Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1898-03-03
THURMONT Frederick County, Maryland Thursday March g. 1885,
JEAnHETTE HoWABWOEl
COPYRIGHT 1897 az the AUTHOR.

pundits the laughter Of babbling creek
intrudeA It leaps untrammeled over it's
bed Of shining pebbles in gleeful mock
cry of mans laborious efforts to master
natures we'll kept secrets. The creek
knows them all by heart. at least all
that 1t concerns it to know. As for the
rest-poof That for It'll It let's them all
alone Wise babblerl
On commencement day this creek is
an important factor in the general fes-
tivitiea All the day long vehicles Of
all sorts and condition toll collegeward
over hot and dusty clay roads, deposit.
Ing q mixed cargo Of anxious matrons,
bright eyed girls, wondering infants
and we'll stuffed hampers for the COM
mencement collation..
At the open door Of Shingleton's 3 one
church the cargoes are deposited with a
minimum Of consideration for the chill
dren and maximum for the hampers,
after which the straining beasts and
the dust laden vehicles are driven into
the creek for the rest and refreshment
Far across its dimpling waters the
switch willows stretch their slender
green wands, to the infinite content Of
the hot and painting brutesL
Commencement day partakes Of the
character Of q rite; hence the entire
propriety Of holding the exercises in the
towns one consecrated building. The
church, red, rectangular, respectable,
environed by dark browed cedars and
whispering pines, opens its doors and
its windows Hospitality wide on these
occasions
Feminine ingenuity always exhausts
itself upon tho church decorations for
commencement day. Conspicuous tai
ent is displayed in the immense wooden
aroh that spans the brand new plank
rostrum, which has for its underpin-
ming the pulpit and tho chancel rail.
The startling crudeness Of this material
rainbow Is softened to the eye by
wrapping Of gray Spanish moss, into
which is stuck, with happy irrelevance.
hydrangeas, sunflowers, roses and glad
ioluses
From the keystone Of this gorgeous
arch springs always the symbol of as
piration, as interpreted by the lady dec
orators Of Shingleton. a ladder made
of cedar wisps, more or less successful
ly hiding from view an Intrusive
groundwork Of white pasteboarl 1t is
under this work Of art that the pallid
and quaking orators Of the day take
their stand, to make targets Of them
selves for countless bright eyes and for
the crueler darts of rival criticism.
Girls are always out in force on oom-
mencement day, not that they take any
abiding interest In the educational as
pect Of the occasion, but the brass band
which occupies the choir loft and dis
penses the most depressingly solemn
music during the exercises is engaged
to offlciate at the dance in which COM
menoement always culminatea
Shingleton has just cause for prido on
these occasions, and some orator is
sure to assert from the rostrum, with
out fear Of contradiction, that 80 much
of beauty and talent and grace could
not possibly be gathered together in any
other known spot on the earth.
After tho declaiming is all safely
through with there will be dinner out
under the cedar trees in the old church
yard. No one objects to the somber
presence of tho occasional tombstones
that crop above the tall weeds in the
churchyard They come rather handy,
In fact, the tall and conical ones as
hatracks, the fat ones as receptacles for
the ice cream freezers and the lemonade
buckets The sunken and effaced in.
scriptions appeal to no unhealed griefs
They are at once too obscure and too
familiar to flutter the faintest pulses
Shingleton's resurrection day is for the
quick, not for its dead.
Every housekeeper within radius Of
ten miles stands sponsor to the dinner
spread that day on the long, precarious
plank tables under the cedar trees,
through whose breeze stirred branches
the sunshine falls upon the white table
cloths in dots and checks.
Enforced attention for several hours
to declamations, sometimes trite, al
ways crude, is productive Of ravening
hunger. From the inevitable roast pig,
with the red apple clinched in its fixed
jaws, down to the lightest salads, ev-
erything is provided on q colossal scale
by the experienced housewives Of Shin
glevon, who for weeks past have merg-
ed private interests, personal dislikes,
moldy disputes and inherited feuds in
the one cause for which Shingleton
moves and has it's being
Commencement day Of 1859 was no
exception to its predecessors 1t came
in June, as it always did 1t was hot
and dusty, as it always was Every
thing and everybody who shared the
social responsibilities Of the occasion
we're in state Of smiling readiness, as
they always were. If now the boys
would only quit themselves like men,"
Shingleton proud record would remain
unbroken.
To the usual interest of this partic-
ular commencement at the eleventh hour
was added an element Of painful sur
prise An ominous whisper was afoat
A foreshadowed disgrace threatened
Shingleton An Elusive veil of mystery
dropped like a pail over the familiar
scene Of the decorated church with its
befowered rainbow and the precarious
tables with their load Of comestibles.
A robbery had been committed at the
college. not only at the college, but i'll
the college Cash and valuables belong
ing to the professors and students had
disappeared under circumstances cour