The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-06-20

CLASS OF Odnu CoIleSe, delivered sat
urday evening last, is published by re-
quest:
Mr.. President and Young Men and
Women of the Graduating Class:
OF the hundreds of American schools,
seminaries and places of collegiate
learning west of the Rocky mountains,
Oahu College is Of eldest foundation.
It's first class was organized about 60
years ago At that time the civiliza-
ton of the United States had not
spread far and was landmarked. west
of the Mississippi, by very few schools
indeed; by a small group in st. Louis,
perhaps another in the then northwest
In the atlas that your fathers studied
the larger part of the mainland west
was called the Great American Desert,
and it seemed to be one of many i'm
passable barriers between Hawaii and
the Eastern coast. AS yet Fremont,
the Pathfinder, had not blazed a trail
across the Rockies and California was
a pastoral solitude, from which the
mailed hidalgo had been but lately
driven and whence the hooded priest
was preparing to depart. There was
little English learning in the empire
which lay between this island and the
Mississippi; and when Oahu College lit
it's torch among the western seas there
was no answering flash. But the torch
burned on and now it's signal is repeat
ed on all the headlandS of the west and
from the American outpOstS In Asia.
Here, within our coral reefs, the pio-
neer educational work of the American
west was done; from here, perhaps
from this very school, went the first
printing press the Pacific slope ever
saw: from here went hteratu into
the camps of the adventurous; and a.
mong those State-builders who helped
to found the commonwealth Of Cali
fornia were some whose characters
Oahu College had helped to form. But
the strongest work of all was that
| which supplied the noble men and
women who, taking UP the task of
their fathers, lifted Hawaii from bar
barism and made it in turn one of the
family of civilized nations and a part
of a great Christian republic. 1 speak
of these things not because they are
| new to you, for you have thought of
them often. but to refresh your pride
in the college which now sends you out
into the world with its faith and its
! blessing. 1t is a good thing to hail
from a school with a history; from one
with traditions; school at which no
one may scott as raw and new, saying
it was not here yesterday and may not
be here tomorrow; but one which has
proved it's right to a future by having
a long and useful past and most of all
by having, in it's alumni, men who
have won fame in the high and grave
affairs of life. Surely it is an honor
worth striving for to have the same
diploma that has been held by states
men and scholars, soldiers and philan-
I thropists and by men and women
| whose lives have made the lives of
others better and the annals of their
time more significant
DOING THE WORLDS WORK.
1t is the part of commencement
speaker to give advice even if he has
never taken much himself; and in be-
ginning the task aided by your friend
ly patience, L wish to talk of some of
the things young people must learn
to meet their duties in this world. You
are urged on every hand to get on in
this world; and your ability will be
measured, as in the parable of the
Talents, by what you have to show
for years of honorable striving on the
earth. The work you see about you is !
what you are put here to do; and if |
you do it in honesty, and thoroughness |
and in well-kept faith, you may be sure !
you will find yourself as fitted to be- |
gin a useful career in another world |
as you are. at this moment of your |
graduation from college to enter the |
higher life of the University or the
sterner life of business. They who do |
the worlds work well are those of
whom the poet wrote in such noble
verse; they who We're fit to stand in |
the Presence:
And oftimes cometh the wise Lord
God, master of every trade
Who tells them tales of his daily
work of Edens newly made,
And they rise to their feet as He
passeth by. gentlemen unafraid.
GOING INTO BUSINESS.
Many of you young men intend to go
into business if you can find something
to do Let me tell you now that your
chances in this town or in any town,
unless you are helped by friends, ir
respective of your merit, will depend
upon the opinion business men have
formed of you while you are going
about. Perhaps your teachers will be
consulted: but judgment will be form
ed about you independently even of
them. L was surprised. some time ago
while asking a merchant about the
value of a certain boy to hear him say,
Come with me and L will show him
to you" He stepped in front of
restaurant and said There he isl The
young fellow and two other lads sat
over their black coffee smoking cigar
cites and trying to look like club-men
after a hard day on the stock exchange.
Now that sight didn't particularly
shock me; I had done such thirgs my
self when young; but it taught me as
I want it to teach you. the merchants
point OF view He did not mean TO
employ a boy who had begun the |
and tobacco habit al that
age: for he felt afraid. if the boy kept /