Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-05-10
GRADUATES AND HONORS
Commencement Exercises Last Evening at
Spencerian Business College.
The Principal Adverts to Pending
War and Her Audience Expresses
Dissent The Class.

The thirty-second annual graduation ex-
ercises of the Spencerian Business College
were held last night at the Academy of
Music There was a large audisnce present.
Mrs. Sara A. Spencer presided and Rev. T.
De Witt Talmage delivered the invocation.
The stage was prettily decorated with tall
palms, national flags and beautiful flowers.
After the college march the graduates were
seated in semicircle. Upon the stage, be-
sides the graduates, vera Mrs. Spencer and
the teachers of the college, Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage, Postmaster General Charles EN-
DRY Smith, Mr.. 3. H, Warner, and, repre-
senting the Masonic Temple fair, Dr. r. B.
Donaldson, Mr. Goodwin Yorke AtLee and
Mr.. Charles B. Bayly
The gentleman's salutatory, representing
the night classes, was given by Mr.. James
F. Smart OF Alabama. He was entertain
Ing, earnest and impressive in describing
the condition upon entering those classes
and the outlook for the future from a pres
ent standpoint
The gentleman's valedictory by Winfield
Scott Macgill, jr., Of the District of Column
bfa touched on the attitude of the United
States on the great pending international
crisis In 1t he said: When the general
TOLL Is called, we will be there and these
young women will stay at home and care
Tor mother and fireside, as women ever
nave done since the world began
The lady valedictorian, Miss Willie P.
McConahay of Texas, soon replied:
How easily and naturally" she said
these young men settle all great questions
Tor u.s. We will stay at home and care for
mother and fireside, and guide the plough,
ana loom and scrape lint and dress wounds.
ana take care of the wrecks brought home
from the war-once our stalWart brothers
and friends
And every man shattered with shot and
smell, or dying of slow tropical fever and
her from his birth mortal agony and tears
SO that If he staid beside her and cher,
ished her to white-haired old age he could
never cancel the debt"
she appealed to the young men of the
class to seek higher wisdom than had vet
come into the national councils
me DEBATE was on, and every speaker
thereafter took part in it, the audience be-
coming enthusiastic as telling noints were
made.
Mrs Spencer explained that Spanish
Iwltters on the program was a typo
graphical error, and the Mills Quartet was
much disturbed thereby. For the Span
tsh are not even twittering now" she said.
and If they were the ladies would not
laugh at their efforts" 1t should be Spar
rows Chatter and the ladies soon filled
the air with melody.
Dr. donaldson, in appropriate remarks.
awarded the Spencerian double scholarship
gwen to the Masonic fair to Mr. VIM. Reed
Macg1l who had received 721 votes out of
LOO against ten candidates.
In presenting the class Mrs. Spencer de-
cared the institution had been training
these young people. not for bloodshed. for
revenge, cruelty and all the frightful brood
OF evils tFat follow in the track Of red
handed war, but for the arts of neace If
industry, of good citizenship.
IF any one says l am wanting In cour-
age, l am here" she said lifting herself to
her full height ard bringing down the house
with her challenge.
Il have taken MY life In nv hand all
these years to defend young people from
the vices planted here by the last war.
And now another is upon US" She implor-
ed teachers and mothers to siam the tide
Young men from college wild to be let
loose among the Spanish, indeed! A few
days OF war have undone the work of
thirty years of peace"
The audience did not approve these scnti-
ments and manifested their Indignation In
various ways
Postmaster General Smith said he never
saw finer exhibition of courage than that
of Mrs. Spercer's facing that audience with
those utterances al this time. He might
doubt her craftsmanship, but he must com
mend her courage and her principles, he
said.
But this is nation of peac,. he con-
tinued. And he proceeded, first, to show
that the war meant peace on grand scale
and then to show what forty years of In
dustry and peaceful pursuits had done for
this nation, now the fifth in the world in
wealth, and perhaps first in power, and to
such institutions as this, the business COL
lege, We are largely indebted for this pros
perity.
After the pretty scene. Love Lies Bleed
ing, rendered by the Delsarte class, Post
master General Smith awarded diplomas
TO the following graduates:
Maude Alice Beall, Marie Gertrude Green.
Laura Ella Hoffman, Willie T. McConahay
Ellen Collins Malone, Lucy FrancessMas-
sey. Martha Ellen Price. Amelia Smith
Schneider, Annie Elizabeth Wendell, Mary
May Bewick, Edmund Joseph Adair Ben
Jamin Clarke Day, Reginald James Darby,
William Dunkerley. Hamilton Hugh Far
mum. William Duncan Foote, John Osborn
Gheen, William Eugene Greaves, Henry
Louis Zerega. Clarence Alfred Lindsay
William Warren Lightbown, Winfield Scott
Macgill. jr.. Eben Thomas Massey, CLAIR
ence LIE Roy Park, Abram Hewes Smyth
Ford Hebb Swetman, Edward Denman
Wasstaff, Leonard Lee Ball, William E.
Gallagher. James f. Smart, Florence Alloy
sius Sullivan. Robert !. Brown, Catherine
Ward Carr. May Florence Garnett Edith
Graham Granville Emma C. Littlejohn,
Mary Cecilia Mccain, Olive Edna Niles
Amanda Lee Thompson. Elizabeth F. Addi-
son, Celestine Aston, Thomas Irwin Car
ter, Clarence Benjamin Entrikin, John Hell
mus, Stewart Earl Oberln, Paca Oberlin
and Lewis Edward Stein.