PAT NEFF SPEAKER AT BLOOMING GROVE SCHOOL EXERCISES SEVEN GIRLS AND THREE BOYS RECEIVED THEIR DIPLOMAS THURSDAY    BLOOMING GROVE, May 27.— (Staff Special)—Seven girls and three boys received diplomas at the annual commencement exercises of the Blooming Grove High school Thursday evening. Pat M. Neff, member of the Texas Railroad commission and president-elect of Baylor University, was the principal speaker.    The exercises were held in the auditorium of the modern high school completed last summer, and the place was filled to capacity with a number of visitors from nearby communities present.    As Miss Kitty Ruth Matthews played the processional, the ten seniors clad in gray caps and gowns marched to the seats of honor reserved for them. The invocation was pronounced by Rev. Forrest B. Williams, Baptist minister.    Others seated on the platform included Rev. P, L. Schuler, superintendent G. H. Brown of the Blooming Grove school system; C. C. Isbell, high school principal; Pat M. Neff, Mrs. Finis Farr, Mrs. Edens Hyndman.    Walton Huffstutler, second honor student, extended greetings to those who had led the class in their work, to those who had made education possible, and to other classmates in his salutatory address.    He said that the class realized that in completing high school it had only received the fundamentals and were poised before the open door of the world; pessimists painted a black picture of the future but the class looked forward with pleasure to the challenge of the world, realizing that service is the only highway to suc- cess. Mrs. Finis Farr, accompanied by Mrs. Edens Hyndman, both of Corsicana, was presented in a violin selection that brought prolonged applause and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Honor Student Speaks.    Miss Mavis Griffin, first honor student, said in her valedictory that the class realized that they had abundant cause for gratitude for the many privileges and opportunities afforded them in their eleven years in the public schools, and that on the eve of their departure from the school-room their memories of hundreds of events were unusually vivid and would be carried throughout life.    The valedictorian, boasting one of the highest averages in the history of the Blooming Grove high school, declared that the commencement occasion was one well worth remembering, and acknowledged for the class the debt of gratitude for the moral and intellectual training which had been given them. She expressed the sincere thanks of the class for the continued interest and sustained assistance of the many friends of the class and school. Brown Introduced Neff.    Superintendent G. H. Brown then introduced Ex-Governor Neff, as one of the greatest governors the state had ever commanded and a true believer in education. Before he delivered his address the railroad commissioner was presented with a large bouquet of flowers.    "Personality" was the subject of the speaker's address, and in his introduction he declared that the term "personality" was new, and was unknown to the sacred writ- ers or to Shakespeare, Dante, Milton and others; in recent years it has been heard everywhere until its meaning has been fixed. He declared that personality was as much a part of the individual as his hands or feet, it is invisible but can be felt by its effect, and is intangible yet real.    Mr. Neff termed personality as "that we are stripped of camouflage" or the atmosphere which is generated within and radiated without; the outer interpretation of inner worth developed by every thought and deed. The speaker said there was no truer axiom than "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he." Personality Important.    Personality was termed important because the thoughts of today are the dreams of tonight, the plans of tomorrow and the destiny of the future. It was asserted that each force generated and attracted its kind, and people are actually known by the radiations of their personality, and the difference in reactions to people was caused by the reactions to the inner forces.    He told the seniors that they would have to make the world in which they were to live and then live in the world which they had made, that each was the determiner of his own destiny. "Gold or power cannot change what we are within. We are just what we are," the former governor declared.   Worth and wealth he declared were shifting shadows that made no contributions to character, and sinews and blood were mere veils of lace to cover character as revealed through personality. He told the seniors that they could not build pewter lives and have golden personalities.    He emphasized the necessity of proper rations for the mind and soul just as proper food was required for a physical body. He declared that environment and training could take a common-place being and develop a really beautiful character.    The railroad commissioner then presented brief episodes from the lives of several personages which explained the force of their personality that determined their greatness, mentioning Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Jenny Lind, Will Rogers, Paderewski. Marshall Ferdinand Foch, Sydney Smith, creator of "Andy Gump.' Gives Good Advice.    He told the seniors that if their lives resulted in mediocrity it would be because they were unwilling to pay the price of success, and assured his listeners that if any person prepared himself to do a single task better than any other person that the world would seek them out. He advised them to laugh heartily, live wholesomely, and love devotedly.    The railroad commissioner was given a rousing ovation at the conclusion of his address, and Superintendent Brown told the seniors that one of the best things they had gotten from high school was the commencement address.    Diplomas were then presented by the superintendent to Misses Mavis Griffin, Magdalene Barton, Ruth Adkins, Lucille McCormick, Mildred Phillips, Maicel Robinson, Mare Turner, and to Carroll Butler, Walton Huffstutler, and Curtis Moody. The benediction was pronounced by Rev. P. L. Shuler, pastor of the Methodist church.   The Corsicana Daily Sun  -  Friday, May 27, 1932 Submitted by Diane Richards