Woodbury High School - Warrior Yearbook (Woodbury, CT)

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Page Sixteen Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness. Bareheaded Shoveling Wrecking Planning Building, breaking, rebuilding. Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth. Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs; Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle. Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people. Laughing! Laughing, the stormy, husky brawling laughter of youth, half naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.” This is a poem crying out against the evils of society. Many others of his poems have this same great purpose. His poems show a broad experience and the able use of his great powers of observation. Some of his poems are concerned with the beauties of nature,—poems of atmosphere. He shows much freedom in his choice of subject matter, and makes extensive use of naturalistic material. While his harsher poems show a dissatisfaction with the evils of the world, his lyrics show an abundance of reverence, faith and trust. And so, although Sandburg’s ideas of poetry may be new and strange to us, we are enabled to consider him a poet in the true sense of the word. A poem which typifies the character of the man is the lyric “Loam,” in which he expresses his idea of the democracy of mankind, in that all humanity comes from the same place and at death returns to it. It is only during man’s brief earthly existence that there is any inequality in station. And so he says: “In the loam we sleep, In the cool moist loam To the lull of the years that pass And the break of stars, “From the loam, then, The soft warm loam, We rise. To shape of rose leaf Of face and shoulder. “We stand then, To a whiff of life Lifted to the silver of the sun Over and out of the loam, A day.” Classmates:— After four years of work and play we have reached the goal toward which we have so long been striving. We are glad to have reached it, yet when we think that this same group will never be together again in just this same way our gladness is somewhat dimmed. To the faculty we want to express our grateful appreciation for the kindness, sympathy and forbearance they have shown to us throughout our High School course. In the future let us in our various occupations give the best that is in us, that we may reap accordingly. And let us always remember our high school days when we were “kids” together. LILLIAN F. HICOCK. Salutatory €s ay ROBERT FOWLER “GERMAN POST - Since the end of the war Germany has been faced with the problem of forming a new government that will satisfy the people in Germany, and also satisfy the other European countries. In addition she has had to meet the conditions of the treaty of Versailles. At the close of the war a republic was established with a president at the head and two houses, corresponding to our Congress. Representatives to these houses, represented districts according to population, and also territorial divisions. At the end of the first year, Germany was faced with the problem of making reparations of two and one-half bil- PROBLEMS” lion marks. In order to meet this, the new government had to borrow from foreign countries, mostly from the United States. When Germany was unable to meet these notes, her industries were taken over by bankers and business men in the United States so that now instead of having German business, run by Germans, it is directed by foreigners. There is a great deal of political warfare going on in Germany. There are twelve or thirteen different parties of which the Communists, the Socialists, and the National Socialists or Nazis are the three leading ones. A few years ago, an

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Page Fifteen that such a man, who later became prominent, did come into existence at that time, but who shows to us the pathos and homely circumstances surrounding Lincoln’s life which made the man before he became prominent. Even in his prose writing, Sandburg displays the soul of a poet, for not many biographers, in telling of a man’s life would stop to remark on the beauties of the natural scenery surrounding him or to relate humorous incidents connected with the man. While reading the Life of Lincoln one can easily believe it to be a moving and interesting novel, so vivid, yet accurately is the stage set and the drama of Lincoln’s life enacted upon it. Sandburg himself has an ideal background for writing a biography of Lincoln, inasmuch as he himself was born and brought up in the locality where Lincoln spent the greater part of his life. He has an intimate knowledge of the background from which Lincoln stood out, and so is enabled to make him real to us. Oftentimes in telling a story he lapses into the dialect so familiar to him and to Lincoln before him. He adopts his style of writing to the subject, and uses simple words in a conversational manner. He seems to particularly admire Lincoln’s ability as a story teller, and relates many of the famous Lincoln anecdotes. One of the many stories of Lincoln which he tells concerning his marriage is as follows: “At the Edwards house that evening the Reverend Charles Dresser in canonical robes performed the ring ceremony. Behind Lincoln stood a Supreme Court Judge, Thomas C. Browrn, fat, bluff, blunt and an able law'yer not accustomed to weddings. As Lincoln placed the ring on the bride’s finger and repeated the form, “With this ring, I thee endow with all my goods, chattels, lands and tenements,’’ the Supreme Court judge blurted out in a suppressed tone that everybody heard, “Lord, Lincoln, the statute fixes all that.” The minister kept a straight face, became serious and then pronounced Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd man and wife in the sight of God and man. Sandburg is a student of human nature with wide powers of observation and no matter what the subject may be, he never loses the common touch which endears him to all readers. He gives to us a realistic picture of Lincoln the man. He does not tell us merely of Lincoln’s accomplishments, but of the man, and his character and background. He does not attempt to make Lincoln appear superhuman, but portrays him as a very human person, humorous and pathetic. In order to make the picture even more realistic, he deals at length with Lincoln’s surroundings, his family, his friends and his opponents. Surely a man who can give to us a picture of Lincoln as an everyday man, while still retaining his dignity and grandeur must be a very interesting man himself. As a biographer, Sandburg is in the front rank. With his man to man method of writing, he inspires a personal interest in the subject. What more can we demand of a biographer? Sandburg, however, not only excels as a biographer, but as a poet in the modern sense of the term. Sandburg as a poet has been attracting much attention lately, and his poems represent the diction of the modern poets. He is not a singer as was Tennyson, for his poems are always speech, sometimes violent, almost indelicate, but always vividly interesting, and even beautiful, eloquent and dramatic. His harsher poems seem to be just statements, but they have a staccato rhythm all their own. For example in his poem, “Cool Tombs” he says: “Pocahontas’ body lovely as a poplar, sweet as a red haw in November, or a paw paw in May, does she consider? does she remember?—in the dust—in the cool tombs?” One likes his poems because of the man back of them for his poems are expressions of his personality, and seem to change with his moods. Some are loud and harsh, and some are the most beautiful and gentle of lyrics as is Monotone: “The monotone of the rain is beautiful, And the sudden rise and slow relapse Of the long multitudinous rain. “The sun on the hills is beautiful, Or a captured sunset sea flung, Bannered with fire and gold. “A face I know is beautiful— With fire and gold of sky and sea, And the peace of long warm rain.” But such a lyric is usually followed by a violent poem like Chicago, showing how deeply he feels the injustice and the tragedy of life in a big city : “Hog butcher for the world Tool maker, stacker of w’heat, Player with railroads and the nation’s freight handler, Stormy, husky, brawling. City of the Big Shoulders.” They tell me you are wicked and I believe them for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys. And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes; it is true, I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again. And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wfanton hunger. And having answered so, I turn once more to those who sneer at my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them: Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning. Flinging magnetic curses, amid the toil of piling job on job, there is a tall, bold, slugger set vivid against the little soft cities. .j. ... ❖ ❖ 1 • • ❖ • ❖ •

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Page Seventeen ex-soldier of the German army gained recognition, and a band of followers, by delivering a number of fiery speeches. His band grew rapidly and many important men joined his party. This man’s name is Adolph Hitler. While delivering one of his speeches he was arrested and sentt need to jail. All his followers left him and every one thought that his party was doomed forever. After staying in jail for about six months he was released, and started forming hi party again. In times when business is good, no one will listen to him, but when business slows down, he can convert many people to his ideas. In 1929 the business depression offered an excellent chance to increase his party and Hitler doesn’t pass up any chances. His party gr w so fast that now he has over six million people under his direction, making his party the next to the largest party in Germany. If Hitler could gain control of Germany, the first thing that he would do would be to repudiate the treaty of Versailles. In this way reparations would be stopped and the eastern boundary of Germany could be changed. The next thing that he would do would be to do away with all large department stores and large business firms. Everything would be owned and operated by individuals, and wealth would be distributed more evenly among the people. The Jew is a public enemy of all Hitlerites and would be quickly expelled from Germany. The Jews are bankers and consider the treaty of Versailles merely a business transaction, and they expect to live up to their part of the contract. Hitler wants to cancel reparations and therefore one of his slogans is “Down with the Jews.’ Other countries are objecting to the ideas of the Germans. The more the Germans seek revising of the treaty, the more determined France becomes against it. Neither is Great Britain going to give up her ex-German colonies, or is Italy going to surrender Alto Adiege. As to the Polish Corridor (meaning Poland’s access to the sea made possible by the seizure of Danzig and part of Silesia, which formerly belonged to Germany) many people in Poland think it a decided advantage to abolish it, but the Polish government doesn’t share this point of view, and it has instructed its representatives abroad not to discuss the subject. The amount of the German debt to the United States has been reduced about two-thirds since 1921, and if another serious depression should take place the debt would probably be cut still further. It is only a question of time now before something will take place, whether it is a revision of the peace treaty or a new war between France and Germany. If war should take place, the destruction and ruin would be considerably greater than that of the world war. If the treaty is revised, any settlement would be the signal to unloose all the forces that menace the stability of Europe and such action would also be a definite encouragement to the extremists in every country. ROBERT FOWLER. “MICHAEL PUPIN, SCIENTIST AND INVENTOR” Dorothy Morgan. The great modern scientist, Michael Idvorsky Pupin, is a fine example of a foreign boy who came to America and made good. He was born at Idvor, Hungary, in 1858, the son of a stern Serbian herdsman and a pious peasant woman, who knew the scripture from beginning to end, although she could neither read nor write. Pupin’s education began in the little school of his native village, but soon it was noticed that he possessed unusual ability as a scholar, so he was sent to a school at Prague in Bohemia, where he remained until he set out for America. While he was at school in Idvor, he, along with the other boys, spent his summer vacations on the pasture lands caring for the herds of oxen. In Hungary, on perfectly clear summer nights the stars are so bright that the sky looks black by contrast, and on such nights it was impossible to see the oxen if they were more than a few score of feet away, but the boys could hear them if they pressed their ears to the ground. Because of this they placed their knives in the ground and by putting their ear to the handle they could hear every step of the oxen. Th n they estimated the time of the night by the light of the stars and by their position. Thus light and sound were associated with Pupin’s way of thinking even at that early age, and this was one thing that helped in his dealings with vibration of sound. These associations also led him to question his teacher “Kos,” through whom he first heard of Franklin, and his kite, and who finally convinced him that sound was the vibration of bodies. When he was at Prague he received a letter from his sister informing him of his father’s sudden death, after only a brief illness. Michael immediately wrote his mother that he would return to Idvor and help her care for the land, but she wouldn’t listen to it. He knew what a burden his schooling would be to her and he was going to try to relieve her of it if possible. Then one day he saw an advertisement of the Hamburg-American line, offering steerage transportation from Hamburg to New York for 28 florins, and at once he decided to try his fortune in the land of Franklin and Lincoln. He sold his watch, his clothes, and his books, to make up the sum necessary for traveling expenses. Finally after a few days of traveling hardships he landed at New York harbor. When it came his turn to be questioned by the immigrant officials he was very much alarmed. They asked if he had any relatives in America, and he replied that the only American people he knew were Franklin, Lincoln and Harriet Beecher Stowe. This amused the officials and he seemed so honest and so really helpless that the officials let him by because they were so deeply impressed by him. When he landed he had just five cents % . «|» • :• ► ❖ ❖ ❖ • ❖ • ❖ • ❖ - ❖ • ❖ • ❖ • ❖ ❖ ❖ • • » » « • « j» »j