Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1912-05-23

she rode in a hired hack to the hall
and owned her first pair of Ions,
white kid gloves. II you kept the
proper sort of memory book, girl
of a simpler age-for modern SIM
plicity, so called, may be the unmis-
taxable hallmark of sophistication
You tucked into it sample of al
batross or henrietta cloth and labell-
ed it carefully, my graduating
dress" Beside it, you pinned a press
ed rose, also labelled, Flower from
my graduating bouquet" and close
neighbo to both was the programme
with your name underlined. Do you
remember how pleased you were with
your reflected image in the glass as
you hooked up the dress on which
the family sempstress had spent days
Of work? And yet you know now
that the awkward lines made you
look short-waisted and bunchy, that
there was too much trimming around
the yoke, and that high and tickly
ruching scratched your neck unmer-
cifully The old-fashioned photo
graph, taken the next day with your
diploma in your hand, is carica-
ture, and you envy the lucky girl
Iof the present her sheer organdy or
null, with its dainty handwriting
and real lace.
Over the Multitude's Heads.
Not many Sundays ago there
preached in a Kansas pulpit young
clergyman. In the congregation was
an elderly woman who listened to
the sermon with unusual attention.
Later she explained her special in
terest in which seemed none too
remarkable effort.
After ALL" she said, "a gradual
ing essay is some indication of the
native style of the writer, despite
the artificiality of its makeup. That
young minister was one of my stud
ents some years since, and under my
direction he wrote his final theme.
Shall | ever forget his first draft?
1t was a mere throwing together of
polysyllables, most of which he did
not even understand. / remonstrat-
ed. That was his idea Of graduating
essay, he said. 1t was not good un-
less it was beyond the understanding
of the multitude. Well, by main
force l cut the big words down one
half, and let it go at that. Now /
see that what took for mere stu
pidity and Grass ignorance was in
reality the unconscious otucropping
Of his native note. The efforted, high
flown, over-emphasized pulpit oratory
of this morning is only his gradual
ing essay raised to the nth power"
II the essay unadored by "cum
laude" was intellectual attainment
incarnate. what of the eminence to
which the salutatorian and valedic-
torian climbed? Here there was a
chance for the airing of dead lang
uages, of being apropos in the speech
Of Cicero or Homer, of rolling out in
sonorous syllables, 20 tempora, O
mores." or such similarly novel
phrases as "Ad astra per aspera, ("
or ''In hoe signo vinces." It was
their happy lot to welcome dear
parents, faithful teachers. honored
city fathers" theirs to thank the
school board, gentlemen Of the butch
err and baker order In many cases,
painfully encased in unaccustomed
broadcloth, for their interest: theirs
to speak the words that brought the
class to It's feet for that last emo
tional moment of farewell
Dear classmates, sad indeed It Is
to reflect that never again shall we
stand together as whole
Here Jennie dropped q tear on the
lsilk trimming Of her albatross, while
susy shifted audibIy.
"we stand on the shore Of life's
fathomless sea. Today We trust our