Page 25 - 1918 Hartridge

TEMPORA ET MORES
Commencement
UIDA V , June fifteenth, was one of those rare days whieh make
It was an ideal morning’ for oni eoinineneeinent, and the anditorinin was a perfeet j)lace for it.
'Idle boxes around the hall wei'e roped with greens and Howers, the lights were shaded with blossoms, and the stage was heantifnl with roses, snowballs and jteonies against a dark haekgronnd of green palms and ferns.
By eleven o’eloek the anditorinin was filled with the friends and families of the girls. After every one was seated the undergraduates marched to their seats. Then the memhei’s of the faculty, in ea\]> and gown, took their \])laees on the stage, followed by the graduates, carry­
ing Howers.
heantifnl iiraver was offered hv Dr. John Sheridan Zelie, and i•«
then a hymn was snng, and Dr. Zelie introduced the speaker, iNIr. Hamlin Cfarland. iMr. Cfarland made a very entertaining address on “Ont-door Ihfe in the \Vest.” After he had been ap\])!anded by the andienee. Miss Ilartridge arose and s\])oke to the graduates. This
was, as always, the most heantifnl \])art of Commencement. She said;
“Members of the Senior Class, you are, I think, more fortunate than any of the girls whom this school has hitherto graduated, more fortunate in that the commence­
ment of your life-work falls in the year 1917, a year in which the people of your country have seen fit to consecrate themselves, whatever the cost, to the service of mankind.
“From the beginning of Christianity every school worthy of the name has sought to teach its pupils that the measure of success is to be found only in terms of service. But the world, so-called, apparently denied the teachings of the schools, and from year to year the children of our minds as of our hearts have found it hard to reconcile the ideals set before them with what seemed the realities of life.
“Today a schoolmaster sits at the head of the world’s great council chamber. To him are turned the eyes of nations tortured by three years of war, struggling blindly in a conflict in which all that men seemed to hold most dear—family, fame, fortune— are but empty names. Today the whole world, from the ancient East to the Russian
giant striving for rebirth, hails with acclamation the words of this schoolmaster. We have no selfish ends to serve. And we see that America, in giving, will hold forever what, in getting, she had surely and swiftly lost.
“For you the world and the schools are at one. You know with a conviction that cannot be shaken that the world has only seemed to decry honor, and sacrifice, and death whereby others may live. In that knowledge you are truly blessed. May it help
you to make of your years at college a preparation for the greatest gift that lies in your power, the gift of yourselves.
21
every one ^lad to be alive.