SILVER LINKS
A COLLECTION OF SALUTATORY, VALEDICTORY AND
OTHER ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT THE FIRST
FIVE COMMENCEMENTS OF THE FEMALE
STENOGRAPHIC AND TYPEWRITING
CLASS OF THE GENERAL SOCIETY
OF MECHANICS AND
TRADESMEN
OF THE
CITY OF NEW YORK
COMPILED BY
W. L. MASON
NEW YORK
ALBERT B. KING, 89 WILLIAM STREET
1892
TO
MR. ISAAC PITMAN
THE “FATHER OF PHONOGRAPHY”
THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS MOST RESPECTFULLY
INSCRIBED
BY
THE COMPILER
Introductory Note.
It is always beautiful to see the young confront the uncertainties ofthe future, and look forward with faith to happiness and success. I amproud of young women who are willing to devote their evenings, whenthey must toil for a livelihood through the day, to a course of studywhich will secure to them the knowledge of a mechanical art. Thisknowledge becomes a treasure which no disaster of fire or flood canever destroy, and a source of comfortable income through life. Itmakes dependent young women independent, and I congratulate every onewho graduates from this excellent school of instruction with herwell-earned diploma, which is more valuable to her than any legacy ofgold or precious stones.
New York City, April 16, 1892.
Address of Rev. C. S. Harrower, D. D.
To the Class of ’87.
“Ladies of the graduating class,—Ladies and Gentlemen: It seems as ifwords were hardly in place to-night, because of the interestingprogramme which is before you. I suppose we have no conception of theexercises prepared for us this evening. I never knew of thisInstitution until Mr. Moore told me of it, and I am particularly gladto be here.
“I have often remarked that our New York life is like the life of oneof our great rivers,—the Hudson. Did you ever live upon its banks andlook away upon its stretch of water to the south or to the north;count its sails, and its tugs, and its fleets of canal boats and allits life,—for half an hour fascinated by the beautiful scene; andthen go away to your work, or to your pleasure, for a few hours, andreturn and look upon that great stretch of river and see that othersails had taken the place of those first sails, and other vessels werecoming into view, [Pg 8]indicating the marvelous life of that mightystream? I did that, year after year, and it seems to me that theGeneral Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen is like the mighty riverHudson, doing its work day after day and year after year,—a work thatseems to me to be so useful and inspiring.
“The gentlemen interested in this Society are to be congratulated. Itseems to me that such an Institution as this is among the mostbeautiful, among the most stimulating of all institutions that markour civilization.”
Dr. Harrower then spoke of the serious consequences which often followthe carelessness of a lawyer, the blunder of a switchman, the neglectof