Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-08-15
BURoETTEs ADVICE.
What the Humorist Learned By Attending
High school Commencement.


My son, q few weeks since / wQs
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 The Boy of To-day" A Plea
For the Girl of To-day" "JOhn A.
Logan" and Might Brings { :: the
Stars" you know about wha. it is.
Well, listened and 1 grew interested
and learned something that / should
have known hundred years ago and
/ was glad went to Dwight, Ill. and
attended high school commencement
On my way back home l talked it all
over with myself-yOu know l like to
talk with myself on the train, much
better then | do with the casual stran-
ger. Because when l get tired
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
essay, l began to wish that l could
say the same things in the same way.
l envied Louise De Clercq. and Nellie
Doherty, and Frederick Smith. and
Henry Wood. and Bessie Huey. and
Charles Vickery, and Nellie Jeffries,
their views of life. They had a ia
miliar sound, too, but l didn't quite
recollect where l heard them before
But it dawned on me, after awhile. l
began to remember an essay on The
Press and the Ballot Box" which, at
the time l 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 mastery paper. And a
bright, rosy-tinted, glowing prophecy
it was. l 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 q 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, and 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 meeting; your waist ha;
grown faster than your mind, and
that has made you lazy; you are foo
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 YOU
line, you say: All is vanity Ever!
thing is vanity to useless man. &c
back to the starters scratch and begil
over. Look at the world as do thest
youngsters and you'll believe more ii
your fellow-men and inyourself. YOl
will correct certain mean tendencie
toward soothing and burlesquing ever,
thing that doesn't please you | talke'
to myself like a deacon all the wa,
across Ohio and Pennsylvania. Then
when came East | attended a cOlleg
commencement. A great school; stan
dard higher than the mortgage o.
the EifTel Tower. lowered in a cOrne
and was pounded into Il condition o
nurnbness with Greek OratiOns ant
Latin essays. And the English Grafton
were marvels of elegant diction
smooth. well-rOunded sentences, an
the choicest English, clothing tn
noblest sentiments, from which at in
teryals solid chunks of wisdom fel
upon the floor with dull, sickenini
thud. 1t WIS grand, and even tn
president nodded his approval an
grave professors forgot their dgnit
and applauded. And the presiden
made a speech and two or tire
learned doctors of the law and divinit
, made eloquent and thoughtful ad
| dresses. But wise and learned as
all was l kept on wondering wher
| had heard it all before-savin
only the Greek and Latin Al
, yes; had it. At Dwight. That
{ where | heard it. Silt the. though
out of the language of the high schOC
out West and the university dow
: East. and it was about the same thing
, The same generous, manly, Draw
hopeful way of looking at things, tn
, same earnestness, the same enthus
, asm that keeps the learned doctors {
Young and brave as the boys who
3 they teach, year after year, the SAN
) sublime confidence in his own abilit
D to do a little better than any OthC
| man in the vineyard, shaping ii
1 thought and nerving mind and bod
8 of the high school boy and the colleg
: graduate; no wonder | envied them.
felt grateful to them; | made up