Deep Waters A Strange Story

Excerpt: In the latter part of June 18— the little city of Oxford Miss. was teeming with visitors not only from various portions of the State but from the adjoining States of Tennessee Alabama Arkansas and Louisiana. This concourse of people was no unusual spectacle to the citizens of Oxford; for it was but the gathering that occurred regularly once a year. The center of attraction to this fashionable well-dressed assemblage was the University of Mississippi which has sent forth hundreds of young men intellectually equipped for the stern struggle for existence—a struggle the contemplation and investigation of which gave birth to Mr. Darwin’s doctrine of “The survival of the fittest.” What was the meaning of this concourse? It was [Pg 6]Commencement day. The University would again dismiss another class of her children to assume the grave responsibilities of citizenship and to enter into the new and strange relations for which they had been preparing by years of diligent study. At last they were to lay aside the toga virilis trita and don the toga pexa of manhood. It was the last day and the exercises of the graduating class were to close the week’s programme.