Middletown transcript., 1911-06-24
HIGH SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT
A Handsome Stage-Big Audience
Fine Music and Good OratOry

n
The Commencement exercises of tht
Middletown High School, held in tbs
Opera House on Friday evening, June
10th, at s o'clock, we're everyway sue
cess-musically, oratoricallv and specta
cularly. The auditorium and even the
window stills and gallery, we're filed with
an attentive and pleased audience.
| The stage was elaborately trimmed with
flowers, bunting and crepe paper festoon.
| ing in purple and gold, the colors OF the
| graduating class, whose small flags hung
on the walls, with fine, large national
standard covering the rear of the stage.
The footlights were prettiIy hidden in
hedge of Rambler roses, "smoke" and
ferns-the whole decoration a credit to
some hard working persons unknown to
US.
The program opened with prayer by
the Rev. Vaughan s. Collins, Whereupon
some three dozen young ladies sang bar
carolIe from Offenbach, "Fairest Even.
ing" Then a male quartette of four
young men gave "Merry Heart, with an
encore; next large chorus of young ladies
sang "Voices of the Wood, by Watson"
Mr.. George D. Kelley, President of the
School Board then presented the diplomat
the graduating class. In his remarks,
Mr.. Kelley alluded to the fact that one
year ago, young g'man, 16 years of age,
had graduated from the MiddletoWn High
School. and had afterwards entered Della.
ware College. That when Representative
William H. Head threw the Annapolis
cadetship open to competitive examina.
ton, this young man entered the lists and
won. "And now" said the speaker,
holding up paper, II hold in my hand
a telegram from Annapolis, Md, received
to-day by Mr.. s. Burstan, the boys father
which reads, "passed, all right-Enter this
afternoon, Rupert"
Eight ladies next sapg Welcome Pretty
Primrose"-Pinsuti, followed by six
young men with "Gee, But It's Great"
and for an encore, a comic bit, "Dinah
Carve Dat Possum." Thereupon the
whole school sang "Rockin' in De Win,"
delightful rendition, especially distin-
guished for number of sweet alto voices
threading the melody.
A large bouquet of red roses was pre-
sented to Miss Leah Berkman, and
second of pink ramblers TO Miss Anna
Lawson, who blushed with pleased sur
prise, as rosy red as the big mass of
flowers she held.
President Kelley now introduced the
orator of the evening, Prof. Samuel G.
Schmucker, of the West Chester Normal
School.
His address was a fine one; filled with
timely instruction and thought, and de-
Iivered, despite an extreme hoarsness at
first, in very happy, not to say graphic
style, that deeply impressed his auditory,
and held their close attention for over an
hour. The professors theme was: "Brain
vs.. Brawn.'-its dominant note, "brain
cultivation" He began by making a
comparison of huge Jurassic lizard, the
Dinsosaur, found in Wyoming, and now
mounted in Metropolitan Museum in
New York City, with its 20 tons of body
and ii ounces OF brain-tTo tons of body
to one ounce of brain-with the so ounces
of brain ard $50 pounds of body, of a
man-one ounce of brain 10 only three
pounds of body.
The speaker discussed the great advau-
cement made in manufactures and ma
chinery, wherein brains had displaced
Drawn, giving highly interesting Illus
tration of two visits by him, three years
apart, to two rolling mills;-6rst, to the
Cambria Steel Works, where with gra.
phic gestures, he described the making of
steel rail by hand, sweating men swarm
ing about the glowing steel; then to the
Homestead Steel Works, where he told of
th e manufacture by machinery of these
same rails, with nobody in sight, save a
solitary individual pulling set of levers!
Brains had wholly replaced the sweating
braWnl
His remarks were enlivened at times
with witty and pungent sallies which
brought both applause and laughter.
The address was followed by a chorus
by the whole school: ''The Dance of The
Pine Tree FAIRIES" and the benediction
spoken by Rev. F. H. Moore, DID. =
Mrs. ]. fallen johnson, Miss Anna
Lawson and Miss Mary Richards severaily
played the various accompaniments on
the tuneful Becker piano, furnished by
the Hardness Brothers, OF Wilmington.