Woodstock Collegiate Institute - Oracle Yearbook (Woodstock, Ontario Canada)

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His adventures reveal that he was admired by the unfortunate from the Chilkoot Pass to Bucharest and Moscow. With lines borrowed from Robert Service, a friend of Colonel Boyle's, Queen Marie of Rumania fittingly sums up this man in the epitaph that she sent to mark his grave in England. A man with the heart of a Viking, And the simple faith of a child. Ioseph Thompson XIB Who Dare To Live Lt. Commander Frederick B. Watt, R.C.N.V.R. Exciting, dramatic, breathlessly interest- ing is Frederick Watt's odyssey-of those who go down to the sea in ships to serve their country in time of war. The book is dedicated to two close ship- mates of Lt. Commander Watt, who appear in the book in spirit urging him, and who, since its writing have been lost at sea. Among the early 'events in this war the poet mentions Dunkirk and then mentions later events as seen through the eyes of a merchant seaman. This book is one of all too few about Our Silent Service e-the Navy. Parts of it will remind you of that popular movie ln W'hich We Serve. On reading Who Dare To Live , others will recall The Wreck of the Iervis Bay . For a modern poem with life-like characters and suspense enough to keep your interest to the very last page, you will look long before you find another yarn to beat Lt. Commander Frederick Watts- Who Dare To Live . Ellen Moon 12A Latin America: Twenty Friendly Nations Latin America: Twenty Friendly Nations is an interesting book of special interest to students. It is well and beautifully illustrated, and contains maps giving detailed informa- tion about the different countries. The book is in three sections. The first, The Past to the Present , explains why the term Latin America is applied to the twenty countries which make up Mexico, Central and South America. lt goes on to tell the history of the Incas in South America and THE ORACLE the Mayas in Mexico and Central America and gives an account of the rule of force by the Spanish and Portuguese, the fight for in- dependence begun by Bolivar, and the struggle for democracy. The second part tells the stories of the wealth and progress of the twenty modern Latin republics. ln the third section entitled The Americas Learn to Work Together , the authors try to promote a better understanding between the United States and South Amer- ica. The three authors are Prudence Cutright, VV. VV. Charters and George I. Sanchy. Pro- fessor Sanchy wrote in the foreword that he hoped through this book the people who read it would become better acquainted with their neighbours to the south, and he closed with the Spanish phrase Hasta leuga, amigo , f So long, friends .l. Patricia Poole llA Frenchman's Creek Daphne du Maurier, famous for Rebec- ca and Hlamaica Inn, has given us another vivid romance in Frenchman's Creek, which is set on the wild south Cornish coast, during the Seventeenth Century. Impetuous and beautiful, Dona St. Col- umb suddenly rebelled against the empty life that occupied her time in London with a husband she had never loved, and fled to her husbands estate, Navon, in Cornwall. Free at last, she enjoyed the soft climate, the lazy hours, and the long walks in the after- noon. Her peace, however, was suddenly dis- rupted when, one afternoon she discovered that Narvon , was the refuge of a notorious Breton pirate. Impulsively, she signed her name to the ship's company. To reveal the story of the rest of that summer and its conclusion to those who have not read the book would be unfair. In this story, Miss du Maurier has matched, if not excelled, her other famous novels in swift tempo, suspense and vividness. Every chapter contributes to the greatness of this novel. Frenchman's Creek is a book, which the reader, having read the first chapter, will not wish to leave before he has read the last. Alena Cody-Williams 13A Twenty-Five

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Book Reviews Bright Paths To Adventure The days of romance and adventure are by no means past. Here is a real book for those of you who yearn for the thrilling days of the Spanish Main. The book should be of special interest to Canadians as it was written by Gordon Sinclair who spent his boyhood in Toronto and still makes it his home unless he is wandering through for- bidden Tibet. Although some of them sound like tall tales, Mr. Sinclair, who has travelled the world over, states that all of his stories are true first-hand-accounts of incidents that actually happened. Bright Paths to Adventure is not one continuous story, but a collection of thirty- one exciting chapters. The author tells of in- teresting incidents concerning wild animals, of the hypnotic and supernatural powers of the Voodoo Men of India, of the only man who ever saw a mountain born, of lost con- tinents, of buried treasure, of a one-armed general who has just begun making his sixth million dollars, as well as of gripping adventures in which our own Canadian Mounties figure. If you read Bright Paths to Adventure you can travel around the world, seeing all these strange things and manfy more, while seated beside a cosy fireplace. I am sure that you will find here three-hundred pages of fascinating adventure that you will want to read again and again. Don Hart llB Short Leash By Bertrand Shurtleff Following A.W.O.L., his popular book of 1944, Bertrand Shurtleff has written a new dog story about two great army dogs in the South Pacific. . Spareribs and Huskie, with their trainers Lieutenant Sedaewick, Sergeant Trueman, and Corporal Nilson, are sent to the Pacific fighting zone. Spareribs, aptly named, al- though scrawny, is an exceedingly wiry messenger dog. Huskie, a contrast to Spare' ribs, is a magnificent specimen of the breed Twenty-Four which gives him his name. He is trained to accompany patrols and warn them of strang- ers in the vicinity by a bird-dog point. When a plane carrying two highly im- portant officers crashed in the Owen Stanley Mountains, Lieutenant Sedgewick requests that he, Truemari, and the dogs be allowed to hunt for the missing officers. On the slim chance that the officers may be alive, the request is granted: then they, along with a native guide Orani, are parachuted into a valley near the scene of the crash. The party is in a precarious position as the jungle is infested with savage natives, Iapanese, and disease-carrying insects. Food and medi- cal supplies run short. When the rescuers are surrounded by the enemy, it seems as if nothing short of a miracle can accomplish their rescue. As Mr. Shurtleff makes the reader feel all the menace of the situation, anyone who craves adventure will find it in SHORT LEASH. Donna Dawson, 12A Brother, Here's A Man! Brother, Here's a Man! written by Kim Beattie and published in 1940, recounts the exploits of loseph Boyle in company with Frank Slavin, the Australian prize fighter, during the Klondike Gold Rush, and later of Mr. Boyle by himself through the Russian Revolution, as well as his association with Queen Marie of Rumania. To live such an eventful life as Ioseph Boyle's, a man re- quired, on one side, herculean physical strength and audacity undreamt of before, and on the other side, honesty, gentleness, and absolute frankness with everyone. Boyle had all these qualities. Mr. Beattie's interesting and authentic account involved a substantial amount of work on his part. To obtain the material, he spent much time and travelled widely: his references to The l:'irs , a well known estate on the edge of Woodstock, which was the former Boyle family home, is of local interest. Colonel Ioseph Boyle is portrayed as a figure more at home in the midst of fighting than in a fireside chair-as a truly great man, whose courage made his adversaries quail. THE ORACLE

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Stories and Essays o The House of Tomorrow We are entering a new agel lt is one of atomic energy, modern inventions, huge in- dustrial developments, and the planning of a world peace. All this is of great import- ance to the average housewife. War brought many women out of the kitchen, and the assembly line taught them to appreciate ef- ficiency: consequently they are vitally con- cerned about the House of Tomorrow. What will it be like? The modern kitchenfworkshop of the home, is a housekeeper's paradise. An el- ectric dish washer is a very important feat- ure. How much time and drudgery one of these eliminate. The refrigerator has re- volving shelves which enables the house- wife to see instantly just what she wants. There is no need to remove all the contents to reach that small dish of fruit in the very back corner. And the Presto Cooker! That is why Mrs. Housewife can have a delicious dinner prepared in such a short time. Vege- tables are cooked in two or three minutes and a roast is ready in much less than an hour. The living room is really full of sur- prises. Push a button, a glass wall changes its position, and there you have a new room! It can be made larger or smaller as you wish. The furniture in the room is of metal or plastic materials that stand up under any number of jitterbug parties. Remember how the old furniture used to look even more worn than usual after a iam session by the teen-age crowd. The wall next the garden is completely built of glass, perhaps, and there are no chilly draughts either. For a cozy evening by the fire, the housewife just draws the easily-cleaned glass curtains. Many other improvements are revealed in the modern house. lt is lighted throughout by fluorescent lighting which eliminates glare. The bathroom has non-skid tubs and showers. There are no heavy wool blankets on the beds. ln their place are light, electric- ally heated ones. The furniture in baby's nursery is unbreakable. Crayon marks on the walls can be removed with soap and Twenty-Six water without doing any damage to the sur- face. There might even be a Baby Tender! The modern house is built for the family rather than have the family adapt itself to the house. It is aplace where young and old can work, play, and entertain their friends. Edgar Guest said,- lt takes a heap o' livin' in a house to make it home. The House of Tomorrow is, indeed, a home. Isobel Hart l3B. My Native Land British Columbia, my beloved native land, is the third largest province in the Dominion. The wealth of the fruitful Okana- gan Valley, the yields of mines and fisher- ies, the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, the humming industries of Vancouver, Canada's largest Pacific port, and the pulp and paper towns of the coast are all well-known. Nat- ure in her grandest mood, paints the beauty of towering mountains, dense forests, and mighty rivers. On Canada's Pacific Fron- tier the pride and vigor of the New World is revealed. There too is apparent sincere loyalty to the Empire. Two years ago l migrated east and adopted your province, Ontario, the land of treasure! Her wealth in nickel, copper, iron and gold, from mines whose names are world famous is beyond a king's ransom. Her rolling acres of tidy farms and wood- lots surround numerous thriving industrial cities. Power developed from the natural resources of Mighty Niagara plays a leading part in developing her industries. Besides the Great Lakes, thousands of acres of scenic parks invite an ever increasing flow of tourists to enjoy varied recreations. This is Ontariof-proud of her history and loyal to the traditions of true democracy. Perhaps you would be interested to hear of a few of the sharpest contrasts between my former school and yours-the high school tnot collegiate? where l went, with about two hundred. The pupils had only four grades, not five as we have here. ln it, our teachers moved from one classroom to another while the pupils remained in their home forms. I prefer the rotary system of W.C.I. as it adds variety to the day. I have noticed also sev- eral slight differences in curriculum. For THE ORACLE