Show VALEDICTORIES DOOMED VASSAR HAS ABANDONED COMMENCEMENT COM-MENCEMENT EXERCISES Little is Left of the Sweet Girl Graduate < < Grad-uate Save Her Pretty Muslin Frock and Handful of June Roses Fashionable Fash-ionable New Yorl Schools Lead ing the Crusade Against Elaborate Elabo-rate Ceremonies The fiat has already gone forth that along with other timehonored customs the sweet girl graduate must go at least so far as the gaily illuminated halls brilliant audiences trailing garments i gar-ments showers of bouquets and learned learn-ed treatises on the problems of the ages by immature maidens of 18 are concerned Even the class history poem and valedictory are tottering on the brink of dissolution Nothing indeed of the and order retains its pristine glory except the white muslin gown which continues to hold its own triumphant tri-umphant against bloomers shirt waists and other innovations A trip to every fashionable school in i New York reveals the fact that the J chief aim of teachers in all highgrade I schools is to reduce to the simplest possible pos-sible form the exercises of graduating I classes At a well school on Fifth avenue I was told that they are elim I inating as rapidly as possible every especial I es-pecial feature of the occasion but they have found it impossible > to make a sudden drop from all the oldtime parade pa-rade and display < to nothing but a staid address their western contingency contin-gency in particular desiring fauud thing more elaborate We still allow them the salutary poems and valedictory said the pre ceptress but we shall ultimately do away with that and we can be only too thankful that the days have gone by when young maidens are expected to hold forth on subjects that they dont know any more about than a rabbit knows about a war horse At this school the seniors will have in the morning an hours exercise consisting con-sisting of history class songs and prophecy and the giying of joke prizes y 1 c I 7 JF 1 Qr lyre b K 1 f of Mr r + COSTUMIERS GEMS such as a potato masher to the coquette co-quette a gun to the young woman who affeots the military a bottle of tonic to the agreeably buxom girl etc At these exercises will be present pres-ent only the pupils of the school and no one is expected wear anything more elaborate than the simple shirtwaists shirt-waists and skirts of every day From 8 to 9 in the evening will beheld be-held in the house the regular graduait ling exercises bEginnlgwith a salutary and followed by a class poem and valedictory val-edictory after which comes a brief address by some prominent educator and the presentation of diplomas The poem is competitive Any one of the classes who chooses may write a poem and submit it unsigned From the collection thus formed the teachers teach-ers select the best The musician of last year was so successful in composing compos-ing the song that it has been adopted as the class song for all time At ithese I exercises only the family friends of the seniors are invited Owing Ow-ing to the panic of last year the young women graduates were limited by the teachers to gowns costing not over 30 This year the teachers who strive as eariesbly to teach simplicity In dress as correct English hope to accomplish the same result by limiting the girls tp white organdy These are to be simply made with or without silk linings with white satin stock and bell They will also exchange class pins of simple device upon which is lettered their class motto Veritas After the exqrcises there will bec an informal reception and prdbaly some dancing And this will be the most 7 elaborate school function in all New York In June of 1896 At the next school which I took in on my rounds I found that the pruning knife had gone still further Being located lo-cated near a church which is every year offered them they will still hold their exercises there but have reduced them to an exceedingly simple pro I gramme Here too however they still I retain the salutary and valedictory I and give a few prizes in special courses but only the parents of the seniors I are invited and the gowns are limited to simple white muslin A little collation col-lation of ice cream and cake is afterward after-ward served at the school At the remainder of the firstclass schools in New York the close of the year will be marked only by an address from some prominent educator or preacher like Lyman Abbott or Haiml ton Mabie and + the presentation of diplomas di-plomas to the seniors followed by an informal reception and breakfast Vassar too has petitioned for a change and for the first time in its I history will this year have no exercises exer-cises beyond the address and the presentation pre-sentation of the diplomas The feeling seems to be very general among teachers that while there wera no doubt sweet and stimulating features fea-tures in the old way it was not without with-out certain pernicious elements With some it was a question in ethics as to just how far the sweet girl graduate grad-uate had a right to bore a longsuffering longsuf-fering public with that same little essay es-say tied in its fluttering blue ribbons Then too this offensive production was often a source of dire distress to its fair perpetrator and only achieved by the mightiestthroes at a season of the year too when she was already tired with her years work An one teacher said to me the general work of the whole spring term was more or less sacrificed to these elaborate preparations for the closing week Now regular recitations go on in the usual manner up to the very last day The moral influence also was thought to be not altogether of the highest There was an increasing tendency to display not only in the matter of gowns and decorations but in the equally dangerous tendency to grow self seeking in the desire to shine intellectually in-tellectually It will not do to forget however that it was under stimulating influences such as these that Thanatopsis and many another important work has been given to the world worldMARION MARION DEPEW |