Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-06-15
CHRISTIAN CHARACTER
IS PRE-EMINENT
lcOntinuea from &c !. column 1.

Continued from Page /. Column A.
passed. and successfully passed.
through Your elementary grades, and
for this reason we are here tonight.
your teachers, your parents. your
friends, 10 congratulate you, and we
do so most heartily The milestone, as
l said, serves a double purpose. it in
dicates not only the road you have
traversed, but also the ground still to
be covered and for that reason gradu-
alton day is often called, and fittingly
so, Commencement Day. 1t indicates
the beginning of the more important
part of your career. What you have
already accomplished is but the
foundation upon which you are TO
build. The other day Secretary Dan
iels of the Navy while addressing the
graduates of the Naval Academy read
an important message from Vice Adj
miral Sims, in charge of naval opera
tions overseas, and the burden of that
message was this: My dear young
your training in the Naval Academy as
merely the foundation laid good and
strong, / hope. merely the foundation
upon which you are to build your flu
ture career. and it is only in consider
ing it in this light that you will be-
come efficient naval officers and be
ranked in the category of those great
Fr,a 81
nown on the Navy.
This advice may be given in a GER
tain sense to all the schools and col
leges whose graduates come forth
from the classrooms and enter the.uni-
versity of life. Don't be deluded by
the thought that you have acquired all
the knowledge that is necessary, all
the experience requisite to have a sue
cessful career in life. Remember well,
bear well in mind, there are many mug
gets of knowledge and veins of val,
ued experience that lie below the sur
face of things and it is only by close
and constant study that
bring you pleasure and profit May
you succeed in extracting those mug
gets of knowledge.
There is one thing that | want to
impress upon you tonight. and it is
of such Importance that | will make
it the burden of my closing remarks,
my farewell remarks to the dear chill
dren of St Mary's You have been
trained mentally, you have received
an intellectual education in the ele-
mentary studies that compares favor
ably with the best in the land, and for
this you are deeply indebted to the
noble Sisters who have devoted their
time, their attention, their heart and
their soul to your welfare and l trust
that you will ever be mindful of the
fact. 1t is not to that ] refer. l refer
to the moral training you have re-
ceived from the first day you stepped
into the classroom of st. Mary's
School. / refer to the perfecting and
of your Christian char
acter, for that is eminently the
characteristic of parochial school edu
cation, the formation of noble Chris
tian character. In this connection /
recall a little conversation / had some
years ago while engaged in missionary
work in one of the Middle States. The
parochial school had been torn down
to make room for a larger one, more
in keeping with the requirements of
the growing parish. / had finished my
work, I was going to the station and
l CHANGED to meet the superintendent
of the public school, a very fine gen
tleman, and he said to me, Father, /
have had the children of the parochial
school under my supervision for the
past year. as you perhaps know the
children have been removed to our
school Now that their own school is
nearing completion and they are going
to leave us I must say that l am sorry
to see them go. They are a bright,
CHEEKY and responsive lot of young
hopefuls, they enter heart and soul
into everything, when it is time to
study they study well, when it is time
to play they give free vent to the en-
thusiasm and exuberance of their
natures, and yet l have no
ticed there is always about them
indefinable, a certain de-
gree of self-control that kept them in
due bounds, a degree of self-control
hat 1 must say is remarkable in chill
lren of that age, and a beautiful con-
sideration for the feelings of others.
know it must be attributed TO their
previous moral training, and my ex-
lerjence with these children has only
confirmed the conviction l have long
that an education to be an
sducation must have as one Of its
elements, a moral train |
ng. and that moral training / con- |
iider absolutely essential / thanked |
Tim very kindly for his remarks in |
'eference to the children and / said to |
lin, that is just what we are striving /
or. that it what we have maintained, |
md most thinking men of every creed |
re coming to realize the absolute ne !
.essity of a moral training and devel- |
,pment of the heart as well as the |
lead. Education must be rounded out |
nd perfected to equip the child for !
he duties and obligations it will meet /
when it steps out into the world.
hey used to say that the foundation
f a good education must have the
lree R's-Reading, Writing and Reck-
ming. We maintain that good solid
1