Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-07-01

our public schools, but II 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 l need not, l am sure,
warn you against the mistake, the folly,
OF feeling that your educition is coln-
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 finished" And.
after enumerating her accomplishments
complacenty, concludes: "rhe 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 advics
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.
psrage your requirements.
The fact that you have thus far
gained but a small fraction of the
great sum OF human knowledge is no
cause for Encouragement. What You
have Cleaned from your studies, the use
full facts and principles with which yoa
have stored your minds, are of no mear,
vaiue. Your studies have been practi-
cal, and you will have occasion to use
your knowledge OF them every day of
your lives.
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 60 out with ysur faculties more
OF less trained. You have cultivated
the power Of attention and concentra.
ton, and you will be able to listen to
the spoken sermon, lecture or grafton,
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 aud
cultivated, and you VIII 90 out with
eyes that see and ears that hear. The
secrets of nature, a sealed book to the
unobserving, will be revealed to you, and
you can rightly judge the motives that
actuate yoar fellow men.
II your school life has done this, it
has been success. II 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
fuence 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 yon 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 we'll
said that people are known by
the company they keep. The
books you read are as truly your com
plny as are the people with whom you
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 uffice 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 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 msn, 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, 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 a nation of novel read
els. There is too mach truth in the
charge. Go to the Librarian in Downey
Block, and she will tell you that more
than three-fourths of the books taken
out by lady members are novels, and
tlese by no means all standard. This
ought ac. 20 be. Wosks C tietian hasa
their place in literature. They are
great teachers. But when they monop-
olize all ones spare time they become an
evil. They are the mental pastry, and
when they dispiaoe the appetite for solid
food they are both positive and neg
alive injury. Read novel now and
then-never any bnt the best;-but 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,
suits, Its reputation depends upon you,
You are responsible for its good name.
Because OF the extra advantages YOU
have had your course will be watched
more closely and yo.r 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, as rule, untitled
fop thu practical duties OF life, They
believe, and honestly, that You, young
men, are not needed in the crowded pro.
fessions 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
membeFz OF soplety, 1T only to adorn the
parlor and play the piano, while your
mothers occupy the sewing room and
kitchen,
1t 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 mistake. Our High
School may be said to be on trial for its
life. You are the witnesses in its de-
Tense. II your lives do not commend it,
then must it be condemned.
Four friends and the friends of the
High School in general, believe that 1t
is IN essential part of the common school
system, Its erowA and ornament, and TO
cut it of, would defaee and mar the
whole structure.
Yours is the tenth and the largest
class to graduate from our High School.
nine years ago with class of
seven the number has gradually increas.
ed to the twenty-five who now stand be-.
fore me. OF the past of our own school,
| am glad TO say we havs no reason to be
ashamed. II does not at all jAst;fy the
nri tiris,n of its anen,ias