Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-06-29
The Observer Writes of Graduation Day

seems tnat present udy STduudt"
ing costumes are not as f1ossy as
they were back in the late sos.
when was ushered into an eager
ly waiting world to begin my battle
for f1apjacks and pork chops.
Somewhere l heard that the girls
dresses were cheap as could be and
that boys wore simple effects that
were easy to stand and sit in-totally
unlike. l might say, the kind the lads
wore in the days of my youth.
Fearing. however, that l might
make mistake. l went to a young
lady friend of mine who is a gradu-
alton fiend. having attended 1875 in
her time, and asked her all about it.
would it be proper" l asked, ito
draw pen picture of Bertha, the
sweet near-graduatee falling on her
knees before father pleading for
80 cents with which to buy gradu-
ating dress?
Not so that you could notice it,"
she replied.
How about 1882" l inquired.
"Hevings, no.: she said. ''They cost
just as much as they ever did, but
they look simpler"
II don't quite get you" l countered.
We'll, to put IL in plain English so
that any simple minded person can
understand" she said, the kind of
dresses they wear at graduating ex-
ercises nowadays don't have 30 many
furbetows as they did at the time OF
the st. Louis exposition. In other
words, they don't resemble a fy-net
quite so much and 1t would be easier
to run through gooseberry patch in
one OF them"
And how about the speeches." l
inquired. do the girls still make
speeches. like they used to-.
Never in the world" she said.
They hire some fellow to make
speech, and they are easy to get. or
course. one girl, who usually is broken
out with oratorical hives, is named
valedictorian. and she has her say.
but that is all. The rest is paid talk"
Well. suppose that is all right. but
III say the old graduating days were bet
ter. Those were graduations. III say.
A graduation period in those days
lasted a good bit longer than an cpl
demic OF humps, and the effects were
a great deal more conducive to laugh
ter.
Even though live to be so old that
! wear white spats and walk down F
street on sunny afternoons with red
carnation in my buttonhole. l shall
not forget my graduation exercises.
l look back on them now in grave
wonderment; how 1t came that the
entire class was not shot is quite be-
yond me-.
There were sixteen OF us. most all
OF the crowd just as bad ~ the next
one. We were about evenly divided
between boys and girls. but we had
quite n collection of different sized
models-talls. shorts. mediums and
such. If variety were the spice of
graduations, We owned Il whole
grocery store. I'll state.
Sixteen graduates in a town OF 1900
persons is quite a mob, and you can
guess that the coming Of graduation
time was something OF interest to
every one in the burg. Figuring Ave
to a family, you see. one out OF every
twenty families. on an average. had a
representative in the class. Hence,
when the girls began to make their
graduating gowns there was white
organize strung from the Methodist
church to the brick yard. at least, and
there were enough white shirts in evil
dence to keep Charlie Sam, the Chinese
laundry man. busy for two weeks.
The graduating exercises proper In
our town were just small part of
the performance, however. Activities
began long before the date OF the
graduation, leading up to II gradually
by series VI class days. banQuets.