"The Thinker and the Doer," Commencement Address at South Bend High School

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C03MENCELENT.
President Angell's Lectare---The Class of
'9'2 Receive Their Diplomas.
The crowning event of the week was
the Commencement, held at the Oliver
rora house last evening. A large
audience assembled at an early hour,
anxious to hear the distinguished speaker
and also to pay honor to the enterprising
Class of '92.
The twenty-nine graduatos, with their
teachers, the board of education and
President Angell, were already seated on
the stage when the curtain rose to the
enchanting strains of Elbel's orchestra.
Dr. Henry Johnson invoked God's blessing, and Hon. Lucius Hubbard introduced
the lecturer, who spoko on "The Thinker
and the Doer."
The subject and the speaker were in
complete harmony. From his earliest
life in a plain New England home up to
this moment, when he is honored wherever learning is known, James Burrill
Angell has been pre eminently both a
thinker and a doer. For forty years has
he lived the arduous life of an educator,
and not once has he failed in his duty as
a citizen, and in every crisis has cast his
lot on the side of justice and honor. Not
many men are so happily constituted. To
a vigorous understanding and profound
learning are united a ready speech, a wit
that never wounds, and a temper that no
care or trial can deeply disturb. Fortunate, indeed, is the youth who comes into
the circle of his personal influence.
The world may be roughly divided into
two classes-the thinkers and the doers.
The thinkers sub-divide themselves into
the solemn-faced frauds; the fussy men
who flounder and splash like a fish in a
basin of water and get nowhere at last;
and the real brain-workers, whose
thoughts we speak, whose songs we sing,
whose impulses sway our lives and plant
in us what good we have. The doers also
take rank in three classes-the fussy men;
the mass of honest toilers who patiently
work out the thought of others; and the
few men of rare executive ability who
lead armies and found nations and Ahange
the very face of the green earth. The
Germans are pre-eminently the thinkers
of this age-patient, profound and practical. Scholars of every land press eagerly
forward to light their lamps at the torch
of the German thinker. They are also a
Ration of doers, and Germany has stood
for the last generation with her head in
the clouds and her feet planted on the
solid rock. The English-speaking people
are the doers of the world, and our own
nation stands well to the front.
The speaker dwelt earnestly on some
dangers that threaten the young republic,
and urged the necessity for thorough
work on all lines and for better political
education, while he strongly deprecated
the homage which all Americans pay to
"smartness." The word "smart" will at

last break the neck of America.
The lecture was far too short for the
delighted audience, though all realized
that volumes were compressed in that
hour of earnest speech.

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