It is always beautiful to see the young confront the uncertainties of
the future, and look forward with faith to happiness and success. I am
proud of young women who are willing to devote their evenings, when
they must toil for a livelihood through the day, to a course of study
which will secure to them the knowledge of a mechanical art. This
knowledge becomes a treasure which no disaster of fire or flood can
ever destroy, and a source of comfortable income through life. It
makes dependent young women independent, and I congratulate every one
who graduates from this excellent school of instruction with her
well-earned diploma, which is more valuable to her than any legacy of
gold or precious stones.