The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-05-20
BUTTE News.
ON THE SECOND WEEK
Continuous High School Gradu-
ating Exercises.
SIX SPLENDID ESSAYS
"The Oracles," by jamie Webster-Great
Events OF the 10th Century-Beeth-
oven-Victor Hugo-Sphere of
Observation-Disclosures.

The second week of the continuous
high school graduating exercises closed
yesterday, and the audience listened to
six splendid essays by as many young
graduates, including four from the Sc
nior and two from the normal training
classes. Miss jamie Webster's subject
was 1.-THE Oracles," and she spoke in
substance as follows:
In every country we find that there
is some one Or something belonging to
the country's religion that is held as
a symbol of its reigning deity, which
exerts great influence over the nation.
In ancient Greece and Rome the ora
cles, which were many and varied, and
usually situated in some cave or grot-
to, the waters of which were discov-
cred to have deirious or narcotic eff
fects, were held in awe and rever-
ence.
Among the most celebrated oracles
were those of Jupiter at Dodona, or
Apollo at Delphi, of Trophonius, of
Jupiter Ammon, in the deserts of Ly-
bia and the Castilian Fount. Oracles
were usually given orally as mes
sage from god, either by signs as the
rustling of leaves, in dreams sent to
a person sleeping in the temple or by
consultation of spirits of the dead. At
first the responses were given in poet
ry, but subsequently in prose. The an
sWers given were ambiguous, and
though the people knew that these re-
sponses We're directed by human pow
ers, vet to a great extent they believ-
+ ed in them as divinations from the
gods. The oracle of Dodona was prob
ably the most ancient in Greece. The
temple was founded long before the
K
stroyed by the Aetolians during the
social war. At this place brazen in
struments suspended from high branches
clashed together when moved by the
wind, and priestesses, who were to in
terpret and explain the sound, could
attach whatever meaning they thought
would suit the occasion. The most ia
( NOUS of these oracles was that OF
Apollo at Delphi, which was still in its
infancy when the greater part of the
Had was written. According to le
gends Apollo long searched for a spo
on which to found a temple and a
last came to the valley at the foot O
Mount Parnassus, where the oracl'
was built Not far from this sacret
spot was situated the oracle of Tro
phonius The name of this oracle wa
taken from one of the architects VIII
was employed in the building of tn
temple at Delphi.
AT what period the oracles cease
& to give responses cannot be ascertain
ed; as Christianity spread these i'm
4 postures fell gradually into disreput
and were at length entirely aban
doned
1t has been asserted that the ora
cles became silent at the birth of Christ
Milton adopts this idea in his beau
tiful hymn of the nativity, and il
lines of solemn and elevated beaut,
pictures the CONSERVATION of the hea
then idols at the advent of the Savior
1.-THE oracles are dumb;
No voice or hideous hum
Rings the arched roof in words de
ceiving;
Apollo from his shrine
Can no more divine.
With hollow shrek the steep Of Del
phi leaving;
No mighty trance of breathed spell
Inspires the pale eyed priest from tn
prophetic cell"
"Great Events of the Nineteent
Century was Miss Elizabeth Maud
Cookies composition.
III The 18th century is, in many respect.
the most important Of any century an
the men of to-day have not been sloN
in praising it. The rich and the pool
the wise and the foolish, the learne
and the unlearned, alike swell tn
chorus of admiration for the marvelou
inventions and discoveries Of our ag
and especially for those innumerab'
applications Of science.
What has science done for us? 1t ha
spanned great rivers with bridges q
form unknown to our forefathers:
s. has lighted up the night with the splen
dor of day; it has enabled man to de