The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-31
THE CLOSING EXERCISES
OF MUSIC FILLED TO
 OVERLOOKING.
Brilliant Scene When Dallas Aca. demy Students Received Their Diplomas-Ten Girls and
 Two Boys Graduate.
Advertiser Bureau,

AuVeTtSer buFeaus
 Selma, May 30.
 The closing exercises of the Dallas Academy took place at the Academy of Music last night. A brilliant audience had assembled to see the twelve young graduates receive their diplomas. and one of the most inspiring scenes that ever took place in the Academy of Music was witnessed. There were about two hundred and fifty young people on the stage. The ten young women and the two young men grau- ates sat on the front row of chairs and each succeeding row of students was raised a head higher than those in front, until they reached height of ten feet at the back of the stage. A rustic drop curtain, beautiful in itself. formed a brilliant back ground to the scene.
 The exercises were opened with prayer by Rev. W. P. Hurt. Profess sor Hardaway then came forward and stated that 1t had been the custom heretofore to have some distinguished out-of- town speaker to come here end deliver the address, but this year it had been decided to have the two young men graduates deliver addresses. Gnd he felt sure that the audience had rather hear them than foreign speak CT. He then introduced Mr. Heflin Berry and the enthusiastic manner in which he was received by the audi ence shows that Professor Hardaway had not misinterpreted the feelings of the audience toward the young gentle- men graduates of the school.
 The speeches that the two young men delivered were the same that had been spoken in debate during the session. MT. Hefiin Berry took for his subject Resolved, That Stonewall Jackson was the greatest general of the war" He handled his subject in a masterfLl way. His manner was cool, his ennnciatiSn cellar, his language smooth and classic, and he wound about the brow o. stone wall Jackson new garlands of glory. He contended that the Confederacy would have been successful had Stonswail Jackson lived, and he was the one gem eral who never lost single hett'e. He stirred the fighting blood O. tEe old Confederate soldiers present to the highest pitch when he quoted General Bee as saying, There stands Jackson like a stone wall"
 When MT. Berry had finished ms speech he bowed and modestiy retired a few steps and as soon as the ap-
  ped to the front and introduced MT. Lawrence Hudson, who spoke on the subject. Resolved, That Intemperance kills more people than war. MT. Hudson is quite young man, not be- ing over 16 years of age. but he made a masterful argument against the great evil of intemparance. He mas the voice and pose of an orator ana some of the fire of the great William L. Yancey flashed from his youthful eyes as he warmed up to his subject. His theme was not as popular as the one that MT. Berry had chosen. but ne clothed it in an elegance that mace even his statistics entertaining. MT. Hudson's speech reached the classic when he told how Byron. Robert Burns and our own Edgar Allen Poe had put out the brightest intellects that ever graced any age, by the too free use of ardent spirits.
 Professor Hardaway said that the Alabama Division of the Coionlal Danes had offered a medal for the best essay on given colonial subject, to be competed for by the students Of the public schools of Mobile and Sel- ma. Last year the medal had been won by a student of the Mobile public schools. but this year student or the Dallas Academy had won the honors. He then introduced Rev. T. J. Crosby. who read some extracts from the prlze- winning essay. At the conclusion pI his reading he gave the nom de plume under which the paper had been hand cd in and asked that the student who wrote the paper come forwar% andre ceive theumedaL Miss Julia Barnweil stepped to the front of the stage
 -