Part 15

=Indiana= (New Albany).—Our circle is an ever widening one; indeed, it can scarcely be called a complete circle, as it is constantly being broken in order to allow others to join hands with those already enjoying its pleasures. The grading, however, is complete, there being seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen. No particular program is carried out. In our reading we mark anything especially interesting, or about which we wish an explanation; these points are asked for by the president, at the next meeting, and thoroughly discussed or explained. Sometimes when the members are undecided in regard to the answer to any particular question, it is left over for the next meeting, all the members in the meantime examining all the authority they can on the subject.

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=Illinois= (Metropolis).—Our local C. L. S. C. for 1883-4 was organized September 28. Our membership at present is nine, consisting of beginners of the class of 1887. The manner in which the work has been taken up and is being carried on seems to indicate a year of solid work, and necessarily great profit. Our president is energetic and self-sacrificing; and with him as our leader we shall surely succeed.

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=Kentucky= (Hardinsburg).—We are a new society, numbering only ten, organized last September by Miss Anna L. Gardiner, a graduate of the C. L. S. C. class of 1882. What we lack in numbers we make up in zeal. Already we feel that the Chautauqua course of reading and study is necessary to our existence. Our weekly meetings are delightful, and we are studying hard, determined that our circle shall be one of the bright stars in 1887. We celebrated Bryant’s day with the following program: Opening exercises, Rev. R. G. Gardiner; Bryant’s letter on the C. L. S. C., Miss Anna L. Gardiner; music, Myra Heston; “Planting the Apple Tree,” Linnie Haswell; music, Charles Jolly; “The Death of the Flowers,” Annie Bassett; music, Linnie Haswell; “Thanatopsis,” Clare Jolly; music, Myra Heston; reading, Col. Alf. Allen; music, Miss Clara Jolly; “Forest Hymn,” Myra Heston; music, Linnie Haswell; address on Life and Works of W. C. Bryant, Rev. J. G. Haswell; song, “Good-night,” Miss Myra Heston.

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=Kentucky= (Lexington).—The second year’s work of the Lexington Social Circle began the first week in October, with a membership of thirty, adding to our last year’s number several new names. Every month a committee of two is appointed by the leader to prepare questions upon studies we then have. They have the right to appoint certain persons for any special subject that the lesson may suggest. To give a clear idea of how our circle is conducted I give the order of exercises of October 26. The class was called to order by the leader, and exercises were opened by singing one of the C. L. S. C. songs, followed by roll call, and the minutes of last meeting. Questions were then asked by one of the committee on the lesson in Greek History, bringing out all of the main points in the lesson; then followed questions on American Literature by the other member of committee, bringing in as special subjects, School and Life of John Stuart Mill, Swedenborgian Doctrines, and the Philosophy and Life of Coleridge; all of these having been mentioned in our text-book of Literature. Following these we had criticisms, our C. L. S. C. mottoes given in concert by the class, and the business of the circle. Two hours having been spent very pleasantly and profitably we had second roll call, each member giving a quotation in answer to their names, after which we adjourned.

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=Tennessee= (Knoxville).—The Bryant memorial day was observed by our circle with appropriate services. The hall was tastefully decorated with ivy and flowers. A large picture of Bryant, wreathed with ivy, hung over the organ. The exercises were opened with the C. L. S. C. hymn, “A Song of To-day.” At roll call each member responded with a quotation from Bryant. Essays were read on the “Life, Works and Death of Bryant,” his “Influence and Friends,” and “The Bryant Vase.” The following poems were read: “Planting of the Apple Tree,” “A Forest Hymn,” and “The Flood of Years.” The circle then joined in singing the closing hymn, “The Day is Dying.” Many visitors were present, and the evening was pronounced by all exceedingly pleasant.

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=Tennessee= (Memphis).—On October 1, 1883, a small band of Memphians met and resolved to pursue the C. L. S. C. course together, under the name of “The Southern Circle.” Mr. L. H. Estes, a prominent young lawyer, who spent the month of August at Chautauqua, was elected president, and really it is to his earnest efforts that this circle owes its existence. We meet the first and third Monday of each month, and find the meetings both pleasant and profitable. All are highly interested in the studies, and hope by zealous work to make the circle well worthy of the name it bears.

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=Michigan= (Flushing).—There are twenty-one members of the C. L. S. C. here. All are not able to attend our Hope class, which was reorganized and held its first regular meeting October 5. Eight of us belong to the class of ’84, and to each the reading has been a source of much enjoyment and instruction.

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=Minnesota= (Worthington).—The first meeting, held October 29, was very enjoyable. At roll call each member responded with a quotation from Bryant. A paper was then read on the Life and Works of the poet. A short time was given to recitation of the Greek History for the evening, with free conversation on obscure or imperfectly understood points in the studies. The evening was thoroughly enjoyed, and impetus given to a circle already in a flourishing condition.

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=Iowa= (Des Moines).—The Alpha C. L. S. C. sends greeting to sister circles throughout the land. Our class organized last October with thirty members, and though to many of us—who left our school rooms long ago—the work seemed almost appalling, we have realized that we are never too old to learn, and that after a little application our lessons are mastered far more easily than we could have believed. The benefit is not merely what we have acquired during the year, but in the incentive we have to continue.

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=Missouri= (Carthage).—The Carthage Literary Association, composed of the different societies known as C. L. S. C., Alpha, N. N. C., Shakspere, and C. S. C., held a Longfellow memorial service June 1st, 1882. The program was as follows: Piano duet; sketch of Longfellow’s life; reading—Rain in Summer; song—The Bridge; recitation—Famine; song—Rainy Day; essay—Longfellow’s writings; reading (with chorus)—The Blind Girl; Story of Evangeline; The Chamber over the Gate; recitation—Launching of the Ship; Miles Standish’s Courtship; song—Beware. Remarks were made by the president, altogether making a very pleasant and profitable reunion. Our second meeting, a Shakspere memorial, was held at the Carthage Opera House, June 1, 1883. Program: Cornet solo—Old Folks at Home; essay—The Mound Builders; duet (vocal)—When Life is Brightest; reading—The Casket Scene, Merchant of Venice; solo—Waiting; essay—A Sketch of Elizabeth; Literature; tableau—Isabella; cornet solo—Mocking Bird and Variations; recitation—Le Cid; tableau—Charlotte Corday in Prison; essay—The Daughters of King Lear; solo—The Clouds have Passed Away; essay—Women of Ancient Greece; tableaux—Queen Anne. The stage decorations were highly artistic. Not the least attraction was an elaborate monogram, copied from the title page of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. It was composed of scarlet geranium blossoms, the groundwork of the leaves, and rested upon an easel, facing the audience. It elicited many appreciative remarks. Other memorials have been held by the circle, both profitable and pleasant; the last upon Bryant’s day.

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=Dakota= (Chamberlain).—Here on the banks of the Missouri, more than a thousand miles from its birthplace, has the Chautauqua Idea found a home. We have formed a circle of twenty-seven members. Two of these belong to the class of ’84; the rest are freshmen. In our number are a banker, an editor, a physician, a lawyer, two ministers, and a number of ladies who might well occupy any one of these positions. We meet once a week, and usually the week’s readings are reviewed by topics drawn by each of the members from a prepared list. This week we are to have a Longfellow evening, and the first number of our paper is to be read. We intend that you shall hear again from your frontier outpost at Chamberlain.

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=California= (Sacramento).—It may not be too late to mention our reunion of last June; it was held in the Presbyterian Church parlors, which were well filled with an intellectual and deeply interested audience. The place was beautifully decorated with a profusion of flowers; pillars were twined with ivy, and banners of the different nations whose history we had been studying were arranged upon the walls, with the American flag falling in graceful folds above the familiar C. L. S. C., which was formed of flowers, each letter of a different color, arranged in a half circle over 1883 in green. The literary exercises were followed by the report of the year’s work, in which it was stated that twelve hundred and fifty pages had been read during the Chautauqua year of nine months; essays and papers, sixty-two; questions prepared by committees and answered in writing, nine hundred and twenty; total membership, thirty-eight; average weekly attendance, twenty. The circle this year has taken a step forward and has reached the rule of division, since our numbers have increased so rapidly. A second circle has been formed and named, in honor of our leader, “Vincent Circle.” At our regular meeting on November 5, Bryant’s memorial day was observed by an interesting program after our regular work had been done, omitting only our oral exercises. Our circle of twenty-one members has entered enthusiastically into the year’s studies, and our method of work is as follows: Committees select several topics from each study, upon which papers are prepared and read the following week. From eight to ten papers are read at each meeting, and oral exercises, consisting of readings from THE CHAUTAUQUAN, the critic’s report, together with our general business, complete the exercises. It is our intention to observe each memorial day, and arrangements are now in progress for an entertainment in which both circles will unite.

C. L. S. C. ROUND-TABLE.[L]

WAYS OF ORGANIZING LOCAL CIRCLES AND PROVIDING FOR THE POOR.

There are two points which I would be glad to have discussed a little this evening that are of great practical interest to us in extending the growth of the Circle into new territory. The first, in ways of extending the influence of the Circle, and of organizing new local circles. I do not mean ways of conducting circles, or plans of managing your circles, but ways of introducing the work where it is not now introduced, and of organizing new circles in localities that know little or nothing about the work of the C. L. S. C.

Upon this point I should be glad to have testimony or suggestions from any person who has had experience in that line. We all feel that this work should be done. We understand the embarrassments which prevent this extension. Yet, by comparing notes one with the other, we may be able to overcome the embarrassments. I should be glad this afternoon to hear from a number in answer to this question: “How can we organize new circles in localities that do not have them now?”

A VOICE: It seems to me, sir, if we would invite from the locality in which we want to introduce a circle, one or two persons to visit our own circle and see the work we are doing, we might thus incite and be enabled to form a circle, taking the one or two members whom we have invited as the nucleus.

MR. GILLET: I think this is a very valuable suggestion.

REV. W. D. BRIDGE: Make use of C. L. S. C. stationery.

A VOICE: I suggest this: Write an article for the local paper explaining the objects and operations of the Circle, and appoint a time and a place for all persons who have read the paper to meet and talk it over.

MR. GILLET: It is surprising to find out how many editors there are who know nothing about the C. L. S. C. It is a good plan to post them, especially local editors. Introduce them to the little green book, and get them to read it through, or ask them to listen while you read it to them. Any other suggestions?

I will say in that connection that a plan was organized or developed last year in what is known as the correspondence committee. I had hoped that I should be able to have a report from the correspondence committee of the Society of the Hall in the Grove. A plan was organized before leaving Chautauqua, concerning the way in which these articles for the papers should be written. The members of the committee wrote articles for the local papers, and corresponded with persons in different parts of the territory which they represented. As a result several new local circles were formed, and a good many were induced to become members of the circle.

A VOICE: I live in a little town of about one thousand inhabitants. We had already organized a reading circle composed of judges, clerks, merchants, mechanics, business men, and women. We were thinking of taking the course of the C. L. S. C. We shall have no difficulty in getting persons to come for the purpose of organization. I would like to know how we should proceed after we have gotten our people together. How would you organize and conduct a local circle?

MR. GILLET: The question has been asked several times during the Assembly, and has been answered by numerous testimonies from persons who are managers of local circles. The best way is the simplest, appointing as few officers as possible, having some one who will be responsible as conductor or leader of the circle, and then put as much enthusiasm and life into the organization as possible. The local circle organizations vary almost as widely as the different places in which the circles are organized. The organizations depend on the number, the plans, and the dispositions of the persons who belong to the circle. There are parlor circles, church circles, union circles. Miss Kimball will be able to answer at the office any specific question.

REV. MR. PARDOE: I believe that local circles will organize themselves, if the people understand the nature and the methods of our C. L. S. C. work. There is a gentleman in New York City who has a business engagement with about two thousand of the leading weekly papers of this country, and he proposes to insert an advertisement of any kind in the two thousand weekly papers at a very low rate. I think it would be a very wise thing for the parent organization at Plainfield to make a contract with this gentleman, and throw the whole nature, methods, objects and intentions of the C. L. S. C. work over the United States at one bound.

MR. K. A. BURNELL: In connection with this matter of correspondence, last week a lady told me that she was a member of the correspondence committee, and gave me a very interesting account of the letters she had received, and the joy that she had from the letters that came to her.

A GENTLEMAN: In the part of Pennsylvania from which I come there are literary societies in almost every school house. Could we not in some way bring these societies into our circle?

MR. GILLET: Is there any way of getting the members of such societies into the C. L. S. C.?

A GENTLEMAN: There is.

MR. GILLET: It is not necessary to abandon the organization that already exists to have all the members read the text books of the C. L. S. C. The work can be done under the organization existing, the circle reading the books and reporting to the central office.

MR. GILLET: There is a little bit of tract about an inch and a quarter square, of four pages, that gives the points of the C. L. S. C. At Island Park we sent persons to the back of the audience with a bunch of these tracts, scattered them in the air and everybody was curious to get them and read them. I think a good many became interested who would not but for these little bits of things.

MR. BRIDGE: I will have 20,000 of them here to-morrow night for distribution.

MR. GILLET: Then, of course, you can get the Popular Education Circular by addressing Miss Kimball. It contains the full plans of the C. L. S. C., and you can use them in your correspondence. Any thing else to Suggest?

A LADY: There would be no difficulty in organizing circles, but how shall we get people to understand the work and the methods that are adopted? A great many very intelligent persons have given so little attention to this movement as to be utterly in the dark. It will require a good deal of persistence in this work of organizing circles. I have had five years’ experience. I have been through the class of ’82, and have, unfortunately for the circle, I think, been retained as leader of the circle. We have four circles which coöperate. We found some difficulty in interesting the pastors of the churches in this work. I wish every member of the C. L. S. C. here when she goes home, because I rely on the ladies, to go to her pastor and personally solicit him to take hold of this work and assist her to organize a local circle. We did this in our circle. We secured the services of the pastor as president. We interested him. He took hold of it, and has been quite an assistance to us all the time. I content myself with taking a book and sitting as superintendent, so as to keep the work going on.

It will be necessary to go to young men and women, and older persons, and personally solicit them to join; personally explain to them the nature of the course of reading, and how it is done. You will have to do that by going to them personally until you get them, and then it will require a good deal of grace and a good deal of energy and perseverance to keep them in the Circle after they are there. Young men who work all day at the bench, or in the office at their books, complain that they have not time to read, and you have to overcome that objection. You must show them that they have the time, and that they can do it. Why, almost every young man, and I may say almost every young woman, spends more time reading the daily newspapers than it would require to read the whole course of the C. L. S. C. in any year. By bringing these things to the attention of these persons you may thus induce them to make an extra exertion in this line.

I say to them in this way, that so far as I am personally concerned, I have not an hour in a week, I have not five minutes in a day to devote to this work, yet for the purpose of inducing them to go into the work, to go into the course of reading, I make the sacrifice and do double work. When they see that one person can do that, they feel like making the effort themselves.

Then I have gone to the newspaper offices and have written up reports of the meetings of the circle. I have taken occasion in these little articles, writing up the proceedings of our meetings, to explain what was meant by the C. L. S. C. course of reading. There are a thousand things we might do for the purpose of inciting an interest in this work.

MR. GILLET: It has been suggested that members might arrange for a series of meetings in September in the cities or large towns near to their homes and send out to these cities or villages one or two of the members of their own circle to talk about the C. L. S. C. and answer such questions as might be asked, requesting the pastors of the churches to announce that the meeting would be held on such an evening of the week. Then let them proceed at once to the organization of a local circle, and appoint persons to take charge of it. I think that there are very few towns in which such local circles could not be organized, if such a course should be taken. Any suggestions in this line? I want to call your attention to another thing, and call out a few suggestions upon as interesting a proposition as the other one. It may be delicate, and I hardly know whether we may be helped by stating it, but I think we may, and I will take the risk, at least, of presenting it. We recognize the fact that a great many people who are connected with the C. L. S. C. are poor; that a great many more would be connected with it but for the fact that they are unable to provide the necessary books, or to incur the simple expense even that a membership in the C. L. S. C. involves. I would like to know if there are any here who have any ways in connection with their local circle work to reach such cases. I think it would aid other circles, and help in aiding a deserving class of people that we are not able now to benefit.

A GENTLEMAN: If some person who has graduated would loan his books to persons who were pursuing the course, it would help them.

MR. GILLET: So far as the books would be usable. The books are changed somewhat each year.

A LADY: We have in Cincinnati a fund for that purpose. We get a few lecturers each year, and have a fund for that purpose. Last year we sent to the different libraries sets of our C. L. S. C. books, and we hope to do that every year, so that we can reach our members through the public libraries by tickets, so that some will not have to buy any books, except the little ten cent books.

MR. GILLET: How many sets of the larger books? Just one set?

A LADY: No, sir, we duplicate some of them. We duplicated the astronomy and some of the larger books.

MR. GILLET: I think the point mentioned is a good one, sets of books in the City Library, and the Women’s Christian Temperance Library, or the Y. M. C. A. libraries, or in the church libraries, or Sunday-school libraries. Any other suggestions?

A GENTLEMAN: That would be the best plan—to put them into the Sunday-school libraries.

MR. BRIDGE: We have in New Haven a Women’s Christian Association with a very flourishing C. L. S. C. branch. There is no membership in the Y. M. C. A. as such. I think it would be a good thing for our Women’s Associations in the towns and cities to make circles of the C. L. S. C.

A GENTLEMAN: In the place where I am there was no regular circle. We only read a partial course, but we intend to join this Circle this year. We gave some entertainments, and we have a fund of $200 to buy books for this circle.

A GENTLEMAN: In the local circle to which I belong we had a course of lectures which netted us a little sum of money, and we invested that in two sets of C. L. S. C. books last year, and there were two members who were able to join us who would not otherwise have done so.

WRITTEN QUESTION: What would be suggested as the next step after an interview with the pastor and his refusing to assist?

MR. GILLET: Organize without him. I do not know of any other way.