The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1880-06-19
COLLEGE oommENoEmrNrs.

we are now Ill Une very midst OF
the Commencement season. The col
leges OF the State, both male and
female, are in the throes of excitement
for the stirring scenes about to be en-
acted within their respective " classic
walls.n With some of them the great
annual agony is over, and they are ac-
cordingly happy. But the most OF
them have reserved the torture for
next week. We have an idea that a
good deal of this annual crucifiXion
could be omitted without serious detri-
ment to the cause of education. A
prolonged examination of classes in
their text books, for instance, before
II set of rusty trustees, nearly all of
whom have gotten bravely over the
little Latin and Greek they once knew,
and have wasted no time in 20 years
in keeping pace with the improve
ments in school books, maps and
charts, is, to draw it mildly, an intlic-
.tion which nobody ought to be expected
to endure tamely, unless he had Il child
there to enlist his sympathy.
And when the prodigiously learned
President squares himself in crowd
ed and heated room, for an airing be-
fore his graduating class, and deliber-
ately fires off two hours broadside
of Astounding platitudes and somnifer-
Gus metaphysics upon them, sur
charged with Greek and Hebrew, and
anodyne quotations from ancient old
fogies, he ought not to be surprised if
he never got chance at those young
graduates again. All college graduates
are doomed TO suffer somethingsof this
sort-it is in the programme condi-
ton necessary to observation-disclosures
Presidents are not devoid of mercy for
their helpless victims, and the patient,
long-suffering visitors who are COM
PEELED to listen, and considerably make
their addresses short. Nobody expects
them to be interesting. 1t would not
comport well with the dignity and
scholarly reputation of q college Presi-
dent to make speech, to graduating
class, that was not just little too deep
and reconcile and serious for the ordi-
nary mind to take an immediate hold
upon.
We don't think a school eXamina-
ton amounts to much, and if we had
our way, we would eliminate much of
that prOsy exercise from our schools,
and economize the time wasted in pre-
pairing for them. But the aesthetic
it would be well to en-
large, and we are glad to notice that
they are enlarged in most of our
schools and colleges. When these
are skillfully arranged, they are not
only entertaining, but serve fine
purpose in stimulating the pride of
the pupil, and in developing the prac-
teal scope of his learning.
w lGll tllc l'iDllC tiIC III IuSb w u |
school or college entertainment, it |
should be the paramount aim of the
stage manager to cast his characters
md arrange the performance to please
the audience. To do this no dry, flaw
Orless, long-winded act should be adj
mitted If it turns out that some of
the performers have no talent to please,
let them resort to brevity. Nothing
in the world is so comfortable as
Dgevity when a stage-strucll youth or
| pithless orator is on the floor. He
nay not make much out of his
part, but he will tickle his h, arers
by stopping quick. Give
such subject a short spout-the
shorter the better.
AS THE COMET fee s lively inter
,st in the success and progress Of the
schools and colleges of the State, it
will have reporters for as many of
hem as it can next week, and will
AXE pleasure in printing short descrip-
i've sketches from those where it has
10 accredited representatives.