The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1906-06-06

aration for the great voyage of life
must be carefully performed, that
every part of the body and mind re-
ceive the careful training.
Tomorrow we leave the harbor
forever, never to return. We cannot
say farewell to you, citizens, for to-
morrow we take our place among
you. To you, friends, we say fare
well, for we shall never meet as we
have met this evening; to you, our
school board, teachers, We bid fare
well, and we thank you for your eff
forts in our behalf. To you, dear
schoolmates, we say farewell; let
us strive for our high ideals, and
life will be success
Frank II. Rudkin, Judge of the
state supreme court, addressed the
graduating class as follows:
During the past five or six years
a goodly portion of my time has been
occupied in listening to the speeches
and arguments of others. This ex-
perience has taught me the greet
lesson of charity. l propose to give
you the full benefit Of that lesson to-
night and therefore shall not detain
you long. By invitation Oh your
board of directors I appear befor.,
you to make few obser sations 10
the graduating class. Waie / thai
the board heartily for the honor they
have conferred upon me, assure YOU
cannot commend their Judgment in
the choice they have made, bit !
shall trust to your charity to over
look their mistake and my own
shortcoming. We are assembled
here to take part in the losing ex-
ercises of the school year 1856
liz this day and age it is called Com
mencement." To me it always was
ana | trust always will ne, che last
dfy of school" AS a child | never
could understand why the com
mencement should come at the end,
and, for that matter, though l have
grown to manhood, and lived more
years than I care to number, I do
not understand it yet But we are
here to celebrate the occasion and
not to quible over names. You, my
young friends. have passed through
the trials and ordeals of the past
few years with the laudable ambi-
ton of gaining an education. And
what is the object of an education :?
It's primary object no doubt is to
give you a training that will fit and
qualify you to deal with and master
the manifold problems that will
arise and confront you in your
everyday life. 1t is only a means to
an end. If you make good use of it,
it will serve you we'll. If you use it
i'll, your time and the time of those
who have wasted their energies in
your behalf is lost forever. 1t is not
what you have learned here, but it's
application through life, that will
prove its utility.
Doubtless it has seemed to you,
and it once seemed to me, that many
of the things that you have been
taught here will be of little use to
you in your journey through life,
and this is no doubt true. Facts
and dates of history, the boundaries
of states and countries, the location
of mountains and cities, the sources
and courses of rivers, will in a meas
ure pass from memory with the
passing years, as surely as the waters
of those rivers find their way to the
sea. Few traces of your knowledge
of Latin and German will remain.
The rules of mathematics which you
have learned with so much vexa-
ton of spirit you will perchanoe
never have occasion to apply. The
art of reading you may find useful
mechanism to secure an acquaint-
ance with distant virtues, but it may
as readily be used to acquire distant
vices. So far as writing and figuring
go, many man now fingers in
prison because, forsooth, he wrote
not wisely but too well. or because
he attempted the impossible-to
make figures lie. All of this goes to
show that the utility of an education
consists in its use and not in its
abuse
"But an education consists not
alone in the ability to read and to
write and to figure, or in the knowl-
edge of the few important facts or
rules that you may have memorized
here. 1t consists less in knowledge
than in knowing; less in thought
than in the right method of think
ing; less in quantity than in quality;
less in memory than in reasoning.
While the old idea was that an edu-
cation consisted in knowledge alone,
the modern view is tnat its import
ant feature is training and disci-
pine. If you have awaited your
selves of the opportunities offered
you here you have acquired studi-
Gus habits; you have been taught
system; you have been taught obedi-
ence to superiors; you have been
taught in general the duties you
owe to yourselves and to your fell
bowman. And If you follow those
habits and precepts through life. re-
Numbering at all times and in all
places that you are educated ladies
and educated gentlemen, you will re-
fleet crdit upon yourselves and upon
those among whom you dwell, for
they cannot fail to profit by your ex-
ample 1t Is often said that the