Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-06-17
NaIedictory-Lessons.

orleS ol Lne happy uayS or our yOuln.
 w. c. KEENAN,, JR.
 ValedictOry-LessOns.
 No duty connected with our grad uation excerises is of so sad nature as that which devolves upon the one who pronounces the farewell ad- dress. I attempt the task of utter ing to you parting farewell with mingled sentiments of gratitude and pain, gratitude for our beloved teachers and guides who have labor ed to form our hearts to the practice of virtue and to store our minds with the flowers of knowledge; pain and emotions of sorrow, because we are now to bid adieu to those with whom we have lived for years in the most intimate relations of friendship and affection.
 There are many truths that from childhood we hear repeated over and over again, until the very familiar ity of the words in which they are clothed, makes them almost mean ingless. Then of sudden some unlocked for revelation of their reality comes in a combination of circumstances, which brings home to us what before had but touched on the surface of our being. Such a truth is unfolded to us to-day in the realization that the joy we have so long looked forward to as the crowning of our school life is so closely intertwined with sadness, that we cannot separate the two. We have smiled when We were told it would be so. We have wondered what place regret could have in such an hour as this. We have thought that to be able to say. The book may close over. for all the les sons are said," would fill our cup of happiness to the brim. But to know that we stand to-day for the last time as ehool-girls and school boys where we have spent so many sunlit hours, that when September gathers in her throng of student workers our accustomed places will be filled by others, that the counsel and the guidance and the friendship so unsparingly poured upon us here will be missing, in many future hour of need; these and a thousand tender memories deeply rooted in our hearts, bid us finger over the parting word that we must speak and hold for yet one fleeting hour, the girlhood and the boyhood that never can be quite the same again, and cast a grateful glance at the sheltered years we have known and enjoyed, before we turn away from them forever.
 It is natural that our retrospect should resolve itself into a question, a question that we are proud 10 think is easily answered, namely, in these years devoted to thought, to study. to preparation for the life awaiting us, what have we learned? I said the question was easy to an- swer: 1t is, and it is not. We know much that has been taught us; but there have been many lessons gray en in our souls which we could never put into words, many that perhaps we ourselves do not know are there, but whose presence we shall real ize in some future hour of trial and need. We have learned that there is nothing in the world so price less as absolute sincerity-that neither brains, no wealth, nor social prestige can, for a moment take the place of it. and that in our selves and our friends. 1t is the one treasure we cannot afford to lack. We have learned that determination and perseverance can overcome most obstacles, and that success follows '1 will," rather than the half hearted I'll try" We have learned that real happiness flows from un- selfishness and from a right under standing of the duties of life-that the surest road to discontent Is along the path of indolent ease. We have learned the practical applica- ton of the old saying, You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink" in other words that not all the efforts of the best helpers and guides can ever make man what he will not strive to bs himself; that pupils and teachers, and employed, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, must CO., operate if any results are to be ob- tained.
 We have learned that life without religion is like a mirror cracked and fiawed, revealing naught but dis torted images and visions of ugli- ness; that only faith in God, and the spirit of obedience to his laws, which Is the natural outcome of that faith, can keep human nature from absolute ruin. And perhaps the best lesson of all is this-that we are only at the beginning, that we have dipped into the first vol ume of books. endless in lore-that we shall graduate from the great school of life. only when the voice of the master bids us lay aside this earthly garment to put on the white robe Of immortality-that until that hour We are students always, seeking ever higher knowledge, closer application. clearer intuition.
 To our beloved teachers. whom we may not name. we would fain say golden words of gratitude, of loyalty. of undying remembrance. In these last hours how all the little of question and an- sver. the many quaint situations. the varied incidents of the class room come to usi All have A strange fascination for us: We dwell on them as on trinkets of a depart ed friend. And as ve turn away. never more to be called up. never more to listen. to laugh with you and our classmates. the goodbye which we voice 10 you now. goes up from heart to heart. To say we thank you. is but a mild way of ex- pressing our appreciation. To you ve owe a lifelong debt of gratitude for the sacrifices you have made for vs .-a fo- sho ffe, N.k.. -. =.