Show 161 STUDENT LIFE mencement may properly irclinc uz amid all our festivity to sober and anxious reflection Even as the mother’s heart is filled with solemn solicitude when she sends her child for the first time into the new associations and influences and companions to be met at school so is there the sheltering watcheare which till now has been theirs our loved ones push out into that larger school the world — with all its brambles and temptations and wrecks to fight the battle of life for themselves With our utmost joy therefore it happens that there is just a touch of sadness But as the tears of the bride are quickly dried in the contemplation of her great happiness co may we dash away our forebodings in the knowledge that our young friends here go forth bravely armed and with high spirit to the stem work which awaits them There is no lack of sincerity in the congratulations which attend the graduates of 1903 Schoolmates and instructors extend the sweet sad salutation which is voiced in the word “Farewell” Parents and loved ones are assembled in grateful recognition of tasks well done and honors well deserved The wide world offers its grim welcome inviting you to the stout combat in which every brave heart must even' hour be engaged My young friends there is work ahead ! It may be rough but your training has fitted you for it You may not solve each problem —in many a struggle you may meet with a reverse But you will not be blamed and you zrill not fail only as you falter in purpose weaken in courage and sink into that listless indolence which is a poor relation of honorable death The whole earth abounds with opportunities offering sure reward for intelligent effort This great Republic needs the best sendee which its bravest and brainiest sons and daughters can give Our own immediate section — the bounding West — fairly bristles with issues to be solved — issues which will test alike the hot impetuosity of youth and the ripened experience of maturer years You are robustly equipped for such tasks as these You are qualified to view them from a practical standpoint and grapple with them in a practical way The essence and watchword of your instruction has been not dreams but work! You have no doubt learned to love better because more wisely the soil This ennobling affection for the land as exemplified in intelligent agriculture is the bulwark of a The nation’s perpetuity and greatness kindred sciences of civil and mechanical and hydraulic engineering suggest not only earnest labor for yourselves in a manly contest with nature’s obstacles and elements but also labor scientifically directed for others and for the advancement and betterment of all Those who look to the future welfare of mankind find encouragement and hope in the fact that from institutions like this are sent out year by year groups of young men skilled in the rugged manual arts and clothed with that knowledge which enables them to see the right things to be done and to do them in the right way No praise can exaggerate the substantial beneficence of such a curriculum and when the fairer element comes in — the gentler and lovelier ones who have walked and talked among the mazes and mysteries of the domestic arts and science — the perfection of the plan is at last perceived They realize the importance of a healthful body as the abiding place of a sound mind In that which pertains to the comfort of the home — not only the g as promoted by cleanphysical liness and cookery but also the mental delight which comes from the intelligent application of the resources at command — they go out as adepts displaying all the graces with which the sex is en- well-bein- |