The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1917-06-08
VALEDICTORY.
Jamima Wilburn.


Jamima Wilburn.
The honor has been conferred upon
me of addressing you at this the final
meeting of the class. This honor
brings with it feeling of joy and
sadness; joy because we have reached
the goal for which we have so long
been striving; sadness because of the
severlng of long and eminent asso-
clatlons, yet there is an end to all
thlngs; to the shortest path and "to
the longest lane there comes an end"
Kind fellow students, we welcome Won
to fill our vacant places. and hone
that our lives and influences have
oeen such as will make each of YOU
remember us in the years to come.
We hope that you will enjoy and an
preciate your opportunities more
than we have, and fill the vacant
places more worthy. We bid Won
farewell, and god speed for the time
to come. Mr.. Chairman and Gentle
men of the Board of Trustees. we
most heartily thank you for the COM
forts and privileges you have pro-
vided US with, by giving us this beau
tlful and well.equipped building and
such excellent teachers. And we as
sure each of You, that, we will sasar
the many unse1fish provisions -v66
have made for our comfort and hap-
plness. In behalf of the class of 1917
we bid you farewell. Most beloved
teachers at whose feet we have so
often sat, whose patience we have so
often tried, it is with sadness that we
leave you to go into lives full of ac-
tlvltles or to higher institutions of
learning, for which you have labored
SO faithfully to prepare us. AS we
leave you we feel in our hearts that
we are leaving friends-friends upon
whom we have depended, and from
whom we have received permanent
training. Dear teachers. we have n
very near and dear feeling for each
Of you, and the goodbye which we
voice to you now goes out from heart
to heart. We thank you for the sac
rlhces you have made for us. We
cannot repay you, yet we trust that
we can reward you, by our lives.
which we hope will be centers of
"
ing sat at your feet. Goodbye.
Class mates: We have met here
together for the last time. Our rela-
tons and associations as class mates
must be broken and we must bid each
| other farewell. 1t is sad indeed IN
sever relationships as pleasant as
ours have been, yet we know that
such relationships contained in the
bigger life for which the smaller life
has been designed, would become
monotonous. Truly we are slow to see
why triumph should be crowned with
tears, why continued happiness should
be cut short by parting sorrow; bat
we must know that only those who
weep have a right to laugh. Nav
TINS last experience of heart-rendinp
separation bring clearly to our minds
that life has in store for us the diff
cult realities as we'll as the pleasant
dreams, sorrows as well as joys, de-
feats as we'll as victories. Yes, class
mates, catch the vision of Byron when
he said:
| lhou man, a pendulum betwixt q
smile and tear" Know, too, that
all sorrow is nothing more nor less
than the divine way of publication
Know, too, that real affection is made
more certain when tested. even as
men become holy when tried. Their
comfort yourselves once and at al
times with the happy thought that the
bright stars can always be found ir
the edge of the darkest nights. Glass
mates, "Look not mournfully into the
past, 1T comes not back again. Wise.
ly improve the present, it is thine
20 forth to meet the shadowy future
without fear and manly heart" &C
from this life of preparation into the
real life of activity with this old pro-
verb ever before you.
Sow thought, reap an action;
Sow an action, reap a habit;
Sow habit, reap character;
Sow a character, reap a destiny
And If we never meet upon eartf
again, may we upon the shores of the
great beyond meet again never to dis
band. Where we can cast our tro