Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-01-08
COPYRIGHT, 1897 BY THE AUTHOR.

At the open door of Shingleton's one
church the cargoes are deposited with a
minimum Of consideration for the chill
dren and a 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 brutes.
Commencement day partakes Of the
character Of a rite; hence the entire
nronriatv of holding the exercises in tho
towns one consecrared building. The
church, red, rectangular, respectable,
environed by dark proved cedars and
whispering pines, opens its doors and
its windows Hospitality wide on these
occasions.
Feminine ingenuity always exhausts
itself upon the church decorations for
commencement day. Conspicuous tai
emit is displayed in the immense wooden
arch that spans the brand new plank
rostrum, which has for it's underpin-
ming the pulpit and the chancel rail.
The startling crudeness Of this material
rainbow is softened to the eye by a
wrapping Of gray Spanish moss, into
which is stuck, with happy i%rrelevance,
~hydrangeas, %sunfiowers, 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 Singleton, a ladder made
Of cedar wisps, more or less successful
ly hiding from view an intrusive
groundwork Of white pasteboard. 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 COM
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 oficiate at the dance in which COM
mencement always eliminates.
Singleton has just cause for pride on
these occasions, and some orator is
sure to assert from the rostrum, with
out fear of contradiction, that 50 much
Of beauty and talent and grace could
not possibly be gathered together in any
n@11D,, IT., cpok an fhn no,sth
After the declaiming is all safely
through with there will be a dinner out
under the cedar trees in the old church
yard. No II objects to the somber
presence of the 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 fiat ones as receptacles for
the ice cream freezers and the lemonade
buckets. The sunken and effaced in
scriptions appeal to nc 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 a 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 declarations, 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 a colossal scale
by the experienced housewives of Shin
gleron, who for weeks past have merg
ed private interests, personal dislikes,
moldy disputes and inherited feuds III
the one cause for which Shingleton
moves and has its 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
were in a state of smiling readiness, as
they always were. If now the boys
would only ''quit themselves like men, >
Shingleton's proud record would remain
umbroken.
To the usual interest of this partic-
ular commencement at the eleventh hour
was added an element Of painful sur
prise. An ominous whisper wa afloat.
A fo~reshadowed disgrace threatened
Shingleton. An Elusive veil Of mystery
dropped like a pail over the familiar
scene Of the decorated church with its
beflowered rainbow and the precarious
tables with their load Of comestibles.
A robbery had been committed at the
college, not only at the college, but in
the college. Cash and valuables belong
ing to the professors and students had
disappeared under circumstances com
polling the conviction that some one Of
the students was the oulprit.
Shingleton accepted the possibility Of
crime in connection with its college
slowly and incredulously. In view Of
! the fact that nearly all Of the boys
+, came from we'll known families. Of high
! social position, it was almost beyond
/, conception that any one Of them should
stoop to the plebeian ofense of stealing.
To a man they belonged to the slave
holding aristocracy. They were the sons
Of planters, doctors, lawyers. The off.
spring Of senators and congressman had
drunk at the Shingleton fountain Of
learning, and, browning boast, the
grandson Of a bishop was among the
declaimers booked for that identical
mystery Swallowed commencement day.
There was nothing commonplace
about S~hingleton. Nothing shocking
had sven happened there, and the posi-
bility Of disgrace overtaking It through
the medium Of any one Of It's young
ALa