The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1868-06-15
WOMAF's sPHgREs AND WOMAN's
DUTIES, MOI
An Address by Miss Ida SnOWdeRs
OF MT. Auburn Seminary AZ tue
Graduating Exercises.

exercises, and possesses so much real
merit, that We copy it for the benefit
of our lady readers, especially the
younger portion Of them:
IF I were only a Gypsy to-day, and
had come to read the fortunes OF these
twelve young ladies, what a rush there
would be around me. How the pretty
white hands would wav and hutter
before my eyes till | would dream of
nothing but lilies for months to come !
Is there another class of beings as
fond of prying into the future as
school girls? Who can number the
apple seeds they have ohristened, and
the white horses they have counted?
Did Columbus ever show such perse-
verance in discovering America as is
evinced In tireless searchings after
four-leaved clovers? Could there be
a census taken of all the poor little
grasses that are tied up every year
into cunning little noosesI Never.
mind, l shan't tell what they mean.)
If Dame Society could take a peep
into the picture gallery of a school
girls brain how hattered and aston
ished she would be with the p0r-
trait of herself as it has been
painted from the enchanting dis
lance? What wonder that school
girls should sometimes tire of
all the little interests, the hopes, and
trials that have made the school your
world, are now to be laid aside and
become only memories of the past.
1t is time when, looking back at the
past and forward through the long
week of life, your query as to the
future is not a fippant one. Yet
your future is not entirely unknown.
Your past is full of prophecies. The
problem of the future may be worked
out according to the rule of proper
ton. In the ration of the past to the
present will be the relation Of
the present to the future. Out
of the treasures of your school life
prim Study in her Quaker dress, for
ever stopping as she talks to parse
and scan her sentences, with her
head full of nothing but triangles
and cube roots. But, to-day, all the
little superstitions and air-castles of
school girl life have a pathos, almost
a sacredness, that warns me against
making them the subjects of jest.
There is a sadness in the thought that
you may dig the material for your
future. VIII you learn a lesson in
metaphor? The young earth had a
long and severe education to accom-
plish before she could look proudly
around upon her sister planets and
feel she was ready to do her share of
work In the busy universe. The first
schoolmasters, the elements, were a
bad tempered race, the originals of
the birch and ferule type, and the
armament resOunded for long ages
with their fierce seedlings and lash
ings, and the earth trembled and
quaked, till the poor flesh crept into
wrinkles and ridges. and oceans OF
tears deluged her broad face. But at
last, on a bright morning, she sat
down, radiant in beauty, arrayed in
her graduating robes of green to re-
written: And God saw hal it was
good" And 10! her wealth, in long
deep strata, were the results Of years
of discipline. And now in her mighty
brain is packed away exhaustless
wisdom, the gatherings of those long
ages. We may dig, and wonder, and
geDeralize, but we cannot fathom it.
She keeps her profoundest secrets
we'll, although she is fond of a joke,
and scientists worry over the riddles
she gave them. while the old dame
laughs at their pains. But it was not
alone for science she was storing
away so long. With generous hand
she gives out the requirements OF
ages, not as the wonders of geology,
but as her stone, coal, iron and gold
Doubtless each one of you, with APP
propriating genius, is by this time
imagining herself as revolving in all
her planetary grandeur around a cen.
trail luminary, which to prevent mis-
Interpretation, is, OF course, the :" In
stitute."
But to return to the analogy. To.
day you look back over long years O.
study. In everything strata are their
accumulations packed ia your minds
years marked by perseverance and of
ten struggle; interesting discoverie;
of text book lore little tribolltes O.
geometry. history, etc, will often bt
thrown to the surface, 60 the wonder
ment and delight OF your friends, who
will store them away IN the cabinets
Of their memories as specimens o
your treasured wisdom. But as tn,
earth has obliterated many of her ex-
tinet generations and species, anC
changed them into common coal anC
stone, so with you The great bulk o
your requirements viii lose even th'
forms of life they once had; they vii
seen to be forgotten and lost, and We
they will have hardened into th'
rock aud coal that will be-needed fol
the demandsdOl practical lifesG4 g.
! The world expects of you, as edu
! Gated Nnman. -somethinp more thar