The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-05-29
Closing Exercises at Mont
 gOmery Theatre.
Addresses by MT. Murphy and Dr. Buttrick-Hundreds Gathered to Honor Young Women-other
 Schools Closed.

The nineteenth annual commencement of the Girls High Scnool of Montgomery which took place at the Montgomery Theatre last night. was an inspiring oc- casion. -A.. ....-. Hundreds of parents. and other relatives and friends of the twenty-seven young women who received diplc mas gathered to witness the nom msntous beginning Of new life for them.
 The occasion was marked by interest ing addresses by MT. Edgar Gardner Murphy Of Montgomery and Dr. Wal lace Buttrick of New York.
 The exercises were opened with the Lords Prayer said by the entire grad nating class. and this was followed by a violet drill by members of the class. This was beautiful .n it's picturesque in- tFicacies.
 The next number on the program was vocal solo by Miss Grace Tombstone. She sang "My Lover, He Comes on the Skee.''
 MT. Murphy's Address.
 The annual address was delivered by MT. Edgar Gardner Murphy of Montgom- cry, Executive Secretary of the Southern Education Board MT. Murphy was in troduced by Dr. B. J. Baldwin. President of the Board of Education. Taking as his
 
 Life" MT. Murphy spoke. in part. as fol- lows,
 MT. President, Members of the Grad uating Class, Ladies and Gentlemen No educational occasions are more interesting to me than those of my own city, and no invitation could bring to me deeper sense of privilege than an invitation from my fellow citizens of the Montgomery Board to address a great and representative au- dience Monfpovnarv'S Sv, the city of my interests and of my alle- glance. it is always an honor to serve, however humbly, in any cause which rep- resents the welfare and the happiness of our citizenship. Anything that might do for Montgomery would be but small re- turn for all that Montgomery has done for me-"
 Turning to the graduating class, Mir. Murphy continued:
 You are beginning tonight If this oc- casion means to you what it ought to mean, fuller experience of discipleship and leadership These diplomas are char ters of learning and charters of mastery They are your symbols of introduction into the service of the educated life. a life which must be first of all an experience of acquisition, and then an experience of bestowal; first service of ideas, of real thinking. of genuine though unpretending scholarship: and then service of expres. sion and of action. service by which the culture of the few becomes democratized in the interest of the many.
 Citizenship of Woman.
 'I am not unmindful of the fact that this is a class of young women. But l would have others unmindful of the fact that no amount of difference upon the sub ject of the woman as voter should ever be suffered to obscure the moral and civic significance of woman's citizenship. Men are not ready to assent to the pro- posal that the woman should wield the suffrage but all men in America are agreed that the woman Is a citizen. In bringing to the fulfillment of her citizen ship the service of an educated life she will remember that while she may not be potent as a voter she is almost omnipo- tent as an influence. and that the gracious and womanly influence of an educated woman who has not the ballot is far greater than the influence of the unedu- cated man who has the ballot In the larger affairs of our country there are few powers so feeble and so pathetically neg ligible as that of the totally uneducated woman; there are few forces more sig nIffcant and more commanding than tho power, increasingly responsive and in creasingiy responsible, of the educated womanhood of our country.
 ''The educated life of the womanhood of the South will not forget that the first obligation of its citizenship is obligation to the community. It's second obligation is toward the South. It; patriotic inter est and its deep affections will be sction- al in their expression; sectionalin no bitter