ADDRESS TO THE SENIOR CLASS, 1890 



GENTLEMEN OF THE SENIOR CLASS: The hour so im- 

 patiently looked forward to by you has come, and but a 

 few brief moments more and you too will have crossed the 

 dividing line that separates the present from the past, and 

 have taken your place in the fighting ranks of life. Four 

 times the spring has clothed these hills in all the beauty of 

 its green. Four times the wintry storms have wrapped the 

 mantle of the snow about them. From yonder rooms you 

 have daily watched the glories of the sun descending be- 

 hind the western hills, and daily, as your eyes have swept 

 the outlines of the wondrous picture nature has spread out 

 before you, you have gathered fresh inspiration and gone 

 forth with renewed courage to perform the tasks assigned 

 you. But now, too soon, the vivid surroundings of the pre- 

 sent will be but a memory of the past, and the scenes amid 

 which you have delighted to wander, will be the homes of 

 others than yourselves. It will cost you a pang to root out 

 these ideals of the present hour and make for yourselves 

 new homes, new friends, new lives. Yet after all it is right 

 and natural that it should be so. For separation is the com- 

 mon inheritance of man. No propagated life can be fully 

 developed till it is separated from the parent stock. 



All life that lives to thrive 



Must sever from its birthplace and its rest; 



Still must the sapling top 



Ere sunk in earth its fibres fresh will root; 



