The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-08

Ester C. Thacker, Annie F. Witherspoon
Those who received certificates OF ex-
cellence in industrial work. as graduates
of the Sewing Department, were An
toinette Aston, Lettia Allen, Alice p
Rowe, Fannie Burke, Daisy Christian,
Minerva A. Cheek, Catherine Clark, Car
RE F. Evans. Lula A. Farmer, Emily D.
Higgs, Alberta NJ. Johnston, Rosabel f.
Manly, Daisy A. Mcdowell, S. Florence
Mcneil Fannie ]. Pennington. Minnie l..
Richardson, Mary NJ. Roberts, hfy '.
Spaulding, Nellie Smith, Lucy b. Iaylor'
President Mescrve, in some remarks TO
the graduates of the sewing department,
said that he was not one who believed
in industrial training alone. He believed
in the training of the hand, the head and
the heart but ne urged especially upon
hose who took certificates in Industrial
work rot to forget that manual labor was
;ac foundation of all prosperity He hiin-
self was prouder of nothing more than
that he bad as a boy been taught the
trade Of q blacksmith.
One Of the girls who received certit-
cate for excellence in the sewing depart
mont was Mary NJ Roberts. That was
his ideal, President Meserve sail, the
same student receiving the degree Of \.
B. and certificate of excellence in indus
trial work.
Prizes were then awarded by President
Meserve. upon recommendation of the
committees, as follows:
Wood turning, 1st prize, Frank Page;
cabinet making, LIST prize Zenas M.
Tantsi; honorable mention to F. w. Will
I; ct nrizn
Watkins: honorable mention to Frank
Page; blacksmithing, LIST prize, T. o.
Stokes, honorable mention to J. l.. Hor-
ton; architectural drawing, list prize, j
A. Cole free-hand drawing, list prize, w.
c. Craven. These prizes are of the value
of $500 each.
The prize for sewing in the third year s
work, went to Emily j. Higgs. best second
years work to Callie Kirkland, best first
years work to Ellen Boyd. Honorable
mention was made of Carrie Evans and
Florence Mcneil in third years work;
Martha Merus and Flossie Burroughs in
second years work, and Cora Evans ana
Peggie Drake in first years work.
Then came President Meserve's parting
address to the graduating class. He said:
Il have watched your career through
the years with deep interest and have r.
ioced with you in your progress. ! have
a high regard for each of you and shall
follow you with an abiding interest in
the various paths in which Providence
may lead you. Because of my deep in
terest in your individual welfare, l want
to impress upon you on this commence
ment day that you are just on the thresh-
hold of knowledge. Young men and young
women on leaving college are apt to feel
that they have traversed the realms of
knowledge and have very little to learn.
Fond parents and admiring friends are IL
danger of spelling you by telling you how
much you know. You can escape the
Scylla of sclf-conccit and the Charybdis
of flattery and over estimation by recoS-
nizing that you have been taught only
how to begin to acquire knowledge. The
older people are continually telling the
young that they go to school too much;
that they boz education enough, when
they have hardly started on course OF
study and cant even speak the English
language correctly and distinctly and
write it undcrstandngly. This fact Is
not surprise TO thoughtful people, fer
the older members of n race that has
been on the road of freedom for only a
generation are not, as rule. prepared to
pass an intelligent Judgment upon th1
educational attainments of their own OIL
their neighbour Children. Show and shoddy
too often pass for honest work and in
trinsic worth. Not so much what you
can say as what you can do, will deter
mine your future and the sphere of your
influence. In Pushing to the Front we
find a splendid illustration of this fun
damental truth when Abraham Lincoln
was running for the Legislature, the first
time, on the platform of the improvement
Of the Sangamon River, he went to secure
the votes of thirty men who were grading
a wheat field. They asked no questions
about internal improvements, but only
seemed curious to know whether he had
muscle enough to represent them in the
Legislature. Lincoln took up cradle am
led the gang around the field. The whole
thirty voted for him.
Young people are apt to go out int
lie thinking that the world is hungerlns
and thrsting for them, and can't gel
along without them, when the fact is il
cares very little for any of them and doe
not even know some of them. This is
cold, hard world, and yet very apprecia-
tive of all who have the skill and gooe
sense to do something for it.
at is well on an occasion like this tt
consider the real significance of com
mencemcnt, for there is a failure to un
dcrstand why the term commencement
should be applied to those exercises tha
occur at the completion of a course o
study. 1t is because they mark the be-
ginning OF a wider life for which prepare
ton has for years been making; th'
opening out of wider vista of hope anC
opportunity and a clearer view of TIM
field of service. There is beginning t
dawn upon those who have profted bcs
by the instruction received that modest,
rather than self praise; humility rathe
than boastfulncss; regard for others rath
cr than sacrificing others. and their in
tercsts to ones own personal interests
are the avenues to the good opinion ant
the favorable verdict of the public. Moth
ing disgusts sensible men more than u