te the ambrosia and drank the nectar of the
sweet goddesses of this new and golden age.
"I may as well say to you, Mr. Editor, that the Ontario Female Seminary
closed yesterday and 'Yours truly' was present at the commencement.
Being a bachelor I shall plead guilty and appeal to the mercy of the
Court, if indicted for undue prejudice in favor of the charming young
orators. After the report of the Examining Committee, in which the
scholarship of the young ladies was not too highly praised, came the
Latin Salutatory by Miss Clay, a most beautiful and elegant production
(that sentence, sir, applies to both salutatory and salutatorian). The
'Shadows We Cast,' by Miss Field, carried us far into the beautiful
fields of nature and art and we saw the dark, or the brilliant shades,
which our lives will cast, upon society and history. Then 'Tongues in
Trees' began to whisper most bewitchingly, and 'Books in the Running
Brooks' were opened, and 'Sermons in Stones' were preached by Miss
Richards, and this old bachelor thought if all trees would talk so well,
and every brook would babble so musically, and each precious stone would
exhort so brilliantly, as they were made to do by the 'enchantress,'
angels and dreams would henceforth be of little consequence; and whether
the orator should be called 'Tree of Beauty,' 'Minnehaha' or the
'Kohinoor' is a 'vexata questio.'
"In the evening Mr. Hardick, 'our own,' whose hand never touches the
piano without making delicious music, and Misses Daggett and Wilson,
also 'our own,' and the musical pupils of the Institution, gave a
concert. 'The Young Volunteer' was imperatively demanded, and this for
the third time during the anniversary exercises, and was sung amid
thunders of applause, 'Star of the South,' Miss Stella Scott, shining
meanwhile in all her radiant beauty. May her glorious light soon rest on
a Union that shall never more be broken.--Soberly yours,
A Very Old Bachelor."
_June,_ 1861.--There was a patriotic rally this afternoon on the campus
of Canandaigua Academy and we Seminary girls went. They raised a flag on
the Academy building. General Granger presided, Dr. Coleman led the
choir and they sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Mr. Noah T. Clarke made
a stirring speech and Mr. Gideon Granger, James C. Smith and E. M. Morse
followed. Canandaigua has already raised over $7,000 for the war. Capt.
Barry drills the Academy boys in mili
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