The Portland daily press., 1892-06-11

are ever SIeaQIdSUly turned. Ihe bril-
liant, ambitious girl regards it as an
apotheosis-an hour when her gifts and
talents shall receive their due apprecia-
ton; the faithful, plodding girl looks
forward to it as possibility, an oppor-
tunity, reward, and the frivolous girl
anticipates its chances as show for
good clothes.
And a word about that graduating
gown. What hours of delicious thought
it fills; what maiden meditations are
given to it. What fertility of design is
employed in its construction, and with
what rapture is it worn. Even the we'd
ding gown can scarcely compete with it
on the line of pleasurable sensations.
Tell me, madam, you who graduated
years ago, do you remember those nights
after the last bell had rung and you
were supposed to be fast asleep in your
little bed, how you stole forth; wrapped
IN blanket, and sped down the DESERT
ed corridors to Molly's or Peggy's or
Sues room, there to huddle in the moon
light while you munched caramels and
discussed and planned the graduating
gowns?
And then do you remember the day
when the great pasteboard box was de-
hvered at your room and cry was sent
along the hall to this and that chum's
door, ''Come in, girls, it has come;" and
when the last one had arrived and stood
In breathless expectancy how you lifted
it from its folds of silver paper and held
1t reverently in your arms, in all it's
crisp muslin and fluffy lace and flutter-
ing ribbons? Do you fancy you will
ever forget one detail of that gown?
Commencement day and class day are
neighbors, though they represent quite
different phases of college life. Glass
day is the students own hour of fun,
frolic and travesty. On this day they
may speak and act according to their
own fancy. 1t is the joyous farewell to
happy four years-a bit of well bred
Bohemianism. But commencement day
is quite another sort. 1t is of the strictly
decorous and ceremonial type. It is in
vested with dignity and haloed with
majesty. If class day is Bohemian, COM
mencement is the embodiment of col
lege conventionality.
So, then, when this supreme day dawns,
there is in every college gentle ripple
of well regulated excitement, tinged
with mild melancholy. A hush falls
like a benediction over the halls and
corridors. The hour of parting is not
far away, and the groups of shining
eyed, rosy checked and white gowned
girls suddenly assume more serious air
and Danish the gayety with which they
planted the tree or the ivy on class day.
Then comes the hour when proud fa-
theirs, happy mothers, sisters, cousins
and aunts, with plentiful besprinkling
of other girls brothers crowd the
chapel. Then that never to be forgotten
walk up the aisle to the platform, while
the organs tones swell through the win
dows ont over the campus, where the
girls will never walk again as happy,
careless students.
The salutatory-a who can do JUS
tice to that stately figure who rolls the
unctuous Latin from her rosy lips? Her
relatives listen in amazement. Can it
be that this profoun@ young woman, who
is wrestling wira a dead language, pun
ishing its yowels and putting its con-
sonants to fight, is their Eliza?
But when the sensation caused by this
maiden has died away it is followed by
each more marvellous Than the other.
The sweet girl graduate thinks nothing
of attacking the most erudite subjects.
The carelessness with which she will
approach a topic which would make a
strong man shudder is proverbial. With
apparent unconcern as to results she
directs her batteries upon such questions
as ''Are Mechanics and Morals Co.
equal? Anarchy OF which,"
SIS the Ether Habitable? "What Is
Universal PolarityY' "Shall the Astral
Shell Endure?"
After these questions are disposed of
in a manner calculated to make scien-
lists shake in their boots, other clear cut
feminine minds will descant upon the
doctrines of Buddha, the teachings of
Confucius or the political economy of
John Stuart Mill. Then will come a
thesis upon electrical research or prison
reform or suppression Of crime; and
these dainty little darlings will glibly
rattle Off platitudes and truisms with an
air which will convince the unenlight-
ened that they actually know something
about their subjects.
Practical topics, such as "How to
Build a House." ''The Best Way to Trim
a Bonnet" Scare of Sick Babies" ''How
to Save Money" Chunks of Pudding
snd Pieces of Pie" are always ignored
The only way to gain knowledge ON
these homely subjects is by bitter ex-
perience. Buddha is more elevating
than beefsteak or babies, and Confucius
is of more Importance than corn frit-
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