The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1904-06-08

Graded School, and Ladies and
Gentlemen:-It is always a priv.
ilege to be permitted to speak to
ones fellowmen upon any topic
related to the duties and oppor,
tunities of life; but the privilege
becomes a peculiarly exalted one
when the occasion calling for
such a discussion marks the
towering time Of youth
that inexpressibly beautiful and
mysterious period in human
life in which the faculties Of the
soul are bourgeoning into bloom,
like the first delicate pedals OF
an unfolding flower. It is not
difficult to find excuse for a GER
tain degree of confidence on the
part of the man who tries to talk
to men and women of mature
years, because he speaks to them
as a rule, from the same levels
of thought and experience on
which they s'live and move, land
out of the depths, it may be, OF
the same travail of spirit, the
same conflicts Of feeling. the
same Intellectual doubts, the
same fierce and resolute crap
plirgs with the insoluble pro
blems of life: which have stirred
and shaken their own natures.
Or he calls to them from the
lonely heights Of aspiration
which their own souls have seal
ed, and across the chasms that
lie between his thought flashes
to meet theirs like an electric
current, scanning the clouds
with it's livid glory. Mind then
telegraphs to mind as when, IN
the Alpine storm,
From peak to peak, the rafting crags
among,
Leaps the live thunder.
AS sorrow has a language all its
own, and Joy pours forth It's
notes of praise in accents whose
melody has no counterpart IN the
whole gamut of human emotions,
so the heart that has struggled
through Ssfghtings and tears
within, without" and has faced,
be it with never solittle courage,
the graver issues Of time, must
have learned at least the rudl-
ments cf a speech that finds an
an echo only in other hearts that
have confronted the same ques-
tons and waged war against the
same spiritual enemies.
But the laborer who walks
forth out of the dusty work
shop of life, covered with the
CRIME and SCOT Of the forge and
the furnace, or who turns aside
for a moment from the plow and
the furrow, with the smell OF
earth still clinging to his gar
ments. to hold converse with the
youth who are yet living in that
ssgarden of delights" the dream
land of boyhood or glrlhood,
whose eyes are fixed on the
stars and whose ears are ringing
with the unearthly music Of the
spheres, who have not yet barred
their arms for the battle or shod
their feet to climb the rugged
steeps,-to give to these some
word of counsel, Of advice. OF en-
couragement, of helpful admonl-
tion,-where shall he find the
courage to 6t him for the task,
the sympathy to wing his words
with hope, the wisdom to give
them weight? Whence shall he
draw the subtle inspiration that
will give power to his appeal and
cause it to sound like the clarion
note of a bugle call, summonlng
into activity the latent energies
of his hearers?
This is the difficulty which
has confronted me in undertak-
ing the performance of the duty
which you have assigned to me.
These young men and maidens,
these boys and girls, these little
Children
For then the threshold Of the world
Isstill with morning dews impearled.
In their hearts are now daily be-
ING formed ideals which have not
vet shriveled under the hot blast
Of bitter experiences To fresh
en- and deepen the impressions
which these ideals are making
upon their souls, stimulate the
hopes they have awakened, to
certify to them the reality OF
their dreams, to help them to lay
hold Of and appropriate the
great truth, that out Of such
stuff as this is built on ever
lasting foundations the structure
of high and noble character
this, it seems to me, is the task
of the hour. This, indeed, IN
one form or another, is the task
which always and everywhere
challenges the powers of those
who are called upon to address
the pupils of a school on these oc:
casions which we are won't to call
ssCommencemenJs. - You will
not wonder, then, if I shrink
from meeting the demands of a
theme so profound in it's signif.
canoe, so many-sided in it's appli.
cation,-and yet I would not, if ]
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