Woonsocket High School - Quiver Yearbook (Woonsocket, RI)

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THE QUIVER AWAKE, AMERICANS! 17 Fellow citizens, I am taking this opportunity to try to impress upon you the gravity of conditions in this country—conditions which bear upon your industries, rights, liberty, and peace, far more than you have probably suspected. There is in this country today the germ of a corrupt movement, which is growing rapidly and stealthily and bids fair to be one of the greatest evils with which our beloved country has had to contend. I refer to nothing less than the so-called Red movement, an organization founded by the leaders of the present government of Russia, if that can be called a government, which has thrown that country into such chaos and tumult. Through the medium of lawless robbers and irresponsibles, this movement has spread and enlarged by foul means until it has reached such alarming proportions that something must be done, an antidote quickly found, or our government, religion, and home life are in danger of being undermined, toppled over, and crushed under the heel of this new invader. This organization, which began with a small, but resolute, body, has over double its original membership. How is this increase accounted for? First of all, they have established scores of newspapers, printed in nearly every language spoken in this country, in which their deceiving propaganda appears. By creating a spirit of restlessness and a feeling that they, the workmen, are not being given their just deserts, they have caused a large proportion of the strikes and labor troubles which have vexed our country in the past eighteen months. These daring people have spread their doctrines through the country by influencing the ignorant classes, who, without a sufficient knowledge of right or wrong, or a knowledge of what the consequences of Bolshevism are, are susceptible to the outrageous teachings. As a result of the truth of this last statement, the need of educating ourselves in all the phases of these conditions cannot be too emphatically urged. Education is the only efficient weapon with which we can fight the menace. When the people of the world have full knowledge of Bolshevism and what it means to them and to their interests, the march of this organization will be absolutely checked. Do not think that you are tod insignificant to be interested in this war. Now is your chance to throw-water on the fire which would otherwise bring your roof of rights, government, and happiness, down upon your very heads. Have you ever stopped to realize the severity of the situation? Have you tried to ascertain the aims and the goal of the Reds?

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16 THE QUIVER chatter so fast that they seem to be running a race with the shivers shooting up and down my back. I run to the barn with the dog to mix a pail of mush for the hens. After breakfast we carry the cans of milk to the dealer. Then father takes the horse and draws some corn fodder to the barn and pulls and stacks some beans to d;y. Then he picks apples until dinner-time. In the meantime mother and I have been sweeping and cleaning and cooking and doing other odd “jobs” too numerous to mention. There is, perhaps, on the pantry shelf a strawberry or a cream pie or more likely two or three apple and a mince, a cake, a dish of cookies, loaves of bread, both white and brown, or a cottage cheese. In the afternoon we all go into the orchard and pick more apples. There are smooth Northern Spies and Baldwins, hunch-back Pewaukees, rough-skinned English and Roxbury Russets, yellow Bellflowers, Tolman Sweetings, the best apple to bake, Rhode Island Greenings. Jilliflowers. the peerless McIntosh Red, and mother’s favorite, the freckled Peck’s Pleasant. These are put into bags and barrels, loaded into the wagon, and taken to the house where they are put into the cellar for the winter. I get the mail and find it is time for chores again My cousin feeds the hens, throwing the corn at her feet to bring the cock near. Her eye has noticed and admired his tail-feathe s, which shine bronze and violet in the rays of the setting sun. As soon as he is near enough, she stoops and pulls out one of the prettiest, but the feather grew there and so it comes out with difficulty. She almost lifts him from his feet. He makes an awkward bow and hits his head on the ground. Verily it is not all fun to be a handsome cock. Then we search for eggs and carry into the roost a setting hen, which has stolen a nest across the road among the sweet-fern. If we should let her stay there, we should be afraid thit the little screech owl or the skunk down there in the junipers would cntch her. 1 hen we go for the cows and wait at the brook for them to drink. Off they go in single file down the path which they have worn. Their heels click like knitting needles. As they see the barn, they quicken their steps and one cow bawls. Father milks them. The pigs are fed. The chickens go to roost with much pushing and noise. We have our supper and draw up around the light to read. At nine o’clock father goes to the barn and beds down the horse. And so we settle down for the night. A cricket is mourning under my window. A south wind is sighing in the pines. All is dark. A meteor shoots earthward in the northeast. There is a bright glow to the south made by the lights of Providence. Another day is done. ELSIE MOWRY, ’20

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18 THE QUIVER Does it occur to you what it will mean if this party is successful in its attempts upon established laws and customs of the world? Let me explain. Bolshevism aims at the destruction of the present gov ernment and the adoption of the Soviet form, which practically amounts to the destruction of all government. It means to destroy all religions. Success means the commandeering of all savings bank accounts and national bank deposits along with the repudiation of all government loans. This has been the condition of affairs in Russia for two years, and, although the Reds make repeated prom ises “of peace, bread, and land,” that unfortunate country is still in the throes of terrible strife and unending war. God deliver this country from a similar fate! Remember that this nation was bought, and at numerous times saved, by the blood of ancestors who willingly gave up their lives, the highest possible sacrifice, that we might enjoy freedom, peace and prosperity. Are we going to allow our beautiful, beloved, and dearly bought land to be snatched away by the most corrupt of corruption’s offspring, a band of thieves, yea, murderers, who have nothing but their own ends and the ends of their selfish leaders in view? Let- us hope not. May we be given the strength and determination that will overthrow this ugly monster and so crush it that for evermore we shall be free from its terrible clutches. BURTON WOODWARD, ’20 WINTER MORNINGS A long, long way and a cold way. A road that is drifted deep; The trees that bound it are barren And covered inch deep v’ith sleet. The wild, wild wind is shrilling, The bushes are bending low. The snow is drifting, drifting, Swishing fitfully to and fro. MILDRED L HOYLE, ’21