The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1901-05-31
COMMENCEMENT Of 1901
Large Crowd Attends, Prof. Picken
Makes Fine Address, and the
Diplomas are Issued.

The auditorium of the high school
Building scarcely could hold the peo-
pie who were anxious to witness the
Commencement exercises this year. In
fact, while the room seats over 400
people, every seatwas taken Monday
and many more turned away. The
members of the three other grades in
the high school, composing the
chorus, we're banked in one corner
near the rostrum where the graduates
sat. All about were handsome flowers
and lplants kindly supplied by Mr..
Harmon.
Excellent music was furnished by
the chorus which has been trained by
Prof. Lewis, four numbers being sung
with excellent unison and pleasing
harmony. At the proper time MIR. M.
G. Robinson, president of the school
board, after few words presented
the diplomas to the graduates and at
the close of the exercises the class was
buried beneath banks of flowers sent
by friends.
Prof. w. S. Picken, formerly prin-
cipal of the lola schools and now an
instructor in the State Normal,
delievered the address to the class
He gave as his subject "The Making
of a Man." and then rapidly sketched
thel life of Booker r. Washington.
Born ia poverty and filth, brought up
in ignorance and want, by dint of the
most arduous efforts he managed to
get into an industrial school and
worked until he had an education. AS
his character unfolded he rose higher
and higher until today he holds honors
from Harvard, has received royal
recognition from European courts,
has ridden with presidents, is the only
colored man who ever addressed a
gathering OF southern whites, and that
at the opening of the Atlanta Exposi-
ton. In fact the seemingly hopeless
task Of making anything of life be-
gun amid such surroundings was ac-
complished by this negro and today
men of America. He is the head of a
school at Tuskegee, Alabama, that is
valued in hundreds of thousands and
endowed for nearly as much more,
colored people are taught trades and
which is recognized as a potent factor
in solving the race problem. This
school Booker Z. Washington found
ed in hut twenty years ago and has
nursed and built up to its present size.
Such Il life made easy the task of the
speaker of pointing a moral to the
graduates of the value of industry,
courage, perseverance and ambition.
In the words of Emerson: "What will
you have" says Go1 Pay for it and
take it.
1T is the truth of this" continued
Mr.. Picken, "attested by the life fol-
lowed out tonight, which is the mes
sage ! would bring to the young peo-
Pile before me. An old, old thought,
it is the re-appreciation of its truth
ny lllt Eltdb lhNll VI an Nh' dENo hhlNh
has proved their inspiration to effort
and success. Were / tonight to call "a
roll of our country's greatest living
men, the life work of each would make
Begin the roll with the name of Jacob
a. Riis, who landed some years ago,
a poverty-stricken Danish emigrant,
upon the wharves of New York and
who is pronounced today by Vice
President Roosevelt the most useful
citizen in all that vast metropolis;
call the names of all the living
scholars, philanthropists and states
men who make our country great; close
the roll with the name which evokes
our commonwealth deepest pride,
which is the most familiar favored
name today upon the tongue of
America and has centered the attention
of world-the name of Americas
youngest great man, Frederi k v.
Funston-call this long roll and every
name upon it attests that in the mighty
providence of God there Is no such
thing as luck.
"All seeming luck is but the legiti-
mate result of silent and unseen pre-
paration for the end, which, when it
comes, astonishes world ignorant of
the toll which has made it possible.
"And in the success of life really
useful, in the price which God exacts
for his choicest gifts of real achieve
ment, the coin current which will alone
buy value received is service. The
men who attain to a finished state are
those alone who serve, who sinking
self in the background bend the divine
endowment of talent and will to the
purpose of helping others. Those who
serve, alone succeed, they alone make
men in the highest, holiest sense that
can ever be implied in the phrase,
tho ma lxinU Of n man. ~