Address to Grammar School Graduates.

BY REV. MR. BARAGWANATH.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, and members of the graduating class of 1903: We are gathered here this afternoon that we might pay a tribute to the greatest of all our national institutions, our public schools; that we might make grateful recognition of the jatient, faithful and splendid services rendered by the large corps of teachers, whose year of toil is about to close; and also that we might congratulate the large class of young people graduating from the Grammar Schools of our city. This great country of ours has forged ahead with marvellous rapidity until it stands foremost in the ranks of the nations of the world. To-day we feed multitudes beside the seventy millions constituting our vast population, while it is an admitted fact that we stand first in manufacturing the best and largest lines of useful articles. Our wares are sought in many countries, especially our machinery, and our "Yankee skill" is recognized the wide world over.

Very recently commissions from lands across the seas have visited our shores; they have gone through our workshops and factories, talked freely with the great army of wage-earners and with some of the "captains of industry," and have examined into our large commercial enterprises. These men have paid the most glowing and welldeserved compliments to the skill and initiative of our workmen. Now, what think you is at the base of our national greatness, prosperity and progress? Our country is making such enormous strides forward largely because here education is universal.

A short time since I was writing to a friend of mine in England, a member of the British Parliament, concerning the much-discussed Education Bill, which seemed to multitudes there and here a step in the wrong direction. In that letter I took occasion to boast-I confess with great pride that in the public schools of the city where I have my home our boys and girls may be fitted for college, and that we are not bothered with any of the sectarian troubles which they have had and are likely to have in the near future. As an adopted American I am exceedingly proud of our public schools.

There are to-day more than fifteen millions of pupils in our schools, and when I think of these large numbers I have no great fear of "race suicide " just at present. Consider this vast army of youth

ful students, and then think of the enormous sums which are paid out yearly for their education! But it is this that produces our national solidarity, prosperity and progress. There is no investment which we as a people make yielding such large returns.

We are certainly living in a great and wonderful age. How much it means to be a boy or girl in the earlier years of the new century! Then, we are living in a great and glorious country and under a flag which means freedom and safety-in a land of free schools.

Our debt to our schools and their teachers is very great. These latter, who are patiently developing brain, fitting our youth for the responsibilities of citizenship and of life, building up the State, are of far more value than army or navy; but they are not fully appreciated for the services which they render. Did it ever occur to you that men who simply train horses for races are paid fabulous sums of money, while too often we begrudge a fair compensation for those who train our boys and girls for life's stern battles? Their compensation must be, largely, in knowing the kind of work they do, that they are training the mind and soul of the rising generation.

How full of interest, as well as mystery, is the development of the great oak of the forest from the tiny acorn that fell from the parent stem. It is of more interest to me than the building of Westminster Abbey or the Capitol at Washington. But of deepest interest is the expansion of the child into the man or woman. What delicate and important growths are entrusted to the care of the teachers. I think our presence here is some indication of our interest in these marvellous developments.

Gen. Custer was riding one day over the plains at the head of a long detachment of men when he suddenly made a change of direction at the head of the column. As his men reached the spot they rode off to the right, rank after rank, as if smitten out of their course by an invisible hand. The curiosity of the soldiers was thoroughly aroused, and as they approached the point they looked carefully to see what it was that made the change, and they found a bird's nest full of tiny eggs. It was the one bit of life and possibility amid the great wastes. So we would not trample, but would piously foster these delicate growths.

Now a word to the graduates. It is a great thing to be starting out into life to-day in this land, in this lovely city on the banks of the historic Hudson, and from our public schools. I knew a boy who, when he learned that he was coming to this city, had a great fear in his heart that the schools here would not be up to the required standard, but now I note with pleasure that he seems quite satisfied with the educational facilities which this city affords.

I congratulate you on the work which you have done, that you

have passed successfully the tests which have been made. Now how can you add to what you have received, or shall yet receive? My young friends, self-mastery never comes by nature or by chance, but only as the result of self-culture. As you stand where you do to-day and look out into the uncertain future you have your dreams as to what it will bring you. I would not give much for boy or girl who had no day-dreams, who never indulged in castle-building. Some of you dream that you will be rich in a very large way, or successful in business, or perhaps reach the giddy heights of fame in art or science er scholarship. I want to tell you that to be great is not to be rich, as the world understands it, but it is to be strong; that to be really successful in life is not to acquire, but to bestow; that failure is not in missing the goal but in mistaking the path.

You have done your work well, or you would not be here. The secret of success is work-hard work. I am a great believer in the gospel of work, that all honest toil is ennobling. "Get leave to work in this world, 'tis the best you can get at all, for God in cursing gives better gifts than men in benediction." Nothing worthy can be accomplished without plenty of hard work-this work is for you whether you pass up into other schools or out into the world of toil.

While I tender you my personal congratulations, voicing the sentiments of this large concourse, let me leave with you the earnest words of one who was himself a wise and zealous worker :

"Be strong!

We are not here to play, to, dream, to drift.
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.
'Shun not the struggle; face it, 'tis God's gift."

The following named scholars have been neither absent nor tardy during the school year ending June 30th, 1903:

NEWBURGH FREE ACADEMY.