Part 16

Chautauquans everywhere should know that the Chautauqua Vesper Service is read every Sunday eve, and that all these Chautauqua interests and peculiarities are cared for from one Assembly to another. Chautauqua is not a six weeks summer affair, but in spirit, and to some extent in form, it lives through all the months of the year, and twelve months are none too many for the full development of all its interests. Again am I interrupted, this time to attend a wedding at the parsonage, and here shall close this survey of Chautauqua in the winter season.

C. L. S. C. WORK.

By REV. J. H. VINCENT, D.D., SUPERINTENDENT OF INSTRUCTION.

Will local circles please report to Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J., as well as to THE CHAUTAUQUAN? Please attend to this.

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Persons desiring graduates’ badges in the C. L. S. C. should address Mrs. Rosie M. Baketel, Methuen, Mass., as she has now entire charge of Mrs. Burroughs’ business.

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The _Saturday Union_, published in Lynn, Mass., contains a C. L. S. C. column. The number for February 2 has an original Chautauqua song, and a column and a half of questions and answers in Political Economy. The questions are by Rev. R. H. Howard, A.M. This is an advance movement, and will undoubtedly help our cause.

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Will all members take notice not to send letters, postals or papers to me at Hartford, Connecticut? My personal postoffice address is Drawer 75, New Haven, Conn.; Miss Kimball’s address is Plainfield, N. J. Letters addressed to me at Plainfield are forwarded.

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The _Alma Mater_, the new bi-monthly to be sent to all recorded members of the C. L. S. C. at Plainfield, N. J., will contain original answers by Dr. William M. Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York City; Dr. John Hall, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City; John Wanamaker, Esq., of Philadelphia; Dr. R. M. Hatfield, of Chicago, Ill.; Dr. Joseph T. Duryea, of Boston, and Prof. J. W. Dickinson, of Boston, written expressly for this number of the _Alma Mater_, to the following question: “What advice do you give to a person who has had but little school opportunity since he or she was fifteen years of age—a person busy in mechanical, commercial or domestic duties much of the time, who complains of a very poor memory, and desires to improve it—how may such person improve the memory?”

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The Rev. Dr. A. M. Fairbairn, principal of Airedale College, Bradford, England, who was announced to give a course of lectures on the “History of Philosophy” at Chautauqua last summer, but who was detained at home by business connected with the college, writes to Dr. Vincent under date of January 29, 1884, as follows: “I intend, all well, to be with you in August; the latter part of the month will be most convenient for me. The subjects the same as before stated. Sincerely yours, A. M. Fairbairn.”

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Persons desiring copies of the Chautauqua Songs or of the Sunday Vesper Service may procure them of Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J., at the rate of $2.00 per 100 copies each, postage paid.

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There are some members of the class of 1887 who have not yet returned the blank form of application. Such blank should be filled at once and forwarded to Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.

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The badge of the C. L. S. C. furnished by Mr. Henry Hart is not in any sense an official badge, nor does the C. L. S. C. receive any percentage from the sale of the same. This has been offered, but not accepted. The badges furnished by Mr. Hart are very beautiful. This is all that the officers of the C. L. S. C. can say.

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_Alma Mater_ is the name of our new bi-monthly communication to be sent from the C. L. S. C. office at Plainfield to all members of the Circle whose annual fees are paid. The first number will contain some valuable hints on “Memory,” “The Laws of Memory,” etc., by prominent educators. The second number of _Alma Mater_ will contain a very ingenious study in English—a series entitled “Where the every-day words come from.” Communications to the members of the Circle which have heretofore been printed separately, as well as the memoranda, will be published in the _Alma Mater_. All members whose names are recorded at Plainfield, and whose annual fees are paid, will receive _Alma Mater_.

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To all recorded members whose annual fees are paid will be forwarded in March an envelope containing a _petite_ calendar for ’84, a most humorous, brilliant and effective tract on evolution entitled “Saw-mill Science,” a copy of the “Sunday Vesper Service,” specimens of the new and brilliant C. L. S. C. envelopes, and a copy of the little tract entitled “Memorial Days.”

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_Our Alma Mater._—The contributions to this magazine are copyrighted, and are not designed for publication anywhere else than through this medium.

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A correspondent kindly criticises a statement in the “Outlines of Roman History,” on page 68, in which it speaks of Polycarp as being in Rome in 240. Assuming that this is 240 A. D., he says: “Now what Polycarp do you mean? Not the disciple of John, who was afterward Bishop of Smyrna, for, according to Prof. R. W. Hitchcock, the church historian, and other excellent authorities, Polycarp suffered martyrdom between the years 166 and 167 A. D.” We referred the question of our critic to an expert in such matters, and this is the reply: “In all the authorities I find mention of but one Polycarp, the Disciple of John and Bishop of Smyrna, and his death is given as either 168 or 169, but they add that it is uncertain. As to the Polycarp mentioned by your critic, I feel sure that there is a mistake, and Polycarp of Smyrna is meant, who did visit Rome during the controversy about the celebration of Easter, probably about 140 A. D. With dates it is easy to make a slip of a century, and probably this was the trouble in this case; certainly there is no mention of a Polycarp in Rome as late as 240.”

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The Chautauqua University is gradually developing its courses of study. The preparatory and college courses in German, French, Latin, Greek and English are already announced. A practical department has also been recognized, and a corresponding class in connection with a technical school for draftsmen and mechanics is now in full working order. The lesson papers prepared by Profs. Gribbon and Houghton are divided into eight series of about twelve lessons each, treating upon the following topics: First series, free-hand drawing; second, mechanical drafting; third, fourth and fifth, geometry applied to carriage construction; sixth, miscellaneous problems in carriage construction; seventh, review tables useful in carriage construction; eighth, miscellaneous lessons. Young men, apprentices, journeymen, and others desiring to take this course, should correspond at once with George W. Houghton, Esq.

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There are many persons who are taking up the Chautauqua Spare-minute Course, which is a course of readings, short, practical, simple, attractive, in biography, history, literature, science, and art. This course is printed in twenty-one Home College Series and in two numbers of the Chautauqua Text-Book Series. They cost in one package $1.00, sent by mail. The reading in this course can be carried along steadily, and, after a while, one who has prosecuted the course will find himself well along in the C. L. S. C.

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The following pleasant little domestic picture comes from New Hampshire: “I can not thank you enough for what the C. L. S. C. has done for us all. You should see us some evening now. We sit around the table, every one interested in some C. L. S. C. books. Even my little boy of seven years will tease me to read aloud to him, and nearly every evening this month gets his dumb-bells, and wants to go through gymnastics with me.”

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Members must not return memoranda to the Plainfield office until all the reading for the year has been completed.

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A White Seal will be given all graduates of ’84 who read the following: “The Hall in the Grove,” “Hints for Home Reading,” and the following numbers of the “Home College Series” (price 5 cents each): No. 1, Thomas Carlyle; 2, Wm. Wordsworth; 4, Longfellow; 8, Washington Irving; 13, George Herbert; 17, Joseph Addison; 18, Edmund Spenser; 21, Prescott; 23, Wm. Shakspere; 26, John Milton. Address Phillips & Hunt.

OUTLINE OF C. L. S. C. READINGS.

APRIL, 1884.

The Required Readings for April include the second half of Prof. W. C. Wilkinson’s “Preparatory Latin Course in English,” Chautauqua Text-Book No. 16—Roman History and the Required Readings in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

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_First Week_ (ending April 8).—1. “Preparatory Latin Course” from “Fifth Book,” page 167 to the first paragraph on page 202.

2. Readings in French History in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

3. Sunday Readings for April 6 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

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_Second Week_ (ending April 15).—1. “Preparatory Latin Course” from the first paragraph on page 202 to the “Georgics” on page 236.

2. Readings in Art in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

3. Sunday Readings for April 13 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

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_Third Week_ (ending April 22).—1. “Preparatory Latin Course” from the “Georgics,” page 236 to the middle of page 272.

2. Readings in Commercial Law and American Literature in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

3. Sunday Readings for April 20 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

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_Fourth Week_ (ending April 30).—1. “Preparatory Latin Course,” from the middle of page 272 to the end of the volume.

2. Readings in United States History in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

3. Sunday Readings for April 27 in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

LOCAL CIRCLES.

Now that Longfellow’s Day is gone, we have no Memorial Day until April 23rd. So many and so delightful are the ways of celebrating Shakspere’s, that it is to be hoped that every circle will do something extra. To read from Shakspere, to have an essay on his life, another on his characteristic as a writer, and a scene from a play, all followed by an elaborate supper, is the usual order. Do something new this time. Try Shaksperean tableaux—an evening of them, with music, is delightful. If the expense of the “properties” needed for successful tableaux is too heavy, dispense with the supper, and let the cost of butter, sugar, eggs, the meats and fruits, be contributed for buying an apparatus which, once owned, will always be ready for use. Get Mr. George W. Bartlett’s little book on parlor plays, published by Dick & Fitzgerald, New York, and with little expense you will be able to prepare an excellent arrangement for the tableaux which in Shakspere are “as thickly strewn as leaves in Vallambrosa.” Or, if you wish to be strictly literary, take one character as Hermione, or Portia, or Cornelius, and read everything that has been said on it. Study one character thoroughly. Try a Shaksperean carnival. Do something fresh. Do not fall into the danger of wearing out the pleasure of Memorial Days by monotony of program. There are an infinite variety of means for brightening and freshening, not only special occasions, but the ordinary ones as well. One of the most entertaining devices we have had comes in a breezy letter from =Titusville, Pa.=, a place about fifty miles from Chautauqua, where there is an excellent circle of fourteen members. Our friend writes: “We make it a point to commit our text-books to memory and recite from them; but aim to bring in all the outside information possible, and to present and draw out ideas suggested by our books, rather than simply to recite over what we have been reading in them. In Greek history we found Adams’s Historical chart very useful. By close study of various authorities we extemporized a model of Athens, on a round table with green spread. My writing desk served as the Acropolis, and paper bunched up under the cloth, as Mars’ Hill, the Pnyx, etc. Out of the children’s blocks we erected the various buildings, while Noah’s wife, clad in gilt paper, and mounted on a spool, rose in calm majesty from behind the Propylea. A slate frame, with pasteboard porch on one side, decorated with paintings, represented the Agora and Stoa Poecilé, and in the street of the Tripods a cologne bottle received great admiration as the choragic monument of Lysicrates. Wavy strips of paper suggested the rippling Ilyssus and Céphisus, while a wall of brown paper encircled the whole. Outside the city limits, under the shadow of Lycabettus (brown paper with clay coating on the summit,) on one side, and about a mile out on the other, flower pots with drooping vines brought to mind the classic groves of Aristotle and Plato; while the street leading through the Ceramicus to the Academic shades of the latter, was lined on either side with chalk pencil monuments to the illustrious dead! This attempt met with so much favor that I was prevailed upon to repeat it, substituting for the blocks cardboard models quite characteristic of the Parthenon, Erechtheum, etc., while the Theater of Dionysius, the Odeum of Jupiter, Cave of Pan, steps to the Propylea, and the Bema of the Pnyx, were done in clay. The hard names, in this way, soon became familiar, and each object served as a sort of peg upon which to hang a good amount of Grecian history and mythology. After reading, as a sort of finish, Mark Twain’s account of his midnight visit to Athens, we were quite possessed with the fancy that we, too, had been actual sight-seers in that wonderful city.” Everybody that reads this will undoubtedly feel as we do, that we would like to go back and read Greek history over again, for the sake of building up Athens; but why can we not utilize the idea when we read the voyage of Æneas this month in the “Preparatory Latin Course”? And when we come to English history why not build a London? Plans like the above for interesting circles must be supplemented by plans for keeping the members at work, a matter especially difficult in large circles. In a late issue we called attention to the program plan used at =Union City, Ind.= The secretary has kindly sent us an outline of their method, which we are sure will be useful: “We prepare and have printed a neat program for four months, giving the places and times of holding meetings, specifying the different exercises, with those who are to carry them out. These programs cost each of us about fifteen cents each, and enable us to have about five apiece. Each person knowing his duty, prepares for it from the beginning and no excuse for non-performance of duty is left except unavoidable absence, etc. Our experience for this year renders it certain that the circle can no longer get on well without our printed programs.”

Along with the plans and suggestions come cheery reports of how the circles everywhere are growing and spreading. Mrs. Fields, the secretary of the Pacific coast C. L. S. C., writes us: “It has been quite negligent in the secretary of this branch not to have reported long ere this the growing interest and increased numbers of Chautauquans on this coast, and especially in California. Perhaps one reason of this remissness has been the very fact that every mail has brought to the aforesaid secretary letters of inquiry concerning C. L. S. C., which must be answered sometimes quite at length; or applications for membership, which must be acknowledged, registered and forwarded to headquarters; or letters from faithful old members with words of cheer and renewal of fees, all of which certainly should be replied to in the secretary’s most cordial style. We have five hundred and forty new members this year and two hundred old members have renewed their allegiance. If, as is generally the case, the old members continue to renew to the very end of the year, we may hope for a list of nearly a thousand names before next July, as the record of this year’s students.”

The circle at =Knoxville, Tenn.=, Monteagle Assembly, in which we all became so interested by their rousing letter in THE CHAUTAUQUAN of November last, has written us a characteristic bit of experience, which we quote: “The dark, rainy nights of January are rather discouraging, but we keep at work. One rainy night, on our arrival at the parlors we found no light, and out of a membership of thirty-three but three were present. We had one visitor, whose words I quote: ‘I had no idea they would hold a meeting, but they were not at all disconcerted. The whole program, prayer, minutes, lesson and music, was carried out as though the number present was fifty instead of three.’ The result? The _visitor_ became a _member_, saying, ‘that’s the kind of society I wish to join.’ I wish to state, however, that so small an attendance is quite exceptional.”

Another circle whose history offers us some wise suggestions is that of =Syracuse, N. Y.=, the home of the new secretary of the Chautauqua Assembly, Mr. W. A. Duncan. Indeed, Mr. Duncan has the honor of having founded this circle, which dates back to the inauguration of the C. L. S. C. The city has fine public schools and its university is well known for its able professors and superior apparatus; the circle has been wise enough to use the material within its reach. It secured Prof. Rollins, of the high school, as its first leader; for three years he conducted a circle of fifty. His successor, the Rev. Mr. Mundy, brought to them a large knowledge of art, gained by travel and study. When they came to science, again they chose a leader particularly fitted by taste and profession to lead them through geology and astronomy. This plan of selecting leaders who are skilled in certain studies is very advantageous. The enthusiasm and knowledge of a specialist in a branch must always remain superior to that of the one who has only given a little attention to the subject. In spite of excellent leaders and earnest members, their numbers did fall off a little last year. A class graduated and they did not secure new members to supply the deficiency. The plan they followed for a re-awakening was excellent. Returning from Chautauqua last summer they held a public meeting and explained the plan of the C. L. S. C. and its benefits. That night brought them several new names. Then they secured Dr. Vincent for the next week to give them a sketch of the aims and methods of the organization. At the next regular meeting the secretary received the names of forty-two members of the class of ’87. The circle is certainly to be congratulated for its proximity to so much local talent and still more for its enterprise in utilizing it so diligently. The neighboring circle of =Troy, N. Y.=, continues to maintain its enviable standing under the leadership of Rev. H. C. Farrar. His indomitable energy and perseverance are felt along all the lines. The plan of presenting subjects in three minute essays is being tried with interest and profit at their monthly meetings.

All of the old circles show a steady growth. At =Claremont, N. H.=, “Minerva Circle,” organized a year ago with a membership of ten, has grown to twenty; the “Atlantis,” of =Lynn, Mass.=, commenced its second year in October last with a membership of eighteen, an increase of ten; the year-old circle of =Pittsfield, Mass.=, has gained thirty members since its organization in February of 1883.

Since 1881 a little “Pentagon” of ladies has been meeting in =Greenwich, Ct.= A member writes of their circle: “Although composed of particularly busy people, we have the conviction that we have been patient over our hindrances, punctual in attendance and persevering in the work. We have run the scale of questions and answers, topics, essays and memorial readings, but prefer, on the whole, the conversational plan as being best adapted to bring out individual thought.”

=Cambridgeboro, Pa.=, has an interested circle of twelve members, and =Blairsville=, of the same state, reports twenty, with a prospect of an increase.

=New London, Ohio=, claims that their circle, organized one year ago last September, and now numbering twenty, might with propriety be called the incomparable.

At =Hennepin, Ill.=, there is a circle of fourteen ladies now reading the second year of the course.

A lady writes from =Marion, Ind.=: “We have great reason to congratulate ourselves upon the deep and constantly growing interest felt in our circle, and which is plainly manifested not only by our own members, but by those who do not belong, away off here in the very center of Hoosierdom.” This “deep and growing interest” is the unfailing result of earnest work in the C. L. S. C., and how can it be otherwise when the idea continually develops new phases? The experience of the circle at =Little Prairie Ronde, Mich.=, that “each year the C. L. S. C. unfolds new beauties, awakens new incentives for more earnest action, calls to the foremost the very best of kindliness and cheer, and incites to diligence, research and thought,” is universal.

The “Centenary Circle,” of =Minneapolis, Minn.=, has long been a leading one. It is by no means lagging—a late letter reports them as fifty strong—their graduates reading the seal courses, the Memorial Days all celebrated, and a big delegation contemplating a visit this summer to Chautauqua. That, has a genuine ring, particularly the reading for seals by graduates. Hold on to your reading habits.

The first and only circle to report an observance of College Day was the “Alden,” of =Marshalltown, Ia.=, where it was recognized by a large gathering of Chautauquans and their friends. Marshalltown has been faithful in reporting all their meetings. They have the western enterprise, but we believe =Sioux Falls, Dak.=, ranks first in that quality. The following explains why: “We have an interesting circle here. We hold meetings weekly, and they are interesting and profitable. We purpose to double or treble our circle next year. We have sent you reports of our circle for THE CHAUTAUQUAN, but you have failed to notice us. We have decided to _Flood_ you with letters till you notice the C. L. S. C. in the largest and most beautiful city in southeastern Dakota.” We shall only be too glad to receive such stirring letters.

A few circles have reported lectures. From =Seward, Neb.=, where there is a circle of sixteen, the secretary writes that they have had a lecture on Emerson, a reading by Prof. Cumnock, Chautauqua’s favorite of last year, and that they are expecting others. =Salt Lake City, Utah=, had the pleasure of hearing Bishop Warren last fall in his lecture on “The Forces of the Sunbeam.” The circle in this city numbers thirty-seven, and is composed of ministers, teachers, business men and housekeepers; that they have caught the spirit of our work is very evident, for they write us that many of their number have in joyful anticipation the time when the long distance that separates them from home and friends shall be paved over, and they shall be permitted to join the number of those who pass beneath the Arches of Chautauqua.