The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-06-14
SCHOOL WORK DER
Normal Graduates Receive Their
Diplomas.
DR.. James K. Hosmer Gives the Annual
Address, and President Cooper
Speaks to The Class.

The annual commencement exercises
of the state normal school were held
Thursday evening in the assembly hall
before an audience that pack
ed the room. The largest class ever
graduated from the school in any one
year was turned out to take up the
work of teaching-a work which they
have been preparing themselves to do
under the careful instruction and
supervision of specialists employed by
the state. A large number of them,
more than half, have already been
elected to positions for next year at
good salaries. Normal graduates are
in demand everywhere and their SER
vices command BETTER pay than is re-
ceived by the average teacher who has
not had the benefit of the modern
ideas and methods that are impaired
in the normal schools
The rostrum was beautifully decor
ated with ferns and flowers. The June
section of the class, numbering SO,
marched to their places on the ros-
trum in two files, with happy faces
and confident step. The faculty occu-
pied the extreme right and the chorus
the extreme left.
Rev. T. NJ. Edmands, pastor of the
Congregational church, gave an invo-
cation, and the ladies' chorus sang
"Murmur Soft, Ye Breezes. by
Wekerlin, under the leadership of Miss
Cora Carney. In ali, the chorus sang
three selections, and demonstrated the
excellent training which it has re-
ceived at the hands of Miss Carney.
DR.. James K. Hosmer, librarian of
the public library at Minneapolis,
gave the address, his subject being,
Picturesque Points in the History of
the Mississippi Valley" He said that
out of the 1850, 900 square miles con-
tanned in the valley, there is scarcely
one square mile but what is available
for human use. The population is 3d.,
900, O0O and it contains the center of
population and influence of the coun
try. Nowhere in the United States
have nobler names arisen.
Mr.. Hosmer told how the thirteen
colonies got their first hold onthe valley,
during the Revolutionary war. George
Rogers Clark, by bold front in the
council of the Indian tribes and by a
difficult and successful campaign, won
an empire for the United States The
Scotch Irish then settled in the valley
and won it from a wilderness.
The speaker then proceeded to tell
how the area thus obtained was subse-
guently increased. Aside from George
Washington and Abraham Lincoln, the
United States has been effected per-
manently to a greater degree by Ma
poleon Bonaparte than by any other one
man. He sold the territory of Louis
lana to the United States for $15, 600,
900 rather than have it fall into the
hands of the English by conquest, as
he had no navy to defend it. Thus
the area of the United States was more
than doubled.
DIR. Hosmer's third heading was
chow the valley was preserved to us
and at last thoroughly organized" He
said that in the development of the
valley steam boats, railroads and cot
ton gins have played the most conspic-
uous parts. The invention and use of
the cotton gin in the South made slav-
cry economically profitable, while there
was nothing to make it SO in the
north. This caused division of feel
ing as to slavery. Mr.. Hosmer refer
red to the.events of the..war and Gen.
Grants rise to fame. He said that
the west is the child of the railroads.
Much is said against railroads, but
they are good thing. They make
travelling easy, and travelling is good
thing for people, as it makes them in
telligent and polished, spreads civiliz-
alton and dispels prejudices.
Mr.. Hosmer referred to the govern
ment of all the larger cities of the
west and said that it is very corrupt and
bad, yet these cities contain as happy,