The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-16
THE GRADUATE SEASON.

The whole country, North, South, East,
West, is suffering from a series of commence
ment cyclones. Each days news brings
additional particulars, and the Oldest in
habitant is compelled to acknowledge that
the like has never been known. Indiana
storms of eloquence and logic have ricocheted
from Notre Dame to Hanover, doubled and
filled from Wabash to Earlham, and spread
devastation and terror throughout the
borders. Franklin has been visited, and
Bloomington overwhelmed, while the
danger signal has been run up over Asbury.
De PAW College has felt the breeze, and
Purdue and Butler have not escaped I'M
scathed And while all these places have
felt the force of these peculiar storms, high
schools and seminaries innumerable have
suffered from lighter squalls. But so COM
mon have these phenomena become that
they are no longer feared but rather
courted. AS the season approaches in which
they are most numerous, preparations are
restrained and spontaneous applause is as
sweet music, and the swirl of bouquets and
flowers becomes a sea of bliss. The excite
ment is intense; the earth and the ele-
ments seem in quick sympathy The spirits
of Demosthenes and Cicero return, the one
to receive his sheep-skin, the
other to deliver the masters grafton.
All the gods and goddesses are out in full
force The helmet-tossing Hector again
taunts Achilles from the gloriied walls of
Troy, while the very stars OF heaven bulge
out their eyes in the vain attempt to see the
whole show going on simultaneously in so
many rings. Zeus is present with his bolts
of celestial dynamite; Neptune disports
brand-new trident, and Vulcan trots out on
patent crutch Eolus bestirs himself, sorts
over his stock of winds, and selects the
bravest and best for this special blowout.
Pegasus is made to carry double, and Mer-
curry is tuckered out with the unprecedented
grand convivium deorum, and the seniors all
sit at the head of the table.
Out of all this glory and glamour, wrapped
in a nimbus such as enveloped Eneas as he
walked down the streets of Carthage in search
of Dido, the mighty senior staggers
in kind of divine intoxication, surfeited
from long indulgence in supermundane am
brosia not vouchsafed to less favored mortals.
The world is far beneath Kim. From the van
tage ground of the college rostrum, his next
step will place his eager but confident feet
upon the highest rung of the ladder OF earth
ly fame His head is among the
stars and the consultations are
trihe narrow in their bounds.
Dear boy What a pleasing dream he dreamsl
His pathway leads over the heads of all who
have gone before him. What glorious
thing it is to live. And how thankful he
ought to be that kindly fate has done so
much to supplement his native genius. The
latter alone would have carried him to the
summit of earthly ambition. The wings of
a classical education will carry him any
where. o, sweet simplicity of days gone by!
Do not arouse him just now Wait little
while, and he will awake. The coma of in
nocent conceit will be shaken off as the
necessity of doing something to win bread
and butter becomes apparent. The dizzy
height he now occupies is visible to
the naked eye of the masses below him, but
he is unconscious of it. The world is pretty
well peppered with seniors. They are the
salt of the earth, and salt is worth about
seventy cents a barrel now. 1t used to be
higher. But don't be discouraged, boys, when
you wake up and discover that some plebeian
is after the same thing you are. Go for it,
and maybe you'll get it. If you fail, don't
act naughty. 1t may be that some bright
fellow, who never went TO college and who
couldn't tell diploma from porous plas-
ter, will beat you in the race Such things
have occurred. Indeed, it may happen to
you. Heaven forbid; but it may. Sheep
skins are very good in their way, but they do
not contain a title deed TO everything in sight.
Be generous to those whom you outstrip in
the race of life, and don't lose patience when
others kick the dust in your face. 1t is free
for-all hurdle race; some will tumble in the
ditch while others finish the heat in tri-
umph Don'tlet the diploma weigh too heav-
lily on you. 1t it is good in its place, and a
good place for it is in the bottom drawer of
the bureau. Many young man is handi-
capped by that little vellum roll. Lay it
carefully away, and get good start with the
housekeeping young fellows who must de-