Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-07-06
St. AIoYsius. school.

Too late for insertion in las
weeks paper we attended the com
mencement exercises of the Catholi,
schools, and found them very inter
esting.
First, there were no essays read
Our distinguished consideration was
at once propitiated by this unprece-
dented improvement. Not one boy
or girl undertook to enlighten us as
to the conditions of success in life,
or the sphere of woman's work, and
the amenities of editorial favor were
wonderfully conciliated thereby.
st. Aloysius shall hereafter stand in
our estimation on the level of st
Patrick. The latter drove reptiles
from Ireland, which does not affect
us much st. Aloysius has expelled
essay-reading from his school, which
does wonderfully Tighten the burden
upon the reporters shoulders.
The entertainment was exclusive
ly musical and dramatic and kept
up a pleasing interest throughout.
One great merit of these schools is
the general cultivation of vocal mu-
sic. We noticed the excellent train
ing in this department in our last
years account and we have since
observed it in the services of the
Catholic Church, the musical por-
ton of which is entirely performed
by the children of this school, to-
gether with their excellent teacher,
Miss Mary E. Parlin. One i'm
provement we observe this year is
that two of the boys DANES Parlin
and one of the Brennans) have at
tanned to the dignity of bass voices
and gave thereby efficient aid in the
chorus. The piano playing, in
which also boys and girls were both
exhibited, was such as to demon
strate correct teaching and refined |
taste on the part of the instructors.
We do not intend any invidious
comparisons, but cannot refrain
from mentioning the capital fun as
well as correct singing by Johnnie
Parlin in the song with chorus of
medicine Jack" Johnnie has
found out the art of making other
people laugh without laughing him
self, and kept us in roar, while he
remained as grave as a
judge.
But the amusement of the even
ing was the little dramatic piece,
''My Aunt's Heiress," played en-
tirely by girls. The interest of the
piece turns upon the test to which
the disinterestedness of an expectant
family is put by rich aunt. This
lady has suspicion that her neices'
affection is more addressed to her
money than to her person, so, to test
it, she visits the family at the same
time with very poor widow, also
u ACAoIAOhs 4OOlAA 10luICo CIIC DC1oO1-
ally unknown to the family and
mutually persOnate each others
characters. The natural result is
that the rich aunt, being supposed
to be the widow, is fiouted and in
suited and finally turned out of
doors, while the poor lady is fawned
upon by her neices in virtue of her
money. One of the girls,
however, treats the supposed widow
with kindness and refuses to tOady
to the supposed rich aunt, and, of
course, when the clearing up takes
place is adopted by the rich lady
and made her heiress. The acting
was capital throughout, and espe-
tally we would mention Misses Nc
Abbott, Kelley, and Mary
Parlin. The latter was irresistibly
comic as an English servant of all
work.
Altogether, we spent a pleasant
evening, highly pleased with the
of the scholars, and were
not bored for an instant. This is a
good deal to say of a school COM