherished more for their originality than for their artistic quality. The coloring was hectic and the execution stiff and mechanical. But a more delicate concept and greater ease of movement be¬ comes more apparent as the school pro¬ gressed. Among the recent developments in Ameri¬ can art. we find the name.s of Whistler and Sargent. The reputations of these men are rapidly becoming international and their works adorn many of the public buildings of our larger cities in the United States. This paper has of course been necessarily brief and we have only mentioned those American artists who in some way have added to the claims for distinction in chosen fields which True Americans are making every day in the various intellectual pur¬ suits. „ Lillian Nugent, ' 21. (El )t Journal -printing Corporation publishers of tbe ®Hmbsor Hocks Journal D. F. LEACH Coal and Wood printers Jfor people of Discernment Main Street, WINDSOR LOCKS, CONN.