The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-06-24
CLASS DAY OF 'sS, H. H. S.


History, an Original Poem by Sarah
Gibson Noble and Songs by the Glass
Complete the Programme.
Every seat and inch Of standing room
on the main floor and the balconies of
the Hyperion was occupied with
throng of both old and young to wit
ness the class day exercises of the class
of '9S of the Hillhouse High school.
The stage was decorated with palms
and flags and was filled with the men,
bers of the class. The officers Of the
class were seated in front to the right
of the stage. The exercises were open
ed by short address of welcome by
the president, Herbert Edwin Morris.
The history of the members of the
class during their course in Hillhouse
was read by several members of the
class. These histories were for the
most part humorous dealing with the
comical side of school life and includ-
ing jibes at the well known weaknesses
of the different members of the class.
The principal address was delivered
by Theodore Edward HILL young col
ored man of fine ability and much
promise He has a strong, well modu-
lated voice and spoke in an easy, pleas
ant manner. His address, Some AS
poets of the Closing Century" was
well written and showed that the writ
er had good grasp of the meaning
of past events and their bearing upon
the future. The following extracts con-
tain the substantial parts of his paper:
MR.. HILLS ADDRESS.
How strange and wonderful 1t is to
| mark how upon this planet of ours the
| smallest and most insignificant events
| set in motion a train of consequences
whose final results are portentous and
| incalculable.
Set a force rolling, however small,
and who will predict where it shall end
or what it may lead to? Mere trifies
| develop into tragedies and the bagatelle
of one day ripens into the catastrophe
of the next.
Surely man cannot predict the effects
| and react upon this planet; surely to a
| degree he is the victim of circum-
stances. But if he is controlled partial
| ly by causes he in turn shapes and
marks out the end towards which those
| causes are progressing. All history
| proves 1t.
| The past century alone emphasizes
most forcibly the control that man pos
| sesses over the conditions in which he
| is placed. Man, since we first encoun-
| tered him, has made ceaseless progress
upwards, but it has never been, nor is
| it now, an equal advance of the whole
/ of the race. Looking back we see the
! road by which he has come is strewn
1 with the wrecks of nations, races and
/ civilization, that have fallen by the
way, pushed aside by the operations of
| laws which it takes no eye of faith to
distinguish at work among us at the
| present time. But in considering what
has been so wonderfully accomplished
/ in the past, one Is apt to become egotis-
I teal and imagine that the present Is
| ideal, and that nothing is to be feared
/ for the future. He forgets that as our
present is indebted to the works of our
forefathers in the past, SO the success
| of the future and the welfare of our
posterity is dependent upon our actions
| in the present
Every man owes much to the past,
and only can repay it by influencing
the future in the right direction. But
the present is by no means ideal. 1t Is
! true that bloody prosecutions have
ceased, but there yet remains cruel
social persecution which the champions
/ of liberalism have as yet been unable
/ to break down.
We must not lose sight of the fact
that at the present moment civilization
is in the midst of one of the most gi-
/ gantic and ppalling struggles ever
waged between darkness and light, be-
tween the animal and the spiritual, be-
tween the soul of selfishness and the
spirit of altruism. Social forces, new
strange and altogether Unreasonable
have been released among us.
And how are we to equip ourselves tc
battle with these great questions which
rise before us?
/ When one studies the past he will
perceive that great discoveries, inven.
lions and reforms have been the pro.
ducts of deeper study into the cause
of events, have been due to the per
sistent working out of an idea to the
concentration of an energy which moth
ing could weaken, to the broadest and
| yet most intensive study.
Is it not rational, then, to claim thai
liberal education Is the weapon witt
which to arm ourselves In order to give
battle to the gigantic problems of the
future? Indeed it Is.
And now that we have analysed the
aspects and found the weapon with
| which to battle the future, you may
ask, what is the outlook for posterity
1t is a very significant fact that as the
great intellectual awakening of the first
century of modern times signaled the
downfall of feudalistic anarchy and the
establishment of civilized government
so the moral awakening of our day is
taking such shape that to those who
are closely watching the drift Of the
age, it appears inevitable that the out
come must be cooperation and democ-
racy in it's broadcast and most bene-
| ficent sense. Last and most important
|