The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1893-11-18
CONN GNCEMENT.

The Pretty Custom Observed by College
Graduates Each Year.
Commencement is like spring in that
It is new each year and that familiarity
with it breeds only increased apprecia-
ton. 1t grows on the participation as
his years accrue. 1t is a good day for
the hopeful youths who graduate and
march at the head of the line. 1t will
seem good to them next year, when they
come back after a 10 months separation
n hObnob with one another over their
class punch and presently get in line at
the very tail end Of the procession, 80
far of from the band that they can
scarcely catch the music. But in 10
years time. when they have moved up
10 places nearer to the band, they will
hnd it dearer still. Then it will have
begun to assume its true properties, as
the day of all the year that brings back
the youth that is already slipping from
them, by taking them back to the scenes
of their untrammeled adolescence and
rubbing them up against the men who
were young with them when they were
young.
Life brings great prizes to the diligent
and the lucky. To the average college
graduate of Is years standing it has
brought q wife and children. a certain
foothold in the world and a definite pros
pect of respectable achievement. But it
is better ut bestowal than at replenish-
ment. 1t brings him new things, but i,
does not fit him out with fresh supplies
of the treasures that he had. There is
only n set of the men who were young
when he was young, and it cannot be
duplicated.
If he is wise, and the cookies round
his heart do not get too stiff, he is very
careful Of that dwindling set Of asso-
ciates, and the fewer there are of them,
and the moso ne realizes the impossible
ty OF replacing them, the greater pains he
takes to 60 back to commencement and
take account of stock.
A strangely impressive spectacle is the
forming Of the line of graduates that
marches to the commencement dinner of
an old college. First comes the gradu-
ating class, then the alumni by classes
in order Of seniority. Glass of 1902
cries the marshal. Perhaps there is no
response. "Class Of 1921! Glass Of 1922!
Glass of 1928" Presently, as his class is
reached. the oldest graduate present
steps out. a venerable man, perhaps the
sole representative Of his year, and takes
his place amid the cheers of the specta-
tors. Then for a dozen or a score of
classes as the marshal calls the rear one
or two or four or five old men walk out.
arm in arm, supporting one another's
steps. Then as the list gets into the for
ties come gray haired men, but vigorous
and not yet of the lean and slippered
period. And then in larger companies |
the men of middle age and then the
younger men, and finally a boisterous
crowd 200 strong of lusty youth who
cheer for "'92." A marvelously vivid
panorama of human life is the COM
mencement procession from ''Morituri
salutamus" at one end to Life let us
at the other. Dull must be the
spirit that is not stirred by it. And yet !
it is a cheering sight with all its pathos,
so much good fellowship it shows and
sympathy and joyous greeting when OLD
companions meet.-Harper's Weekly.