Woonsocket High School - Quiver Yearbook (Woonsocket, RI)

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ZLbc Mtcjb School driver JUNE, 1913 CONTENTS. My Impressions of the High School” ..... 3 The High School Graduate as an Investment” .... 32 A Visit to Edinburgh” ........ 7 May Day at Mt. Holyoke” ....... 8 Editorials.......................................10 1913 and Its History ........ 26 Class of 1914....................................11 Class of 1915....................................12 Class of 1916....................................13 School Notes ......... 14 Graduation Program ......... 1 Athletics .......... 19 The Ancient Baseball Fan” ....... 21 Alumni Notes ......... 23 MY IMPRESSIONS OF THE HIGH SCHOOL The day is gone, but the remembrance of it and of those which followed will endure as long as myself. It was an October morning. The dying autumn had given to the country an aspect of melancholy beauty, but this was all I could notice, for my Muse had left me that day and a unique thing occupied and controlled all my faculties: “The High School.” I was soon to become a high school student and, before seeing and entering it, my heart palpitated in anticipation of all the emotions that would follow. “How will it be, and how will they be? How much different from my old school, my former teachers? Shall I ever accustom myself to that new life? Shall I be successful, or shall I renounce my ideal broken hearted? ’—and question succeeded question, thought succeeded thought and remembrance remembrance, as I walked for the first time toward the High School. How far I found it from my home! I walked and walked—but, at last! The red building with its yard on either side displayed itself before my eager eyes. A perfect quiet reigned all around and the twittering birds on the trees were the first to wish me welcome, but my heart was beating hard as I ascended the staircase which led to the interior. With .1 rapid yet comprehensive glance I embraced all I could of this and soon gave my attention to the class-room where we met and became acquainted with the Principal. Oh! my terrible fancy, how happily

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THE CLASS OF 1913

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4 THE HIGH SCHOOL QUIVER you deceived me! I knew that the Principal and the teachers were Americans, but 1 had never been acquainted with these before and, owing perhaps to the idea that Latins have of English people, when f had been told that we were going to see the Principal and the teachers, my fancy had depicted them to me as perfect gentlemen and ladies, of course, but as impassible as statues, as cold as ice; and my heart had shivered. Oh, my terrible fancy, how happily you deceived me! and what a big sigh of relief I gave after the kind and amiable manners, first of the Principal and then of the teachers, made me convinced that I would never regret the kindness of my former teachers! Yes, the remembrance of the beautiful days spent in my dear college in Rome would sometimes fill my soul with deep longings for home, I would in some moments of difficulty and discouragement seek a refuge in the recollection of the past; but, dear old teachers, never, never was I to regret your kindness! Being so reassured, I came away for that day, and with a lighter heart I found the way shorter, my beautiful sun brighter, and the bells and the birds and all around the High School said to me: “Come again! Come again!” And I came the following Monday. Oh, how long, and how brief, were for me the three days of expectation! They passed at last, as every thing does, and on a fine morning 1 took my books and courageously set out toward the High School. My new life was to begin and my heart, my poor heart, could not keep still. It beat, beat hard! and my fancy was galloping. But I was resolved to be brave and, led by the ideal that, like a star, was shining on my horizon, I went to the High School as boldly as a soldier to the battlefield. But poor countries, if their soldiers should do as I did! for, as soon as I entered the High School and heard the English language that I could hardly understand, the cold reality of my situation, the vision of the future unknown and full of difficulties came as a dark mist to hide my bright star from me, and I felt myself alone and a stranger, while my courage was on the point of failing. Happily, I had arrived at the time of the morning exercises and these deeply moved my heart, filling it with sympathy for my new school, with energy to walk forward in the path I was beginning to run over. When they began their usual morning prayer, although it was in English, it appeared not so to me ; and, ceasing to be a stranger, my heart joined those of my new companions to rise with them to our common Father in Heaven, while I thanked Him for being the same everywhere: I was sure He understood me! Then followed the song and the music, always so powerful to my soul, and those new voices that I knew for the