The San Francisco call., 1907-02-03

mont Park was Miss Bunner. In 1904.
Miss Clark gave a trolley party, anf
on few occasions hotel or restaurant
breakfasts have made a pleasant vari-
alton.
If it were asked how these annual; !,
reunions have been kept up for SOD
many years. the explanation would lie
In the good feeling existing between
members OF the class and to an entire
lack of formality. Husbands and chill
dren have always been made welcome,
and teachers from the old high school
days have received special honor. A
large proportion of the class is always
present, and few absentees fail to send
letters. There have been many travel
ers among them, and chatty descriptive
letters from various points in the
United States and Europe are nearly
always a part of the programme.
OF the twenty living members OF
the class twenty have been married. and
of these eight are widows. Most of the
bachelor members are engaged In
teaching. Time has, on the whole. dealt
gently with them. and the happy and
prosperous looking matrons who now
surround the table do not look as II
thirty-four years lay between them and
graduation day. As was remarked on
the last occasion, the annual gatherings
have now taken on a sacred character.
The friendships begun in school days
have grown frIner with the years, and
there is no reason to believe that It's
strength will ever diminish or that the
custom of yearly meetings will Ian
guish for want OF interest. The fol-
lowing poem was composed by Mrs
Gertrude Gallagher Hall for the ami
versary of 1883.
How many years did you saw? Eleven,
Oh, pshaw! strike on some six or seven.
And come little nearer the truth; yet say,
There are faces here unchanged by day
The same light shines in the earnest eyes,
The same gay, girlish and laughing guIse;
These voices echoes OF grlish days;
These ways are reflections Of girlish ways.
And she who points to that brave little lad.
Who smooths the tangled curIs with pride,
OF the little maiden who clings to her side.
And tells of her recent tin wedding. and shows
How tight and thin her wedding ring Erows,
And puts a little matronly air
And tries 10 display some burrows Of care,
Why she was always-a cut-up, we know;
She's joking, she's joking, she can't fool u sa
And yet we know that the hand Of time
Is almost full the dal'S prime,
And the decade just passed beyond recall.
And because Iffes lessons are hard to learn.
And harder still with each page we turn,
And because its motto is surely brief,
A little of joy and much OF grief;
Something OF happiness much of pain,
The web of loss and the wool of gain;
] look on these faces dear and true.
And think of the histories woven through.
UT tne under-curreOt tndI eacn can near,
Unknown to the friendliest
Through thoughts like these the past appears,
And the mist of years is the mist OF tears.
Yet pledge all who here today
All! All, For there is not away.
They are here, all here, the absent and dear;
They are here in our hearts. and In spirit here,
And clasping hands with pressure Of old,
Not is missing. not one is cold
And she who has left she. too, is here:
We feel it. who know her presence is near.
She who once stood. with side BY side,
And is wise the heavens vida
For, il one has studied the realms of mind
Till the brain tired. the eyes were blind.
IL has scaled the summit of bliss
When she felt the warmth Of her first born'B kiss
II another has sounded the depths of woe.
Learning all that suffering heart may know;
If one has watched hopes rainbow spread
And another has watched where hope lay dead,
Yet she alone knows more than these
She has fatherned the yeriest mysteries
So akin to the wonderful land.
Reaching up and clsspng spirit hand;
And. humbiy grateful that We may be
So linked TO the strange eternity.
We give God thanks that our years eleven
Are Joined, in her. to the cycles of Heaven