Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-07-01

evidence nOt only VI tue INTEREST ieit III
our public schools, but it | a special
compliment to you. 1t is an honor |
trust you will fully appreciate.
You are graduates of the High School.
You have completed the required course
of study; but need not, ! am sure,
warn you against the mistake, the folly,
OF feeling that your educltion is con-
pleted. l do not believe there is one OF
you like the young miss mentioned in
your school readers, who, just fresh
from boarding school, exclaims; "Well,
my education is at last fnished" And,
after enumerating her accomplishments
complacently, concludes: "fhe only
wonder is that one head can contain it
ALL" You are wiser than that. You
know that you are only beginners.
l will not stop to give you the advice
customary on such occasions, good and
true enough, but trite, to the effect that
you are Just approaching the temple of
knowledge, whose threshold none may
cross and whose portals none may tread
without the humility of conscious ignor.
ance. | believe you already realize this.
But, on the other and, let us not dis
parage your requirements.
The fact that you have thus far
great sum of human knowledge is no
cause for Encouragement. What you
have Cleaned from your studies, the use
ful facts and principles with which yosi
have stored your minds, are OF no mean
value. Your studies have been pracii-
cal, and you will have occasion to use
your knowledge of them every day oi
your kyes.
But this is not all. 1t is the least OF
what you have gained. Ii your school
life has done for you what it should do,
you will go ont with your faculties more
or less trained. You have cultivated
the power of attention and concentra-
tion, and you will be able to listen to
the spoken sermon, lecture or oration.
and to lay hold upon and retain the
speakers thought.
You have learned TO read with dis
elimination, and you can absorb from
the printed page, easily and quickly, the
meaning Of the author when your percep-
tive faculties have been awakened and
cultivated, and you viii go out with
eyes that see and ears that hear. The
secrets of nature, sealed book to the
unobserving. will be revealed toyou, and
you can rightly judge the motives that
actuate yoar fellow men.
Ii your school life has done this, it
has been success. 1t has given you
the tools and taught you how to use
them.
And now, having received the gift,
you are responsible for its right use.
Your duties to the community are high
er, because of what it has done for you.
1t expects you to be good citizens, not
merely law-abiding and tax-paying, but
ready at all times, and under all circum-
stances, to throw the weight of yonr in.
huence on the side of law and order, and
against the common evils that constantly
threaten society. You cannot do less
than use that knowledge. which is pow
er, in helping to preserve the State to
which you owe it.
There is Just one thought in the way
of advice that wish TO give you. By far
the greater part of your education after
yon leave school, will be derived
from reading. 1t has been well
said that people are known by
the company they keep. The
books you read are as truly your com.
pany as are the people with whom yeu
associate. | need not admonish you to
be particular in your choice of friends
for your social standing depends upon
this. You would not be seen with any
but the best. You cannot afford to be
less carefal about your book friends
They have quite as much to do with
your character, and your intelligence.
You need not want for good books.
The list is long and varied, and a life
time will not suffice to peruse them all
But the world is also full of trashy litera.
ture, the reading of which works mani
fold injury. 1t is waste of time 1t
adds nothing to yonr stock of informa-
ton or your general culture. 1t is weak.
ening, creating a distaste for solid read
ing, it leaves you mentally poorer than
it found you.
In this age Of newspapers and rush OF
business the average man reads little else
than his daily paper. He has time or
takes time for no more. Let me caution
you, young men, against the mistake,
for it is mistake. Read the news, for
every intelligent citizen must do this,
but do not stop there, map out course
of reading, make list Of good books,
and let nothing deter you from reading
them.
And, yonng ladies, a word to you.
There is popular belief that the read.
ing of American women is almost exclu.
sively light and frivolous. They are
accused of being nation of novel read
els. There is too much truth in the
charge. Go to the Librarian in Downey
Block, and she will tell you that more
than three -fourths OF the books tax en-
out by lady members are novels, and
tleas by no means all standard. This
.asGltsaa y -.3sls- "a. Morris of fctisn have
ueSh0 AiSs ~ uc. S.ihs - .l.es- t. 80
their place in literature. They are
great teachers. But when they monop.
oiizc all ones spare time they become an
evil They are the mental pastry. and
when they displaoe the appetite for solid
food they are both positive and a neg.
alive injury. Read novel now and
then-never any but the best;-hut for
every novel read three books Of history,
science, travel, biography or poetry.
Read and digest them, and they will
make you grow.
And one thing more, As graduates of
our High School, you represent its re.
snlts, Its reputation depends upon YOU.
You are responsible for its good name.
Because OF tho extra advantages YOU
have had your course will be watched
more closely and yosr success or failure
be noted; your activity or want of it
will be commented upon.
Our High School has its enemies as
well as its friends. There are those
among us who do not believe in it.
Their chief argument is the claim that
its results do not justify its maintenance:
that its graduates are, rs rule, untitled
for the practical Duties Of life, They
believe, and honestly, that you. young
men, are not needed in the crowded pro.
LESSONS and the lighter employments;
that you are no better prepared and are
less willing to become artisans, trades.
men or farmers.
And they say that you, young ladies',
are spoiled, too; that you are likely to
become ornamental rather than useful
members Of aoplety, 1T only to adorn the
parlor aud play the piano, while your
mothers occupy the sewing raom and
kitchen,
It 10 too common to hear and read al.
lpsions to the High School graduate as
the type of useless, impractical person.
Now, 1t is your business to show the
world that this is a mistake. Our High
School may be said to be on trial for It's
life. You are the witnesses in its de.
fense. If your lives do not commend it.
then must i he condemned,
Your friends and the friends of the
High School in general, believe that it
is an essential part of the common school
system, Its crown and ornament, and 60
rut it of, would defape and mar the
whole structure.
Yours is the tenth and the largest
class to graduate from our High School.
Beginning nine years ago with a class of
ieven the number has gradually increas-
I'd to the twenty-five who now stand be. |
ore me. OF the past of our own school,
am glad 70 say we have no reason TO be 1
'shamed. II doas not at all Justify the |