Page Two
HIGH LIFE
February 3, 1928
HIGH LIFE
Published Bi-Weekly by the Students of
The Greensboro High School
Greensboro, N. C.
Founded by the Class of ’21
Charter
Member
/fgbLUMBIAil
March
1925
Entered as Second-Class Matter at the
Post Office, Greensboro, N. C.
STAFF
Managing Editor . . . Dick Burroughs
Editor J. D. McNairy
Business Manager Ed Davant
Ass’t Business Mgr Jack Kleemeir
Associate Editors
Henry Biggs Louis Brooks
Emma Griffin Clyde Norcom
Carlton Wilder John M. Brown
Assistant Editors
Elvie Hope Irene McFadyen
Margaret Britton Margaret Betts
Art Editor William Troxell
Typists
Virginia Simmons Ruth Stinnett
Jules Squires
Reporters
Virginia McKinney Mary H. Robinson
Mary L. Benbow M. Geogheghan
Prances Cartland Eugenia Isler
Margaret Kernodle Elvie Hope
Helen Miles Ernest White
Faculty Advisers
Mrs. Alma Garrett Coltrane
Miss Nell Chilton
Miss Mary Harrell
Mr. Phillips planned to teach a
class and only two students signed
up for it. We wonder what that
siarni
A warm welcome the freshmen
received on a cold day. Some boys
* paddled many of them and then
sent them sliding down the hill on
the ice. When they returned the
process was completed. We sup
pose the paddling was a little
‘‘warming up” exercise.
We have seen quite a few of our
graduates around school still tak
ing work. It seems that their love
for the place has so endeared them
to it that they can’t leave it.
Speaking of sport and sporty cos
tumes, how about the loud striped
outfit that Miss Walker has been
promenading around with lately?
It was a mad rush and fight at
the book room the first day. Be
tween rounds books were dis
tributed and at a knockout the re
cipient of same made his way sadly
back to the class room.
The fights raged so furiously
that it was necessary to call the
“big dog,” as The Reflector calls
him, down to settle things.
The debaters and declaimers are
starting work now. With such a
student body as we now have it
seems that we might have more out
for these things and more competi
tion for the places, besides bigger
audiences at the final contests.
There is a use for everything, we
believe. For instance, we know one
fellow who, uses the old water tank
to test out his strenght. The ca
pacity is over 300 pounds of weight,
so he may regulate it according to
his mood.
A Fitting Tribute
The fact that she made the high
est average in her class for a period
of four years shows what her
teachers thought of her; her class
mates showed their appreciation of
her qualities by awarding her the
cup for the best all-round student
—the highest tribute in their hands
to bestow.
Yet the fact that she won these
distinguished awards does not add
to her qualities or abilities. They
testify to what she has been
throughout her whole school life.
For one cannot stage a final spurt
in the last quarter and make a
glorious slide into home and win
these awards; they must be won
slowly, consistently, steadily, and
dependably. For in four years
one’s teachers have sufficient oppor
tunities to find out one’s abilities.
In four years, one’s classmates
come to know one intimately and
thoroughly; those of one’s own age
have the power somehow to get
down to the truth of matters.
When we think of Ruth Lewis
we always associate with her those
qualities which go into the making
of successful students and fine
womanhood. We think of her abili
ty to work willingly and efficient
ly; her cheerfulness and good
nature; her personality and leader
ship ; her quiet, unassuming man
ner; her powers as a student; her
dependability and punctuality; her
character and service. She is the
type of student which we hope will
be more plentiful in the schools of
future years.
While she thought scholarship of
great importance and worked for
it.,^^he has- not beeji^a bpokworpi
and neglected other sides of life;
she has been active in many things.
Her selection as best all-round dem
onstrates her versatility.
We would characterize the
awards presented to her as a recog
nition of her ability, nothing more.
They were a fitting tribute to
achievements; they were well
earned and deserved.
Mrs. Ashford’s Return
After an absence of five months,
Mrs. Mary S. Ashford is returning
to resume her work as adviser to
the High Life staff. The staff
looks forward to her return with
eagerness, although the work of
editing the paper has gone on very
smoothly indeed during her ab
sence. Mrs. Coletrane and Miss
Chilton, who have been the advisers
during the past semester, in spite of
their comparative inexperience in
the field, have taken hold of the
work in exemplary fashion. They
deserve a great deal of credit for
any excellent qualities the issues of
this term may have exhibited.
In her two years of teaching at
Greensboro High School, Mrs. Ash
ford’s chief interest, perhaps, has
been in journalism and especially
in the High Life work. She has
played her part enthusiastically,
giving a generous measure of en
couragement and inspiration and
advice to the work of the editors.
A high school teacher, however,
makes herself felt the most for good
or bad through her personality.
Ability and training will go far,
but the final distance necessary to
her success must be penetrated by
personality alone. Mrs. Ashford
has this quality in great degree
Continuing Toward an Ideal
Perhaps the greatest need of our
school today, aside from the dire
necessity of new buildings and
equipment, is a creative depart
ment such as Asheville high schools
have. We need more opportunities
and incentives for students to de
velop their creative powers through
writing or through other channels.
It is true that we have had classes
in journalism and dramatics form
few semesters, but there have not
been enough of them nor has the
creative line been expanded. We
need a continuance and an en
largement of the type of work in
creative English which Mr. Wunsch
started here three years ago and
which Miss Tillett is reviving in
her creative English class this
semester.
Asheville, we understand, in one
of her schools has four teachers in
this department, two of which de
vote their full time to creative work
and two over half their time. We
envy Asheville’s opportunities; we
believe we have just as fine ability;
we need the development under
teachers experienced in this line.
We wish Miss Tillett’s work the
greatest success possible and hope
that it will enlarge and grow; we
hope that it will bring some of
the accomplishments which Mr.
Wunsch’s work seemed on the
verge of bringing. Although our
ideal seems to be Asheville’s real
ization, we hope that we may attain
it soon.
Winter Fancies
From an aesthetic standpoint one
might almost find the heart to
wish that the disagreeable winter
weainer we nave iiad so mucli of
lately might continue the year
around. Of course all the bright
color tones of nature are dulled at
such times, and there is little to
regale the eye in an urban land
scape ; but the artifice of man, or to
be more exact, woman, more than
makes up for the deficiency. The
costumes that modern young ladies
don on rainy or snowy days make
an appeal to the aesthetic sense
that is heightened by the contrast
of the background’s dulness. Peer
ing half-blindly through a stinging
coud of mist one will frequently
discern a group of college girls
tripping merrily along. One’s
heart will leap within him figura
tively and literally at the sight of
these graceful shapes encased in
gaudy raincoats. Their eyes spar
kle; their cheeks are bewitchingly
flushed; they plunge along gaily,
huge galoshes flopping about their
feet.
Why do girls seem so much more
attractive in these costumes? Is it
the bizarre, romantic atmosphere
thrown about them by the brilliant,
tightly belted coat and loose awk
ward galoshes, strangely reminis
cent of the jack boots worn fly
pirates of story and song ? Is it the
adventurous air with which they
carry themselves in stormy weather
—youth flaunting itself brazenly in
the face of nature’s wrath, heedless
of tragedy around the corner?
Some scholar might be able to
answer these questions. We find
our powers of analysis temporarily
paralyzed. We can only admire.
After the first day assignments,
we believe that we will have enough
work to do the rest of the year.
Keats tells us tliat “Beauty is trutli,
truth beauty,” yet we are all familiar
with the old phrases, “the ugly truth”
and the “truth is what hurts.” A para
dox, it seems. But one is the utterance
of a poet who saw with a divine in
sight and the others are the ramble of
a prosaic mass. Beauty is more within
us than without; it all depends on our
point of view; it is a sttae of mind, so
to speak. A delicate perception of it is
an accomplishment which one may gain
through training. A proper apprecia
tion con'xce through f.■.riling .'’ucl iuboi’n
understanding which, when given utter
ance to, marks one as a poet. (
The instinct for the beautiful lies
dormant in all of us. It is in different
degrees of concentration. Yet there is
something primitive in our very being
that wants and seeks and thirsts for
beauty. There is something in our
make-up that seems to have a close
connection with the beautiful. Beauty
is universal and immortal; it is not
patented nor copyrighted by any na
tion or tribe; it is not bounded by any
limits of space nor contained in any
unbreakable fortifications. It pervades
the whole range of the spheres; some
of us seek it out and seem to find it;
others do not.
When the cooking process was com
pleted, there was found a colorless,
odorless, tasteless, sticky substance
which was five times the original vol
ume. Upon inserting it and attempting
mastication, it was found that the
volume continued to swell. However,
our hero ate it all and swmre by the
living gods that it was the best thing
he had ever tasted. However, he did
not repeat the experiment.
Dark and sinister tales are revealed
about the researches of our science in
structors. Foreboding rumors of their
trials, successes, and failures come to
our ears. Gradually the truth leaks
out and we stand in possession of some
great fact regarding the making of ex
plosions that won’t explode or the con
servation of our sugar supply through
the exhaustion of our soda supply.
Aside from the fact that one of our
learned dissertators on the art of mix
ing chemicals and mud carried on some
researches which yielded him nitro
glycerine that would not explode under
the highest temperature of heat and
the greatest conditions of shock, there
was a yarn let loose about another
brother in science who tried to conserve
the sugar supply.
It seems that our friend’s wife was
making some applesauce. He went into
the kitchen and essayed to render a
little help along with some suggestions.
He leasoned that the apples contained
acid and would therefore be sour; why
not add a base, say soda, to them and
neutralize the effect, thus saving the
amount of sugar needed. Since his
wife was rather skeptical about its ap
plication, he tried the plan. Not know
ing the proper proportions to mix, he
used his wdldest guesses and proceeded
to add soda to the apples.
To those "Who think that romance is
dona wp ^YOT'V^ say, “Rpad tha st^r^
Halliburton’s w-anderings as he has told
them in two charming books.” Here
one wall find the very spirit of youth
and romance personified. Here he will
roam the moonlit nights and enjoy the
classic beauty of old ruins; here one
will get a glimpse of a man who really
lives in the enjoyment of life.
It is not given to all of us to have
the money or the opportunities of young
Halliburton, to travel and enjoy ro
mance under the moonlight that per-
A’ades historic and traditional places.
But yve must tread the way of a prosaic
life that leads to bare existence.
Our trouble is in our method of
thinking. Where wm think there is
romance, there will we find it; where
we look for the full enjoyment and ap
preciation of things, we wall find it.
As Arnold said, “The aids to noble life
are all wdthin.” The opportunities and
abilities are ours ; that we do not apply
them is our loss.
The influx of the army of freshmen
has made the old school look plumb
dizzy -with over twelve hundred people
swarming around wdiere only eight hun
dred ought to be. Traffic conditions are
such as compare with big cities; jams
are frequent. Congestion is the thing
in order. It wall take a master mind
with organizing ability to arrange
things so that we may find our way
around school through the jungle of
people.
DELEGATES TO ATTEND
COLUMBIA CONVENTION
The Columbia Interscholastic Press
Association, under the auspices of Co
lumbia University, wall hold its
annual convention in New York City
March 9 to 11. As usual High Life
and Homespun wall enter the contest to ^
determine the leading high school pub
lications of the United States.
The delegates from G. FI. S. have not
yet been chosen. Neither has it been
definitely determined just how many
representatives will attend, though the
number wall probably be about the
same as last year.
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