The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-05-14
DIR. MESSING SPEAKS
DELIVERS Co1r1GENCEHENT AD-
DRESS AT WETUMPKA.
Earnest Address to the Graduates Of
the Fifth District Agricul-
tural School-The Annual
Concert.

wetumpka. May 13.-(Special.)-The an
| nual coacert OF the Fifth District Agri-
cultural School at the auditorium last
night was witnessed by an immense
audience. Every seat was occupied and
there were probable two or three hum
dred persons standing. The concert was
Of the highest order In which the per-
formers-young ladies Of the advanced
musical classes-proved themselves ac-
| complished artists. This was followed
| by charming little operetta THE En-
chanted Wood played by the younger
| boys and girls.A Besides the principal
characters. who sustained their parts
| well. there were many dainty maids OF
honor. and fairies Of the Queens Court
| and . well trained military company. Tho
| diminutive soldiers captured the hearts
of the audience.
| This morning the people Of Wetumpka
| had the pleasure of listening to DR.. A.
j. Messing of Montgomery who delivered
the commencement address to the
| graduating class. DR.. Messings's reputa-
ton as a fluent and graceful speaker had
preceded him and the auditorium was
| filled with large and expectant crowd.
who were more than delighted with the
| address. which was thorough and COM
plete In every particular.
DR.. Messing's theme was the Dignity
Of Labor and he adopted as his text the
motto of the graduating class $50 ende
unsere erste Aufgabe." SO ends our first
task. He said in part: 'IAfe is indeed
short day: but 1t Is a working day and
not holiday. Work Is creative acticity.
Its divinity is attested by the announce
ment which opens sacred scriptures. The
Being that embodies for the human soul
it's sublimest conception OF power and
L 81 to tnfw n
as worker. In the beginning
God created the heaven and the
earth Jesus Of Nazareth, who
came into the turbulence and despair Of
| the world to quiet its noisy strife. GER
tiefid to his origin and his mission by the
terse declaration, My Father worketh
| hitherto and I work. Whoever has been
seized with this sublime earnestness by
which the possible becomes the real be-
| longs to the great creative forces Of the
universe All that will not submit to this
crucial test must be excluded from the
| productive brotherhood of world builders.
For some reason happiness and work
have always been disassociated in mems
minds. That youth Is said to be a child
Of good fortune who Is born to wealth
/ and leisure, freed from all necessity of
/ toll On the other hand we have only
i pity for the boy who Ii early thrown
on his own resources and compelled to
earn his livelihood. It Is time that this
! opprobrium of toll were done away.
| There Is no sailor on all the stormy
main. no miner delving In the hidden
/ depths by the pickering light OF his poor
lamp, no weaver bending over his noisy
loom, no moulder in furnace blasts of
mills whose gorgeous beacons wave like
| banners from their high turrets. no honest
| toiler anywhere in all the ranks of honest
labor who is not doing an indispensable
part toward bringing the kingdom Of
God unto man.
| Ashamed of toll, art thou7 Ashamed
Of the dingy workshop and the dusty
| labor-field; of thy hard hand SCARED with
service more honorable than war, OF thy
soiled and weather-stained garments. on
| which Mother Nature has embroidered
midst sun and rain. midst fire and steam,
her own heraldic honors? Ashamed of
these tokens and titles. and envious OF
| the Haunting robe Of fmbecile idleness
and vanity? 1t Is treason to Nature. 1t
| IL impiety to Heaven. Toll either of the
| brain, of the heart or of the hand Is the
only true manhood. the only true nobility.
| 'Tt must be a source Of sincere gratifi-
| cation to these graduates to know that
| they have been identified with what Is
known as an Agricultural School In
| the oi0 Gays ABrJcClture was Helu III
great esteem and It was considered the
highest compliment to call Roman a
great agriculturalist. cfany Of patrician
names of Rome were derived from agri-
! cultural terms as Cicero from civer,' a
| chick-pea, and Fabius from faba' beam
"Of all forms of human endeavor none
is so honorable as the cultivation Of the
soil. The farmer works. He does not
speculate or engage in the things that
promise quck returns. Spectators can
| not make unless somebody loses. In the
| realm Of speculation every success has at
| least one victim But the harvest reaped
| by the planter benefits all and Injuries
| none. For him to succeed it is rot neces-
sary that some one should fail. And so
his nights are filled with sleep and rest.
He lives with the trees and the flowers,
and breathes the sweet air IF the fields
There is no constant and frightful strain
upon his mind. He hears the pleasant
rain falling upon the waving corn and