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REFLECTIONSThe School Magazine - Christmas 1926 |
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Schoolgirl Orators.By OLIVE BRACHER (Fourth Year). (After Addison.) NOTE - By the word "orator" in this article is meant "chatterbox.""Their untired lips a wordy torrent pour."It has been said in the praise of some boys that they can talk whole hours together upon anything; but it must be owned to the honour of the other sex that there are many among them who can talk whole hours together upon nothing. I have known a girl to hold forth on the advantages of the shingle, and chide her brother for filling her powder-box with flour (although I can't think how she noticed the difference), in all the figures of rhetoric. The first kind of schoolgirl orators which I shall take notice of are those who deal in invectives, and who are commonly known by the name of the censorious. With what a fluency of invention, and copiousness of expression, will they enlarge upon every little slip in the behaviour of another! With how many different circumstances, and with what variety of phrases, will they repeat the same story! I have known a girl make a fellow student's new dress the subject of a month's conversation. She raved over it in one place; criticised it in another; laughed at it in a third; coveted it in a fourth; hated it in a fifth; and, perhaps, took the whole of a mathematics' lesson to express her opinion of it. At length, after having quite exhausted the subject on this side, she went to the girl herself, praised her for her exquisite taste, and told her the sarcastic comments which some jealous people had cast upon her dress. The censure and approbation of this kind of schoolgirl are, therefore, only to be considered as helps to discourse. A second kind of schoolgirl orator may be comprehended under the word gossip. Miss Talkapace is perfectly accomplished in this sort of eloquence. She launches out into descriptions of dances, runs debates on the uses and abuses of lip-stick, knows the number of suits each boy in her class possesses, and entertains her class mates a whole playtime with her opinions of the way Smith does his hair. The flapper may be looked upon as a third kind of school-girl orator. To give herself a large field for discourse, she hates and loves in the same breath, talks amiably to her master or mistress, is uneasy in all kinds of weather, and in every desk in the room. She has false quarrels with, and is under feigned obligations to all the boys in her Form. She sighs when she is not sad, and laughs when she is not merry. The flapper is, in particular, a great mistress of that part of oratory which is called action, and, indeed, seems to speak for no other purpose but that it gives her an opportunity of stirring a limb, or varying a feature, of winking her eye, or arranging her hair. I have often been puzzled to assign a cause why girls should have this talent of ready utterance in so much greater perfection than boys, but whatever the reason, I think perhaps the Irishman's thought was a most natural one, who, after some hours' conversation with a schoolgirl orator, told her that he believed her tongue was very glad when she was asleep, for that it had not a moment's rest all the time she was awake. The Cake Sale.By LESLIE LAMBERT (Fourth Year). The excitement aroused in the School when Miss Ward announced that a Cake Sale was to be held on September 30th, can hardly be described in words. The First Year students (bless their innocent little hearts) wondered what in the name of goodness a cake sale really was; the Second Years had some vague and hazy ideas about it, but were astonished when told that they might bring pickles and jam (their own make, of course); the Third Years were quite well-informed on the subject, and only lamented that they could not price their goods at more than they cost; whilst the lordly Fourth Years were elated, not so much by the news of a cake sale, as by the prospect of a morning off from school work to prepare the Hall. Well, the eagerly-awaited and exciting day arrived at last, as all days must arrive, and nothing more astonished the Staff than the way in which all students remembered to bring their goods. "They don't remember to bring their homework like that," sighed one. (He couldn't possibly have been thinking of an A Form, could he, now?) The Fourth Years almost burst with delight at being allowed to help, and very soon the Hall and corridors were turned into one huge carpenter's shop. There was hurrying and scurrying, and banging and laughing, and standing back and running forward, and eager scanning of rival stalls, and advice freely given and jokingly taken, and periodical raids by small armies of workers on poor Mr. Oldland's sanctum, and "winning" of pitches and blackboards, and trestles and games, and flags and everything that could conceivably be of use in building up a stall. But above all, there was goodwill, unbounded enthusiasm and a splendid spirit of keen but friendly rivalry between the Houses. By 2.30, all was ready, and in one short morning our School had been turned into a vast fair. Then the crowds began to arrive. Our School owes something to the generosity of fathers, mothers, and grown-up friends who sent along such a wonderful assortment of delicacies and then came themselves in such welcome numbers to buy. They swarmed into the Hall, into the corridors and into the tea-room; they patronised the mystery rooms and tried their luck at the sideshows; they bought tickets for seemingly endless raffles and for impossible guessing competitions; but above all, they raided the stalls with such surprising effect that by 4.30 p.m. the four stalls which earlier in the day had been groaning under the weight of the good things piled high on them were completely empty. We are most anxious that parents should know how much we appreciated their splendid support, but we must not omit to pay tribute to the loyalty and enthusiasm of our own youngsters, who came to School that afternoon, their pockets bursting with money, and who spent every farthing at "The Fair" before the day was over. Moreover, they thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and it did one's heart good to see pastries, cakes, fruit, hot drinks, and ices, disappearing as if by magic down scores of young throats. This was team-work with a vengeance. The stalls were more elaborately built and more elaborately decorated than formerly, and when the sale began the Hall presented a very pretty sight indeed. In fact, the whole affair was on a much bigger and more ambitious scale than the last Cake Sale, and in consequence the success, financially, at any rate, was proportionately greater. All good things must come to an end, and when everything eatable had been eaten, and every prize had been won, the many visitors and scholars had regretfully to disperse and wend their way homeward. It was a most enjoyable and successful afternoon, and thanks are due, in particular, to Miss Ward, the originator of the idea and chief organiser. The very satisfactory financial result was as follows:-
An Incident at the Cake Sale.By OLIVE BRACHER (Fourth Year)
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