Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1899-07-06

YOUNG LADIES AND GENTLE
MEN or THE 0AKyILLE SCHOOL -
Believing that . long address at
this time and upon such an occasion
would be entirely inappropriate and
ont Of place, 1 shall not attempt to
make any extended remarks, bat
on the other hand, promise to be
very brief, aud solicit, therefore,
your attention for few minutes
only. | know, and when / say /
say / know, | mean it. that we are
to have after awhile something that
will strike the fancy and please the
taste of every girl and boy in this
room. have been doing a little
prospecting on my own hook; l
have been investigating privately,
and as a reeult of that investiga-
tion / have proven to my own en-
tire satisfaction that we are to have
shortly something very delicious and
inviting. All these good things
are given as sort of reward for
your well-doing here this afternoon,
and l may add, if they have in
cluded chocolate caramels in the
bill of fare, then my satisfaction is
complete. do not mean to say,
nor do | say, that such reward
could or would fully and fairly
compensate you for the long hours.
days, weeks aid months of weary
labor through which you have
passed. Such a reward for such
labor would be wholly inadequate.
1t 10 useless to attempt, at this
time, to estimate the value of your
work. The degree and quality of
an education can never be measur-
ed by dollars and cents. You can
not, therefore. apply any specific
scale of wages to the labor expend-
.ed-in securing an education.
hope you viii not misunder-
stand me. We know that the price
of an education to the average boy
and girl is conscientious and dilli-
gent labor, yet no man can say,
with any degree of accuracy, what
your education is or would be worth
to you, or what my education is or
will be worth to me, nor can he say
what shall be the finsl reward for
all the labor given in exchange for
that education.
Nothing eut the coming years,
fraught with all their great respon-
sibilities and possibilities-nothing
but the dim and distant future, laden
with all its hopes and cares, its sor-
rows and tears, its disappointments
and regrets, can bring the reward
that we have merited here.
You may have an idea, there may
be lingering thought, that all
your work done here is for naught,
but remember always there will
come q time within the life of eve
ry individual when he or she will
be enabled to realize, indeed, how
rich the reward, how ample the
compensation for all the work done
in their youth. And there will
come surely, at some time in your
life, merry voices that will require
higher and superior qualifications,
and when you are able to meet these
emergencies, in q creditable and
satisfactory manner, then you shall
know you are having your reward.
Before goiag farther, / desire to
congratulate each one of you upon
the most excellent manner you have
acquitted yourselves.
Your performance here this af-
ternoon is highly creditable, alike
to yourselves and to your teacher,
and is accordingly gratifying to
your parents and friends. think
the unanimous verdict of this au-
dience is, well done, and it gives me
great pleasure, am sure, to testi-
fy in their behalf to the true merit
and worth of the pupils of the Oak
vile school.
l. 1t is oft proven and an universal
ly scknowleged fact that every great
achievement, every grand result,
the accomplishment. of every high
and noble purpose, is almost inevi.
tably the outcome, the result oi
hard, honest, conscientious toll and
close application.
No man has yet lived success.
fully under any other condition,
We would search the history oi
the past forever without finding
o single recorded instance where