University of South Carolina Libraries
FACTORS IDA {By ADA FA We, the Class of 1922, occupy the centre of the stage this evening. Our minds, and the minds of those who are interested in us, turn back ward to review the past and reach forward to divine the future. We are thinking of the process, the product and the prospect?the pro cess of the long year3 of school through which we have passed, the product that has been evolved in body and mind and soul, and the s prospect that destiny and God and self will make real and reveal in the future yet unknown. Let us reflect for a moment up on the process of the shaping and making of the product you now be hold in us. We must recognize first of all heredity as one powerful fac tor. We bear not only the imprint of the physical features of parents, j * * *?1 ? ? ??"?1' Out we mnem as wen tcuucuvKg v*. mind and heart. The Bible teaches it and observation confirms it. Next, at six years of age we are sent forth to school. We carry with us our inherited qualities and the training and influence of home. Who can overestimate those first six years of home life. This influ? ence is almost always for good. Barring mistakes and occasional neglect, the influence of home comes as near (being divine as any thing we find on earth, for it is fill ed with svmuathy, sacrifice and! love. Now comes school. Books and teachers and fellow-pupils become new factors in our lives. Con sciously or unconsciously each fac tor Operates on us each day. Mother knew this when she sent us forth that first day, and she trem bled lest these influences that ought to bring us good might also bring us harm. Now as we reflect on this school life of ours we ask our selves, and we have asked others to help us answer the question, "What is the purpose of education? What was the design of this course of ^tudy through which we have been led?" The answers are various, but perhaps not conflicting. One object is simply that we may learn facts, facts of history, facts of science, facts in every realm of life. The use of these facts will come later. . The search for facts becomes sa cred. If they are facts, they must be God's facts. If it is a fact, let Galileo tell us that the earth re- [ volves nround the sun, whether it fits in with men's previous beliefs or not. Let us not say the astrono-1 mer who sweeps the heavens with j his telescope is merely wasting his time dreaming. Later we will use his knowledge, for every ship that sail? *he sea, every train that speeds across the land, and every clock that strikes the hours and ticks the seconds will be regulated by that sun who?e laws the astronomer has given to us as pure facts. Catalogue the flowers and trees and minerals just because they are facts. Later the chemist will extract the per fume? and medicines. So one use of school is to give us facts and to ti'ain us to search for facts. We must search for facts with the same earnestness and truthfulness as we pray, and not attempt to deny facts or invent facts to color any story of hero, or bolster faith in any religion, or support any sect or party. But education is not finished that stops with facts and opinions. All about us are men full of facts and opinions, but without action and without character. The great world lies about us waiting for the knowledge of the schools and col leges. So the cry comes from all over the land that the school must 1 - ntioa 1 anrl intfrrmtplv ue Jimuc iiiovvn.u> a related to the plain facts of life. A demand is made that we teach the laws of health, the principles of business, and the laws of the government under which we live, and above all that ideals of truth and honor and love of country and God be instilled into the minds and iioai-+c thd vnuth of the land. vrt vj, "?? These have been the factors in the process of our making. There is yet one more?the association with our fellow pupils and with our teachers. We would have learned many facts without school and would have formed opinions, but in school, we had the facts brought be fore us at times and in ways suited [MAKE LIFE ULKNER) to our stages of intelligence and growth, and the dry facts of his tory, literature, language and sci ence were infused with the living personality of the teacher and made to take hold on our minds and lives. But what of the influence of the pupils? Here we have had a little society, a little government, a little church, a little world all of our own, and have had a training in living. The impress of it will be on us forever. And may we here pause in these sober reflections on the factors that have been moulding us to say that the process has not been one altogether of tedious study. We have had a good time.. Among ourselves we have had our ups and downs, our petty envies, and jealousies, and rivalries. We have loved and hated, fallen out and made up, lost our sweethearts and won another's. There have been whispered loves and stolen sweets, looks sometimes languishing and loving,, and some times sullen and pouting, but, taken all in all, the boys say it was fine, and the girls don't think it was bad. "Every rose has its thorn, tout ain't the roses cTroat " cotrc otip. and the rest echo amen. We have mentioned two factors in our making?first, heredity; sec ond, education, including home and school. There is a third?the self, that power within which rises up in the majesty of its imperial might and says, I will not yield to the forces of evil and indolence, I will not give up in despair, I will not fail, I will work, I will wait, I will win. Many influences pour in to us. All that we have seen, and heard, and thought, and felt, and hated, and loved, make their im iinAn 11c "WrvfVii n cr ipqvpc ne WJJWH UW. AWV?..?b V,U I quite as it found us. But we can not lay our failure to hard luck and capricious . fortune. The trouble lies nearer home. It is lodged in the self. Circumstances affect, 'but char acter creates destiny. We may not control our circumstances, but we can control ourselves in the midst of our circumstances. These three factors?heredity, education and self?have wrought out in us through the long process of study and trial and association the pro duct in mind and heart that ex ists in the character of each of the graduating class. For the part you have had in this work, good people of Abbeville, we thank you. By your contribu tions and taxes you have supplied the money that erected our build ings, equipped our rooms, and paid our teachers. The Trustees have given time, and exercised patience, and showed wisdom in laboring f<"-r the school. Thousands of boys and girls, bright and ambitious and as good as we, are scattered through onr County, who have not enjoyed the advantages you have given us. What we are tonight we owe large ly to your wisdom and liberality and goodness. Dear teachers, you have been kind and patient and efficient. The dol lars and cents of your salaries have not paid you, and the words we now speak can not pay you, for the sympathetic and lasting service you have rendered us. A great poet has said, "The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft inter red with their bones." This is only half true. The evil can die and the1 good can live. We may have at times seemed to you a litttle sullen, unappreciative, and mean. You may have seemed to us a little im patient and severe. Be assured we carry with us only the memory, as we know we carry the effects, of your sympathy, your helpfulness, and your love. We have not forgotten. We could not forget, who helped us with lessons at night, and waked us in the morning? Who fixed our lunches and made our clothes? Who watched our going and waited our return? Who soothed our troubles and shared our joys? Let us pause and reverently, with hearts over flowing, pay the richest tribute of gratitude, and praise, and love to? papa and 'mamma? whether they are looking up this evening from the seats 'below or down from the throne above. And now, classmates, with a confidence begotten of past effort and attainment we look forward to the future. That there awaits fur ther struggle and trial and sorrow and failure and defeat, we can not doubt.. But that the clouds shall ibreak and the sun shine, and we shall smile and rejoice and succeed, we know, if only true to self and God, believing that the blossom is better than the bud and the fruit better than the flower, assured the best is yet to b?, with mind and heart and soul, we will and work and wait. We may not shine re splendent as Joan of Arc or Hannah Moore. We may not become soldiers Galley 2 Factors That Make Life famous as Jackson and Lee. There may not be built to us shrines of worship in the hearts of men as to (Florence Nightingale, Francis Wil lard, Theodore Roosevelt, and Woodrow Wilson. But in home and community, and church, and State, we can, we must, be useful and happy and true, giving to' others with interest what has been given to us?knowledge and sympathy and helnfulness and love. In a few short years other teachers will fill our schools, other ipreachers will fill our pulpits, other governors and congressmen and judges will fill our offices of state, other law yers and - doctors and merchants and men of every occupation will fill our places of honor and useful ness. Age and infirmity will soon thin the present ranks. The Iboys and girls now 'leaving school must take the places made vacant, en joy the honors, carfy the burdens, and do the work. The future ,is Dig with destiny. We thrill with joy and quake with fear as we face it. We face it not as a class, but each alone. Tonight passes, tomorrow comes. We shall meet and mingle, but nevermore as the class of 1922. But come what may, dear class mates, success or failure, health or sickness, life or death, join me now in the heartfelt wish and fervent prayer that when we shall have graduated from the great school of life we may each receive the dip loma of life whereon is written in the dear handwriting of our Lord, "Well done, good and faithful ser vant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Farewell, farewell, and again farewell. WORLD'S END NEAR? SAYS PRESIDENT'S BROTHER. Dr. George T. Harding, Jr. a phy sician of Worthington, Ohio, and brother of President Harding at the ; world conference of Seventh Day Ad ventists in San tfrancisco recently predicted that the end of the world is close at hand. He declares that in dications from conditions in the world today point to the fact that we i are living in the time predicted by j the Prophets, the time preceding the ! second coming of Christ. Although | Dr. Harding refused to predict posi tively that the world would come to an end before President Harding fin ished his term of office, he indicated 'that it was possible. Australia produces about 200,000, 000 pounds of butter annually, of which 75,000,000 pounds are export ed. 1 Phoenicians, according to legend, about 380 B. C. were the first to i i jmake glass. anffliniaiamamaianiMiE THE SUM and with it corr repairing, and t on your premis< You Will be taken make them kno 1? selected supply < and of all othe times. A IT a new now being unl warehouse. If at the lowest pr Builders ? A. H. JACKSON, Mi I .iiniKpr Y rarazizBizrazizi \M 11? JLA?i IES les the nece ouchingupc es. r W? care of by >wn. We ca Df Ceiling, Si r building i t \m\ r um i oaded and you want t< ices, consu Supply inager. ard at Ice Pla: aMfEnraiziMBia 9 D I IX ssary building, m "M .a via , V . '/ } )f the buildings ints a s1 us if you will rry a carefully | iding, Flooring materials at all rll ? placed in our 3 buy the best It. '"J I 4. Company IH '*$ % PHONE 68 ? I