THE FIRST G.H.S. JOURNAL
[Girls' High School, San Francisco]
Early in the spring term of 1895, a Senior girl was incited by a dream which pictured Lowell High possessing a school journal and mocking G.H.S. for not having one. In her dream this student promptly answered, "We'll show you! We will have a school publication, and no other shall be its equal." The following morning she recalled her dream and the boast that she had made. "It is for me to make good that boast," she thought.
Later, when walking to school with her friend, she related her dream. Both agreed to spread the idea, until a fair-sized group was working on the thought. Then they consulted with Mr. Brooks, who was principal at the time. As he was eager to have the girls work at anything that was for their good, he accepted the idea, and gave them authority to go ahead with their plans.
The next step was taken in interviewing the printer and becoming acquainted with the procedure of publishing THE JOURNAL. The originator of the idea was so interested, and she was so carried away by her ambitions and expectations that she cut an algebra class to get to the printer's office more quickly. The printer told her that it would be best to have it printed at the least possible expense, and to raise the funds, which would be about fifty dollars, from advertisements. With this end in view the school started organizing a staff. Not knowing what officers were necessary to meet the demands, they selected a President and an Editor-in-Chief with many Associate Editors. There were numerous committees for soliciting advertisements. The first ad was a full page, costing the advertiser five dollars.
All went well. Articles came in, and the magazine was sent to press for publication. Proud was the class of '95 when the first issue of the G.H.S. Student Journal came from the printer and sold for ten cents a copy.
It was a very crude affair, made of paper not much better than that used for our modern newspaper. Nevertheless it paid for itself. There were no pictures in it other than the full page "blouse ad." The pictures of the Seniors did not grace the first few pages, and the school activities were not represented. It was purely a literary magazine, with a "phonograph" of comments about the girls. All the contributors wrote under Nommes de Plume with a key to these on the back cover. However, the Girls High Journal of '95 made an impression on the school and there was no desire to discontinue it on the part of either the faculty or the student-body; and so it exists to this day, growing larger and finer with each new issue.
ROSALIE SILVERBERG, June '29.