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| Cortland Opera House on right. The photographer was looking west from the corner of Main Street and Groton Avenue. |
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| Cortland Normal School was located at the site of today's Courthouse. |
Normal
Commencement.
The thirty-sixth commencement of the State Normal School, held last
Tuesday afternoon drew an audience that filled every available seat in the
Cortland Opera House. The members of the local board and several of the faculty
were seated on the stage and the boxes were occupied by others of the teachers
and their friends. The programme was as follows:
PRAYER, Rev. John Arthur.
MUSIC—ANTHEM, The Earth is the Lord’s.
ORATION—The Power to Do, Bertha Ehle.
One of the first lessons that every
scholar must learn is that every effect must have an adequate cause. There is
inherent in every one a power by which he is enabled to accomplish more or less
successfully what he may undertake. This power it was that enabled our fathers
to build up from a primal wilderness the busy thriving country in which
we live. Only men possessing this should be elected to fill public stations. It
is one thing to plan but executive ability is necessary for execution. This is
the power to do and is essential for all.
ESSAY—The Record of a Noble Life, Ora D. Snyder.
The death of Jenny Goldschmidt recently, recalls the
history of one whose life marks an epoch in the history of the fine arts. Her
parents were poor and of an humble station in life; but a fortunate discovery
of her voice and the assistance of a noble patron enabled her to make her debut
in Berlin where she was engaged by P. T. Barnum for his triumphal tour of
America, which is still remembered by many. Her public career was short. At the
close of the American tour she married Mr. Goldschmidt and retired to London where
she lived in retirement to the close of her happy life. She was not only
preeminent as a singer, but excelled in all the womanly virtues and the record
of her life may be still studied and imitated with profit to everyone.
ORATION—Alaska, a Place of Exile, Clarence H. Thompson.
Among the oldest nations there
have always been laws enacted for the punishment of criminals and this has
usually taken the form of either confinement
or exile. England tried the latter plan in New South Wales, France in New
Caledonia and Russia in Siberia, and it is now a fact of history that they have
all been failures. The United States have been turning their attention toward
the establishment of a penal colony in Alaska, but it is to be doubted whether
this would be wise. The army and navy would have to be enlarged to guard it,
and if the convicts were to escape over the border they would still further
augment the number of the desperadoes now in the northwest. Alaska with her valuable
fisheries, great mineral wealth and fertile soil is worthy of a better fate and
should he colonized with good citizens and allowed equal chance with her sister
territories.
ESSAY—Regent’s Examination, Mary Tripp.
A few years ago the Board of
Regents of the University of the State of New York conceived the idea of
holding an examination once in each year in all the Academies subject to their
visitation, with a view of raising the standard of scholarship in these
institutions. The examinations were under the supervision of the principal of
the school and members of the board. No one was allowed to leave the room when
an examination was being held, and the school received a small sum of money for
each student. In these examinations the getting of the small fee attached was
made the prime object of the examination and it is now a question whether the
Regent’s examinations have not now out
lived their usefulness and should be abolished altogether.
MUSIC—Glee…. Fairy Song
ORATION— The Constitution
and its Framers—Ross A. Thomas.
The American of a century ago would have hardly believed
that the vast forests he held for a heritage would in so short a time become
the strongest nation on the earth [sic].
From the inception of this nation till
the present her path has been steadily onward. Other republics had gone down into
oblivion and the best minds of Europe prophesied a speedy downfall of this. The cause of its unprecedented
growth is to be found in the Constitution. It was framed by men who had had a
large experience in the confederation of the states and to whom all the governments of the world were familiar.
The Constitution has grown with the growth of the nation and already a movement
toward the republican form of government may be seen in the monarchies of the
old world.
ORATION—The Sunday in Politics,
Reed J. Snyder.
Ever since God decreed that the Sabbath should be observed as a day of
rest, there has always been records of its observance among the most ancient
nations. Constantine made it the subject
of an official decree as did
Charles II whose statute is the basis of our present Sunday laws. The laws in regard to the Sabbath should be strictly observed because they tend to elevate men out of self into the contemplation of the
things that are of God. Because continuous
labor shortens life and retards the development of man and because it is
particularly the day of the
family and the home. A party has
recently arisen in New York which
has for its purpose the destruction of the home, and it is the duty of all good citizens to array themselves
against it. The work of reviving
and restoring the Sabbath has
been taken up by the schools, the pulpit and the press and must ultimately prevail.
ESSAY—"GREATNESS AND
GOODNESS"—BLANCHE LAMONT.
Holland
has said the richest product of any clime is a
good man. Good men are hard to
be found. They cannot be purchased, but must be made by dint of hard labor. Labor, merely to acquire a
great name, is one of the
vainest pursuits. Bonaparte deluged
Europe with blood, and nations
trembled when his name was spoken, but
he died an outcast, far from the vine-clad
hills of the nation be sought to aggrandize. In the training of the intellectual
faculties goodness of heart should not be
forgotten. Great men belong to all nations and all climes, and their influence
can never be effaced.
ORATION —"HERBERT SPENCER
AS AN EDUCATOR"—PRISCILLA N. MYERS.
Education is a vital question to every nation. The ancient systems of
philosophy recognized this, and contain theses without number upon the subject.
For a long time teachers struggled on in darkness, until the nineteenth century
came and brought with it a man who was to change it and infuse into it a new
spirit. Such a man was Spencer, and under his master hand all the old systems were
centralized, and the natural order of instruction pointed out. To his teaching
is largely due the new education, which, proceeding on a thoroughly scientific
basis, will achieve results heretherto unknown in the history of educational
progress.
Music-Chorus—"Oh Hail Us, Ye People."
Presentation of diplomas by
Dr. James. H. Hoose.
Class Song —"Not
Finished, But Just Begun."
Words by Susan Lynne Beers.
Music selected.
Benediction— Rev. John Arthur.
The orations and essays were without exception finely written and
pronounced, and showed much painstaking in their preparation. The class number
eighteen, sixteen ladies and two gentlemen. Their names and courses of study
are as follows:
CLASSICAL COURSE.
Aristine Martha Crane, Blanche Lamont, Reed J.
Snyder, Clarence Hard Thompson, Rosa Adele Thomas, Mary Tripp.
ADVANCED ENGLISH COURSE.
Minnie Cornelia Burroughs, Susan Lynne Beers,
Bertha [?], Priscilla Nettie Myers, A. Angeline Quick, A. Janette Wilson [?]
ELEMENTARY ENGLISH COURSE.
Nettie Evelyn Clark, Fannie Delaphine
Rosencrans, Ora D. Snyder, Jennie Anna Louise Stowell, Minnie Vernette [?]Thompson,
Mary Cassendana Van Gorder.
The next term of the Normal
will begin at 8:45 A.M., Wednesday, Feb. 8th, 1888.
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