THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
PAGE 2
The CHEMAWA AMERICAN
Published Weekly at the Salem Indian Training School,
Chemawa, Oregon, HARWOOD HALL, Superintendent
Address all communications to Ruthyn Turney, Manager
Entered at the Chemawa, Oregon, Postoffice as Second-
Class Mail Matter
SUBSCRIPTION
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2 5Cts PER ANNUM
ADDRESS GIVEN BY CHIEF SUPERVISOR LIPPS
In the Auditorium on Sunday, January 6th, 1918, to the
Student Body at Chemawa
Girls and boys, I am sure it is a pleasure to meet the
Chemawa students and I appreciate the opportunity
and the privilege of saying a few words to you. I
expect all these little folks will be asleep before long
as I have a faculty somehow of putting little folks to
sleep when I talk. If I had time I would tell you
a story or two—a story of how a bull frog lost his tail
or some such story. Did you know the bull frog used
to have a tail? Well! there is a story that says he
did. Sometime I may tell you about it.
I was up at the Tulalip school a few weeks ago and
the Superintendent said tom e: “ About five or six
years ago when you were here you told the boys and
girls a story, and tho’ there are only a few of the older
ones here now, they who heard that story have asked
me to request you to tell that story again.” I believe
I will venture to tell the little folks here about it. The
story w'hich I am going to tell you isn’t a very funny
story. It is about Opportunity. Opportunity is a
queer fellow. The story ife one the old Greeks told
and handed down to us. They pictured Opportunity
as a man who rode a very fleet-footed horse and he
made the trip only once during the life-time of
each person. He had no hair on the back of his head at
all and none around his ears. He was bald-headed on
the back of his head. I suspect you have seen bald-
headed fellows. But he had a great long forelock. The
back of his head was just as smooth as a billiard ball.
He came riding along swiftly and gave every
fellow an apportunity to catch him. Because this long
lock hung down over his forehead he was not very
hard to catch. If you grabbed at him as he came
riding by you could not miss him, if you waited until
he passed by you could not get him. A fellow had to
be watching out for Opportunity and had to be on the
alert and active and as he came speeding by he must
just reach out and grab him. But the fellow who was
loafing around and looking the other w’ay would find
him gone never to return.
I told that story to a group of full-blooded Indian
children in Utah several years ago and some days
later a boy, a full-blooded boy from the camp, came
in with long hair. It was a rule that boys must cut
their hair when they came to school, so the boys got
the clippers and clipped this boy’s hair perfectly
smooth clear up around the top of his head and left
a great long forelock and named him Opportunity, and
that boy always went by the name of Opportunity.
The point I wish to make is this: Opportunity comes
along once during a life time and if you grab him as
he comes; not as he passes by but as he comes along,
you have that one chance to take hold and then you
want to hang on and stay with it. This school is your
opportunity now. The question is, are you taking
hold of this opportunity? Are you watching for and
taking advantage of all these opportunities? Are you
looking for them and are you ready to take advantage
of them as they come, or are you waiting until they
get by and then regretting that you did not get them?
It is always an inspiration to look into the faces of a
large group of boys and girls—young men and young
women. There are great possibilities in this body of
young people. It is an inspiration to see the possibil
ities there are for your future. What it means for
you to grow* up into the right kind of men and “women.
What it means to you individually, what it means to
the country to have boys and girls in school develop
ing into useful men and women—good citizens. In a
few^ more years your school days will be over. Then
you must enter the battle of life. Are you getting
ready for that battle? Are you getting ready for all the
activities of life? Are you equipping yourselves? The
greatest thing that any school can do for you is to of
fer you the opportunity. That is all we can give you.
If you don’t take advantage of these opportunities,
let them pass by, then you will have only barren lives.
If you don’t come to school with ambition, with deter
mination to do something, everything we can do for
you in school will be of little account.
Now, I believe that the great majority of you are
here to get an education; you want to be successful;
you want to go out from this school equipped to make
a living, to be wTorth something. You have that de
sire in your hearts. Every normal girl and boy has.
That is the first essential—the ambition, the desire.
The very first requisite is to have enthusiasm. No
body accomplishes anything without these.
Also, we must assume the right mental attitude.
While we are young is the time to cultivate the habit
of going about with cheerful faces; with smiles, not
scowls; not with angry w’ords, not in a way that
makes people shun us, but w’e should cultivate the
(Continued on page 3)