The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1892-06-18

tlStlbI q .7CSb1it!1ly ttlLsl1l 10 IflP aver
age schoolgirl commencement is stu
pendous-an awful occasion. 1t is
the Mecca toward which her ewes
are ever steadfastly turned. The bril-
llant, ambitious girl regards it as an
alotheosis-an hour when her Gifts a4ll
talents shall receive their due ;lpprecia-
ton; the faithful, ploldiny girl looks
forward to it rs y possibility. an oppor-
tEnity, a reward, and the frivolous girl
anticipates its chances as a show for
good clothes.
And a word about that graduating
gown. What hours ct delicious thought
it fills; what maiden metlitations IRE
given to it. What fertility of design is
employed il 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
We're supposed to be fast asleep in Your
little bed, how you stole forth, wrapped
III a blanket, and sped down the dese1 t.
ed corridors to Molly's or Peggy's or
Sues room, there to huddle in the moon
light while you munchel calnmtls and
discussed and planned the graduating
gowns?
And then do you remember the day
when the great pasteboard box was de-
llvered at your room and a cry was sent
along the hall to this and that chun's
door, Come in, girls, it has co1ne;" and
when the last one had arrived and stood
III breathless expectancy how You lifted
it from its folds of silver paper and held
it reverently i'll your arms, i'll all its
crisp muslin and fluffy lace and hutto1-
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. It is the joyou farewell to
happy four years--a bit of well bred
Bohemianisln. But commencement day
is quite another sort. 1t is of the strictly
decorous and ceremonial type. 1t is III
vested with dignity and haloed with
majesty. Ii class day is Bohemian, COM
mencement is the embodiment Of col
lege conventionality.
So, then when this supreme lay dawns,
there is i'll every college i, 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 tho groups of shining
eyed, rosy checked and white gowneu
girls suddenly assume IL 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 a plentiful besprinlilin5
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 out over the campus, where the
girls will never walk again as happy,
careless students.
The salutatory-ah! who can do JUS
tice to that stately figure who rolls the
unctuous Latin from her rosy lips: Her
relatives listen in amazeInent. Can it
be that this profound young woman, who
is wrestling with a dead language, pun
ishiny it's vowels and putting its con-
sonants to flight, is their Eliza?
But when the sensation caused by this
maiden has died away it is followed by
succession Of oratorical earthquakes,
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 on Nihilism-Which?'
"ls the Ether Habitable:" "What Is
Universal Polarity?' ''Shall the Astral
Shell Endure?'
After these questions are disposed of
in manner calculated to make scien-