Woodbury High School - Warrior Yearbook (Woodbury, CT)

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in Geneva. Miss Barton objected but was finally persuaded to go. At the time of the World War, the different societies were put to their greatest test when the co-operation of all the organizations was necessary to save many wounded soldiers and to diminish the sufferings of a great many more. The American society furnished 23,822 nurses, 54 hospitals and 47 ambulance companies; while at home the women of the country made supplies valued at 10,000,000. In 1920 the enrollment of the American Red Cross was 10,000,000 with 14,000, 000 junior members. The Red Cross goes about its work quietly, not seeking praise. We little realize that the organization is at work every day, both preparing for and helping at emergencies. It is Clara Barton to whom we are indebted for this society which has a very worthy cause and is an extremely valuable organization of which we, ourselves, can so easily become a part. RUTH BURTON. SALUTATORY ADDRESS “Early New England Customs’' In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the lives and habits of the early settlers of our country. The story of New England is particularly interesting to us. We all know the main incidents concerning the founding of our section of the United States, but there are sundry facts which give us a more intimate picture of the lives of our forefathers. In the early community there were several very important institutions. The chief of these was the church. When a new town was settled the first thought and first provision was for the meeting house”. The first structures were rude and uncomfortable. In spite of this fact, the people were very faithful in their attendance. The Sabbath was entirely devoted to worship and was frequently a means of social contact, especially during the noon intermission. All were busy in their tasks to make the community and the new country a success so the Sabbath was the only time when they could get news of the outside world. In the meeting house, the seating arrangement was very strict. In many churches there were from seven to fifteen ranks. The same attention to the service was required of all these ranks and the tithing man chastised all alike. This tithing man had also the very difficult task of establishing the sum that each family should contribute to the church. What a job” it must have been to select the person fitted for this very delicate position and then to persuade him to undertake it. The organ and the stove were long objects of controversy in many churches but both were finally sanctioned. The Sunday School was also regarded as a profanation of the Sabbath. Another of these institutions was the school. Stories of the little red school-house” are fam- iliar to all of us. As a matter of fact, a great many of them were painted a peculiar red color. Each town provided for its school by law and the teacher was paid by the town. There were very few books but these few served to teach all subjects. The alphabet was taught in rhymes from a horn-book,” a crude home-made object. When the New England Primer” was issued it became very popular and was used for many years. The school-teacher boarded round” and, though it did save money, frequently he suffered greatly. There are some amusing extracts from an imagined diary of a school master who boarded round” in a small New England town. For a week, three times an day, he lived on one gander, prepared in diverse ways with different accompaniments, which gander, he declared, appeared from its venerable appearance to have been one of the first settlers of New England.” This was supposed to have been written about a hundred and fifty years after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. There were comparatively few amusements in the olden days. This was partly because of the stern religion of the New Englanders and also because they were so busy making their communities successful. There were few large cities, and while there were a number of good sized towns most of the people lived in rural districts. Here recreation was chiefly enjoyed during the winter months, when the evenings were long, and there were no farm duties to be attended to as there were in the summer. Two of the most popular amusements were husking-bees and spelling-bees. Spelling-bees might be described as a craze” Page Fourteen

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VALEDICTORY ADDRESS Ruth Burton “Clara Barton and the Red Cross” The average American considers the Red Cross organization as one of the many matter-of-fact luxuries of our twentieth century. Every year we give a dollar or more to someone, and in return receive a piece of paper to stick in our window and a pin for the lapel of our coat. It required many years to organize the American Red Cross and it should not be considered without also thinking of the great philantropist to whom we are indebted for the founding of this most valuable society. It was Clara Barton, who spent nine years convincing the government officials that an organization of this kind should be started in the United States and who became its first president, an office which she held for twenty-three successive years. December twenty-fifth is the birthday of our Saviour; because of this it seems significant that Clara Barton, a woman who gave nearly every year of her life laboring in the worthy cause of humanity, should also have been born on this date. She was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts in 1821. Throughout her life she struggled against two disadvantages, nervousness and ill-health. She was educated at Clinton, New York, after which she started the first public school in the state of New Jersey. When she first opened this free institution, she had six pupils but within a short time the enrollment increased to six hundred. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Miss Barton volunteered as a nurse in the hospitals along the front. She was not satisfied to care only for the wounded as they were brought to her, but realized that some relief must be brought to the suffering on the field. She was told that a battlefield was no place for a woman; yet she was determined and finally received permission to take her supplies to the front. For two years, Clara Barton and her helpers braved the dangers of a great many battles and brought aid to both the Nothern and the Confederate soldiers. In 1864, she was given command of all the hospitals along the James River. After the war was over she was appointed by President Lincoln to help in a search for the thousands of missing men. She established the Bureau of Records and, with the co-operation of the families of the dead sol- diers, marked the graves of twelve thousand men who were laid to rest in the National Cemetery at Andersonville, Georgia. When she had completed this work, Miss Barton went on a trip to Europe. In 1870, at the time of the Franco-Prussian War, she came to realize the advantage of their organized Red Cross societies, while helping with them at the front. In 1873 she returned to our country, her one ambition being to persuade the United States to establish a Red Cross and to accept the Geneva Treaty, by which the various organizations were bound together. After nine years, she reached her goal. The American Red Cross Society was founded in 1881 and it was Clara Barton who became its first president and who also secured the addition of the American Amendment to the Geneva Treaty, which provided that Red Cross societies should help in disasters of all kinds and not just during wars, as formerly. After its organization, no government money was appropriated to the Red Cross and it was left entirely to its self. In the spring of 1882, although there was no money, they began their work when the news came that half the state of Michigan was on fire. A few supporters gave money in order that supplies could be sent to the suffering population. In the following year, 1883, the Ohio River flooded its banks. The loss consisted mostly of vegetation which was replaced by a noted seed dealer who was interested in the work of the Red Cross. In 1884 there was another Ohio River flood, followed by a cyclone. Clara Barton went at once to Cincinnati where a boat was hired by the Red Cross. This boat went up and down the river and distributed clothing and coal. When the public realized the great value of the Red Cross, a great many more people pledged their support. When aid was no longer needed from the organization in the flooded areas, the various companies separated. They had been working steadily for several months and Clara Barton was so tired that she was unable to walk without aassistance. Before she had had time to rest, the Secretary of State called upon her to represent the United States at an international Red Cross conference to be held Page Thirteen

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or a fad”. After the publication of Noah Webster’s ’’Grammatical Institute,” the forerunner of the dictionary by the same author, they quickly rose in popularity. The one who could spell down the whole school was ranked second only to him who surpassed the rest in arithmetic.” Sometimes they were a community affair and .ill members of the family competed. Horace Greely at six years of age was the best speller in his town. Husking-bees were very popular, but were usually not very profitable to the owner of the corn, as most people came more for the fun of the occasion than to help their neighbor. The Connecticut poet, Joel Barlow, describes a husking bee: For now, the corn-house filled, the harvest home, the invited neighbors to the husking came; A frolic scene, where mirth, and work, and play Unite their charms, to chase the hours away. Where the huge heap lies centered in the hall The lamp suspended from the cheerful wall, Brown corn-fed nymphs, and strong hard-handed beaux, Alternate ranged, extend in circling rows, Assume their seats, the solid mass attack; The dry husks rustle, and the corn-cobs crack; Till the vast mound of corn is swept away, And he that gets the last ear wins the day.” The singing school was a later innovation and was a very serious occasion, chiefly designed to teach the young people to render the psalms and hymns in a better fashion. Later it became more secular and was very popular as an opportunity for social contact. New England was settled early in the History of the United States. Therefore, and also because we live in this section, the subject of life in early New England is interesting to us. We can better appreciate the privileges of citizenship if we realize the work that was necessary to found our country and make it a success. MARGERY BUTLER. “THE NATURE OF MONEY” A common mistake frequently made is that of considering gold and silver as the only commodities used as money. Francis A. Walker, an economist of two generations ago, gives this definition of money:— Whatever thing serves as a medium of exchange is money; no matter what it is made of and no matter how it comes to be a medium at first, or why it continues to be such. So long as in any community there is an article which all producers take freely and as a matter of course in exchange for whatever they have to sell instead of looking about at the time for the particular things they themselves wish to consume, that article is money; be it white, yellow, or black, hard or soft, vegetable or mineral. That which does the money work is the money thing. It may do this well it may do this ill, it may be good money, it may be bad money, but it is money all the same.” For people to progress, exchange of commodities is necessary. Nations which have had the most adequate means of exchange have prospered much more than those which did not. The reasons why money or a common medium of exchange is necessary are: (1) to overcome the defects of a system of barter, (2) to furnish a common standard for measuring values, (3) to furnish some- thing that will be universally accepted in exchange for goods or services. Barter is the exchange of goods directly for other goods. It is the exchange of one commodity for another. It is evident that the value of goods varies greatly from time to time and from place to place. Fur coats and bathing suits are good illustrations of this. It is difficult to transport all goods which are exchanged. Take for instance a farmer who wanted a wheelbarrow, but who had only a ladder to exchange for it. The task of finding someone who wanted a ladder and who had a wheelbarrow which he wished to exchange certainly was a difficult one. Not only was it difficult to find people who wanted to trade but it was inconvenient to carry around such things as the forequarters of a cow to cut off a piece or two for a half pound of nails or a yard of cloth. Today we measure values in terms of money. If we ask how much an automobile is worth, we are answered in dollars and cents. Very much more simple, is it not, than saying that a sewing machine is worth one pig, four geese, and three pecks of potatoes? Page Fifteen