The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-29
Whitehead, 90; Annie Mclean, 81.
CERTIFICATE OF PROTECTING

| The following sixteen young ladies
| having finished the course prescribed in
! certain departments and passed salts
/, factory examinations thereon were given
| certificates:
| Edith Butler, elocution; Eva Johns,
| elocution; Ella MCGEE, elocutiOn; Byrde
Lawrence, elocution and Latin; Matte
! Higgs, instrumental music; Annie
| Reeves, instrumental music; Bette John
/ son, instrumental music; Laura Stebbins,
| instrumental music, French, English;
| Nina White, instrumental music, French,
| English; Ella Ford, English, mathemat-
| les, history; Maggie Moring, English,
science, history; Mary Howard, English,
| mathematics, history, philosophy; Eliza
| beth Hodges, Latin; Minnie Faust, En-
| glish Ella McGhee, English, French.
| history; Miriam Stamps, French.
Three Songs by American composers
| (a) Allah" Chadwick (b) ''Thy Beam
| ing Eyes" (MacDowelD (c) "Childs
| Song" (Nevin) were most beautifully
sung by Miss Gertrude Bush. A violin
solo, Cavatina (Raffff) was also skilfully
| rendered by Miss NJ. Dinwiddie.
Then came the rare treat of the occa-
sion-the delivering of diplomas by Prof.
| d. H. Hill, of the A. and NJ. College.
Suffice it to say that diplomas were never
| more charmingly delivered to even a
class of 'sweet girl graduates" nor a
better speech made Short and appro-
pirate, strong in sense and sentiment, but
| delicate, almost poetic, in conception and
expression, it was a perfect little gem.
No synopsis can do it justice.
PROF. HILLS ADDRESS.
Prof. Hill began by telling in dry
humorous way of how he had been in
vited to perform this duty, and how, in
a rash moment of mental alteration, he
had consented to do so. Il want you to
deliver the diplomas to my girls he
said, was the simple form of the invi-
tation. But as l thought of the request
more leisurely," he added, that strange
word girl startled me. What did it
mean?
1T seemed to me that | had met it
somewhere before, but | could not re-
member whether it was in Halliwell'S
| Dictionary of Archaic Words and out
| of date phrases or whether it was in an
| old, old book called Genesis. l had a
vague idea that it was some sort of
| femininity that would agree with no sort
| of antecedent, that refused to be gov
erned by any kingly proposition, that
| could not be declined If offered you,
| that was always out of harmony and con
cord with the principal words in the
| sentence. In addition, the word, curious
| ~ enough, carried a suggestion of shaker
| bOnnets, bushes, out of doors, pink and
| white. and checked calico aprons, tho
| to save me | could not imagine why this
| odd suggestion persisted in presenting
| itself, for knew that he could not mean
| to present diplomas to any thing of that
| sort.
| ''The moment / reached home. | rush
| ed to the library to hunt up a definition
| of the bewildering word. But trouble
was still ahead. Dictionaries and lexicons
| and encyclopedias, usually perfectly
| accurate and satisfying, seemed entirely
| to have lost their balance about this lit
| tie word. Their usual logical precision,
| their minute analysis, their discrimina-
ting differentiation seemed to have de-
serted them. Perhaps, to illustrate the
| difficulties, | had better read you a few
| of these definitions taken only from
] standard authorities. First / turned to
DR.. Knowall's Encyclopaedia Diction-
airy, and was mystifed to read: Girl,
an obsolete word once used to denote a
| mysterious and yet bewitching crea ture,
adapted to produce in man violent out
ward manifestations of deeply disturbed
inward all-overishness.
"This definition did not seem entirely
| clear nor entirely logical; in fact, it had
| a smack of apparent transcendentalism
1 in it that drove me, in spite of my great
respect for the author, to seek something
more satisfying. As / was still of the
| opinion that girl was some form of an
| cient life, i turned to Mr.. Old Bachelor $
Lexicon of Extinct Species and Forgot
| ten Genera, and eagerly read:
"'Girl, a name which in the post
pliocene and ante bicycle ages was APP
| piled to an erratic admixture of glucose
| plasma, nerve tissues, EXPLANATIONS, and
volcanic eruptiOns of slang and tears
and curious ways, but the species has
long been extinct
This would not do for had he not
said, My girls 50 of course some of
the species still had existence. The word
'erratic was, however, suggestive; so
down came numbering Prof. Cynical S
Dictionary of Variant Types. Surely it
comes to end the search. Here is how
he put it,
"'Girl, a tender young thing with an
infinite capacity for green apples and
salt, obeying but. one law, Do to others
as they cannot possibly do to you, and
worshipping but two things-self and
new garments
Here at last was some light. Two at
tributes of girls were stated; they must
be young and tender. But outside of
these two the definition was elusive.
Green apples and salt?-that would ap-
ply to cows as well as people, The DO
to others as they cannot possibly do to
you,' exactly fitted a cannibal of the
Fijee Islands, for how could you dc
for MIN what he had just done for you
Then almost everybody in the world had
those same idols.
with faltering confidence, but UNI
slaked inquisitiveness, | took up Atom
and Molecules New and Exhaustive
Chemical Lexicography, and here is
what it told me:
'''Girl, a saccharine conglomeration OF
protoplasm, of slightly acid reaction, OF
uncertain affinities though usually at
I,.1t II