e added to the list of American writers of
the Isaac Pitman Phonography. It is to be hoped that none of us shall
ever, in any way, be the means of bringing reproach on our art; but
rather that we shall work to make many improvements, that we shall
help to prove its value in the different departments of business into
which it enters, and ere another fifty years shall cause the trumpet
of Jubilee to sound throughout the land, this class of Isaac Pitman
phonographers shall have been the means of bringing to ripe perfection
the system of Phonography.

Valedictory Address

BY MISS N. C. STEPHENS.

_Class of '87._

"The Spirit of the Time shall teach me speed," says Shakespeare.

How truly that applies to the present day, when one might say we are
living, as it were, in an age of rapidity, and cannot fail to catch
the infection, for the very air seems filled with it. Competition is
met with on all sides, and, in many branches of toil, "the race _is_
to the swift."

Contrast the world of a hundred years back with the world of to-day.

These people were satisfied to plod along in the good old way which
their fathers had trod before them; content because they knew no
better, and the times demanded no better.

But, think you, would the simple appliances used then, meet the
demands of to-day?

No! decidedly, no! I hear you say. Why, may I ask? Simply because the
necessity makes the demand, and the _necessity_ is the ever-advancing
spirit of to-day, which urges all to attain something that will not
only benefit themselves, and be an incentive to others, but will
enlighten and ennoble the coming generation as well.

But the world has made rapid progress and if we would keep pace with
it, we must call to our aid every known means of saving time and
labor.

And not the least among the many methods and inventions for this
purpose is Phonography or shorthand, which is finding a place in
almost every branch of business.

Man's thoughts fly faster than his fingers, and it is only by the
"winged words" of Phonography that the hand is enabled to keep pace
with the mind. Almost inseparably connected with shorthand, is the
typewriter.

These two go hand in hand. What a boon they have proved to the busy
merchant, the lawyer and the literary man!

To this end, the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen,
recognizing the growing demands for the use of Phonography and
typewriting, added to their already large b