Norwich bulletin., 1922-07-08
THE MAN WHO TALKS

Latin is s'enjoy the day. and the appsi- | cation is "seize the present opportu- nity.s Certainly those who were pres ent did enjoy the day. It was such a i refreshing change from the old and stilt- l red graduating exercises of not so many generations ago. The writer knows ai person who graduated from an aead- 1 eIny many years ago and was the last member of the class to speak. His sub I ject was The Permanent Value of Intel- 1 leetual Culture. The strange thing about 1t is not that the green boy should have selected such a subject, but that any sensible teacher should Have permitted k In those days eHaduations were sonnbre; they were heavy and iignlied Humor was locked upon as ieyity. To- day they are in Hghter vein, they have more sunshine, they are more natural and generally reflective of the times in which we live. A boy can aspeaK on l Next" and a girl write of aElappersD and do better work than one who speaks on Intellectual Culture which he knows littls about.
 The above remarks are equally perti-
 nent to the modern grammar school graduation. These schools of the lower grades have caught the spirit of the times as shown by the exercises that were generally held Friday, June 23. The one I attended was very interesting with not a dull moment from beginning to Tend. Of the forty-three graduates only 1 two spoke in the old manner of recita- tion. The first piece was The House by the Side Of the Road" being the weli-l known soliloquy of one who would be i the friend of man. The other was the
 dream of a, weFnan who hated boys The
 subject was, The Boyless Town" and both were well delivered. One can hard i ly, fail to comment on the time that is i now given to music, and the fine ehoruses that are now rendered which would have been regarded. not so many years ago,
 as an utter waste of time Certainly
 the world is moving in the right <lirec- ton. The erowning feature of this pro- gram was "A History Lesson Drama l tized'' in which instruction was gwen as
 to the election of president and the for nation Of his cabinet.
 The step is short between the school
 room and the home, and 1t IS vastly
 shorter in sentiment than it Is iE space l The connection between the schoolroofn and the home is considerably more than l one of sympathetic interest, it is an or ganic connection. Either would be a fiat l failure without the other. In many ways 1 the home is expected to cooperate with 1 the school In fact this must be done i l tH6 idLl6T IS to meet Wllu even d lalE l measure of success. To illustrate, take 1 the matter of obedience. The school l fails utterly if the children are unruiy. l But bad behavior does not commence 1 with the kindergarten. It begins in the :! home several years prior to the kinder ten age. The little twig that is not
 started in the right direction at home is apt to be troublesome in the schoolroom
 where he must obey. The home can pow AL Il fundamental necessity of obedience It can also supplement when t insists that home work be faithfully attended to.
 Success is assured when the two work together.
 As the home covers the life of the in- 4 dividuaI far more completely than any \ other institution. there is some reason in calling it a many-sided prism. It is a J haven of rest from the labor which the outside world imposes. It is refuge , of security from the dangers which the outside world in1icts. Many Of the in-
 fluences which surround Us are disturb
 ing; the influences of the home are quiet
 ing. The world wounds us, the home ap- plies the healing balm. The home also , acts as the most salutary confessional st The little schoolboy has his trials on the
 streets, in the school yard, and in the l, classroom 3 some big boy has hectore6 Il him or the street, he has been hurt ir the yard, or has been scoldad by the
 teacher. With his little heart full. how ? natural to pour forth his trials into ths . sympathetic ears of a loving mother ol : sister Young people in their teens have | trials peculiar to their age in the higt : school and the workshop, and where car l they unburden their minds quite so free | ly as in the home? Parents have, the:l : perplexities also, and how natural tc
 discuss them at the family msaL
 ! To be citizens of the first order ",
 must remember the home relations U - others besides ourselves. All along th,
 ages there would have been far less fric tion if every man had cared to find ou 2 how the other man lived. We can b. ] so devoted to our families as to meri y the reproaeh of the community for self . ishness. That one should be more inter 5 ested in ones own flesh and blood .s per : feetly natural. In fact he can't sak , quite the interest in others that ne doe : in his own kith and kin. But he mus
 not carry this to the point of utter indif - ference as to how the other man lives Very much of the class hatred ar.j bit nf ter strife among men today is due t 5 this> brutal ignoring of the sorrow, pov Il erty, and sin in the other mans home. q kindly show of sympathy goes a lon 4 way in drying up the tears of sorrow
 and giving courage to a breaking heafi
 A moral obligation rests upon us to If
 the other mans home out of inc abjec
 squalor of poverty. There will be n r epeace on earthH until this is done.
 Another Fourth of July has coma an
 gone. Still most of us are alive neithe S burned nor maimed as some unfortuna-e a are Perhaps it is unreasonable to ez
 pect in a country as big as ours that tb
 Fourth will wholly escape mislaps C IF this character. We are. however, escaI
 ing one thing that was very common
 the days of our fathers, and that was tn
 set Fourth of July oration. mean tha :, ofotund, yet heavy, style or ora-ery ( II the Webster Everett Phillips class whic 'f required, at least, two full hours for dt VI livery on burning midsummer da!
 The topics in those days surely sounde
 great They were Our Glorious Her t tage. The Triumphs of. Democracy, Tn n Immortality of Free Institutions and th rI like. Were these men to speak todd
 would they be quite so confident? w
 1know that Wendell Phillips in his late
 speeches toned down his adjectives quit Q a bit His change of front was almost 2 Q great as Tennyson's which we see in con l. pairing 'Locksley Hall' and ''Locksle
 Hall Sixty Years After It may be ths
 we see new dangers to democracy whic "a they did not
 v Arc you planning any vacation tn D. year? If so are you planning intelligen
 ly? It is better to make those plans {
 tentative and elastic as to easily subn if to changes in time and place. If yc plan one year ahead you can only nal l. the barest outline. If anything