The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-29

eyes in whatever direction you may, you
will find few vOcations closed to you.
The grim wall that once fronted almost
every womanly ambition has not indeed
been entirely demolished, but the grow
ing intelligence and the growing capa-
bility of women have each year made
| great rents in that wall, and each year
through these an army of efficient and
modest wOmen-workers are pressing.
You can join them in amy one of these
! new fields. Does the love of science and
humanity lead any of you to aspire to
the comprehensive skill of the physician,
then the eminent success of such women
doctors as Mrs. Mary Putnam Jacoby
shows you that your gift may be safely
cultivated. Are there those among you
that would grapple with the hard ques-
tons in currency and banking, then the
two hundred and eighty women cashiers
of banks in this country alone, give as
Surance that any one of you may safely
make the two hundred and eighty first.
If the shyest of your number feels that
she has a message to her generation. the
platform popularity of such lecturers as
Miss Willard shows you that there is no
obstacle in your way. The sympathetic
sensibilties Of some of you may have
for the ameloration of distress and
poverty and the enlightenment of ig-
norance. If so, the wonderful achieve
ments of Miss Clara Barton and the
missionary successes of such women as
Miss Randolph have made it possible for
you to follow in their footsteps. 1t has
| been said that women are not meant for
poets. The reputation Of Mrs. Browning
and the lyric gems of our own Virginia,
Mrs. Preston. who only a few weeks ago
drew around herself the robes of spiritual
purity and lay down to eternal quietude,
make against any such assertion as this,
The management of the complexities of
the insurance business by the Misses
Darlington, the good farming of Miss
Simmons and the skilled horse-ShOeing
of the young Kansas woman all go to
show the wide reach of your opportuni-
ties
However, if none of these things
moves you, the example of sisters rich
and sisters poor, of sisters young and
sisters old. of sisters fat and sisters fair,
of sisters cross and sisters CHEEKY, of
sisters straight-eyed and sisters stray
eyed. of sisters rosy-cheeked and sisters
all chcek-the example of all these points
to the significant fact that the gates of
matrimony still yawn for Victims
Next, the grave responsibilities of life
that were to be laid upon their fair
young shoulders were spoken of. Home
making" he said. lis still woman's royal
prerogatiye, nevertheless her life now
must be tangent with many circles of
cares and duties The education that you
have so labori0usly acquired here will
make you thoughtful and open your eyes
to much outside of the home that needs
doing and give you no rest till it is done
by you or at your instigation. Man has
done more in the world than woman be-
cause he has known more. Herein has
laen the locks of his supremacy. If you
wrest it from him, as you bid fair to do,
| you must equal him there"
The exercises were closed with the
Bridal Chorus from ''Lohengrin" (Wag
ner), by the chorus class with Miss X.
Richardson, b. Kornegay, Il. Broughton
and A. Reeves, incidental quartet.
1t has been a great commencement at
Peace" The years work has been a
| most successful one and it has closed in II
blaze of glory.
Many of the young ladies left yester-
| day afternoon for their homes; others
| leave today.