The Newtown bee., 1909-07-02
HOME NEWS. HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION
 EXERCISES. Town Hall Crowded. Friday Evening

lOWn Hdll JfOWuep. tflGaf EVenlng
 The enthusiasm and interest in the work Of the NewtoWn High ser ool or the part of the people of the town was eyinced again, Friday evening by the large and representative audi ence, which crowded the Town hall at rhe annual graduation exercises The hall was artistically decorated the c'qss colors predominating. Over the stage was the class motto in English, "Step by Step," while at either sile of the stage were u let. ters, "N. H. s." and "19O9." Short ly after 8 o'clock the pupils of the school marched in, preceded by Thomas Lynch bearing the High School banner, Principal Cook, mem bers of the High School committee, members of the Board of Education the graduating class, the assistant teachers at the High school, and the rupil, of the High school. The order of Exercises was as follows:
 Invocation, Rev Alexander Steele
 Song, Soldiers Chorus"
 Salutatory, Helen Francis Houli- han.
 Essay, "The Founder of the Ameri- can Navy" Florence Glover Beecher.
 Essay, "One of Americas Greatest Literary Men," Anna Harriet Ruffels
 Chorus, "The Rally"
 Grafton, "The Development oi Electricity" Benjamin Day Smith.
 Essay, Martha Washington" Ger trnde Louise Bradley.
 Valedictory, Earle Malcolm Taber
 Presentation of Diplomas.
 Address to graduates, Hon George E. Hill.
 Awarding of Prizes.
 Class Song.
 Benediction, Rev Patrick Fox.
 The exercises were of very high order, and the young people who par ticipated were commended for the ex- cellence of the essays. In presenting the diplomas, Allison P. Smith, chair man of the High School committee, briefly addressed the graduating class. The address of Hon George B. Hill of Bridgeport was fine effort. MT Hill said in part:
 Address of Hon George E. Hill.
 Many years ago when I was a Freshman in college, I heard an ad- dress to my class by the aged presi- dent of Yale. No word of all he said has remained in my memory through the intervening quarter of a century, save only one sentence, and that sen tence is this: Young gentlemen" " he said, remember this, the happiest man is he who thinks the happiest thoughts" Those words have lin- gered in my mind and come back to me to serve as a text for what l have to say to you who tonight graduate from this institution of learning.
 As I think of what an education such as a boy or girl acquires from a course in a High School should be to him or her, it seems to me that it's purposes and it's results are, or at least should be, threefold.
 The first purpose and the first re- suit (not first necessarily in import ance) should be to supply you with certain facts which shall hereafter be of service to you, which shall be, as it were, a kit of tools which you shall use in hewing out the career which lies before you. We often hear people deplore the fact that the aver age High School or college education supplies to the pupil so little which will hereafter be of practical every day use to him. Indeed it is true that such an education supplies you with but a very limited kit of tools which in the form in which they are given will be of actual service to you, but to carp at such education for that reason, is to lose sight nf the fact that to supply you with aknoWl- edge Of practical facts for everyday use is but a very small and conlpara- lively unimportant part of the pur- pose ant result Of such an educatiom.
 The aectnd great purpose and re- suit of such an education, l deem Of more importance than the first. Of all the tools which have been given you by Providence for the working out of your career, the one which you will use the most is your mind. The second great purpose of an education such as a high School gives you is the perfection of that tool. Did you ever see a chisel, let us say, in the rough; in the process of manufact- ure? It's edge is ragged and uneven; if it would cut at all it would not cut true and smooth; and it wouldn't cut all because the steel of which it is made is not yet tempered. The man who is making it must true it's cutting edge, must grind it and tenn per it's metal, and brighten and bur