The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-06-03
DR. EVANS SPEAKS ID
 NORMAL STUDENTS Episcopal Minister Talks on
 "Peerage of Merit COMMENCEMENT CLOSES state Institution at Jacksonville Has Enjoyed Most Prosperous Session
 in History of SchOol-Presi-
 dent Daugette Speaks
COMMENCEMENT CLOSES
ny FLORENCE wEATHERLY

Jacksonville, June 2.-(Special.)-- Final commencement exercises held Wednesday morning at 10 o'clock brought to a close the most success | full and prosperous session of the State Normal sch ool in its history. The opera house was filled to overfowing with citizens of the town and county and friends of the school from all over the state, in addition to the student body, about 250 strong
 The graduating class. composed of 20 young men and young women. Pres ident Daugette, Thom E. Kilby of Anniston, c. D. Martin mayor of Jack sonville; I. L. Brock of Centre. and others were seated upon the stage, which was tastefully decorated with cut flowers and potted plants, the bright colored flowers making an ef- fective contrast to the pretty white frocks of the young ladies.
 The speaker of the occasion was Rev. w. E. Evans, D. D., of Birmingham, who is a welcome visitor to Jackson vile audiences, having delivered the commencement sermon here two years ago. Rarely has a commencement ad- dress been so delightfully."- received as that delivered by Dr. Evans yesterday. He gained the undivided attention of his hearers at the start and held II to the close of his speech.
 The address was not formal in char acter, but was rather on the order of charming and unconventional talk, AL. af Merit" Dr. Evans referred to the house of peers as being an old and honorable institution of governmental polity, us- ing the peerage of Great Britain only as a point of contrast, because the peerage of merit is far loftier than the peerage of Great Britain. This peerage is older than the star and garter and more honorable than the golden eagle, or any other ancient or der possible to conceive Its honors are not conferred by any external in stitution nor by any fictitious environ ment. It cannot be conferred by a col lege. mere diploma cannot show the right of entrance thereinto, but its hon. ors are dependent upon the man him. self. first what he is and second what he does, and by these two tests is he admitted or denied entrance into the great company of immortals who compose the sublimest peerage of all the ages. Continuing, pr. Evans said that there are two false conceptions of the merit that admits into this lofty temple of peers. Some suppose that ancient ancestry, that the honored name of their forefathers are the open se- same to this great temple and boast of an ancestry long since past away.
 False Conception
 Dr. Evans discussed at length this phase of his subject. Another false conception he said, lis that we judge men by their appearance, by their dress and the like of that" He said it is not the boy that receives the largest bank check while in college and who dresses the best that makes the great est mark in the world after leaving school
 Boys" he said, sometimes think of nothing else but dress and there is a certain type of boy if he can just get on a pair of pointed shoes, red socks and a green ties, that boy is just about as happy as a boy can be, and if his suit be one of broad checks. the broader the checks the happier the boy. I am afraid there are some girls of whom 1t might be said. the wider the hat the happier the girl " Dr. Evans here drew a con- trast between the Bird of Paradise which can only croak, and the little modest nightingale in coat of brown, which sings so gloriously.
 He warned the young men against be- ing led off by the fine clothes of some young woman, who, possibly could only est one in brown, whose feathers are not the most important thing about her.
 Value of Integrity
 In speaking of the great value of in tegrity. the next phase of his subject, the speaker said that the world needs men of integrity, men who cannot be bought. men who cannot be bribed. men who will hold to the truth and swear to their own detriment men to whom a bribing coin would be as burning blister in the palm.
 The world Is looking for men of integ- rity, men with high sense of honor nothing will take the place of it. he said. "One may do all manner of things, but the highest and best is to be some thing and that something of honor and of implacable integrity"
 The next point brought out by Dr.! Evans was the importance of industry It is a very easy thing, some have said, to mount the ladder of fame, but the men who have ascended it have told us in story and in autobiography and theil DlORTdpnerS nave WTltIen Sucn things that lead us to believe that it Is not an easy task. The man who achieves any, thing for himself and the world finds that it Is hard. There is work to be done, hard work, severe work. Someone told Alexander Dumas that he thought it very easy thing to write a novel. such as Dumas could write. Dumas an- swered, Yes, 1t is. All you have tu do is to go to your desk. clear 1t of, get out your writing paper and write. Yes. that is very easy. but 1t requires ten years of hard work lore you are ready to sit down to your desk and write what you have accumulated in your mind
 Someone wrote to Thomas Carlisle and asked him for loan of books that he consulted in writing that great his tory of the French revolution. Com plying with his friends request, Carlisle sent him over a whole drayload Of books the friend supposing the while that only two or three books had been consulted, but Carlisle had consulted every one he sent his friend. It is work, work, hard work, persistent work that counts. pr. Evans said he was teacher or German in a college at one time and he could not understand why a boy when told a certain thing could forget it. but that as he grew older he learned that "if is precept upon precept. line upon line, here little and there a little," and that all things could not be accomplished al a bound He told the young teachers that they would discover the same thing when dealing with their classes and that "A ~.,o,,Ia <aLa y,araiatent work hut work