Thomas County cat., 1889-08-08
sURDETTE.s ADVICE.
what tho Humorist Learned By Attending
| High School Commsncement.


High School Commencement.
My son. a few weeks since was
called out to the great State of Illinois
to attend the commencement exercises
OF the high school in Dwight, pretty
little town in Livingston County. You
know about what high school COM
mencement is; there were orations by
the young gentlemen and ladies upon
"The Golden Mean OF Mental. Moral
and Physical Power" From the Morn
ing to the Evening" Success" "A
Plea For :he Boy of To-day" "A Plea
For the Girl of To-day" ''John A.
Logan" and might Brings Out the
Stars" you know about what it Is.
Well. listened and 1 grew interested
and learned something that should
have known hundred years ago and
l was glad went to Dwight. Ill. and
attended high school commencement.
On my way back home talked it all
over with myself-you know l like to
talk with myself on the train, much
better then l do with the casual stran-
ger. Because when l get tired l
can shut myself up. whereas the COM
municative stranger who pulls his
mouth upon the defenseless traveller
will sometimes hold him up from Chi
cago to Brooklyn and talk him clear in
to the Eden of the Eagle Office. Think
ing over what the graduates of the
high school had said in Grafton and
ess,~, began to wish that I could
say the same things in the same way.
1 envied Louise De Clercq. and Nellie
Doherty. and Frederick Smith. and
Henry Wood. and Bessie Huey. and
Charles Vickery, and Nellie Jetfries,
their views of life. They had IA
miliar sound. too. but l didn't quite
recollect where 1 heard them before.
But it dawned on me. after awhile. 1
began to remember an essay on 1.-The
Press and the Ballot Box" which. at
the time I read it, believed contained
the essence of all Truth and Philoso-
ply. and was a prophecy Of what was
to be within a very few years from the
date of that masterly paper. And a
bright, rosy-tinted, glowing prophecy
it was I said: ''You miserable old
cynic-" you see in these familiar con-
versations which hold with the best
man on the train, l sometimes take
things from myself that l wouldn't
from a smaller man-''yOu miserable
old cynic, l know what is the matter
with you; you have lost enthusiasm;
and losing that you have lost all the
soul that mans work has. You
have lost enthusiasm, ana that makes
you hireling: you have lost faith and
that shrivels your soul; you have lost
'hurrah' and are of no earthly account
in a mass mveting; your waist has
grown faster than your mind, and
that has made you lazy; you are too
old for tennis. too scant in the breath
for baseball, too active for cricket.
too fond of ease for society. and be-
cause none of these are right in your
line. you say: IAN is vanity Every
thing is vanity to a useless man. Get
back to the starters scratch and begin
over. Look at the world as do these
youngsters and you'll believe more in
your fellow-men and in yourself. You
will correct certain mean tendencies
toward scofiing and burlesquiag every
thing that doesn't please you. talked
to myself like deacon all the way
across Ohio and Pennsylvania Then,
when l came East attended college
commencement. A great school; stan
dard higher than the mortgage on
the Eiffel Tower. lowered in corner
and was pounded into a condition of
with Greek OratiOns and
Latin essays. And the English orations
were marvels of elegant diction.
smooth. well-rounded sentences. and
the choicest English, clothing the |
nOblest sentiments, from which at in
tervals solid chunks of wisdom fell |
upon the floor with dull, sickening
thud. 1t was grand. and even the
president nodded his approval and |
grave professors forgot their dignity |
and applauded. And the president |
made speech and two or three |
learned doctors of the law and divinity |
made eloquent and thoughtful ad-
dresses. But wise and learned as it |
all was I kept on wondering where
l had heard it all before-saving
only the Greek and Latin All,
yes; l had it. At Dwight. That's
where l heard it. Sift the thought |
out of the language of the high school
out West and the university down
East, and it was about the same thing.
The same generous. manly, brave.
hopeful way of looking at things. the
same earnestness, the same enthusi-
asm that keeps the learned doctors as
young and brave as the boys whom
they teach, year after year; the same
sublime confidence in his own ability
to do little better than any other
man in the vineyard, shaping the
and nerving mind and body
of the high school boy and the college