Woonsocket High School - Quiver Yearbook (Woonsocket, RI)

Page 15 text:

THE QUIVER 9 Sometimes it seems that young people will never be polite, no matter how much they are told. If you do not believe this, stand in a corridor at the noon hour and see how long you will remain in your original place! If you can stay in one spot, you are a hero; for an ordinary person will be buffeted about until he is weary wtih the struggle. Let us try to be orderly and well-manered and so make our school an example for others. To have good manners does not mean to be extreme to the point of discomfort. It means to do those things which will make others comfortable and happy. It means: 1. To avoid running people down in the corridors. 2. To say, “Excuse me,” when you have made someone uncomfortable and to say, “Thank you,” when someone has made you comfortable. 3. To avoid rushing up to a group of teachers or students and speaking without waiting to see if they are already talking. 4. To help, as much as you can, both fellow-students and teachers.

Page 14 text:

8 THE QUIVER Are you going to be able to say, “I might have secured better results, but I can honestly believe that I did my best”? How satisfying it would be to look back on your high school career and say that! How pleasing it would be to hear your classmates say, “He was a jolly good fellow”; your teachers, “He was a good scholar ; and your principal, “He was an all-round good student”! Are you doing your best for yourself, your family, and your school? Are you mastering English and French, or are you giving up because “it is too hard” or “I don’t like it?” Are you making it easy for the teachers, who spend their lives in trying to make you men and women? Are you making school affairs successful—dances, plays, and entertainments? Do you support the athletic teams by cheering them instead of criticizing them when they lose a game? Are you considerate of your classmates, or are you too lazy to say, ‘ Excuse me.” when you collide with a girl in the corridor? Are you kind to strangers, trying to make them feel at home, or do you say, “Oh, he’ll get along; someone will help him”? Do you “boost” vour school, or do you criticize it to outsiders? Every student cannot be in a play or be a member of the orchestra any more than every United States citizen can be a member of the Senate; but every student who is a true citizen can say, “I can, and will, make a supreme effort to do my bit to make W. H. S. a clean, worth while institution.” MANNERS Manners play a very important part in high school life. Politeness is not an instinct lying deep in man; it is a quality which must be acquired. It is true that the fundamental idea, which is a consideration for the welfare of others, has to be born in man. If one has this quality of true courtesy, a knowledge of its rules will then show the way to use it. If, however, one is without that essential characteristic (as many are) it is all the more important that he learn the rules again and again, until a sense of duty will prompt him to follow them. Some boys and girls are taught the rudiments of good manners at home; if so, they should use their knowledge at school in order to be an example to less fortunate ones. Those who are not taught at home should learn at school in order to make school life more pleasant.

Page 16 text:

10 THE QUIVER A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE Have you ever stopped to think who the person may be who comes to your door as a tramp or “hobo”? Seldom do any of us think what there is in the man or who his people may be. A few years ago, the “World” magazine had the following introductory paragraph to one of its articles: “W. A. Gleeson, young business man of Torrington, Conn., and County Director of the Connecticut Total Abstinence League, had a week of remarkable experience in playing ‘hobo.’ ” The man referred to is my uncle, an undertaker and town clerk of the town of Torrington. He had always been a dignified fellow. The hardest thing he had ever done in his life was to ;rect a funeral and, like many more, try to please those ever faultfinding few who can’t be pleased. Being tired of the quiet life he was leading and anxious to test his friends, he decided to tramp from New York home, after attending an Undertakers’ Convention in Wilkesbarre. At the Grand Union Hotel, one Monday morning at eleven o’clock, he bought twelve pencils and six pairs of shoe laces and sent home his clothes and every cent of his money. He took the elevated to the Bronx after selling a pencil in order to pay his fare. After disposing of a pair of shoe laces and obtaining ten cents for them, he boarded a car going toward South Norwalk. He told the conductor he was anxious to reach that place, as a man had 1 een arrested for a crime of which he was guilty. He stepped on his own shoe laces in order to untie them, and when it was time to pay another fare, he was busy lacing his shoes. At the end of the ride, he walked five miles. Up to this time he had not had anything to eat. He continued to walk, looking for a house which had for its mistress a woman who had a pleasant dis-f 'sition and could master her house without the aid of a dog. To