Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1911-06-02
COMMENCEMENT ESSAY.

puDllSn DelOW the essay written by
Miss Hazel Terry, a pupil of the
Monterey High School, and read by
her at the closing exercises on We'd
nesday night, May Oath.
We do so because we regard the
paper as highly meritorious--excel-
lent reading for grown-up-folks and
the young who read it will be en-
couraged and inspired along praise
worthy lines.
The Big and Little End of the Horn
The two phases of life are we'll
represented by the big and little
end of a horn.
We shall let the little end of the
horn represent experience and the
big end success.
There is maxim which we so
often hear;;"If you wish to come
out at the big end of the horn, you
must 60 in at the little end"
When a man goes in at the little
end of a horn he must first climb a
ladder in order to get in at the little
end, and we shall call this ladder,
education, and then he enters the
little neck of experiences and by the
natural cource of development
comes out at the big end, success.
Let me say right here the horn
represents the natural course of
development. We are born by ma
ture into the little end of existance.
We have to lie in the cradle before
we can crawl and crawl, before we
can walk and walk before we can
talk.
The man comes from the baby,
thus we grow physically through
the horn of life, from the little to
the big end.
The same is true of our intellect
ual development. We do not when
we first start to school study the
higher branches, but we must learn
the alphabet before we can spell,
and spell before we can read and
read and write and master arithme-
tic and grammar before logic and
rhetoric.
The unnatural course of develop
ment is seen in the fellow going in
at the big end and coming out at
the little end of the horn.
We may see many examples OF
the natural and unnatural course
of life There's Jim and Bet. He
got pretty fair education by OBJ
serving and studying the world
around him and she learns common
sense as we'll as books, and how to
bake biscuits, milk a cow and cut
out dress. Neither of them have
much in the world bat they de-
termine to marry. AS the young
man who had nothing asked the
old man for his daughter, "I've
got nothing but two hands and
they are chuck full of days work;
both of them had energy and zeal.
Jim and Bet got married. jim de-
termines to 60 into business, while
Bet runs the plain little house
which they are able to own.
Their store is a small one but it
is paid for. They gradually ac-
cumilate and save by rigid economy:
They have entered the mouth OF
the horn pretty easily and they are
now going through the little neck
of experience making mistakes here
and getting deceived there, and in
this little neck of difficulty they
ttay for a few years, After while
they begin to swell in growth, wis
dom, money matters, respectable
ity and hopor.
The business is increased, a larger
store is bought, and after a while
Jim and Bet are rich.
They come out of lifes close from
the big end of the horn happy,
honorable, useful with a well-train-
ed and industrious family and leave
a good name and rich inherltence
behind them.
Tia Ike another case: There is
young Archibald Gordon Herman
and Miss Margaret Evangeline
Birmingham. They are both rich,
trained up to luxury and ease. Arch,
ibald is fast, Margaret is airy and
both are extr avagant. They get
married, live in a stone front, hire
servants, have champagne suppers,
and are very important in society
circles. Archibald wants to 60 in
to business. He and Margaret are
worth fifty thousand dollars.
He also goes into the mercantile
business bit in quite different
form from what Jim did. Hestarts
up a big business. hoists a blazing
sign. All goes we'll for a while but
Archibald runs to the theater,
drinks fine brandy, smokes Havan-
mas, drives fast horses, goes home
late at night. So Archibald keeps
the establishment in full blast.
After a while he goes in debt and
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