The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1870-06-20
BETHANY COLLEGE,

Honor Boys--The Speeches-.Thi
Professors and the Course Of study
BETHANY, June 10, 1870.
To tho Wheeling lnteill0elcer: 90. ..,,.sfs
This is Commencement week Mt Beth
any, and consequently the village Is asst
with excitement. Commencement week
like the Christmas holidays, comes bu
once a year, but it is much more i'm
portant period to all college boys, ,"Wer,
you neer Il scNoOlbOy," and especially
college boy, and did you never thrill will
high anticipations at the thought Of you
last Commencement week. If yol
never did, 1t is of no use for me to at
tempt 10 thrill you ut this last stage o
your existence, and l shall not waste you
valuable space in vain effort to that end
And, besides, having grown somewha
practical myself since those days, fear i
would be difficult for me to galvanize thu
ancient feelings into much activity for
special occasion like this.
As an evidence Of my utterly unroman
tic way of looking at things nowadays
/ will remark that Commencement weel
at n College reminds me of nothing sc
much Us an emancipation proclamation
or one Of the numerous amendments u
the Constitution, whereby freedom i!
vouchsafed to IL certain number ofhumar
beings known US college boys, and wht
are thereby emancipateda from the c0ntro
of Professors and Tutors and permitted u
20 forth without restraint beyond the sOunC
Of the college bell. On Commencement
day a portion of these boys gettheir free pa
pers, known as Diplomas, and are thence
forth adrif( in life on their own resources
like so many Intelligent cOntrabands.'
To this freedom the poor fellows have
looked forward as q time in which they
would really commence TO live. Like the
man who altogether ignored that part O
his life spent on the Eastern Shore o
Maryland, these college boys take very
little account, in one sense Of the word
of the academic part Of their existence
0fcourse, they have their cnjOyments a!
they 20 along, and become deeply attached
to their college associations, but still they
live in an ideal world that exists for them
only in the future after they shall have
LEFT college. BY and by they will sec
things differently, but in the meantime lei
them enjoy their UtOpian iancies.
To these College boys, one and all, grad
uate and Undergraduate, Commencement
Week brings variety Of eXcitemCnts. In
the first place it brings to the College theil
friends and relatives, including fathers and
mothers, brothers and sisters, to say moth
ing about many attractive young ladies,
all come to hear the boys perform IN some
of the various exercises incident to the
week, And nowonder the boys set alIigh
value OH theirsevcraI performances seeing
that other people are willing, many Of
them, to travel ever so fur 10 be witnesses
of their intellectual, achievements When
some Of these boys gettO the legislature Of
their States, as no doubt they will. they
whine feel again, Us they do on these Oc'
casions, the pulsations oftremendOus 0mbi'
ton. BY the time they get TO the legisla.
ttire they will have hadseveral rough and
tumble encounters with the world, and
perhaps they will have also during that
time read and adopted tic ideas Of the
Country ParsOn - concerning veal" The
Country Parson thinks there jsInothing
that so much humiliatcs our poor human
nature rs to dig up II COMMENCEMENT
speech from the bottom Of y barrel twenty
or thirty years after its delivery It Is
then that the College boy grown TO be a
gray.haircd man, feels tempted to strike
out line after line; sentence after sentence,
until finally he concludes that If the per.
tormance were 10 be gone over again, he
would razec the whole document from AL
mia to Omega. Ifhe has been thinker
and worker in these twenty or thirty
years, lie Sees how very far he has out
grown his early production. He involun
tarily takes his pencil out of his pocket
and writes "ycal over each page us he
turns the leaves. By "vCal" lie means
something immature- something crude
something that is not good, Juicy, whole
some beet.
But then on the other hand, suppose
that every body, mean every College
boy, could see his first performance by
the light Of age and experience, whence
would come the glory and romance Of
College days and especially commence
mcnt week! lmany times imagine that
nothing can be more truly refreshing and
interesting to one Of these real thinkers
and workers who, have been out in the
world long time, and who have gotten
rid ofeverything vcally, to come back hero
and set down in the pleasant shades ofhis
"Almo Mater" and be boy again while
he listens to the rich and exuberant Ian
guage ofthose who stand where he once
stood. Itisa consolation t0lbc reminded
once and awhile that life is not altogether
made up Of GAdgrind's hard, unyiGlding
"facts," and that after all we acquire cx,
pCricncc by the sacrifice Of very much
that is natural and enjoyable. Let us all
therefore say in reference to these com.
mencemcnt seasons, In the language Of
one oftlie boys to-day 4" Ldra, keep our
memory green" ...,-... .r...
But, Messrs. Editors, set out TO write
yOn something about the commencement
exercises, and here am talking ut ran.
dom about the Country Parson. | ought
by this time to have told those Of your
readers who are uninlOrmGd on, the sub.
jcct, what kind Of place Bethany is
where these commencement exercises arc
going on. For their information l will
ODScINC IISAt hClC tIuG IL - lJlcusuHt lIt'
tic village, seven miles cast Of the Ohio
river at Wellsburg, and that you reach II
from the latter place by pike on which
runs u daily mail hack. 1t is considered
n very romantic spot, being shut in from
the noisy world by the everlasting hills
which tower above it like good sizel
mountains. Those who have journeyed
great deal over the world have been
heard to speak Of it as one OF the mut
beautiful locations known to their travels
and as the very spot for IN institution
of learning When the College was
first built here there was no village, and
scarcely house In the vicinity. Near
ly all the strangers who came tc
the commencement in those carly days
were entertained at tile residence Of the