Woonsocket High School - Quiver Yearbook (Woonsocket, RI)

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THE QUIVER 7 anything I have seen here. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the statue of Jupiter by Phidias, and the Mausoleum of Artemisia were beyond compare; but, out of curiosity, I will look at what you have to show me.” By this time I had fairly recovered and made up my mind not to allow Domnicus to “run down” our wonders. “Very well,” said I, “the first thing we shall look at is an X-ray machine.” “A what?” “An X-ray machine. This is a machine for taking pictures of broken bones and things that cannot be seen by the human eye. By simply taking a picture and developing it, our modern doctors can discover, with very little trouble, the nature of a fracture. Imagine what old Hippocrates would say about one of these machines. As much as he knew of medicine, he never dreamed of anything like this.” “I don’t believe he did,” murmured Domnicus. “Let’s go over here, while I telephone for a machine to take us to the aviation field. Bronx, 493, please. Hello, City Taxi, will you send a machine up to —” “Are you crazy?” interrupted Domnicus; “whoever heard of talking to a misshaped piece of iron?” “Why, my dear man, this is another one of our wonders. By placing the receiver to your ear and talking through the mouthpiece, you may talk to someone in California. Listen.” “Of all the queer things. Think of the poor fellow who ran thirty miles to tell of the battle of Marathon and then fell dead.” Honk! Honk! “Come on, Dom, w ve got to see those aeroplanes before they hop off for that race.” “What are you talking about? Are we going to see one of our old athletic contests?” “Nonsense, nonsense! An aeroplane is a machine like a bird with its wings stiff. Get into this automobile, so we can get over to that field. Sit still, Dom, what do you want to see?” “Who on earth is pushing this wagon along?” “Don’t you f that steady puttering? That is the exhaust from the engine in under the hood in front. The rotary motion given to the crankshaft by the various explosions over the pistons is transmuted to the rear wheels, which in turn propel the automobile, not wagon. To continue with the aeroplane—a propeller on front turned by a powerful combustion engine similar to this automobile

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6 THE QUIVER DOMNICUS TULLIUS VIEWS OUR SEVEN WONDERS As I did not begin the study of Ancient History until the class had recited seven weeks, it was necessary for me to make up the work, so I had Ancient History continually on my mind. One afternoon I became extremely interested and failed to notice the clock. Suddenly, coming to my senses, I realized that it was four o’clock. I jumped up and started for my locker in the basement. Upon entering the locker room I saw a man sitting on the bench. He was dressed in an ancient Greek costume. I was just wondering what on earth he could be celebrating, when he arose and said, “Ah! Young man, you are just the fellow I am looking for. My name is Dorrinicus Tullius. I have been informed that you study Ancient History. ” “Y-Y-Y-Yes, I do,” I stammered, as though my mouth were riveted together. “Well. I’ve come to learn something of your so-called Seven Wonders of the World. I’m ve y proud of the wonders of my time. Let me recall them before we begin our tour.” “Our tour!” I began to feel shaky. What could he be up to? But I didn’t have time to think, for he took me by the arm and pulled me along, enumerating in his heavy voice: “Now, there were the Pyramids of Egypt, a wonderful piece of work. Think of the time and trouble we took to lay those huge blocks of stone. Look at the Pharaos of Egypt. Have you ever seen such a beacon? Why, the size of the Colossus of Rhodes cannot be—” “Yes, they’re all wonderful, but how about our—” “Never mind your whatever you were going to say. Listen to me. I was saying the Colossus of Rhodes cannot be compared with

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8 THE QUIVER engine pulls it through the air. These machines can fly at the rate of—here we are. Watch that fellow do the “loop the loop.” No, no, not down the street, up in the air. See him sailing along like a giant bird? Imagine your Colossus of Rhodes reaching that machine with one of his gigantic arms. Do you want to take a ride in one of the —” “No thanks! I’ll stay right where I am. I’d rather watch them.” “We’ll examine them some other time. We may as well go over to the hospital and see the little army of germs that help our doctors to fight diphtheria, blood poisoning, etc.” “Army of germs! Good gracious, there’s no need of going into a hospital to contract a disease!” “Don’t be foolish, Dom, they won’t hurt you. Oh! by the way, we might stop on o r way over and take a look at the sun’s solar spectrum.” “At the sun's what?” “Solar spectrum. It won’t hurt you. That’s only the name of the sun’s rays divided into their various colors. It’s strange Archimedes did not discover this long ago. There! Do you see all these pretty colors of the rainbow? Those are the colors which are so carefully combined by nature to make white light. When our chemists burn anything before this spectroscope and they find a new color, they immediately know that some new substance has been found. Well, let’s go to the hospital. “How do you do, professor? I have brought my friend, Dom-nicus Tullius, to look at another wonder of ours, that is, your antiseptics and anti-toxins and radium.” “Oh, yes, we have them ready for immediate use. Just a short while ago I was using radium in curing a cancer.” “Perfectly wonderful! But I feel rather uneasy among these germs.” “Very well, Dom, we ll go to Arlington, Virginia, and examine our great wireless station.” “What on earth are those big towers w’ith wires strung from one to the other?” “Those are wireless towers, from which messages are sent all over the world. By means of electricity, short waves are set up, which reach as far as Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a distance of 4600 miles.” “Please tell me the truth about some of these so-called wonders.”