The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-06-21
SPAULDING'S
10Th CLASS
Continued from first page.

war, she said was an economic one at its
| beginning, being made so by Great Brit
ain, when she blocked the North sea A
| paralysis of trade was effected by the
abolition of the rights of neutrals.
Americas isolation, the speaker said,
was destroyed by the war and she gives
promise of filling her new place as close
neighbor to the rest of the world by be
ing the first among the ship building ma
tions of the world, by bringing her chem
ical and dye industries to a standard in
three years when it took Germany rs
years to accomplish the same result.
! America proved her worth last year
when labor was very scarce by turning
out more farm products than ever, by
allowing no idle labor, by exceeding all
previous records for manufactured goods
and by keeping wages high. Such meas
ures and success promise that she will
adequately meet her part in the recon
struction abroad, as well as make up her
arrears at home. Everything signifed,
concluded Miss 0'Keefe, an era OF com.
mercial prosperity.
The graduating class sang again, this
| time Under the Banner of Victory"
| FRANZ Won Blon), having been trained
| by Miss Wallace, supervisor Of music.
Professor Phelps Address.
Professor Phelps of Yale university
was then introduced by Principal l.. c.
Hunt of the high school The subject
of Professor Phelps address was "Cul-
| ture and Happiness" He said that he
wished to speak of the happiness which
comes through education. He began by
giving the definition once given by Presi-
dent Dwight of Yale that "the happiest
person is the person who thinks the most
interesting thoughts" This places the
principle of happiness where It belongs,
within the person.
Like virtue, if happiness is dependent
on something outside oneself, il is not
true happiness There are some people
| innately yirtuous, who couldn't stray
away from the path If they would. Hap
piness should be like that, but, unfor-
tunately, is not. A person does not
keep his happiness within himself when
he let's the taunts or words OF another
affect him. He turns his happiness over
to the keeping of that person.
As a very apt illustration, the speaker
said that some people carry their happ-
ness around as many women do their
handbags on the street; the pickpocket
relieves the woman of her purse just as
the idle talker relieves one of his happ.
ness
The second fundamental truth about
happiness, one that is startling to many
people and rarely believed by the Young,
is that as people grow older they grow
happier This must be So because as a
person grows older he acquires more
things TO think about, and so has more
interesting thoughts, Most poets and
novelists bewail old age and speak of
golden youth; and orators tell gradual
ing classes that their school days are
their happiest days
The cause Of this fallacy is the general
belief that while one is young he has
illusions and when he grows old he loses
these illusions. But" said Professor
Phelps, every time you lose an illusion
you get an idea and ideas are more in
terestng than illusions"
a rosy -eolored glass, through which to
view life may be purchased for few
cents, but a powerful magnifying glass
that will show things as they are is
costly possession People are willing to
pay the price Of age to learn to know
things as they are. He warned the au-
dience not to be afraid Of gray hairs,
for they are sign that there was so
much gray matter within that some of it
had TO come out; and he quoted Mr.
Choate as saying that tie happiest time
in life was between the ages of 20 and
so.
|
Many claim that childhood is the hap
piest time, for when child IS hungry he
is fed and when he is sleepy he is put TO
bed. The rub comes in the fact that he
may be put to bed when he is not sleepy.
He is always at the mercy CT older peo-
pie
Others claim that as one grows old he
loses enthusiasm, This is not so. The
truth is that as one grows older the
things that once aroused his enthusiasm
fail to do so any longer; but deeper en-
thusiasms are being aroused by the new
things with which he comes in contact
He relinquishes the good looks of youth
and comes to rely on brains instead
Education is absolutely necessary to
happiness, as much for women as for
men Everyone has to live with himself
all his life. The reason many men turn
TO alcohol is because they cannot stand
themselves; they cannot bear to be left
alone with themselves.
If human happiness were Judged by
physical comfort, the happiest person on
earth would be the American COW, which
rises without dressing, eats when ready,
wanders about the pasture and lies down
to chew her cud with look of rapture
upon her face. She has no worries Why
isn't she leading the perfeat life?
Life is too interesting to waste it be-
ing a COW. There are too many interest
ing things to think about. There is mu
sic, which is the only universal language
Every person can become passionate
and discriminating lover of music. You
don't have to know anything about it.
All you have to do is to listen.
There is nature and art. 1t is easy to
procure good prints of great works of
art, and better to own a few of them
than originals of things that are not
good art
Finally, there are books, Professor
Phelps admonished the graduates to read
good books, not cheap magazines On
reading, like everything else, you can do
the best things if you have the ambition
There are two kinds of books that PEG.
Pile read, books for facts and books for
fun. The first are typifed in mathemat-
les, books whose beauty lies in their pre-.
cision. They cannot be pretty near
right; they must be right. Then there