Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-06-11
GLASS Of 1910
BIDS FARE WELL
LARGEST CLASS IN HIGH
SCHOOLS HISTORY CON-
PLETES ITS COURSE.
PROF. F. C. EASTMAN ON
"THE LIMBO OF LETTERS"
Head of Department of Latin of State
University of Iowa Delivers Re-
markabIe Address-President Abbott,
of the Board, Presents Diplomas -
Personnel of the Class.


women, comprising the class of 1911
of the Marstlailtonn high school, 1ert
! graduated Friday evening in the an
nual commencement exercises held a
the Odeon. The graduating class this
! year is the largest that has ever come
1 from the school, being larger by one
member than the class preceding it
/ This was the thirty-fifth class to bt
graduated from the school. The audi
| forum OF the theater was decorated il
the colors of the class of 1910, purple
/ and white, the ratings OF the boxes
and the balcony being draped with the
| colors
The annual commencement address
was delivered by Prof. Frederick c.
Eastman, head of the department OF
Latin at the state University of Iowa.
and president of the Classical Associa-
ton of the Middle West and South. 1t
! is seldom one has the opportunity of
listening to an address of such pro-
nounced merit, filed with so much
poetry and music and beautiful express
sions, as that delivered by Professor
Eastman.
The program opened with a double
selection by the boys glee club, the
numbers being College Song" by Cole,
and Absent" by Metcalf-Lynnes. The
invocation was delivered by Rev.. Syl-
vester E. Ellis. after which the girls
glee club, under the direction of Miss
Elizabeth Wellemeyer, sang Leslie
Good Night"
Miss Marguerite Lewis. member OF
the class, delighted the audience with
the Gounod-Allard Faust Fantasie,"
on the violin. Miss Lewis is remark
able young musician and her selectlon
Friday evening was rendered with the
best Of expression and stamped the
young violinist a s a true artist.
"The Limbo Of Letters"
Superintendent A Palmer, Of the city
schools. introduced Professor Eastman,
who spoke on the subject, The Limbo
of Letters" At the beginning OF the
lecture Professor Eastman's voice
seemed harsh and there was a notice.
able uneasiness over the house. Before
he had progressed far, however, there
came a stiffness over the auditorium
and thereafter the speaker held the
audience enraptured with his remark
able lecture, which had an appealing
touch turnout and which held old and
Young alike. ne SpOhS III pa! eAS 80
! lows:
The Limbo of Letters was defined
as the region of literary failures-of
the literary productions that failed to
measure up 10 the standard Of genius.
Genius is not a miracle. IT Is the in
tense power Of approaching. combined
with the intense power of expressing.
The result Of genius, that which is
called the masterpiece, is never sudden
nor isolated. but rises thru failures
and experiments. In Grecian art few
statues of Venus and Apollo and Min
erva attest the wonderful approach to
perfection. but centuries of trial pre-
coded them and the chips and the ruins
Of the works that failed are scattered
under the soil of Greece.
so it is in literature. In a given
age a great poem or great history
or a great novel or a great play ap-
pears representing the standard Of ex-
callence At the same time thousands
of the literary epfemera sun their
wings Of green and gold for little
daE and are seen no more. What we
call the world Of letters is made from
the literary stare dust of failures. Our
attention and admiration are captured
more by the globed worlds than by the
atoms from which they We're formed.
So the great world of letters captures
our admiration and We are less con-
cerned with the spaces of word mist
from which it come-The Limbo Of
Letters.
There is something in the human
soul that responds to rhythm. A single
beam of blue light, single note from
a musical instrument. summons a re-
Spouse in savage or civilized man. The
savage is satisfied with the single
beam or tone; civilized man is always
seeking for new com binatfons Man is
ALWAYS endeavoring to express his en-
pressions as he appreciates them. Cen
Jus is thus relative term. The early
effort is toward smile and metaphor.
Humorous illustrations were given by
the speaker of the smiles of the saw
age and civilized man.
LAS man tends TO expression. wher-
ever we find a normal phase of human
nature we are sure to find a literature
adjusted to match 1.-THE excellent
| in literature But there are immature
and abnormal phases OF human nature,
and as sure as we find these so surely
we find a literature adapted to them
! and this literature belongs to the Linn
DO of Letters.
The nursery, the myth, the fairy
literature is the expression that re-
spends to the immature phase of the
child-mind-wf1en he doesn't see things
real: when all is a. wonderland to him.
| The front dooryard is an undiscovered
tropic; the butterflies and bees. and
dragon flies are elves and fairies to
him rather than insects. and the fairy
literature represents his view. The
little fellow ought to De allowed to
have this literature. The hard, sharp
verities of life will come out soon
enough, and these things are real, after
all. The good old Saint Nicholas, with
the reindeer and the bells. is true.
There is a later period when the boy
becomes a sort OF young savage. He
| affects the rough-and-ready demeanor.
| II is manifest ii his dress. He takes
on swagger and likes to have his
trousers hitched up with one suspen-
der; the same thing appears in his
speech; he adopts the wonderful slang
Of the American small boy. His mag
| ination runs riot in the direction OF
prairie fires and carbines and bison and
1ariats and bucking broncos. Just as