ENGAGEMENTS FOR GRADUATES. We receive so many letters asking about the prospects for and the salaries they are likely this opportunity to answer all The field for elocutionary work Positions can be easily secured the employment of graduates, to receive, that we will take such letters in a general way. is an almost unlimited one. by those who are capable of filling them. Our best pupils find employment for all the time they wish to teach. Elocution and oratory are becoming fixed studies in the regular college curriculum, and our pupils are teaching successfully in the various colleges and universities throughout the Southern and Western States. The profession is not crowded, nor will it be a life-time hence. The demand for first-class readers and for scientific teachers of elocution is increasing. In regard to the salaries, we will say that in this, as in all other kinds of work, they vary according to one's ability and acquirements. We can not guarantee financial success to those who would never succeed in this or any other undertaking; but graduates of fair insight into the business of elocution can more than double the salaries they would receive as teachers in the public schools or professors in the colleges. We know of no other profession which yields so ready and so large a remuneration for the time and money expended in the preparation, and at the same time offers such great opportunities to ambitious youth. The work of the teacher, the lecturer, the reader, the preacher, the orator, the actor, and in fact all varieties of public speaking, are before him, and withal sufficient financial return to accomplish his ambitions. In regard to the assistance we can offer graduates, we wish to say, once for all, that we will help those who are worthy and willing to help themselves, but we promise positions to none. We have given pupils some very lucrative positions, and our opportunities in this direction are increasing year by year; in this capacity we stand between our pupils and the public, and it is our aim to see that true merit on the one hand shall win success, and that the public on the other hand shall not be imposed upon. The many calls which we have for our own services as teachers and readers, and which we have not time to fill, we will supply with our graduates; or, if they be engaged, we will send under-graduates on whom we can rely for practical work. POST-GRADUATE COURSE. Graduation means that the pupil has completed such a course as will best help him to pursue his studies into a higher sphere of research, and to attain to a higher art than he could possibly have acquired in the brief time allotted to the regu lar curriculum. Graduation comes only at the commencement of a professional career. This higher work can be greatly facilitated by the criticism and assistance of an instructor. Many of the graduates return for special work, or to prepare new programs; some wish to become special character impersonators or actors; others wish to be pulpit orators or special lecturers. For these, and also for professional elocutionists of other schools, we have designed a private Post-graduate Course of two, four, six, or ten months, to meet the individual wants of such applicants. In connection with the instruction given, a course of private reading, on subjects kindred to the particular studies under consideration, has been mapped out for the pupils. OTHER SCHOOLS. Occasionally the pupils wish to pursue other special studies while studying elocution. There is perhaps no city in the West which offers better advantages in the way of schools of music, schools of art, business colleges, private teachers of modern languages, etc., and with many of these special terms can be secured through us for the pupils of our school. BOARDING. Students will be assisted in finding comfortable boarding places. Furnished rooms with good board can be obtained in private families, in the vicinity of the school, at rates ranging from $3.50 to $6.00 per week. TEXT-BOOKS will be furnished at the school at a liberal discount from the usual retail rates. Pupils, while in the rooms, have free access to a constantly increasing library of reference books on the subject of elocution and oratory. EXPENSES. 40 class-lessons in Elocution and Oratory.. .$15.00 Private lessons, each....... 2.00 40 class-lessons in Rhetoric (three terms). 10.00 50 class-lessons in English Literature (three terms)... Lecture fee (Collier Course)...................... 12.50 2.00 Graduation fee, including Diploma.... 5.00 The Post-graduate Course will be given only in private lessons and at the regular charge. Special lessons in Logic can be secured of a private teacher at a nominal rate. CALENDAR. Fall Term begins October 8th and closes December 24th. Term. Persons can enter the classes after a few lessons have been given, provided they make up the time in private lessons; but it is greatly to their advantage to begin with the classes. Application should be made at least a few days before the beginning of each term. Private pupils received at any time. ATTENDANCE. We have not the space in this circular to publish a list of the names of those who have attended the school since its opening; but it may be well to state that we have had in attendance here and in our classes in the colleges over three thousand pupils, among whom were ministers of almost every denomination, lawyers, professional singers, elocutionists, college professors, teachers, and students. We withhold all but the names of graduates, which we publish with the titles of their exercises in the order they came on their respective commencement programs. Press notices of each graduate will be reprinted once in this annual circular. AWARDING OF CERTIFICATES, PROF. J. M. GREENWOOD. Complimentary press notices of these exercises were published in a former circular. The following is a short brief of the Commencement Address. "Nothing supersedes the living voice, for there is no force on earth comparable to it when speech issues from the spirit. Suppose you take the human voice and aid it as the telescope assists the eye, what vast results would follow-its power would prove almost limitless. "Men talk of the printed page as the immense factor in this age, but its office is simply to convey information. Men possess vast stores of information and never act. The eloquent voice moves men to action and conquers them by the large fervor of a living man. Wm. Pitt, at the age of twentyone, ruled the British nation with his voice. It is written of the great Frenchman, Mirabeau, 'He had the neck of bull, and a prodigious chest, out of which issued that voice of thunder before which the French Chamber quailed in awe.' Speech becomes a grand synergy when the air sounds unite into the actions of the brain, and the sensations of hearing-that is, soundsfeelings, and mental conceptions amalgamate and become power;-power such as the old Greek wielded as he poured forth the tide of words and feelings until the multitude shouted 'Lead us against Philip.' "What is this quality called? Eloquence! It is speech issuing from the human spirit and reacting upon it. Those who write our music tell us that two harps, tuned in harmony and placed near together, will echo each other's sounds. Touch a string in one and a corresponding string in the other will vibrate; strike a chord on one and a like chord will come from the other: play a melody on one and an answering melody will be heard, very faint, but exact in every harmony of tone. Thus, speech, issuing properly from one man, affects and touches another. Heart power is the greatest element of the eloquent, and that oration that impels men must be an appeal to their hearts. The man who can not boil can not make another boil. The true orator's place is really a battle-field, and his business is to win his audience over to the side for which he contends. "The secret of success lies in the fact that the theme possesses and thoroughly saturates the orator's soul. If a man hopes to be eloquent, let him be natural. The study of elocution aids us in laying aside assumed and artificial tones and manners. Pitt, of whom mention has been made, began studying elocution in his childhood. It is written of him that no man since the days of Cicero has performed such drudgery of study. The training of his vocal powers ran through many years. He sought naturalness and power of emphasis and enunciation. Sometimes you have listened to gentlemen whose ordinary conversation ran through almost a musical octave. You were delighted, but the moment one of them began to plead at the bar his tones became unnatural, and the monotony of his voice put his hearers to sleep. "It is a disgrace to the ministerial profession that each denomination has a peculiar tone by which men recognize the church relations. To be eloquent in voice and manner we must study until success is assured. Rufus Choate, the great barrister, cultivated daily for forty years the art of speech. A scholarly address without vitality of utterance is literally lost, and such an address has but one delightful part in it, and that is the Greek omega. "We can not have a great race without eloquence; we can have material prosperity for a season, but vice will dominate the masses. We need nobler men of power to stir the masses against evil, an eloquence to carry our flag out of the hands of men who use it as a stepping-stone to power; an eloquence that will disarm and shame the men who care not for their country, but for selfish interest. "So I bid you God-speed in your noble work. And mothers, instead of pushing your boys into unnecessary pursuits, let them learn the use and power of eloquence." 66 Daniel Webster "-Introducing extracts from his speeches. READINGS: Kingston, Mo. COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS, REV. HENRY HOPKINS. PRESENTATION OF DIPLOMAS, NATHAN SCARRITT, D. D., LL. D. Press Notice. Long before the exercises began the large hall was crowded with friends of the graduating class and of the institution. The class that went out yesterday gave evidence that they possessed a general knowledge of the principles of the art, and that the opinions they gave were not mere examples of parrot imitation, put up for exhibition on the occasion, but that they could do other things equally well. "The programme began with a beautiful piano solo by Signor Morosini, followed with an appropriate prayer by Rev. Dr. T. P. Haley, of the Christian Church. "Miss Carrie Smith, of Kansas City, next presented readings, showing |