Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1893-07-07

hausted the lamp-wick of life in
the work. Yet victories in peace
should receive reward not less
than those won in war, and in the
natural order of things those who
have toiled amid trials and la
bored for years almost alone sho'd
not be turned from the house they
have built. Here mature and ex-
perienced minds should be re-
warded in measure that is due
to them for having borne the
brunt of battle and made the cause
success even when friends were
few. Those who plant trees should
be rewarded by their fruits; those
who build bridges should
not be compelled to cross the river
by another route In short those
who have impaired an imperish-
able blessing should not be denied
a perishable reward. | heard
many words pronounced in favor
of members of the old faculty.
These are good as far as they go
but if not followed by more sub
stantial trnit they are as flowers
cast upon the coffin or like great
stones reared to the honor OF the
dead, who in life did not receive
their daily portion of bread.
The old societies have been a
success in their self-imposed
work in class and contest. Their
members have won many laurels,
and the way they welcomed the re-
turning ones. shows that the
friendship formed among them is
as pearl of great price. In the
reports of the old students that
returned, | find they have fought
and won many of life's battles not
only at home but in foreign fields.
The new students have even more
advantages in every department
of mental and and moral culture,
which in future they may WELD as
a two edged sword in the world of
universal science and thus become
greater safeguards in society
AS sat on the rostrum and beheld
so many new faces in the chapel
| realized that the mission Of the
Normal is being fulfilled.
The old familiar faces are now
found in other fields of labor
Others | missed have gone never
to return. They have retired to
rest by the green walks under the
weeping willows. | sought out
the resting place of class-mate
who had seen the same number of
summers as myself, who in life
added to my happiness and who in
death finds "Rest'' "At home in
heaven" where the righteous re-
ceive their reward.
Thus the charm of friendship of
which theg absent ones formed a
part, has lost many links. Bonds
of love that bound homes together
have been broken.
[ met number who had been
welded since | last saw them but
are now widows. They were
adorned with floMers in marriage
but ere ow dressed in mourning.
Others lave been out to battle
in which their mission was to
build not to batter down or burn.
The varied and in cases very op-
posite fields of human industry in
which the old students have labor
ed, manifest the sort of founds-
! ton upon which they built.
That foundation contained plety
for the pulpit, logic for the law, a
; vocabulary for the linquist and art
| for the artist. 1t opened a store
: house of fancy for the writer of
5 fiction. Marked out the lines of
, justice for the judge and filled
the heart of others with a sense of
} mercy that sent them to foreign
5 missions and in another it devel-
oped an endless longing to see
: and learn Of foreign lands. To
that individual ten years of travel
] and sightseeing in the two hemis-
pheres is the fruit that has grown
: from the seed that were sown.-
] Then there are surveyors, rulers
Of cities aud soldiers on land and
sea. And there are others who by
their commerce in sheep, corn and
cattle have become equally impor-
tant factors in their country's fu.
: ture. They have produced enough
of the necessaries of life for home
1 and q portion to send abroad as
rations to the starving millions oi
Russia.
Others become prosperous far.
mers aud thus are the supporters
of those who labor at the press
! or in the pulpit or down in the
. . dark mines, or in the busy marts
: where men make their millions
:. ! l met one wide-awake, young
mother who had married, not g
member of the alumni but mal
whom she said had "horse sense
and was grain grower and gar.
dener. And indeed | felt she hac
reason to rejoice for her bright
eyed bouncing boy has inherited