Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-06-26
The Parting Address.

me Farttn9 Address.
The parting address to 1912, by Wal
ter j Rideout the last of the Senior
exercises on the lawn campus came
next on the program In part it fol-
lows:
A little while ago We gathered here to
celebrate our Junior Presentation day.
Summer passed. The stately trees
donnca their crimson robes once more
only to lay them aside for the more
sember hues of winter. Swiftly the
DAYS went by and now, almost before
we can realize it, the campus is clad
again in living green. A year has van
ished. Another Senior class is about to
leave old Colby's halls to join the ever
increasing number of her loyal sons
and daughters.
In accordance with the ancient GUS
toms we have gathered here, this day.
We have sung our odes, we have learn
cd what our future lots are to be, we
have listened to words of admonitien
and counsel TO the lower classes, We
have smoked the pipe of peace.
To me has been granted the privi-
lege of speaking the parting words
We, who are gathered here, today, are
picked company. OF the many who
started with us in the elementary
schooi only a remnant remains. This
process of Illumination has been going
On through all the years of school and
college and we who are present here
are all that are left of host of other
DAYS
TO us unusual opportunities have
come. From us much will be expected.
a.
fields. two ways lie open before, US, the
way of self seeking and the way of
selfgiying,
To follow the way of self-seeking is
to fail at the last We may attain
wealth. power. all that the world can
give, yet peace, happiness and the love
OF our fellow beings win not be ours.
Ingersoll has drawn a vivid word pic
ture of such life, 1t is SO vivid, it ex-
presses So well the ultimate failure of
selfish ambition that l will repeat a
portion of H.
"A little while ago | stood by the
grave of the old Napoleon--a magnifi-
cent tomb of guilt and gold. fit almost
for a dead deity. and gazed upon the
scarcophagus of black Egyptian mar
restless man. | leaned over the balls
trade and thought about the career of
the greatest soldier of the modern
world"
One by one he reviews the events of
that restless life. He sees him at Tou
Ion. in Egypt, at Austerlitz, in Russia
He sees him at Leipsic in defeat and
in disaster: sees him banished to Elba
He see him ecape and retake ain en-
pire by The force of his genius only to
lose IT again on the frightful field of
Waterloo, where ambition and fate
combine to wreck the fortunes of their
former king. And he sees him at St
Helena with his hands crossed behind
gazing out upon the sad and solemn
sea. usIik KlE
And as the realization of the meaning
of hese dread scenes comes home to
him, he exclaims: Il thought of the
+. orphans and the widows he had made;
of the tears that had been shed for his
glory, and of the only woman who had
ever loved him pushed from his heart
by the cold hand of ambition. And
said | would rather have been a French
peasant and worn wooden shoes. |
Woulu fdlFer nave HVeu III nut Will
a vine growing over the door and the
grapes growing purple in the kisses of
he auumn sun | would rather have
been such a man and have gone down
to the tongueless silence of the dream
less dust than to have that imperial
personation of force and murder.
1t is not necessary to be great to be
happy; il is not necessary OF be rich
to be Just and generous and have a
heart filled with Divine affection"
To follow the way of self giving is to
win the highest success. We do not
have to look far for illustrations for
this truth. The history of every nation
| shows countless instance of men and
women who have given their lives to
the service of others The story of DR..
| Grentel and his work on the Labrador
| coast is one which would appeal to ev-
| cry college man and woman A gradu-
| ate of oxford, a skilled and able sur
geon. a young man with the brightest
| prospects for personal advancement. he
| chose to pass his life in a land of deo-
lation, in country. hard, RELENTLESS and
| cruel. where among fogs and iceburgs
| a handful of determined men are try
ing TO hold their own against hostile
/. surroundings and to earn a livings in