The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1881-06-17
rnmnENrEmENr DAVE.
Days that Come bur once, and Vanish A.
Dream that HRs Been Told.

VIHW Oh lkg ShAAAAARat@4sNA
Morpsntown. This morning we publish
reports from Bethany and Fairmont, Next
week We shall have something about the
Commencement 1t Washington College,
for these are COMMENCEMENT times all
around us. A recent compilation OF sta
tistics reported S5B universities and col
lepes in this country, the whole number
OF students in which wcs t6 4Sl, and the
whole number oil students in the collegiate
department was 95.647. Imagine, then,
the number Of young people who are issu'
ing forth from the walls Of these iusti'
tutions armed with diplomat!
''Comms1Cemsng' is a very romantic
season Of the year and Of life with these
young people. The world Is all before
them, and "hearts beat high for praise'
that all too soon in the race OF lie twill
feel that pulse no more" We often think
OF an essay that we ouCo read on this sub
Iect, which is a. applicable now as on the
day on which 1t was written, and which
ran on this wise:
There is no series OF eyents In the roll
ing year about which clusters more OF in
teiiivent interest, OF romance, Of aspira'
ton, VI pride, oil hope, and into which Ia
compressed more OF the germs Of the
future Of the country than we fud In these
annual commsnCements OF the American
colleges, fne men who are TO shape
poli 10 , make aud interpret laws, direct
religion, guide scientific progress, frame
literature, advance the art Of healing,
secufe jlsIice in this country In the next
generation, are 10 be chosen from among
ines bows who are timidly making their
commencement bows amid these summer
heaIta, We call this holiday OF scholars
Ecommencement"On the lucIB a nOHtucHdO
principle, zee tuse II IL the end. II Is the
9raduste'B day, and II marks the close OF
delish iHl college lie,
no the Young scholar who graduates,
and the boy to whom the Time seems 40
far away when he, too, shall have Q Com:
mencunent, aud TO the B~tlveI'headed
scholar, 10 whom the time seems 20 short
Fl ca he, too, graduated, there is no other
Sucn romantic day In the whole year.
The oldest Of scholars will never have
ceased dfeamiug Of that early time when
he sat beneath thoae trees, or stood be.
meath those STARS, or wandered by that
gentle river, or tletnDllngIy looked
Into the eyes OF his Commencement
audience, and whUh - Tor perhaps
tho scholar 10 the only noble and
lofty loVer-irOm out that audience one
pair of ey % shOne like diamonds, and TO
his boyish fever the throng before him
seemed o setting for her eager face, flush
ed with love aud pride. The locks may
have whllened aud the heart grown hard.
hut the hearlless years will never have
driven away from the oldest alumnus the
recollection OF those hours when he also
had his ~ mposium with Plato, the robed
scholar, and talked and dreamed oil beauty
and Of love, aud when for him, too, the
ocean "Eppled aud ran and roared with
new music" az with the ears OF the sight.
less Homer he listened to the sound Of
the ''many'vOlCed bea." d,
II il probable that never before and
never Afler does the graduating orator
seem to himself TO occupy u position oil
SUCH exalted oInspiCtousness as on Com
menCemOnt.dsy; and 1t 10 likely that no
other audience 80 interesting can be gath
cred together among men as u Commence
ment audience, composed largely oil col.
leve alumni. There are not only the pride
and ambitions OF the graduating scholars,
but parental lOndness, brotherly and sis
terly sfrsCtiOn, affection tenderer than sis.
terry or brotherly, the COmplaCenCy and
anxiety Of the college faculty, the. In
tsiest Of the College "so%Clety"'-ior there
lie always a Society peculiarly the Dol:
lege's 0wn-tO garland the day and add
importance 10 the occasion. But none can
Look on h gathering OF alumni without
sadnees. Death has thinned the ranks oil
all the CLASSES, and among the living,
fame, 80 confidently expected by all on
their Commencement day, has come TO but
few. Iu the Commencement audience the
village pastor. silver.heAded, sad eyed,
occupies a conspicuous place. A faithful
student, he had very likely been the val
ediCtOfian OF his Class. In his youthful
devotion he had determined TO use his
talents TO
"Ttll Of the strife that won our life
With the ~lIcarnate con VI God"
He, too, had dreamed Of fame; but after
thirty, iOrty, fifty years have marched
solemnly between this and his Commence.
ment he il still preaching the new Gospel
In BOme little viIlage, on some obscure hill,
for q mesgre salary, 10 the manifest hand.
iul Oi hearers. He Is sure to make his
annual pilgrimage to his alma mater, for
the commencement Is almost his only
holiday, and faith his only B%olaCe; for
"Vetily l say unto you, they shall have
their reward"
In the lives Of many Of the Thousands Of
young men who are graduating In these
sultTy weeks the commencement time Ia q
fork Of the roads. The years are harden.
lug. Their tendency is to divorce the
student from the learning he has wooed.
The hope Of wealth alluIes. The cold
world Chills, In the esger race with
sCrambliny, earthly men the divine
charms ollearning are apt TO be forgotten.
She ia a gentle mistress. She draws by
delicate, Btlken threads, while the world
pulls with I~og.ChaiIs, but she will richly
repay CDnstanCy. Let the thousands OF
young men who are now graduating re.
solve to cling 10 her no 10 q dearly beloved.
Let them remember the celestial up.
peal that comes floating down through
more than q generation OF scholars,
uttered by q man whOl o iOur.score and
seven yeara wholly CnnatCfated TO the III.
tellec. are a crown Of American rejoicing,
whose name was among the earliest to lit
American literature out OF provinCiWlism
into the respect Of men Of letters across
the Bea. Let 1t ring In their ears like
the sound Of tho flute in the ears Of the
Mystic" as "the laws" sounded In the
ears OF the dying Socrates: "When you
shall say, "a do others, go must l.. 1 re-.
nounCs-1 am sorry for 1.-THE dreams Of
my youth. must let learning and 70
maniiC expectation 20 till a more con.
venient season-lhen dies tho man Ia ycu.
Then perish the buds Of art and poetry
and romance, as they have died already III
a thousand, thousand men. When that
hour shall come, see ~ IL that you hold
yourselves I AT tn the intellect"
We are indebted 10 W.. +. Peterson,
E.o otlhia rilv. fnr a conv Of thA ranoSi