Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-05-28

Bertha NJ Spratt Charles Stepan
Gertrude Woodward
The twenty seventh annual COM
mencement of the Marshalltown high
school held Tuesday evening at the
Odeon brought out the largest aud
fence present at the graduations of
classes in recent years. The Qdeon
was entirely filed, with the exception
of a few seats in the gallery. The
class, its friends and school patrons
listened to a strong address by Pro-
lessor George E. Vincent, of Chicago
University, and the music was ex-
cellent and the ceremonies simple,
but impressive.
The class and the instructors, with
members Of the board and other school
officials, occupied seats on the stage
The decorations of the theater were
simple, but pretty. large poruere
in the class colors was draped from the
stage, with the figures" or in the
foreground. Ferns and carnationa
made up the floral display. The music
was furnished by the pupils of the
Fourth ward and the teachers of the
schools and was very attractive fea-
ture of the evenings exercises.
The program was opened with an in
vocation by Rev. w. H. Scott, pastor
of the Christian church. Hither Fairies
Trip by j. II. Tully, was sung by the
pupils of the Fourth word school in
manner that brought forth demands for
an encore,i which was responded to.
Superintendent f. f. Willard intro
duced the speaker, Professor Vincent,
one of the bright instructors of Chi
cage University and a lecturer who has
gained popularity because of his sound
reasoning and his eloquence. Mr.,
yincent's subject was The Larger
Selfishness" and he held the attention
of the assemblage to the close. He
spoke in part as follows:
"The larger selfishness is an old
theme which will endeavor to discuss
without using the old hackneyed
phrases generally employed when
speaking on this subject. Our language
ts full Of high sounding names which
seem to mean so much. but only shroud
u subject In more mystery. BY present
Ing a subject in a new way, and stating
and restating it many times, we make
It clearer. Life is problem of selfish
ness or unselfishness. We imagine that
we are not selfish, but others are. 9th
ers misinterpret u.s. but we understand
our motives and know what actuates
our actions. And we can not know the
motives prompting others actions. |
our standpoint.
THE difference lies in the meaning of
the world self We think we under
CT ha Of he
until we try to define it. How many /
words we use that we imagine we UNI
derstand perfectly until some one asks
US to define them! What is the actual
self? We are all leading conscious lives
and all attending, we may say. little
'stereopticon entertainments. Every
thing in life is a picture. Some we like
and some we do not like. If the piano.
rama is varied life is interesting. If it /
is the old pictures repeated life proves
Very dull. These life pictures always
have in the foreground some one we
know, and they are made up of all sorts
of things. Pictures of the old home,
the old rooms the furniture, the car
pets, the old what-not and the old pic
lures. There is sometime the painful
picture of self when you've said the
wrong thing. We shrink from these
painful ones. There are pictures Of
other people, of distant lands, of places
we have visited. Think of the pictures
in the minds of these young people: /
pictures of the future, of the grand
things that are to be, and the wonderful
progress they expect to make in the
world. Business men have pictures of
busy past and future of success to
be gained. Some pictures are more real.
intimate, personal. The self is that
thing which looks at these pictures. or
is a sort of thread on which the memo-
RES are strung. If we could imagine
self separated or cut in two parts so
that we could study it we would find II I,
made up of circles or bands. The nu-
cieus of self is physical wants and an /,
petites that all feel. Thus we come to
certain material things. Take, for in
stance, clothes. / venture that clothes
are part of self. Imagine how your
contracts when some one
r'dlcules what you wear. Then come
pther material things as houses, furni-
ture, books. If you are living in
rented house and some one calls and {
CASTS cr1tlcal looks at the furnishings I
now you hasten to assure them that the S
things are not yours, and not to vour
taste, and are not what you would have /
selected. !
Then self goes out to include the !
-ainily' and is not one personality. This {
class Is thought of as a whole. and t
when we think of one as number. if '
,rlngs to mind all. When person is /
member of base ball nine or foot t
pail eleven, his only thought is for the t
success of the whole team. Then there
S our connection with church, with the
COMMUNICATIVE state and the nation
Self includes larger and larger groups. 6
anger understanding. There is the self IL
hat is so narrow it does not extend be- Q
fl,n e.,