The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1875-06-30
GheGntelLfqetrter,
COIIege Degrees.

All the newspapers are tull OF College
Commencement proceedings, In some
respects the proceedings are not wholly
unintercsting to the general public, The
inirmities Of youth are more natural and
more tOlerable than those OF mature age,
and we all know that mankind in all its
stages, from the point where man "S''S'
poets himself fool" to that point where
he "reSolves and re.resOlveS aud dies the
same" Is full Of infrmities. 1t is one
Of the inlirmitics OF the average col
lepe graduate To make u speech
on Commencement day that nobody, out
side Of the pale Of his friends and ac-
onaintances, feels any interest in seeing
in print. Happy the young man who has
wisdom above his years sufficient to re-
fuse to print his Commencement speech
Like virtue, his wisdom will he its own
reward few years hence. lie will be
spared the inAiclion and allliction Of a
sight Of itwhen he has Oulgrown 'Is jaicy
ideas and still more juicy verbiage.
but the Sophomore speeches Of Com
mcnccmcnt days are traditional, II not
natural and Indispensable, accompani-
ments Of such occasions, And really
there seems to be no other way to have u
Commencement than to come together
and hear the boys speak their pieces"
Dickens tells us that there never was and
never will bc but one way to have cir
Gus, and that Is to have II just Us the
world is accustomed tn see II from year
to year, aud generation To. generation.
How elsc, said he, could any one get up
circus, even in Imagination, save as he
had seen it from boyhOod To old agc2
And 80, we may ask, how else could n
commencement day be so appropriately
employed as in giving the young men
chance to air their highfalutin Latin
and Greek quotations, Az learned non
sense II plcases the young lIedglings and
toacertain extent amuscs the audience.
But what is to be said Of the practice
Of college authorities, on Commencement
days, reading off a list Of persons scatter
ed here aud there throughout the coun'
try, upon whom they have conferred Ger
tain honorary degrees "in cOurse"--that Is
not by virtue Of anyspCcial merit m the
part Of the recipients, but simply because
a few years have elapsed since they went
forth ~ graduates Of the institution.
These degrees are conferred with all the
impartiality that charactGri1es the fall Of
the rain upon the just and unjust, and no
far as known, the only disqualification
on the part Of II graduate Of three or five
years standing Is his inability to pay five
dollars for certificate. II he has
tho necessary funds he can be dubbed
"Master Of Arts" without reference to his
proficiency after leaving college. Tho
consequence Is that this degree no longer
means anything when attached to any
ones name. 1t simply indicates that the
person graduated at some college once
upon time, and that few years there
after he was able TO pay five dollars for u
certificate uttesting that the college had
conferred upon him degree to which, in
all probability, he was not entitled.
So cheap and nnmeaning have all sorts
Of college degrees become these days that
the public take no account Of them. In
fact, It rather prejudices man in popu'
lar estimation to be seen In print with
one of these degrees appended to his
name. People understand that A. D. or
A. NJ. mean no more in science and liter.
nture than the empty titles Of Hon. or
Esq. mean in the political and social
world. II Is time that all respectable
colleges discontinued and tliscOunte-
nanced tho practice Of comforting degrees
except for conspicuous merit. When this
Is done their titles will carry some
weight with them In the estimation Of
the world, and cease TO be, as now, almost
cause Of rcproach.