visiting
those lovely French villages where R. L. S. roamed as a young
man, crowned by an afternoon at Grez. One remembers the old gray
bridge across the eddying water, and the door of the inn where
the young pilgrim lingered, trying to visualize scenes of
thirty-five years before.

It is not mere idolatry when the hearts of the young are haunted
by such spells. There was some real divinity behind the
enchantment, some marvellous essence that made all roads Tusitala
trod the Road of Loving Hearts. In these matters we would trust
the simple Samoans to come nearer the truth than our cynic friend
in Greenwich Village. The magic of that great name abides
unimpaired.

THE FIRST COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

(_Delivered to Cain and Abel, the first graduating class of the
Garden of Eden Normal School._)

[Illustration]

My young friends--It is a privilege to be permitted to address you this
morning, for I am convinced that never in the world's history did the
age beckon with so eager a gesture to the young men on the threshold of
active life. Never indeed in the past, and certainly never in the
future, was there or will there be a time more deeply fraught with
significance. And as I gaze upon your keen faces it seems almost as
though the world had amassed all the problems that now confront us
merely in order to give you tasks worthy of your prowess.

The world, I think I may safely say, is smaller now than ever before.
The recent invention of young women, something quite new in the way of
a social problem, has introduced a hitherto undreamed-of complexity into
human affairs. The extreme rapidity with which ideas and thoughts now
circulate, due to the new invention of speech, makes it probable that
what is said in Eden to-day will be known in the land of Nod within a
year. The greatest need is plainly for big-visioned and purposeful men,
efficient men, men with forward-looking minds. I hope you will pattern
after your admirable father in this respect; he truly was a
forward-looking man, for he had nothing to look back on.

You are aware, however, that your father has had serious problems to
deal with, and it is well that you should consider those problems in the
light of the experiences you are about to face. One of his most
perplexing difficulties would never have come upon him if he had not
fallen into a deep sleep. I counsel you, therefore, be wary not to
overslumber. The prizes of life always come to those who pre