Toll for the Brave

The very word "commencement" is supposed to symbolize the emergence of youth from its educational incubator into the great and stimulating battle of life, and as such it is generally regarded as a joyous occasion. Every June countless orators use graduation ceremonies to acclaim endlessly the ever widening vistas of creative opportunity that stretch before their young audiences. In short, commencement time is ruthlessly exploited to revive and expand the American dream.

Because there is a certain amount of truth in the old vision yet, because the young graduate has a matchless opportunity at least to stretch his wings and supplement his formal learning with travel or and interesting job, it is a pity that so many misguided souls are passing all this up to get married.

Every day our mail brings at least one new invitation (inside two envelopes) and we inevitably find it a dismal experience to open it and discover who went this time. Not only does it mean something else that must be answered, not only does it involve further financial sacrifice, not only does it mean the loss of a drinking companion--from a purely objective point of view means that some unsuspecting sentimentalist is voluntarily signing away his freedom.

Perhaps there is something to the custom of marriage that we have overlooked. Perhaps those silver company advertisements have an element of truth to them. Or perhaps boys who have done their travelling courtesy of the U. S. Army are ready to settle down to being staid. But nevertheless, it strikes us as a step which deserves some consideration. Be careful, graduates, for you are in the shadow of a catastrophe. Let not the door close on you too easily, lest your A.B. be brought to nothing.