Orations from the Pomeroy High School Graduation Class of 1913

Source – Pomeroy Herald, Pomeroy, Iowa, Thurs., June 5, 1913 & June 12, 1913

Eleven Get Diplomas
Class of 1913 Gave Notable Program – Honors and Presents For All
The formal procedure of graduation was accomplished Thursday evening when eleven students who had won scholastic honors in the Pomeroy high school, presented orations and were given diplomas.  The orations were all fitted to the subjects in interesting manner and in ways that gave them present day applications. Miss Laurine Wilson played the march to the strains of which the graduates and others took a place on the platform.  The program was opened by a song by the girls’ glee club and a prayer by Rev. S. Cocks, who was a guest in the city during the commencement season.

Marian Jenkins
Marian Jenkins, as the valedictorian, expressed first the welcome of the class to those who had evidenced their interest in the class by coming out to hear the program.  Then she launched into an essay upon the “Maid of Orleans,” whose mission, she said, was properly within woman’s sphere as being a mission representing ideals. Miss Jenkins told comprehensively the historical story of the French heroine and deplored the fact that she went to death needing pity.  She freed her country from the English, and as a national heroine was a model of devotion.

Earl Gustason
Earl Gustason in his oration held that the “Ideal American Citizen” is needed in the world today.  This ideal he described as one who will sacrifice personal interest to public interest.  High ideals are unknown commonly.

Kathryn Homan
Kathryn Homan, with strong voice and clear articulation, took as her subject “The Shot Heard Round the World.” She showed how the establishment of a new government in the colonies of the new world gave rise to a new ideal of a popular government that influenced France to organized a republic; then it spread to South America, Mexico and Cuba.  In 1826 Spain was driven from the American main land. The result of the fight for independence of the American colonies was the beginning of a study in the advancement of democratic government.

Marie Behrens
A beautiful eulogy of the life of Florence Nightingale was presented by Miss Marie Behrens, who said that all women who wear with dignity the garb of the nurse owe it to Miss Nightingale, the heroine of the Crimea.  She brought peace and comfort to the homes she visited; she sought to be useful.  Her ideal was the cheerful, alert nurse, in the hour of conflict.  Miss Nightingale was such a general of the nursing forces that her manner commanded confidence. Many acts of kindness were due to her original influence.

Irma Dent
Irma Dent was up to the minute with a virile characterization of the “Ideal American Girl.” She deplored the fact that any American is a person of much ado, obsessed with things material, constantly in fear of life being crushed out by the struggle for existence.  The ideal American girl is a factor in the rejuvenation of the race.  She cited Dolly Madison, Lucy Stone, Clara Barton and Julia Ward Howe as types that are worthy of wholesome respect in the minds of girls.  The ideal girl must possess health, avoid devitalizing pleasures; she must have some idea of home economics, must love the beautiful and must seek to acquire admirable characteristics rather than dazzling jewels.  Such a one, skilled in languages, art and literature, with characteristics of honor, loyalty and helpfulness is the greatest masterpiece of nature.
A quintette of high school maids gave variety to the program by singing “I Know a Bank.”

Ray Parker
Ray Parker’s oration on “The Change of Power,” applied not to political power, but to the forces that drive transportation.  He detailed the way in which steam, only a century ago a new fact in supplying motor power, is being supplanted by electricity which is now the new factor in the mechanical and transportation worlds, and presents vast opportunities unnumbered.

Lawrence Schmidt
The story of a peerless conqueror in the person of Alexander Hamilton was the subject of Lawrence Schmidt’s oration.  This virile American made a bid for immortality as his star approached his zenith. The principles for which he stood were filled with virtue.  He was a young man, prominent at the end of the war when the country was losing faith in its first attempts to form a government.  Though the country was divided he fought for centralization, deliberately following his own plan until the government fabric was the finished product of a master mind, and in it there was not room for men of the characteristics of Burr and Hamilton. 

Sara Hodds
In “The Idols of the Tribe.” Miss Sara Hodds went into literature for the application of her subject to the question considered.  Francis Bacon struck the keynote of man’s ways, she said.  The idols of the present are the almighty dollar, graft and selfishness.  Ambition, though a necessary attribute, is more prominent then ever; false religions and creeds are dogmatic.  Men can no longer accept blindly the beliefs of their fathers; the social cast can no longer endure in city churches. Every man is the master of his own soul, and all love, charity, sacrifice and joy.

Marie Peterson
Marie Peterson’s subject was of the sublime nature.  In the discussion of “The Martyr” she stated that in the universal progress that is being made every era is graced by a martyr.  Socrates, the stonecutter, and teacher of sculptor with the streets of Athens for his field, possessed in personality that impressed itself on history. He was persecuted, though in thought he was two thousand years in advance of his time.  The explorer is a martyr.  From a human standpoint Christ was considered an ordinary man, but was the greatest martyr of all ages to the cause of truth, and the most wonderful thing in the tales of martyrdom is the story of the cross of Christ.

Irvin Frost
In describing “Abraham Lincoln – Puritan and Cavalier,” Irvin Frost went back to the early struggles of the Normans and the Teutons. The Teutons came finally to Plymouth, the Normans arose under Oliver Cromwell, then came to Virginia to establish a government according to their ideas.  Accustomed as they were to commanding feudal subservience, they snatched the black from Africa; then, here on American soil, the two types were represented in the greatest nation on earth. Lincoln was chosen from God’s people to settle for all time the differences between them, and out of the fused characteristics of the new citizen made the first true American.  In bespeaking the valedictory to the class, Mr. Frost bade them step forth with courage, with power to develop true characteristics that are the true heritage of man.
Superintendent Latham could not forego a parting word to the class, and in his remarks he forcefully epitomized the gist of his thought in advising them to aspire for efficiency in life’s work, a noble heart, sublime sympathy and unbiased understanding. With that he recommended the class to President Marple of the board of directors for the honors of graduation. The spirit that the community feels – that this has been an efficient year’s work in the schools – was well expressed by Mr. Marple, who congratulated the graduates that they had enjoyed their last year of work under so excellent a faculty, and then he presented the diplomas.  Rev. Wm. Shumann gave the benediction in words that gave fitting expression to the spirit of the occasion.
Good Oration Quarantined

Henry Wold
Henry Wold, who was detained at home under quarantine, prepared an oration discussing the historical fate of Robt. E. Lee.  Rather than give a sketch which can hardly do it justice, The Herald will print the oration in the issue of next week.
Pomeroy Herald, Pomeroy, IA., Thurs., June 12, 1913, p.2
Henry Wold’s Oration
Able Discussion of place of Robert E. Lee in History – Loyal to Ancestors
I come to speak of a conquered hero upon whose brow there rests a stigma of treason. Whatever may have been the problem for which he struggled, viewed in the light of its results, Robt. E. Lee fought for an unholy cause.  Fifty years have come and gone since that irrepressible conflict closed and it is now time to marshall the facts in logical review, and arrive at some just estimate of this hero of the “Lost Cause.”  Robert E. Lee loved Virginia; he was her son.  In early colonial days his fathers had settled on the banks of the Potomac, the Rappahannock, and the James, to escape the persecutions of Puritanic England during Cromwell’s regime.  There they erected the magnificient colonial house of white timber, which has descended to us as an exemplification of American plantation life.  It was his own ancestor who developed, and made famous, the great Virginia House of Burgesses, which is known in colonial history as being most pronounced in its agitation against the oppression of George the 3rd.  It was no other than Richard Henry Lee who introduced in the Second Continental Congress the resolution that these “United Colonies of America are and of right ought to be free and independent states,” and followed it up with a motion that the President of the convention appoint a committee to draft the articles for a new form of government.  Both motions passed in July 1775, amid a scene of wild confusion and terrific debate, and in the hottest of the struggle no men did more noble work than the ancestors of Robert E. Lee.  Independence won, these grand old sons of the Old Dominion returned to the peace and quiet of their plantation life.  A few years passed and the government established by Richard Henry Lee’s resolution began to show its inefficiency.  People throughout the country, inspired by the prophetic instruction of Hamilton, Madison and Jay, began to see that the Articles of Confederation were weak and powerless, and that there was a crying need for a strong central government.  To Richard Henry Lee, the idea savoured of the gibbet of oppression and tyranny, of which the country had just freed itself by many bloody battles.  He believed the exponent of liberty to be the local unit of government.  He loved his state more dearly than all else, and would have died on the battlefield to retain her traditions and her institutions of freedom.  Bent wih the year of toil, hoary and decrepit with age, he journeyed to the Constitutional Convention of 1887, and to his own beloved state’s ratifying convention to wield his mighty influence against the federalistic tendencies of the times.  In this he failed, but can we doubt the patriotism of this grand old revolutionary father?  No! He went down to his grave and with prophetic vision, forsaw the coming conflict of sectionalism.  On this death bed he swore his posterity to preserve with their life’s blood the sacredness of the traditions [including the tradition of slavery] of their own home state.
In later years, a grander man, Robert E. Lee, arose from the sod to keep the pledge of his family name. In his youth he sported by Virginia’s majestic streams and roamed over her green hills.  In the evening by the fireside his parents told him of her traditions.  He traveled to her halls of fame and imbued their spirit.  Everywhere he breathed into his soul an all meaning love of his own state, which alone meant to him freedom and liberty.  He became the flower and grandest son of the proud and haughty aristocracy of the south.  What wonder that he loved Virginia’s name as he did his own? As Lee grew to manhood he followed in the footsteps of his father.  Light Horse Harry Lee, and schooled himself in military affairs.  Graduating from West Point, he entered the army of the United States as second lieutenant.  In the Mexican War he conducted himself with valor, and at the end received universal recognition, although his flawless morality could never harmonize itself with the causes for which that war was fought.  Winfield Scott praised him highly, and stated that Lee would some day, if opportunity presented itself, prove the greatest military general of his age.  After the war he settled down to live a life of calm at beautiful Arlington, the ancestral home of his wife, on the banks of the Potomac.
[paragraph of text unclear from microfilming]… he could conceive of no law which did not say “Than art thy brother’s keeper.”  He was undecided as to the course he would pursue when all of a sudden the cloud broke and rolled over the country.  Its lightnings flashed and its thunders roared with strandge questionings.  Robert E. Lee was a man of culture. Judging from history and all laws and precedents of the past, he believed that a “House divided against itself could not stand.”  He loved the Union, the stars and stripes and the grand old ship of state.  What was he to do? Here now came the crisis in his life! Should he declare himself for the preservation of the Union or the traditions of his state? [slavery]  Lincoln knew he was vacillating and offered him the command of the Union armies.  What a temptation!  With is supreme military insight, coupled with the grand army of the north, backed with untold wealth and numbers, Lee would have gone down in history as the greatest captain of all the ages.  He would have been greater than a Hannibal, more beloved than a Napolean.  But Robert E. Lee was not ambitious.  He remembered the pledge of his ancestors, he knew of his overwhelming love for Virginia and her noble tradition.  His closest friends were those plantation owners of the south.  Could he draw his mighty sword against these things, this state, these friends and relatives he loved so much? No. He resigned his commission in the U.S. Army, declined the great honor offered him by Lincoln, retired to private life, declaring that if the Union were dissolved, he would share the miseries of his people and, save in defense, draw his sword on none. But a few months passed before he felt the call of his people to accept the command of the Confederate army.  His military record in the great War is too well known to require repetition. Antietam, Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor and Cemetery Ridge bespeak for themselves an awful carnage of the deathly grapple.  Through it all Lee was calm and considerate in victory, hopeful in defeat, and idol of his army.  Three summers passed, and then another.  We see the army of Lee withering beneath the southern sun. The overwhelming resources of the North were too great to be overcome.  The strain of battle could not long be endured without food and enforcements. The strength of the South had been exhausted.  The great commander realized that further effort was useless, that more bloodshed was murder without cause.  He resolved to surrender his brave soldiery and henceforth support the Union. Let me picture to you this man as he shook hands for the last time with his brave comrades, with faltering voice said goodbye, and turning his tearstained eyes to the graves that dot the old Virginia hills, began his journey home.  The cause for which he struggled was lost, his state was humiliated.  Did he sit down in sullenness and despair? No. He urged the south to begin the process of reconstruction, and eagerly they followed the great leader’s advice.  Cannons were forged into farm machinery, horses which had charged Union lines now marched at the head of the plough, and fields that flowed red with blood in April were green with the harvest in June.  In this great process no man played a greater role than Robert E. Lee himself.  He accepted the presidency of Washington and Lee University.  Immediately, Sons of the South flocked to his classrooms to hear his teachings.  Tenderly he administered to their intellectual cravings, upholding before them to his dying day a feverish love for the Union, an impassioned desire for understanding, and a Christlike plea for brotherly sympathy.  We od today are [text again unclear from filming]… wall of fame than that of Robert E. Lee.  It is a clear, bright morning of October 1871.  The leaves of the forest have turned to red and brown.  The birds in the trees sing sweet and sorrowful songs of parting.  Our great hero lies upon his death bed.  I can see the grandeur of his form and face and brow.  The terrors of death are not there.  There is a sublime dignity and grace.  His wife and children watch by his bedside fearful lest the soul of life pass out the open window unnoticed.  He places upon the lips of each a kiss of fond remembrance.  The great soul sinks to its last repose.  But look! A feverish vision has him in its grasp.  The last spark of life flashes in his eyes.  He raises in his bed.  He is again the battlefield.  The Union forces are over there waiting to give him battle.  He mounts his fearless charger, waves his sword and dashes along the line.  He halts before a group of officers.  “Tell Hill he must come up.” That was all.  He sank back upon his pillow, his eyes closed in peace, the silver chord at last was broken.  Gathering his loved ones about him, he passed over across the surging river of life, to lie down in the shade of the green trees for eternal rest.