The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1904-06-09
The ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT
Plymouth Schools Close Successful
Year With Sixteen Graduates.

The>members or the class of 1904
graduated from the Plymouth High
School and were awarded diplomas
Thursday evening at the twenty-ninth
annual commencement exercises.
The school. during the past year
under the direction of Superintendent
Randall and his excellent corps of
teachers, has done good work and the
sixteen graduates, Ronald NJ. North.
Rudolph V. Shakes, Chloe l. Butler.
Nettie Corse, Chloe E. Savage, Nancy
W. Gay, Gertrude 1. Kyser, Mamie
L. Beldon, Rose B. Lidecker, Iva D.
Disher, Charles o. Miller, D Fl. Nor
ris, Coral E, Boggs, Bessie A. Vinall,
Russell R. Helm and Rudolph E.
Cramer, form a class that will COM
pare favorably with the twenty-eight
classes that have gone before them
and r1ade the schools of Plymouth
famous throughout the state.
The auditorium, which has the lar
gest seating capacity of any room in
the city, was crowded at 8 O'Clock
when Superintendent Randall, the
members of the school board, the in
structors of the high school. Rev. G.
A. Plug. Hon. Charles 2. Drummond,
the speaker of the evening and the
sixteen graduates filed onto the stage
which was tastefully decorated with
festoons of class colors, lemon, yellow
and lavender.
The opening number was the grand
march by Elbel's orchestra: then came
the invocation by Rev. G.. A. Plug
followed by the high school chorus,
damascus Triumphal March.
The salutatory was by Ronald F.
North. His subject was Progress. I"
In well chosen sentences he gave a
a review of the progress Of thought in
the worlds early history, showed that
poetry and imagination were really
more prevalent before men and
women became great reasoners and
profound thinkers, because magma
ton must always give place to reason
in solving great mathematical or other
intricate problems, and that the
great inventions, wonderful featS of
engineering skill and great discover
les in science and all the great accom-
plishments and advances of the pres
ent age were not the result of poetry
and imagination but of profound
thought, wrought out by the hardest
work.
He pursued the eraS OF thought,
showed how error and superstition had
vanished. hoS the rights of mankind
had been reached, dating the era of
freedom from l776. He said that
often what seemed to be retrogres-
sion had proven real progress, even
when the men at the head of move
mentS did not themselves understand
it that the world was progressing.
that the path is sometimes devious
but the bends in the path are neces-
sary. The present be said is part of
eternity and in success or adversely
every one may be comparatively
happy If he does as well as possible
the duties assigned him.
"The Value of Silence'' was the
subject Of the grafton by Rudolph V.
Shakes.
His contention was that the intel
lectual giants of the world, those who
had accomplished most and left the
deepest impress on the ages under
stood the value of silence. The ma
jority of the greatest reasoners and
thinkers come fiom the country be-
cause of their surroundings. They
are not the mere imitators because
they are not surrounded by men and
women that they are prone to initiate.
Heredity has much to do no doubt,
with the formation of great minds,
but there Is more in environment.
The greatest works of the greatest
authors, and the greatest discoveries
and inventions of earth were thought
out and to great extent wrought out
in silence. He instanced Joan of Arc.
Edison. Newton, Bacon the monks OF
the middle ages, the great actors, mil
itary men, statesmen, diplomats and
politicians, and showed that all their
plans were made in silence and to
some extent carried out in the same
way. 1t was in the silence If a prison
cell that Bunyan conceived and wrote
bis wonderful alIegory, and the great
est efforts of Milton and Dante are
products Of silent surroundings.
Thoughts unspoken are thoughts
eternal" he said, and silence is the
safeguard and armament Of life.
At the close of this grafton the or.
chestra rendered the "Tenderfoot'