The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-06-04
COMMENCEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY.

! sui generis. We will not look upon his
like again But in Col Thomas S. Kenan
and Judge Fred Philips the alumni have
two successors who may be relied upon
to lend cheer and fun to any occasion, and
Danish stiffness and dizziness from any
commencement exercises.
But | started out to say that for fifteen
years / have been trying to get leisure
enough to give whole week of time to
the enjoyment of commencement at Chapel
Hill, and to get as much good out OF 1T
as the late Col Steele did / see no way
to do it, however, unless / initiate the ex-
ample of my distinguished friend, Mayor
Joseph A. Harris, editor of the Hillsboro
Observer. That good man, when desiring
to take a week off, drops his pencil, scis-
sors and paste-pot, and inserts paragraph
like this:
"The editor needs little rest. He
will take vacation for ten days
Therefore there will be no issue of the
Orange County Observer next week
We are sure our readers will be glad
for the editor to have a little needed
rest"
/ see no way of carrying out my long
cherished plan of spending the whole COM
mencement week unless 1 follow the ex-
ample of my friend Harris and suspend
the News and Observer whole week.
Since learning the new name by which it
is eaned here 1 am In some doubt whether
weeks suspension could be safely rlsked.
The bright young daughter of a professor
in the University was looking diligently
over the house for something, and her
father asked: What are you looking for,
my daughter" and with a true knowledge
of the real mission of the paper, the young
girl said: ST am looking for the NUS
ANCE DISTURBER News and Obser-
ver) Could the world get along a whole
week without the Nuisance Disturber?
Wouldn't the nuisances grow intolerable
in that period?
There are banquets and banquets,
There is form of banquet where the
toasts are fixed by a committee and the
speakers notified about month ahead OF
time the subjects on which they will be
expected to speak If you have attended
a banquet of that kind, one time you will
run almost any risk to escape another such
in1iction. The speakers usually prepare
an essay on the subject assigned to them
and, though notified that they viii be al
lowed only five minutes they speak about
thirty minutes. / heard of one man in an
adjoining State last year who spoke ex
actly an hour and half in response to a
toast. Being a visiting stranger of dis
tinction the toast master did not feel at
liberty to call him down. At these for
NAL banquets there is almost always one
or two such men who have never learned
the art of condensation and who spoil
the whole banquet by telling all they
have ever learned on one subject. There
is another objection to these formal ban
quets, as one who has attended them well
knows One who has attended a dozen
formal banquets can look down the table
and pick out the speakers by watching
them eat. l have been to enough banquets
to do that myself. The man who is go
mig to speak either goes to one extreme
or the other He is afraid to eat at all
for fear that his mind will not be clear
when he comes to speak, or he is so ex-
cited he docs not know what he is doing
and eats ravenously and eats everything
in sight, and if there is anything to drink
he is in danger of being hilarious before
his time comes to speak.
Chapel Hill formerly had the reputation
as place of plain living and high think
ing In view of the record of this week
it is in danger of losing the reputation
of plain living. There have been two big
banquets, one of the Societies and one of
the Alumni Association and fraternity ban
quets are to follow. The banquet given
by the societies was the first of new
movement inaugurated at the University
which promises to be very pleasant lnno-
walton if it can be saved from the fate
of most formal banquets, and If the menu
committee will not seek to give the ban
quetters enough to eat at one sitting to
last them month, as they did at the first
banquet Monday night. The banquetters
sat down to the table at half past seven
o'clock and it was nearly one before they
dispersed and most of that time was taken
up with serving the various courses, the
speaking consuming the smallest portion
of the time. 1t is the idea at these ban
quets to have only three or four short
tOasts and then one set speech by some dis
JlnSu1SneU dlumnuS, WIN member Oh the
Senior Class presiding. Mr. Graham An
drews, of Raleigh, presided on Monday
night at the first banquet with grace and
ease, fanked on one side by President
venablc. of the University and Chief JUS
tice Walter Clark. who was invited to de
liver the principal address. All the friends
of the University will hope that to these
annual gatherings will come a constantly
increasing number OF the members of the
societies who have made success in the
various walks of life. 1t is an inspiIat ton
to the young men here to come in con
tact with former graduates whose names
are known throughout the length and
breadth of the State, but the older men
get much more of good from mingling
WITT the boys, because they get draught
OF renewed youth that blesses and
strengthens them during all the coming
year. / wish that space permitted for
me to refer in detail to the several bril-
liant speeches made at this formal ban
quet of the societies 1t was a brilliant
beginning of what is expected will develop
into one of the chief features and best