Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 144, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1916 — MONNETT SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES [ARTICLE]

MONNETT SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT EXERCISES

Rev. W. E. McKenzie Made Address To Graduates of the Class of _ Ninteen Sirteen. The commencement exercises of the Monnett School were held at the M. E. church Thursday evening at 8 o’clock. Every number of the program, the first number of which was two piano numbers by Miss Waymire, music instructor in the school, was enjoyed by the representative audience present. As the daintily attired school gir’s and their teachers marched down the aisle to the strains of the Processional, played by Mrs. M. D. Gwin, they sang a beautiful evening hymn and , as they sang the selection-“ Praise Ye the Father,” by Gounod, it was evident that their training had been of the best. After the invication by Rev. Paul C. Curnick and two very enjoyable •organ numbers by Mrs. M. D. Gwin, the speaker of the evening, Rev. W. E. McKenzie, D. D., was introduced by Supt. C. R. Dean. The speaker's theme was a very practical one', “The Debt We Owe and How to Pay It.”

He said in part, that we were each greatly in debt and that the person who failed to recognize his indebtedness to the world in' general was a disgusting type. The boy or -man who goes through life with his hands in his pockets and his nose in the air with the thought in mind* that the world owes him an education, a living, and all the other good things of life, would do well to consider what he owes the world and “get busy’ paying his debts. We owe much to our inheritance. We have the advantages of a Christian civilization which has been made for Us.* The economic conditions which are of such advantage to each of us has been brought about by causes outside ourselves. A man maybuy a farm at $35 per acre and improvements in ,the community may raise its value to $175 per acre. He is therefore a great debtor to the community and should recognize this indebtedness and strive to pay the debt by doing all possible for the community. In like manner we owe a great debt for our educational opportunities; first to the paemts who have fed and clothed us while we were securing the education, and second to the state that has furnished the equipment and teachers. A diploma is really a bill of indebtedness and the young persons who receive them should understand that though he may have done much in acquiring his education, he is in reality a great debtor and that if he were to be presented with a bill as he finishes the high school it Would amount to $6,000; from .he university a much larger sum, and from an institution like West Point or Annapolis it would be the amazing sum of $20,000. Our indebtedness is measure! largely by our qualifications. There is little demand of the ignorant, but to the university man the entire community looks for great helpfulness. The great possessor has necessarily had much done for him. He is for that reason the greatest debtor. z lf it be material possessions we see the illustration of this truth when taxpaying time comes. The man who has large possessions is told that, ne is a large debtor to the community, while the man with little gets, off with $2.50. And so with the mafi of fine morals, he is a debtor and is expected to pay by his influence. Our indebtedness is measured too by the -needs existing. If there are starving families, homeless children or destitution in any form, there is a debt which the other members of that community must meet. Schools and churches are the result <vf gnmp one recognizing the apiritual needs and meeting their obligations. The speaker then applied the truth he had been discussing to the occasion by suggesting to the three girl graduates that they could jiay what they owe to the Monnett School by living up to their best teachings and to the audience he presented tlje thougnt that there was a great need for an enlarging of the school and that the people of the community should pay their debts by meeting the need. The girls then sang the discription of June from Lowell’s poem, “The Vision of Sir Launfal.” The dj pl £- mas were presented by Prof. C. R.

Dean with a few well chosen remarks and the benediction was pronounced by Rev. A. H. Lawrence, of Winamac. Tuesday evening, June 13, at the Methodist church, the pupils of the Monnett School gave a flower cantata. The pupils showed very careful and thorough training and delighted from the first number to the last the large audience which had assembled to enjoy their entertainment. The prelude was played by Miss Waymire, the able instructor in pianc at the school. The second number was a piano solo by Miss Marcella Eells, a senior and also the most advanced music pupil. This was followed by a Scarl drill by twelve girls using scarfs of yellow, white and pink. The leading parts in the cantata were taken by the three seniors, faiss Madeline Stiles as queen, Miss Marcella Eells as a *and Miss Lucy Gordon as a chryanthejnum. The other girls were dressed to represent violets, buttercups, hollyhocks, mingonettes. Miss Alice Cain sang for the hollyhocks, Miss Wilhemine Traub sang very sweetly for the violets and Miss Velma'Corkerel spoke for the buttercups. Miss Gordon complained, as a chrysanthemum, because they were not Die queen of the flowers, so'* the other flowers try to make her Contented with her lot. The story was carried out in solo, quartets and in recitation, resulting in a splendid entertainment.