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| Photo copied from Grip's Historical Souvenir of Cortland. |
COMMENCEMENT WEEK.
The past
week has been one of activity and anticipation in our local educational circles.
Surrounded with walls of fragrant flowers a small army of students have bid adieu
to books and gone forth to personally demonstrate by practice the theories
which have been inculcated. The final examinations which began on the afternoon
of the 24th and closed at 4:15 of the 27th of June were very satisfactory alike
to faculty and scholars. Many former students arrived, some after the year's
work in college, others from chosen paths of life, in time to participate in the
festivities attending commencement week. To say that the week was one of
unalloyed joy is gently expressing the situation.
The
primary department exercises were held in the Normal building at 2 P. M. Thursday when a manifest interest in the school
was shown by the large audience of parents and relatives assembled. The floral decorations
were profuse and added much to the occasion. An interesting programme was
pleasingly carried out.
Friday
afternoon the graduating exercises of the intermediate class of '90 was greeted
by a crowded house. The varied scope and thorough mastery of subjects gave
positive proof that much hard and patient toiling was crowned with the rich reward
of a clear conception of men and things. Particularization is unnecessary in
the following programme:
Music—The Morning Light Begins to Dawn, Chorus.
Oration—A Defence of Ward, Fred Townsend.
Recitation—A Story in Verse, Mabel Howes.
Essay—The Influence of Women, Lena Dalton.
Music—Vocal Duet—Merry Spring, Carrie Kellogg,
Edith Spencer.
Reading—A Piece of Red Calico, Margie Howard.
Recitation—In the Hospital, Nellie Pudney.
Essay—The Story of the Culprit Fay, Irene Head.
Recitation— Farmer Stebbins of Ocean Grove, Elizabeth
Geer.
Music—Instrumental Duet—Martha, Margie Howard,
Carrie Bostwick.
Essay—Book Chats, Margaret Wright.
Recitation—The Knight on the Page, May Seeber.
Declamation— The New Lochinvar, *John Vunk.
Presentation of Diplomas.
Music—The Holiday, Choir.
*Excused.
The class
is composed of fifteen ladies and eleven gentlemen, viz:
Emma
Culver, Lena E. Dalton, M. Elizabeth Geer, Irene A. Head, Mabel S. Howes, Margie
May Howard, Mary Ireland, Josie C. Meade, Mary McTighe, Nora Agnes Nix, Nellie
Pudney, May Seeber, Anna H. Sharp, Janette L. Van Gordon, Margaret S. Wright.
Miford
Alexander, Fred D. Carr, Bert C. Durfee, Thomas E. Fitzgerald, Robert R. Geer,
Aiden A. Grant, Charles D. Kingsbury, Oliver S. Riley, Harry D. Schermerhorn, Frederick
Townsend, John R. Vunk.
In the
evening the N. D. C. social was held and the Alma Mater was thronged with
Alumni and students with a legion of friends who enjoyed to the utmost this
opportune occasion for reunion and rehearsal of days gone and exchange of plans
and recital of future anticipations. The promenades on the grounds were
decorated with Chinese lanterns and the soft beams of moonlight revealed a
field for the brush of a master artist. Pleasing strains of music from Fischers’
orchestra and light refreshments occupied the time which too swiftly wafted
into the has been. Those having in charge the work of ornamenting and general
supervision of the social are justly entitled to favorable remembrance.
CLASS DAY OF 1889.
At the Normal chapel the class
day exercises of the January and June '89 class were listened to at 2 P. M.
Monday. The class mottoes were for January '89, "We learn by
teaching," for June '89, "Time will prove us." Music by the
Zeloso quartette was pleasantly interspersed throughout the programme which was
opened promptly on the appointed hour with a fervent prayer by Dr. James H.
Hoose.
A. V.
Wilson then followed with the president's address. The speaker firmly held that
practice was the golden key to the opening of a successful life; that the
practical course pursued in commercial schools ought speedily to be adopted in
our general school system and that great care should be exercised by teachers
in imparting instruction, a thorough understanding of the principle should be
paramount to the giving of answers correctly as printed in the text books.
Owing to
the absence of J. M. Brown the oration "Mistaken Honor" was omitted. The poem by Miss Irene Scudder was a clear, concise
and well delivered production, as was the class history by Miss Mary Jepson;
both being of great interest. After a piece of music, Miss Lena Hazen gave the
class prophecy, as it might be revealed in 1910—and it was noticeable how busy pencils
noted certain possibilities. It is but justice to note that the poem, history and
prophecy had been carefully prepared to please yet in no utterance offend or grieve
while quite applicable.
To G. W. Allen
was assigned the important duty of the presentation and closing speech. Under the
former, in well formed sentences, in behalf of the outgoing students, the speaker
presented the school with fifteen volumes of Greene's encyclopedia; following with
feeling remarks in speaking of the probabilities before the return of another commencement
week.
The sixteenth public exercises of the Alumni
Association were held at the Opera House at 8 P. M. Monday evening. The Opera
House was comfortably filled with students and friends and the following
programme successfully carried out:
Music,
Acme Quartette.
Prayer,
Rev. Geo. H. Brigham.
President's Address—The Study of History, Archibald A. Freeman, Class
July '85.
Music,
E. C. Alger.
Essay—What We Put Into Circulation, Lucy
B. Allen, Class June '86.
Declamation—The
Diver, Schiller, Nathan L.
Miller, Class June. '87.
Music,
Acme Quartette.
Oration—Citizenship
the Purpose of Education, Orrin C. Bugby,
Class June. '84.
Benediction.
Fully
one-half hour before the opening of commencement day exercises Tuesday morning,
every visible seat at the Opera House was
occupied. Draped from the
roof to the balcony and tastily fastened were streamers of white and yellow symbolical of the
class colors of '90. It was remarked throughout the previous assembling
of the week with what precision every detail was conducted. The Rev. W. B. Clarke opened
the exercises at 10 A. M. sharp, with an invocation, followed by
the singing of the anthem, "Blessed Art They That Dwell in Thy House," by a portion
of the class.
[Summaries of speeches by several students
followed but were omitted by CC editor.]
President Hoose addressed the Academic
graduates in these words:
FELLOW STUDENTS:—These diplomas mark an important
milestone in your educational journey. You have been, up to this time, in
several limitations in the range and scope of your studies; you have had no
choice in them; your course has been rapid. Hereafter, you will enter upon a career
that will afford scope for selection according to your attainments and taste. You
will find in higher schools large liberty to choose courses of study, and a
wide range of branches inviting your best efforts. The tendency of education is
towards special fields of study; this tendency sacrifices breadth to intensity;
and intensity is but another name for special qualifications and for peculiar
efficiency. Our age is so intensely utilitarian that a so-called liberal
outfit does not stand easily beside special aptitudes to carry forward the
affairs of the burning world of business.
Should you enter at once into business, you
will find yourselves whirled along so rapidly that you may soon forget the cunning
of mathematics and the mysteries of science; but you will learn the arts of
commercial prudence and thrift, you will find ample scope for all the powers of
your being.
In whatever lines of life you shall pursue the
future goal, let it never be said that you have forgotten to act worthily the
parts of manhood and womanhood which have ennobled your lives thus far in your career.
Fifteen classical, three scientific, four
advanced English and thirty-seven elementary English graduates of the Normal
were presented with the much coveted sheep skin, and Dr. Hoose gave the
following brief but timely parting and advisory words:
FELLOW
TEACHERS:—The simplicity and force of your class motto are apparent in its
brevity and its comprehensiveness. It is worthy of this body of teachers; it
expresses happily the spirit that has characterized the career of the class.
You have earned, as a class, the right to appropriate the sentiment of your
watchword, "Loyal in everything." I wish to amplify in a few words
some phases of your professional responsibilities to which you should be loyal.
Our public schools are in danger from their
avowed friends. Reformers are legion; they wish to elevate society in its capacity
to earn a livelihood; they all agree in one theory, however much they differ in
others—they all lay siege to the public schools: they would introduce into the course
of study the peculiar theories and practices in which they are to see the
dawning of social and civil millennium. What is the result of this activity of
the reformers? The public school is overloaded with work; the children must
carry on those time-honored subjects which constitute the essentials of
education. The reformers bring to the school their several panaceas and specifics
for the ills of society; they ask the schools to teach trades, occupations and professions,—to teach the mysteries of human living to babes—to teach infants
to run buzz saws! These efforts to change the character of our public schools
are more or less dangerous to the school as a peculiar institution of our
country. I do not speak of special schools instituted to do special work; I
speak of the public school which is to do general work. Capacities of childhood
are limited: if the school is to be loaded down by these special lines, what
will become of the pupils? They will become weaklings instead of robust personalities.
With this danger before you, fellow teachers, be loyal to the purposes of the
public schools; be loyal to the children; be loyal to those foundations which
establish nobility of the heart above the utility of the hands.
The entire class of July 1, 1890, then joined
in singing the following class song: "LOYAL
IS EVERYTHING," words by Anna Marsh Reed, music by James G. Clark.
Benediction was pronounced by the Rev. W. B.
Clarke, rector of Grace church.
At the business meeting of the Alumni in the
Normal building at 3 P. M. the
election of officers resulted as follows: President, Thomas C. Wilber; vice- president,
Sarah V. Chollar; secretary, A. S. Jennings; treasurer, Nettie Cole; secretary
co-operative Bureau, Dr. S. J. Sornberger.
The society is in a decidedly healthy and flourishing
condition and the great interest manifest is very pleasing.
At the Alumni banquet in the evening, after
prayer by the Rev. William Bours Clark,
with Prof. V. P. Squires toast-master, the following programme was conducted in
a most satisfactory manner:
The Need
of Ballast Sailing, Dr. J. H. Hoose.
The True
Teacher—Always Wanted, Wm. H. Clark.
The Ferule
and the Forum, Louis L. Waters.
The Local
Alumni, Miss M. E. Hughes.
The
Graduates First Year, A. L. DeMond.
Our
Youngest, '90, F. M. Payne.
The
Absent—Article by Mrs. Josie Folger Mears, read by Miss Helen M. Place.
Au Revoir,
Dr. D. E. Smith.
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