The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-24

sioner under President Cleveland The
address was delivered in 1889 at the
commencement of the Fort Wayne
High school, in Indiana. and while it
was impromntu and not at all a
studied effort at monosyllabir diction.
each of the words II contains is n
monosyllabe. Not only that but as
an oratorical effort 1t ranks high. The
address is as follows:
This day we close for the year the
Fort Wayne free schools, and we now
part with you. the girls and boys we
are no moro to teach.
"t say girls and boys, for when
three score and ten years have come
to you you will he glad to have your
friends say that health and peace ~
mind have kept your hearts warm;
that you wear no brow of gloom, are
not borne down with age, but STILL in
heart, are girls and boys. When these
years come, and I hope they will come
to all, the tide of time will roll back
and tell you of your schooltmc days,
when the fair, the kind, and the true
found love, but the false heart found
no friend. no tongues to praise. These
days bring rich gifts to age, and when
You shall cease to think of them your
fire has burned low and your light
has gone out. You have been here
taught in the hope that the free
schools of Fort Wayne would help to
make you of use to your friends and
to the world, would give you faith in
all that is good and true, and lead you
to seek work, for that you must seek
and do If you would have "A good name,
wealth, home, a charge to keep, or a
trust to serve. Go forth with a bold,
true heart to seek the work for you to
do.
Keep in mind that the hours to
work run through each day and that
Gods great law of life is, In the sweat
of thy face shalt thou eat bread
Now, for you young man, this
truth is told.
go where you will through the
world and you will find on the front
door of shops and mills. of stores and
banks, and on ships, on farms, on
roads, in deep mines where men toll
for wealth: where laws are made that
make some men too rich and men of
worth and work through all our land
tco poor; where men by law are
taught to plot with sin, to spurn the
right, that charge and cost and spoil
may make old 'Quirk's' law firms rich;
where law is so plead that the judge
must guess to find what's law; where
quacks most fight DER sick mems
pains and dead mems bones; where
types are set and none to mind the
proofs; where priests do preach and
pray and where schools are taught
II 1-Vg..
Here
Don't fear. Step up and ask for
work; brains will get it. Don't let i
dare not wait on I would-like the cat
that loves fish, but dares not wet her
foot.
"If It be said What can you do?
VIII you learn trade?' say L have
none, but I can learn one and put
brains in it When you go to a place
where brains should hunt for work
and he sure to find it, It may be said
to you, DO you see that plow? Can
you hold and slrive it deep? a. That
plow, in its wise use, gives all men
food.
DO you see that wheel and that
crank and those shafts end that press,
and do you hear the rush and the hiss
of the steam which moves them? Can
you make and hold and run them
Can you build ana drive the works
and wheels which make the wealth of
the earth and cause it to roll and to
float to and fro from place to place,
where it is best for man to use it?
Can you spin the thread and weave
it which makes robes for kings and
silks for the rich and vain, and dress
for the poor, and all that skill and art
have wrought by loom and hand for
mans use?
"These things are all shot through
with threads of light-the light of
mind and art and skill which shines
each day more bright and dims all the
old by some new-found light as the
years go on"