Connecticut western news., 1902-06-26

so bad when 1 realized all that my father and mother were doing for me that I wept and sobbed like a little child"
 Struggle For Education.
 To show what a struggle a higher education might mean, the president of Hampden- Sidney college once told this incident: Many years ago a wife and mother was left a widow with four or five fatherless little children to support. The dead fathers wish was to have his eldest son follow his footsteps into the pulpit and be a gospel minister. The mother was left penniless, with large family upon her hands. The wish of the dead father seemed hopeless, but the mother went to work. She scrubbed, she sewed, she struggled She made her boy study night and day. She pushed him through the preparatory school. She fitted him for college. After awhile this boy was able to help himself little, but the mother still had to bear the brunt of the battle. The young man entered college. He passed through his four years of study and came to graduation. He went to the president of the institution and asked if his mother could sit by his side when he graduated. The president, who knew of her noble life, gladly con- sented. When the day of graduation came, the wealth and fame of some of the noblest families about the region of the college town were gathered within the college walls. The exer- cises went on until they reached the climax. The valedictorian was about to make his address This young man, the son of the poor widow, stepped for ward. He was not only brilliant scholar, who had captured every first prize in his class, but he was natural born orator. With his first word a hush fell upon the assembled audience. At times his voice was as low and sweet as the singing birds making love to each other in the harvest fields. Again that voice rolled and swelled as though the stormclouds were crash ing together after the forked lightning had hurled its bolt and ripped open the heart of a mighty tree. At times the stiletto of the tongue of denuncia- tion cut and slashed; then the mes- sage of love would sob and plead. When the peroration was finished, the bouquets of flowers began to fall as the apple blossoms tumble at the shaking of the winds. The young man gath cred up the bouquets and piled them into the lap of the little old woman, prematurely aged by overwork, who sat there in her faded gown. AS he threw those flowers into her lap he said: Mother, they are yours. l have done but little; you have done every thing" Then, when the president of the college came forward and present. ed the valedictorian with gold medal which had been voted to him by the faculty because he had graduated with the highest average ever held by a Hampden-Sidney student, the young man turned and pinned this medal upon the bosom of the faded dress of the little old woman as he said: Moth CT, that medal is all yours-it is all yours. You won 1t, not l."
 How You Can Repay.
 So, as I see you young men and wom- en coming up to graduation day, I see other faces behind yours. I see those whose sacrifices have made this scene possible. I congratulate you that for you the hard financial struggle of get ting an education Is over; 1 congratu- late you that the long and arduous struggle of your loved ones in your be- half Is also over; I congratulate you because now you can go forth in the strength of God to accomplish some thing in this world by the power of ed ucation. You can pay back in good, pure, true, successful life some of the rewards which the old folks, your brothers and sisters and friends have a right to expect on account of what they have done for you, and congrat- ulate you further because you cannot only repay them by the results in your own life, but because you can now help your younger brothers and sisters to helped.
 Again I congratulate you, young June graduates, because. while your intel lect has been trained and nodded by the expert minds of a college faculty, your hearts have been spiritually in- fuenced and helped during all these years by the prayers and the encour- agement of godly parents. In this age for the specialization of talent 1t Is ab- solutely necessary for a young man to have a higher education. The land Is so filled with colleges and high schools and institutes of technology and schools of all sorts that the young man who has no education or a sadly defective one is nightly handicapped In the race of life. All the different positions of | influence will be naturally filled by 1 those who have the best training, just | as those who graduated from West Point naturally rose to be the great military leaders of the civil war. Here and there we might find great yolun- 1 teer general, like John A. Logan or Al fred Howe Terry or Nelson A. Miles; 1 but, after all, such men were the eX- captions. Grant and Lee, Sherman and Longstreet. Jackson and Sheridan, Beauregard and Meade, Polk and | Thomas, Johnston and Hooker, were all graduates of West Point. In this age of many schools and colleges would no more think of seuding my boys forth into life's battle without higher edu- cation than would expect one of them to become a physician without enter ing a medical school or a lawyer with. out studying law.
 l The Complete Education.
 But, my young friend, a man who Is limited merely to a mental educa' ton is only half educated. The man whose intellectually developed brain is not ballasted by a morally deveL oped heart is heading toward certain shipwreck. The sharper the knife that Is placed in the hand of a little child the easier 1t Is for that child to dc itself an injury. Aaron Burr was an in. tellectual giant, but Aaron Burr's
 wasted life was caused by heart that
 was morally bedwarfed by sin. Thomas