Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-07-05
AT THE CONNIE NCEL,ENT.
Burdette Attends the Exercises at Tw
Schools and Learns Some thing.

My SOn, rev weeks since 4 was
called out to the great state of Illinois
to attend the commencement exercises
Of tho 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
Morning to the Evening" Success
"a Plea for the Boy Of Today" "a
Plea for the Girl of Today" John A.
Logan" and might Brings Out the
Stars" you know about what it is.
Well, | listened and I grew interested
have known hundred years ago and
I was glad I went to Dwight, Ills,
and attended high school commence
ment.
On my way back home / talked it
all over with myself-you know like
to talk with myself on the train much
better than I do with casual stran-
ger. Because when get tired l can
shut myself up, whereas the commu-
NEGATIVE stranger who pulls his mouth
upon the defenseless traveller will
sometimes hold him up from Chicago
to Brooklyn and talk him clear into
the Eden of The Eagle office.
Thinking over what the graduates
of the high school had said in Grafton
and essay, began to wish that could
say the same things in the same way.
envied Louise De Clercq, and Nellie
Dougherty, and Frederick Smith, and
Henry Wood, and Bessie Huey, and
Charles Vickery and Nellie Jeffries
their views of life. They had famil-
lar sound, too, but didn't quite recol-
lect where heard them before. But
it dawned on me after awhile. In be-
/ gan 10 remember an essay on Tho
Press and the Ballot Box" which, al
the time read it, l believed contained
the essence of all truth and philoso-
ply, and was prophecy of what was
to be within very few years frorp
the date of that mastery paper. And
bright, rosy tinted, glowing prophecy
it was.
l said, you miserable old cynic'-
you see in these familiar conversations
which hold with the best man on the
train, | sometimes take things from
myself that l wouldn't stand from q
smaller man-"you miserable old
cynic, | know what is the matter with
you; you have lost enthusiasm; and
losing that you have lost all the soul
that q mans work has You have lost
enthusiasm, and that makes you a
hireGng you have lost faith and that
shrivels your SOUL you have lost your
'hurrah' and are OF no earthly account
in a mass meeting; 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 base
ball, too active for cricket, too fond
of ease for society, and because none
of these things are right in your line,
you say: All is vanity Everything
is vanity to useless man. Get back
TO the starters scratch and begin over.
, Look at the world as do these young
sters and you'll believe more in your
fellowmen and more in yourself. You
will correct certain mean tendencies
, toward soothing and burlcsquing every
, thing that doesn't please you"
talked to myself like a deacon all
the way across Ohio and Pennsyl-
; vania- Then, when came east I at
. tended q college commencement. a
, great school, standard higher than
the mortgage on the Eiffel tower. l
covered in corner and was pounded
into condition of numbness 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 intervals solid chunks of
q wisdom fell upon the floor with dull.
: sickening thud. 1t was grand, and
: even the president nodded approval
: and grave professors forgot their dig
: nifty and applauded. And the presi-
dent made a speech, and two or three
learned doctors of law and divinity
= made eloquent and thoughtful adj
dresses. But wise and learned as il
all was kept wondering where had
). heard it all before-saving only the
S Greek and Latin. All, yes; had it.
o At Dwight. That's where heard it.
!, Sift the thought out of the language
of the high school out west and the
0 university down east. and it was about
II the same thing. The same generous,
9 manly. brave, hopeful way Of looking
9 at things, the same earnestness, the
i same enthusiasm that keeps the learned
T doctors as young and brave as the boys
u whom they teach, year after year; thu
same sublime confidence in his OWL
) ability TO do little better than any
It other man in the vineyard. shaping
@ the thought and nervipg mind and
IS body of the high school boy and the
J. college graduate; no wonder | enviec
Il them. felt grateful to them. Imadt
:, up-what for the sake of brevity
!, may be permitted to call my mind,
q that would look at the world with
+ their eyes; that would believe il
g them; that would grumble less ano
T. sing more; that would close out my
l. stock of censure and put in full line
IS of praise; that would sigh less fire
u quently and hurrah more loudly, anc
% upon slighter provocation-
70 am going to every commencement
at Haverford, my boy, between nov
and the year when you will cross The
threshold, and you look to it that wheI
le you graduate your old father won
-e know nearly as much as you do.-Rob