The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-05-29
EXTRACTS FROM
ADDRESS TO GRADUATING CLAS
FTHE DEER LODGE HIGH SCHOOL.
Written by Hon. Cornelius Hedges and Deliv-
cred by II. r. Whitehiii, Esq, at the Com
mencement Exercises Friday Evening,
May 81, 1885.

cred by II. r. Whitehiii, Esq, at the Com
mencement Exercises Friday Evening,
May 81, 1885.
Ny Young Friends
We have gathered here this evening, par
ents, teachers, friends, to do ysu honor; to
crown with the laurels of our grateful appre.
citation and praise the brow of you who have
run the race and reached the goal Of the
public school career and curriculum.
Among the intellectual, artistic and
esthstic Greeks, in the days Of their best
estate, it was accounted the highest attain
ment to be acknowledged, crowned and in.
scribed as victor in the various national
games. In their praise and honor their poets
sang and their orators poured forth their
most finished eloquencs. In our day the
world cares little who was the best charioteer,
the swiftest runner, or the most expert
wrestler At the Olympic or Isthmian games,
but We still read with delight the poetic and
oratorical tribut es then offered TO the vIctors,
and in some degree join their enthusiasm
for gymnastic sports and success.
You have been engaged in q noble strug-
gle, requiring daily lfdenying application
and training, through many long months,
and months always seem longer In early life
That your numbers are so few to-day, bears
mute evidence Of the many casualties that
attend such a struggle as you have passed
through successfully to Its end. Surely
you are not the only ones who entered this
contest, or at times during its continuance
have been associated with you. They are
not all dead. They have fallen out of line
and joined the great mass of strugglers that
make up the great bulk of society. Some
became weary OF work and stopped TO rest.
As q consequence they lost their place in
the line or class and were unable to regain
lost ground and were ashamed TO join the
roar ranks, so they left school with its chief
work undone. Some became discouraged
by the difficulties of the work and the dreary
look of the long road ahead and gave up the
who accept defeat once, will accept it moro
readily still the next time, and life to such
soon becomes losing game.
A great share of the fearful fatalities that
has left your ranks so thin to-day, can be
traced back TO irregularlty of Attendance, for
which parents are more to blame than the
children. For some frivolous, or at least in
sufficient excuse o child Is allowed to re-
main away part Of one day. A lesson is lost
that Is never made up. If the subject Of
study was hard and dull before il Is harder
and duller afterwards. Every repeated
hardness or absence becomes easier and less
painful, and before parent or child Is aware
all interest In study and school life Is gone.
The loss was seemingly a little one At first,
but II grew till unconsciously it became
very large one. No one can estimate in Its
far. reaching results the loss to child Of all
interest in school life, in intellectual effort
and discipline. Society is rank and rife with
the heresy that children's life should be
made bright and happy with perpetual play.
that 1t Is more or less crime to shut chill
dren up In a school room in pleasant wealth.
er, and contine them to daily drill in men
tai sbstractness. They forget that without
work, play is impossible. Work and play,
toll and rest should 60 together all through
life, associated with as much regularity IS
day and night, summer and winter.
You have reached point in your mental
and moral development where words of praise
and smiles of approval from parents and
teachers are no longer your chief incentive
TO action. You have learned to find salts.
flying pleasure in what others regard as dull
and dreary toll. Yoa live in larger world,
by reason Of The enlargement and discipline
of your intellectual faculties. You know
of ages past In other countries
and can still converse through the printed
page with those who have been the worlds
greatest heroes, teachers aud benefactors,
and then, besides larger present, endowed
with intenser life, there stretches out before
your Imagination a greater and brighter flu
ture in which these things are to be COM
pleted which have been slowly evolving from
human experience. You have begun 10
know that MUD is more than matter; that
spirit is more than body; that what the
world thinks and calls substance is only the
shadow; that thought is more than thing;
that in the mind and soul, when consciously
awakened, there are creative powers that
can call together the dry bones of facts and
substance that lie strewn along the pathway
Of every ones daily life, cover them with
desh aud breathe into them the very breath
Of life.
As q sincere, earnest and hopeful friend Of
our public school system, feel that you are
entitled to especial thanks from all the
friends and patrons Of that system, for hay
ing adhered to the prescribed course till you
present To the public sample Of an educa-
tien that has been offered and intended for
all. You are as we'll aware as We are that
you have not completed your education.
There 10 no such Thing as completed edu-
cation. II is only the beginning of an edu-
cation that any school, even the higher col
lege and university, ever truthfully pretends
10 give-and the highest single element in
any education is the habit, taste, disposition
4 nd skill to continue study under all cir
cumstances and in every direction as expe.
rience and opportunity open the way. But
On the principle that thing well begun Is
half done, 1t is evident it is evident that our
public schools have the best and most i'm
portant part of the whole field of education.
The trouble is to get hold and keep hold of
children till their education is fairly well
begun.
Without tarryiDg longer 10 illustrate the
dea that wish to convey, 1t may be summed
up IN this: that IL requires the time that
.hese young lady graduates have spent in
faithful study, punctual and regular attend
teachers to acquire the habit and taste of
study, mastery Of the printed page, q con-
idsnce in their own mental faculties,
power of concentration of thought, and q
facility of clear and forcible expression, that
constitute the leading traits and real be-
ginning of an education. IL Is such work
hat our public schools should accomplish
for every child before school age and school
are passed and the more serious
and responsible work of life is taken up.
When we spend more time In preparation
Tor the serrsus business of life, our people
will do more and better work through life
md their powers of work will be prolonged.
Far the greater part of the faults aud fail
lres charged to our public schools lie out
tide in parental neglect and .hortsighted-
ness. III children are sent promptly and reg
llarly to school and kept steadily At the work
Ill the prescribed course is finished, with
proper announcements from parents, teach
srs and society, with q suitable manifesto.
ion Of interest in, and appreciation Of, the
Importance of education with the auxiliaries
of libraries and social literary organizations
and good books and papers at home then
only will it be proper TO charge the fault
upon Incompetent teachers and defective
,cheol system that so few comparatively &C. |
,uire taste for study and achieve any prac-
.ical success in their scholastic career.
You are further to be commended for thus
Far pursuing your studies In the public |
schools, where competition is open TO all on |
equal terms and no favoritisIn Is shown. |
Many fond parents think private schools far |
far more select companioDship, |
greater relaxation from the hard work Of
tudy and corresponding increase Of fattery |