Norfolk High School - Milestone Yearbook (Norfolk, NE)

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Graduating Orations. THE PRICE OF OCR HERITAGE. SALUTATORY ORATION, CLASS 0? '90. Tiik index of tin: peopled universe points, in this age, to an era of wonder fully great institutions. The cycles of time have retorded with each rev olution, changes in governments, forms of religion, art and customs. 1 lie advance of age solidifies progress into more permanent and enduring organization. Good or evil, truth or error, the beautiful or the vulgar, may assume shape that must enlist the hard hand of an age to erase its structure. Hut notwithstanding the ve.dict of the more dyspeptic mind of man, the advance of time has 1»een a refiner of the institutions of all nations. Who would question in comparison the virtues represented in the Goddess of Liberty, anti the wild, frenzied lawlessness of those ancient Goths, who, it is said, sounded the tocsin of the first true principles of human liberty. Thrones once were chopped off by the headsman s axe, but now rulers may not fear such uncivil deposition. Art was great but not pure. Much of education was rooted in infamy. No stake, or torture rack is endured under the ban of religious freedom, but instead, the little child may join in the intelligent music of Christian progress. In short, now, in this very epoch of wonderful splendor and power, nations are vicing with each other in contest for the loftiest standard of civil achievement. The fori most nations of the world are at peace. Aspirations are civil, progress cultured and ideal. The phenomena of great accomplishment is majestic to behold. Hut what has it cost? Grasp in one thought the endless panorama of the past, the vicissitudes, crises of war, and fevered panic in state and national life, and then

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JVIadison's First Glass. It is with pleasure that we greet the first class to graduate from the Madison High school. hist year, the first class ever graduated in the county went out from the Norfolk High school. This year there are two eloMes—Norfolk and Madison—aggregating just twice the number of last year's graduates. This plainly attests the progress of educational affairs in the county. May the good work go on. until every country, village, and town school in the county will have a systematic, graded course of study, and induce more young people to pursue it to completion. The motto of the ‘90V at Madison is, ‘‘Not how much, but how well.” The c.lass iscom(Kitkd entirely of young ladies, whose names are as follows: Delbert 1). Antisdel, Addie L. Hodges, Nellie M. Davis, Kittie A. Coope, 1‘hebe S. Wills, Maude M. Hodges, Kate C. Bohannon. The following is the program of their graduating exercises: Overture—“The Belle of the Village”—Bull ini, ... Orchestra. Invocation,.........................................Rev. J. L. St. Clair. Essay—“Influence of National Monuments,” - - - Nellie M. Davis. Music—“Hark the Distant Hills with Music,”—Jacob . - - (Quartette. Essay—“Patriotism,” ...... Delbert D. Antiatdel. Essay—“Roman and American Homes, - - • Kate C. Bohonnon. Music—“Song of Niagara.”—Op. Verdi, .... (Quartette. Essay—44 Westminister Abbey,” .... Maude M. Hodges. Oration—“Our Destiny,” .......................Kittie A. Coope. Music, -.............................................' Orchestra. Essay—“Power of Example, Phebe S. Wills. Valedictory—“Earth's Battlefields,” ... Addie L. Hodges Music—“Dam e Song,”.......................................0,,iir tte. Presentation of Diplomas. l r. F. A. Dong. Class Prophecy,....................................Lena Thompson. Overture—‘‘The Black Qtn eii,” Orchestra.

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THE MILESTONE. 21 say, “What lias it cost?” Glorious institutions indeed we inherit today, but “What is the price of our heritage? From infancy to maturity the student of history traces those events which have characterized the growth of notions. The infant nation is bent and swayed in the storms of adversity till the matured tree bean the imprint of those distinct crises which have shaped its character. The price paid for the civilization of this day and and age must be deciphered on the decaying walls of many countries. No nation 1ms been literally independent, has builded by itself, builded for itself alone. All pay tribute to a motherland. Majestic England, our mother country, merits the homage of age. On her maritime isles, her feet have ever seemed planted on the solid rocks of the seas. Wealth, power, and character, most sublime and glorious crown her royal institutions. ltut recapitulate her history and estimate the cost. What have the forefathers of English ascendancy paid for the massive kingdom their children inherit ? Embryotic England, enveloping those ancient generations of wnrring races, is a period in itself where its buried powers must forever lie. Anglo-Saxon data gives us the first clear notes of true and familiar civilization. Then, in 1066, the thunderbolt of Norman invasion broke the chrysalis of Anglo-Saxon rule. The battle of Hastings, a milestone in English ascendancy, achieved the v ictory of William the First and his new era. The thirteenth century dawns; a dim light begins to shine; Magna Charta was bom. Magna Cliarta, the corner-stone to the great edifice of English liberty, to which all organized freedom to this day must pay sovereignty. Britain begins to be great. Planted as she is, guardian to the powers of the seas, her institutions grow strong, her treasury rich. But with more certainty, with the growth of the kingdom, her crises were ominous and mighty. A Cromwell led his armies in slaughter and sacrifice, until there was perpetuated a bloodstained throne with his “iron rule. A century and a half, and Wellington grasped the hydra-headed form of a most dangerous encroachment, and in the most glorious of all English victories, preserved the dignity of English dominion. Thus is outlined the greatest events of the world's civil development. What has it all cost? Let the institutions that crown England with imperial wealth and majesty repy, England, while men pay reverence to mighty