Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-06-23
THE CLASS DAY OBSERVANCE AT
BATES AND B0WD0|N COLLEGES.
Programs OF Unusual Brilliancy and Interest
Carried Out Before Large Throngs.
BowDoIN COLLEGE.

| Brunswick Me, June 22.-tSpeclaI)
Glass day of the Class of 1909 open
ed fair with everything that could be
orators We're early at work on the
grand stand under the Thorndike Oak
where the exercises were held and by
noon had the whole enclosure bright
with bunting in the national colors
with the stand decorated and a large
| American banner to make back
ground for the speakers,
| Shortly before 10 o'clock in the
forenoon a gay crowd began to gather
in Memorial hall to witness the first
part of the Glass day exercises. The
hall was lastly decorated with laurel
and evergreen and palms. The rail-
| ings around the back of the platform
We're wound and hung with laurel
Evergreen was strung around the
| sides of the old hall with the class
| banner over the entrance hanging
| from the balcony. Palms set around
| the stage and hall added much to the
appearance. The orchestra was sta
toned in the gallery at the rear Of
the hall according to the custom in
troduced this year by the Glass OF
| 1910 at its Ivy day exercises. At 20
| o'clock the Seniors. who had formed
| outside marched slowly and impress
| sively down the center aisle and upon
| the stage to their seats with Glass
Marshal Percy Glenham Bishop of
| Boothbay Harbor the leader.
The exercises opened with music
| followed by the prayer, given by Har-
| ry Jenkinson Newton of London, Eng I.
class chaplain.
Jasper Jacob Stahl of Waldoboro.
| the class orator then was introduced
and delivered his Grafton. 1t was
written and given in the most MASTER
full style and showed the result OF
study and thought Following is the
Grafton:
The Grafton.
The influence of the American Col
lege has gone through all the ranges
| of the manifold and diverse life of
Am RIGA. Through the portals of COM
mencements for more than two ccntu-
ries a strong current has been wearing
deeper the channel through which the
| moved During this time Il third of all
our lawyers and statesman; five siXths
of our best authors; more than a half
of our best cl"rgymen and considerably
| more than a half of our courtry's most
| eminent educators have received
| their training in college halls. These
men have entered tn" moral the intel
| lectuaI, the everyday life Of the people
|
through the Interpretation OF law by
the irrists: through the Interpretation
| OF life by the novelists and poets and
| through the quite, earnest. helpful
way in which they have lived. To the
| extent that these men have shaped
custom ard thought the college man
has Deen a vital factor in our develop
mcnt. Such is the record Of the past.
The college man has assumed the bur
den of extending American civilization.
| With the rapd advance add the
change made in social conditions and
methods of study corresponding
| change has taken place in the Ameri-
can college. The student no longer
saws his own wood and Tugs it to the
| fourth floor or fctches his water from
q pump il, the college yard Those
most strenuous days are now associat-
ed with MS as mere traditions and the
dia! Of civilization shows the hand
| pointin" in an opposite direction. The
present seems to le idealiZing the con-
dtions of college training Every adj
| vantage. however, carries WITH 1T Ger
tain perils Tho American college to a
| certain extent may be said to bay"
caught the American habit of extremes.
| In many of the larger universities
number has become such 4 factor that
| close relationship between faculty and
| students is lost Tho institution col
| lects, irtrenretS and ana@ySlZes facts
| about everything but itself. 1t does
| net know whether the student body is
unduly emphasizing club life, social
life, athletics or rank. This" says DR..
| Lyman Abbott is the most serious
defect o. our higher education 1t is
by a convenient system of substitutes
and tutors turning out large mass or
| pleasure loving men. Princeton before
| the coming Of Pres. Woodrow Wilson,
was known to the pleasure seeking
New Workers as 'the pleasantest coun-
| try clab in tn" United States"
| This change in the conditions Of life
| has brought with it certain subtle dam
| gers In the university there is the
| lack of close relationship 60 conductive
| to the development of personality, and
the unanlmity Of aims that breeds re
| sporsibilitv In the small college there
| is as President Hyde has put It, "the
| danger of missing that solitude which
| is the soil of individuality and the fer
I tilizcr of genius The danger that the
| tendency of the age In&y foist on the
student ideals that are popular and
| mediocre In addition the college
| mans judgment is frequently trained
at the expense of his energy. The
power os clear sightness developed in
, him too often intansifies the difficulties