Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1909-06-17
Continued from first page.

girls. too young even to enter our
schools. condemned to life of cease
less toll.
/ would show YOU what it means to
be great and what great country can
do. would not boast of our military
prowess ms of what we are able to do
for humanity.
knew nome i'm Monroe county. 1t
was a Christian home. From it went
boys and girls who through the priva-
lions of their parents had secured an
education. Back to it came these boys
and girls mt times to visit that aged
father Whom they respected and loved.
not because he had made success i'm
life, as most men count success: his
farm was mortgaged. and will probably
always remain so, but because of what
that home had given them of character
and of life.
lie told the story of Clans Hansen
who went to see his boy graduate. The
boy to whose education he had de
voted his life's ambition. And when
that son told him. the night before the
commencement that he had east aside
the principles of devotion to the nter-
ests of his fellow men, for which lis
father was noted. and TO which he ha4
hoped To see his son dedicate his life,
when that son said, Father your ideas
are all right but they are too old fash
Toned. They don't bring cash. shall
stand by those who are able to help
me financially" The old man turned
away with tears in his eyes. He did
not attend commencement He did not
hear the boy speak. of whom ne expect
ed TO be So proud. He went back home
with Il feeling that the boy had sacri-
feed principle. sold out his ideal. He
had sustained loss from which he
might never recover.
This is not material age. There was
never IN age i'm which ideals played
80 large part. YOU will live with
yourselves. young people, far more than
with all others in the world combined.
Then the speaker told with striking
force the story ~ Jean Van Jean and
how the kindly protection of the Bishop
of Dee gave him one more chance and
made him Il better man.
And the story of Silas Warner. How
when his gold. over which he gloated,
was all gone and in the place had come
the little child. he began to live for an
other and for others and it changed his
whole nature. Our value to the world
rs men and women depends not upon
the amount of money or material wealth
we gather or the high position we at
tain. but on what we do for others.
Giving and doing for others makes our
the secret which this world has so long
been seeking to learn.
knowledge has transformed Helen
Keller. the deaf, blind mute into one
OF the most intelligent thinkers and
writer's of modern times.
The words martyr and sacrifice are
not SO much heard now. \ new word
has taken the place of both. it is ser
vice. Andrew Carnegie has at least
taught the world this lesson, that
whether we wholly approve of all the
methods by which he attained his mil
lions or not. he has tauLht us the doe
trine of service To his fellowmen.
The poor Lake county woman on the
way to Ann Arbor to undergo an oper-
alton might have carried with her. Il
remembrance of an aifectionate leave
taking Their home was poor. but it
need not have been - pooE 1t might
have been filled with an wealth of af-
lection.
Young people. YOU owe an obligation
to those who have given youSthese OPP
portunises.
Mr.. Powers then made a plea for rev
erence. "The man or woman who has
no reverence Is the man or womln to
be afraid Of"
That Wal come out of the human
life and character which has been pug
into it.
II has been stated that of those who
put down the rebellion 100000 were uH-
der sixteen years of age when they en-
listed: 100000 were under eighteen
and e.o0O.0OO under twenty-one. You
are enlisted tonisht. young men and
kyoung ladies. in the battle of life.
We arr here not to attain wealth or
position or culture. not to win success
rs success has often been regsrded, but
to use the Mhnts we fhave and the
powss we have developed to make the
vUld better.