Evening star., 1909-05-06
SPEAKING WITH SIGNS
Orati0nS Delivered With Unut-
tered Words.
CANDIDATES FOR DEGREES
Presentation Day Exercises at Gal.
laudet College.
ADDRESS BY REV. DR.. WOOD
"Influences of Environment" Dis
cussed for the Benefit of the Mem
bers of Graduating Glass.


lGallaudet College yesterday afternoon.
tSeventeen candidates for degrees in course
were presented for the coveted diplomas
and one candidate for an honorary degree
was named. The exercises were held In
the college chapel, which had been deco
rated with mass of palms. Hundreds OF
the students as we'll as relatives and
friends of the graduates attended.
Seated in the beautiful green bower on
the platform were DR.. E. NJ. Gallaudet
members of the board of trustees of the
college, members of the faculty and sew
eral guests. Among those on the plat
form were Commissioner Mcfarland.
Justice David J. Brewer, Theodore w.
Noyes, Elmer S. Brown. commissioners Of
education; DR.. Charles W.. Needham
president of George Washington Univer-
sity; Gen. John W. Foster, Charles Brad
ley and Francis X. McLanahan.
Rev. Samuel II. Woodrow. pastor of the
First Congregational Church, gave the
Invocation. and the benediction was pro-
Inounced by the Rev. Roland Cotton Smith,
rector of ST. Johns Episcopal Church.
Friends of the graduates showered them
with beautiful flowers after the exercises
Orations by the Graduates.
Five members of the graduating class
delivered original orations. Two of the
speakers had learned spoken language
since their course in the college, and they
were able to interpret their thoughts in
the ordinary fashion. For the benefit of
the student body a member of the faculty
| stood by the speakers and translated the
words into the sign language. The other
| three speakers delivered their Orations in
| the sign form, while the text was read
simultaneously for those who could not
| understand the sign form
| Speaking in the sign language. Miss Ell
len Dorothy Johnson of Minnesota dis
cussed Swedish Peasant Customs" She
| told at length of their home and social
life, their religious forms and their daily
| toll. early Kansas" was described by
4 Miss Mary Edetha Williams of Kansas in
the spoken word. The difficulties of the
settlers life were portrayed and the dan
gers of existence there. She said that
the civil war finally began in western
state. The wonderful progress of modern
! Kansas was also described.
Frederick Joseph ODonnell of Mime
i sofa took as his subject The Penalty
| of Humor" He said that humor had
price attached as the humorist is often
thought to be raving by the sane, be-
! cause of the exaggeration employed.
| The speaker. who used the sign Ian
guage, explained his points by quot
! ing examples of the worlds greatest
humorists.
Speaking by means of the signs. in AS
nearly a perfect manner. according to
her teachers. as is attainable, Miss
Jessie Attaresta Beardesley of South
] Dakots described graphically the hor-
i rors Of an Indian massacre in Devils
Gulch" in her native state This. she
said. is on Split Rock creek. near Sioux
Falls. and was the scene in the early
days of many bloody crimes. The IN
dians now. she said, are peaceful citi-
zens.
The Mission of Poetry in huma
life and it's qualities of adornment and
enlightment of the beauty of living
was told by Miss Margaret Mary Lev
| eek of Michigan. Her remarks were
translated into signs by teacher. Fol
| lowing the speaking by the graduates
DR.. Gallaudet presented the candidates
for degrees.
Address to the Graduates.
Rev. Dr. Charles Wood, pastor of the
Church of the Covenant, delivered the
address to the graduating class. Tire
Interpretation was made by DR.. Gallau-
det. THE influences of environment
was the subject of which DIR. Wood
spoke TO the seventeen students about
to take up their places in active life
and business. In part he said:
As the surface of the earth is inf1u-
enced by floods, by gases. by quakes, by
| upheavals, is the life of each and
| every one of us influenced by the things
i
come in daily contact True. the part
| for the most of us is small. for there are
| few TO whom 1t is given to be great
| molders of human life and ideas, but
every little cog is necessary in the great
machinery.
We live in a plastic world OF joy,
| sorrow love and other like attributes.
| Thought is the great molder of us all.
Lives of men are in general nodded by
spea king, by writings, by address, lecture
| and sermon. Often those who work the
| hardest and have the most effect are the
! least conscious of their power. We are
| nodded by the suggestions rather than by
the arguments of our friends. The word
| that shows your heart is the word that
tells your friend. Potters are We all.
| and the plastic clay is all about us.
| Man follows man like sheep through
the fence--one jumps. all jump whether
the obstacle be there still or not. En-
vironment is the really large factor and
the conduct of those within our environ
ment mOldS US.
| ..As Emerson has said. the life and acts
of a man speak SO loudly that his spoken
| words are drowned, unless they be in
perfect accord with what he lives. 1t is
the life that tells We must do what we
are advising as the right mode Of con-
duct book on patriotism by Bene
dict Arnold would hardly be a success.
Let faith, purity and goodness be eternal
/ ly manifest in your lives, that so you may
mold unconsciously the clay about you
for good.'
Candidates for Degrees.
The candidates for degrees were pre-
sented as follows:
| Honorary degree of master of arts
Dwight f. Bangs of North Dakota.