The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-30
The STATE NEEDS HER
Prof. Durham on Woman S
Power to Uplift.
Graduating Exercises Of the Class of 1901 List
Of Graduates. President Peacock Pre-
SentS the Diplomas.
sents the Diplomas.

N0p6Cldl TO News anu CDN~4 '0-''
Greensboro, N. c., May pa large
crowd assembled in the chapel of Green's
boro Female College this morning at ten
o'clock to witness the graduating exer-
cises of the class of 1901 The names OF
the graduates, with their essays are as
follows:
Miss Ivah May Bagby OF Monroe,
southern Magazines
Miss Bessie Villette Dunlap, Cedar Hill,
Life and Works of Henry Timrod.
Miss Caroline Simmons Lambeth
Thomasville, Nathaniel Macon; a Char
acter Sketch.
Miss Lannie Elizabeth Olive, Pages
Mill, S. c., Count Leo Tolstoi."
Miss Mabel Vann, Franklinton, "A Ro-
mantle Chapter in North Carolina HIS
tory"
Miss Henrietta Gibbons Westbrook, Fai-
son, Some Phases of Victorian Litera-
ture'
Miss Linda Wharton, Greensboro, The
Literary Awakening in New England
Misses Westbrook, Vann and Wharton
read their essays, which were listened &c
with a great deal of interest.
In presenting the diplomas President
Peacock made some very appropriate -
marks commencing the members OF the
class for the faithful manner in which
they had performed the tasks of college
life.
The Alumnae Association held a re-
union and banquet yesterday Afternoon
and last evening. Over a hundred mem
bers of the association and former stu
dents of the college were present.
At the banquet the following toasts were
responded to:
"Our Guests" Mr.. Charles H. Ireland;
"Our Alma Mater" Mrs. Lucy Cunning
gim and Mrs. r. w. Thomas, THE Old
Girl Mrs c. L. Gotten; The New Girl,
Miss Mabel Chadwick; '"The Glass of
1884," Mrs. Johnson, of South Carolina.
Rev. DR.. J. c. Kilgo,Eof Trinity College,
and Rev. ]. NJ. Higgins, of Concord, were
also called on and responded with short
speeches All the speakers were very
happy in their remarks
At $3.50 o'clock Rev Plato Durham, of
Trinity College, delivered the alumnae
address. The exercises were opened with
prayer by Rev. DR.. Kilgo, after which
Mrs. S. L. Alderman sang very sweetly
solo, with flute accompaniment.
President Peacock introduced the speak
z *
attention of his audience for over an hour.
Mr. Durhams theme was adjusting one
self to the world and he spoke of the con-
fusion that surrounds the college grad
uate as he steps out into the world to
take up the battles Of life. So many con-
tradictions are found that the ideals
formed within college walls are apt to
be shattered and the graduate is in dan
ger of losing faith inithe world and man
kind. 1t requires the full knowledge of
the divine mission in oneself to enable the
graduate to become one of the worlds
workers in truth and in name Occasion
ally we find one of these, said the speak
er, who is possessed of this self-conscious-
ness; she is off in some quiet corner
doing the worlds work, bravely and hope
fully.
The speaker referred to the limitations
on woman's life, and said that it was
because the world believed her to have
particular sphere that she allowed herself
to be limited. For instance, because she
cannot cast a ballot, woman is prone
to believe that she has no interest what
ever in the politics of the world. This
is not as it should be, for in the realm
where ideas are born there is no sex.
The wo,>on who does not concern herself
as to what the world is doing in politics,
in religion and in other lines is the wo-,
man who has not adjusted herself.
More strength and self-assertion, and
not more beauty and purity, are what we
need in woman" declared the speaker.
eve want the woman who can not only
soothe us int time of trouble and when
storms arise but we need the woman who
bravely walks out into the midst of the
storm, asserts her strength and leads us
into the right way"
Mr. Durham closed his address with
strong appeal to the women to perform
well their part in the great work of re-
deeming North Carolina from the bondage
of ignorance and superstition, which
hangs like a pail over the dear old State.
North Carolina" said he, sis naked in
poverty and blind in ignorance She needs
your work and your prayers my sisters.
Internationally and politically we are in a
condition of which we cannot be proud.
We are not out of that stage in which
men can be whipped into line and driven
like dumb cattle to the ballot box and
voted like so many sheep. Religiously
the heart of the old State is torn and
bleeding. We find faction fighting fac
ton, with a growing disbelief in every
thing Let us make of North Carolina a
great State and boast of her, not because
she was first at Bethel and last at Apo
mattox. but because, whenever the right
is at stake, she will be found on the field
of battle fighting until the end