The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1908-05-28
S0HE TINELY OBSERVATIONS.
commandments Cost.
(Raleigh Tines.)


athletic and social, arouse more in
terest or receive a more generous
sympathy and support. The COM
mencement season is a period Of the
year that makes its ready appeal to
every man and woman who believes
in the proper training and prepare
ton of the succeeding generation for
the business and public problems Of
the day to be. The special schools
that have chosen to locate in the
city cannot complain that they suf-
fer from any want of sympathy and
encouragement from Raleigh's
towns-people, and the public schools
found, after the taxpayers had sud-
denly given them the cold shoulder
for once, that certain local patriots
were willing to go down into
their pockets and produce the
imperative coin to operate the
grades until the close of the term
as cheerful piece Of private benev-
olence. And yet, this commence
ment season has an uncomfortable
side, as plenty of good men and wo-
men know, for the parents Or others
charged with the obligation OF de-
fraying the expenses of boys and
girls about to take a slip of sheep
skin and walk out into the world
with it. AS the years run on the ia
Their and mother with boys and girls
to be schooled begin to realize it
costs a good bit Of money to gradu-
ate in the manner in which the young
folks like, or rather expect, to be
graduated. The money equation is
a little more every year. No longer
will the largest bill Of less than two
figures do the honors fer a boy or
girl leaving the school-room. AS
one good practical citizen said, 1T
seems as though everything connect
ed with this commencement business
had to be a matter of not less than
a five spot. And some Of the indis-
pensable items come to several times
that. The boy has to have at least a
double ten for his suit. The girl
generally inclines to the tendency Of
her sex for good clothes and a dress
that comes to much less than that
won't suit. And then, there are the
incidentals-the class supper, and
pictures, and presents to this, that
and the other. The last two months
of school there's some kind of ex-
pense every day. No right-minded
man will begrudge his children the
legitimate expenses Of graduating re-
specially, with everything that is
needed to make a reasonably good
appearance and avoid the tendency
to be niggardly about one Of the
most important days of the young
ster's life; but all the same the fact
remains that it's a costly experience
for the fellow with good old-fash-
toned family of children and the am
bition to put them all through school
somehow, and there are men in Raj
eigh who don't get on their feet for
six months because Of these COM
! ,,
There is large chunk of truth in
the observation of this man who has
been quoted. On a conservative es-
innate, it costs from S25 the $50 to
gradual a boy Or girl the way they
are graduated now. The good old
days of brushing up the Sunday suit
that did service for best all winter
or maybe was brand new at Easter
are days that will never return. And
the day when the graduate could &c
through the commencement ordeal
without chipping in for all the little
side touches of his classmates anC
yet not get himself disliked by the
whole lot of them has likewise pass
ed. To use the cheap expression
which is, just the same, the most ex
pressive expression that can BIZ
brought into the argument, he mus
be in the swim, and to be in tlk
swim he must spend money or have
, somebody spend it for him. There
are scores of families in Raleigh
whose income does not go beyond
$500 a year and who are trying OF
that moderate stipend to give tn,
boys and girls q more liberal session
with the books than the father ant
mother were able to get a quarter O.
a century or so before. The cost O.
living is high. The necessaries O.
life are many of them Injuries now
when one comes to think Of the de
pletion that exists in the famil,
treasury after they have been paic
for. The 5000 family cannot affort
$50, or even half that sum, for tn,
boy or girl to graduate. 1t would
, not be the worst plan in the worlc
another year for the young folks t.
tolyo tho to j