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Excerpts from:

White Haven School Journal

White Haven, Tennessee

April, 1911

Volume 0ne, Number Seven

Officers:

Our Track Team:

Back Row - George McClure, Allan Tate Edmondson
Front Row - Joseph Edmondson, Barry Buford, Morrison Raines

Field Day

That day, May the 5th, will long be a red letter day in the diary of the White Haven School. It was on this day that she marched to the front and came second to Messick in the honors, and Messick is three times as large as is White Haven. First of all, our students, Morrison Raines and Joseph Edmondson, won the boys' tennis, but that was not allowed to be counted. Better still, our teachers, Misses Van Hook and Kimbrough, won five points for us by proving themselves champions in tennis for teachers.

Field Day began with the oratorical contest for boys. Morrison Raines, White Haven's representative, never did himself more credit than when he delivered "Ultimate America" in such clear tones and such a natural manner. His selection was good and appealed to the two men who were judges. In this contest he was awarded second prize. In the athletic contests this same Morrison Raines easily won first in the hundred-yard dash, and the running broad jump. In the standing broad jump he came second. In the relay race begun by Morrison and taken up by Allan Tate Edmondson, Joe Bishop McCorkle and last by Joseph Edmondson, White Haven easily won first place, as Joseph came in some twenty yards ahead. Morrison deserves especial mention, since he won sixteen points.

George McClure put forth the next best effort. He won first in the bicycle race. By him this was done with very little effort. Through some mistake he had to substitute for Joseph Bennett in pole vaulting. For this he had not practiced, but since the effort was thrust upon him, he tried and won third place. After such exertions George was stiff when the mile race came the last thing. In this he came in fourth.

In the hundred-yard dash, Class B, Willie Miller came in fourth. In the relay, Class B, White Haven came third. In the girls' relay, Class B, White Haven came second. The girls in this were Helen McDonald, Lydia Raines, Sallie Love Banks and Georgie May Banks. In the girls' declamatory contest no one could have done better than did Martha Johnston when she gave "Seth Peter's Report of Dan'l Webster's Speech." She tickled the fancy of her hearers and swayed the judges so that with one consent she was awarded first prize. Especially do we owe thanks to Martha, for she and the four girls in the relay were the only girls who took any part in Field Day. White Haven is proud of each pupil individually and of the school as a whole. As all is over we will content ourselves with second place only until another Field Day.

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As It Will Be

It is a wonderful thing to me—this passage of time. To one who is in youth the stretch of years to age seems interminable, but when age comes and we look back to youth it seems yesterday. I am yet young, but still it seems that it was last Sunday that the boys and girls who are soon to graduate sat in the little red chairs at Sunday School and begged for gold hearts and blue ribbons on their attendance records. If this is so' of one who is yet young, how much greater must he the contrast when one who is really old looks back on youth. A few years ago an old lady died in this community who remembered when the Hernando road was an Indian bridle path and Memphis a trading post. Again, a story is told of the marriage of the Mississippi and the Atlantic, when a barrel of water from each was emptied into the other in celebration of the completion of the first railway connecting the two. Wonderful flight of ages !

The first country telephone line that ever ran from Memphis came to White Haven less than thirty years ago. An amusing episode occurred of a man who had never seen one. He sought refuge from a storm in this house, and hearing a one-sided conversation, thought it was inhabited by a crazy man; the receiver he thought was a club, and the man ready to strike, and so attempted to run for his life. It seems preposterous, yet the story is literally true and happened here a little over twenty-five years ago. More wonderful flight of age!

Again, it has been a little over ten years since automobiles first came to Memphis. Twelve years ago the shoppers in Gerber's and Lowenstein's, including the clerks, ran to the windows and doors when an automobile went down the street, and it has been under twenty years that the time-honored mule car was numbered with the things that are gone. I remember, as I was coming home from school one afternoon, meeting a man with a graphophone, which was small enough to be carried in his hand. He asked me if I didn't want to hear it play. He came home with me, and we paid him ten cents. The whole family stood around while it wheezed through "Where Is My Wandering Boy To-night." Most wonderful flight of ages!

And so to predict what will take place in the future by what has been in the past would bring ridicule upon the prophesies. As these things were undreamed of twenty-five years ago, so conditions a quarter of a century hence have now no conception in any mind. There is a passage in Childe Harold which I always like. The thought is this : We can have no conception of the beauties of St. Peter's Cathedral, no description can portray it, but when we enter its portals our conception immediately expands to meet the needs of the view. And so it is, we must grow to meet the constantly enlarging and increasing conditions. If we would retain our youth we must adjust ourselves to change. "Old things are passed away, behold all things are made new."

It is a far cry back to the little brown school house. Every accomplishment is the practical realization of a thought. All inventions, all feats of construction, dwelt first in a mind as a single thought, and so my thought for the White Haven School in the years that are to come is this : The keynote of all education now is for efficiency, and by efficiency I mean the sense in which it is used by leading educators. "There should be but one aristocracy and that the aristocracy of personal achievement. The daily doing of needful things with regularity and efficiency is within itself educative, whereas there can be but little culture in meditating upon the achievements of others unless that meditation leads to action. The readiest avenue to culture is by way of the common things well done." And so I say educate for efficiency—give them manual training, domestic science, book-keeping, an avenue by which the children of the poorer families can earn a means of making a livelihood. Let a boy not have to stop school in the spring to plow, but let him plow and stay in school. Teach him to do it so scientifically that he will get a better return for his labors. Along with history, literature and Latin, teach them to do the common things of life so well that they may become useful and respected citizens. I would have the White Haven School reach out and gather in the very poor• est boy and make him a happy member of society. Happy be-cause he is independent, since no happiness can come in poverty.

If this is to be, we are to lay the foundation. Ten years from now this will be a suburban population, a school of possibly two hundred pupils, and it will be then that we must meet the new and larger conditions, whose foundation should be laid now. A strong illustration is of an old man planting fruit trees. A youth asked him why he did it, knowing he could never see his trees mature. The old man replied: "I may never partake of the fruit of this tree, but somebody will." And so it is with the school that is to be. Few of the children who are here now may reap of its benefits, but a number of others will, and it falls to our lot as men and women of the twentieth century to lay a broad foundation. Let us grow with the age, enlist outside interest and reach boys and girls without education and without occupation.

If I were a prophetess, I would sound a personal note. I would have them all marry and live happily ever afterwards, I would have the girl who longs for the coming of Prince Charming, "to find in his face the familiar grace of a friend she used to know," but fancy is fickle, and it is noteworthy that boys and girls who are intimately associated usually lack in their attachment for each other the sentimental note, so I must leave to futurity the coming of Prince Charming.

Again, if I were a prophetess, I would establish our boys in honorable professions. I would send one as a missionary, another I would station at an army post, and still another I would send across the seas, each one of whom would I picture as winning distinction in his calling, but again life is an intensely practical affair. Few, infinitely few, ever reach even local distinction, but I would wish for them, that, in their respective communities, not one would fail of being an honored and respected citizen. That of the talents which the Lord has given not one would bury his in the earth.
In conclusion, I make a plea for concentrated action toward the school of the future. When the first grade children climb the ladder, there is a thought goes with it, and it is this: "We build the ladder by which we climb, from the lowly earth to the skies above."

It rests with us. We have helped in accomplishments, our feet have already gone far beyond the bottom round of the ladder of progress. Ten years hence the boys and girls of the school of today will be in homes of their own, supporting, financially, mentally and morally the school as it will be.
I cannot conclude my prophesy, my good wishes, as well as my belief in their fulfillment, are unending. I can only add to what I have said, the same expression which Miss Williams used at the formal opening of the present building from Holmes' Chambered Nautilus :

"Build thee more stately mansions, 0 my soul,
As the swift seasons roll !
Leave thy low-vaulted past,
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!"

Our Seniors and Juniors.

Literary Notes

The last meeting of the Literary Society for the year was held to select the participants in the final declamatory contest. In the preliminary contests two were chosen from each grade with the exception of the seventh and tenth, so there appeared on this program representatives from the sixth, eighth, and ninth grades. The program was interspersed with music, first a song by Jimmie Powers, a piano solo by Sallie Love Banks, a song by eight little girls, "Where Visitors Come Round," and music by the quartet. The judge decided in favor of Samuel Raines from the sixth; Agnes Vaughn, from the eighth, and Anna Leigh McCorkle, from the ninth. These, with the addition of Myrtle Powers, from the seventh, and Annie Maie Dean, from the tenth, constitute the speakers for the final declamatory contest which takes place the evening preceding commencement.

Tennis Champions: Joseph Edmondson (l) and Morrison Raines (r)

TENNIS

White Haven has been more successful in tennis than in any other game.

Morrison Raines and Joseph H. Edmondson were selected to play for the students.

The first game of the season was played with Oakland Avenue on their court. This games was unusually close, Oakland carrying off the first set 7-5. However, during the second set Raines' cuts and drives began to tell. Edmondson's smashing won much applause, and deservedly so. White Haven won this set, 6-3. The third set was played with the same skill and dash, White Haven winning, 6-2. Will E. Dalton and Francis Livingston played for Oakland.

The game was umpired by Miss Margaret Farrow and Mr. J. Edmondson

The next game was with Millington, on their court. The same boys played for White Haven, and for Millington James J. Corbit and Martin Williams fought gamely to the last.

Our boys won easily the first two sets, the score being 6-3, 6-4. Messrs. Bryant and Edmondson umpired the game.

The Millington boys are manly fellows, and White Haven is glad to have met them on the court. Millington and White Haven agreed to play for the best two out of three games, so the next game was with Millington on the White Haven court. We were glad to meet these boys again. White Haven won, 6-0 and 7-5. This game decided the students' championship, as only three schools were contesting for it. So here three cheers, white Haven. May she live long enough to carry off all the championships.

Teachers Champions: Martha Van Hook and Maria Kimbrough

Of course teachers mustn't be outdone by students, so Misses Kimbrough and Van Hook decided to try for the teachers' championship. So they went to work and practiced with a vim Much credit and many thanks are due the boys who practiced them.

The first game in this contest was played April 25 with the teachers of Messick School, Misses Holden and Simmons, on Higbee's court. This game was easily won by White Haven, the score being 6-1, 6-3. The game was umpired by Mr. Raines and Miss Skipworth. The next game was played April 29, on the South Memphis court, with the Cuba teachers, Misses Williams and Coady. This proved a much harder game, but White Haven won, the score being 6-4 and 8-6. Miss Coleman refereed this game.

The game which was to decide the championship was played May 2, on South Memphis court, between Oakland Avenue and White Haven. This game was hard fought on both sides. Oakland captured the first set 6-4, but White Haven rallied and carried off the two last sets, 6-2, 6-4.

Miss Dean and Miss Hinton played for Oakland.

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