Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-06-18
THE SWEET GIRL
GRADUATE
BY ELLA HUTCHINSON ELLwANGER

| a bULF Ella relates LnaC an OlQ lazy
one day importuned him to tell what
she must do to get into Paradise.
"N1y good woman" said he, paradise is
not for old women"
The good woman began to weep; but the
Prophet consoled her by saying, @There will
be no old women, because they all will be-
come young again
And SO this month of June when you
gather, with other friends and relations to
hear the sweet girl and the dear boy read
their essays, there will be no old women
present; or old men, for the matter of that
they will all be young again in the presence
of youth. Oh, Youth, Youth!
Your own essay, long laid aside with your
yellowing sheepskin, probably had for its
title, Beyond the Alps Lies Italy," Do you
smile now to think that you have indeed
crossed the Alps, after years of struggle?
Pray, then, tell us if the country sought with
much climbing was any better than the
peaceful valley on this side? Or did you
falter and grow weary early, and, with slow
and half reluctant steps and one sorrowful
glance toward the summit, where your am
billions lay, retrace your steps and settle IN
the Valley of Discomfort
And you with your whitening locks may
smile also to remember that the fancy-lined
paper, lying with your diploma at the bot
i 3
your confirmation certificate, bore in curl
ously boyish handwriting the startling
words, "The Salvation of Our Country"
Since that time innumerable boys-sixty,
fifty, forty, and thirty years young-have
saved their country in the same way. We're
all twenty tonight!
We're twenty, we're twenty. who says we
| are more9
| Take him out, the young jackanapes. show
| him the door
We don't care rap tonight it the young
man does stare stolidly at his shoes as if he
never saw them before, or fixes his eyes on
the molding on the ceiling He is all right
or he means to be. And whether the sweet
girl graduate sings, or recites or reads us
from a carefully prepared essay, tied with
yards and yards of white ribbon, and wears
a bewitching, fluffy costume, and has a
trernulous little catch in her voice, we be-
lieve all we hear-we don't hear very much;
but we know it's all right We know that
she is telling us in the cleverest way she can
what she intends to do with life,-how it
should be lived to make the soul beautiful
and the world better.
May she never have cause to confess she
has failed God bless her! May her ideals,
planted high enough now be reached by her
slender young hands! May she forever en-
for its wonders will not last! For new woe
and fresh wisdom will lay their stamp upon
her brow, and the former music of her joyous
laugh may conceal dirge.
We are forgetting our past failures, our
false hopes, and those old dreams that have
someway come too late We are all young
again, and life is bright with hope, and Sue
cess is just over there. It is so close that we
have only to put out our hands, with the
veins showing palmer than awhile back, to
close upon that subtle thing called Success
Time has turned back the hands of life S
clock some steen years. and we are blushing
and smiling, albeit trife pale, and smelling
our roses to hide the confusion of the tumul-
tuous applause.
We stumble out of the hall, full of people
laughing and talking, with something more
than moisture in our eyes. We are thinking
we should give much to look out at the world
again with such fearless glances and such
faith. All, that's it!-Faith, the best Elixir
of Life yet discovered! To feel again that
fear and disappointment and despair are
PES yet to be met conquered!
Long life's a lovely thing to know
And lovely health and wealth. forsooth;
And lovely name and fame-but o!
| The loneliness of youth
GUz INTER
IVIEII nv little man what did yo,, learn