PART II.

There are two forms of fish culture. One of these, which has been practiced for many centuries in China, and perhaps quite as long in Europe, consisted in the transportation of living fish from waters in which they were abundant, to other waters, depleted or naturally deficient in fish life. The carp and the goldfish have been so long domesticated that they have become modified, like domestic fowls and cattle. The goldfish was introduced into all parts of the world from China, centuries ago. The introduction of the carp into the United States by the efforts of our Commissioner of Fisheries has been one of the most extensive operations in fish culture ever attempted. In 1878 carp were brought from Bavaria, and from this stock, planted in Babcock Lake, over 300,000 young fish have been distributed, in lots of ten to twenty, to every part of the country, so that almost every county is now stocked with this valuable food fish. As early as 1770 some experiments in transplanting fish were attempted, at the suggestion of Benjamin Franklin and others. In 1854, the black bass, now so abundant in the Potomac, were introduced by an engineer on the B. & O. R. R., who brought them over the Alleghenies in the water tank of his engine. This fish has also been sent to England and France, where it bids fair to become a favorite. In 1873, a car was freighted with eastern fish designed for introduction into the waters of California. The car ran off the track in Nebraska, and the rivers in that region are now stocked with our best fishes.

Far more important than fish transportation and the acclimation of foreign species, is the art of fish breeding, by which it is possible to keep up the supply of fishes in waters into which they have been successfully introduced. It was in the year 1741 that Stephen Ludwig Jacobi, a wealthy landed proprietor and civil engineer of northwestern Germany, discovered the method of artificially fertilizing the eggs of fish for the purpose of restocking ponds and streams, and began a series of painstaking experiments with that end in view. He first conceived the idea in 1725, when a youth of seventeen years, and was successful after laboring for sixteen years. His discovery was not announced till 1763. Although his discovery was thought to be of interest, and was used by physiologists and students of embryology, it was not until the French government resolved to make a grand experiment in stocking the waters of France with fish that modern industrial fish culture was born.

The establishment in 1850 at Huningen, in Alsace, by the French government, of the first fish-breeding station, or “piscifactory,” as it was named by Prof. Coste, is of great significance, since it marks the initiation of public fish culture. To this establishment the world is indebted for some practical hints, but most of all for its influence upon the policy of governments. The fortunes of war and conquest have now thrown Huningen into the hands of the German government. The art discovered in Germany was practiced in Italy as early as 1791 by Bufalini, in France in 1820, in Bohemia in 1824, in Great Britain in 1837, in Switzerland in 1842, in Norway, under government patronage in 1850, in Finland in 1852, in the United States in 1853, in Belgium, Holland, and Russia in 1854, in Canada about 1863, in Austria in 1865, in Australasia, by the inhabitants of English Salem in 1862, and in Japan in 1877.

The history of fish culture in this country is so familiar to every one who has the slightest interest in the subject that it seems unnecessary to refer to it in this place, except to show that it was largely to the growth of popular interest in the subject that the Fish Commission has owed its original and since increasing support.

The establishment of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1871 marked the beginning of a period of great activity and great progress in fish culture, which has been quite without parallel elsewhere. The duties of the Commissioner were thus defined: “To prosecute investigations on the subject (of the diminution of valuable fishes), with the view of ascertaining whether any and what diminution in the number of food fishes of the coast and the lakes of the United States has taken place; and, if so, to what causes the same is due; and also whether any, and what protection, prohibitory or precautionary measures should be adopted in the premises, and to report upon the same to Congress.”

I think I may truthfully assert that very much of the improvement in the condition of our fisheries has been due to the wise and energetic management of our Commissioner, Prof. Spencer F. Baird. Himself an eminent man of science, for forty years in the front rank of biological investigation, the author of several hundred scientific memoirs, no one could realize more thoroughly the importance of a scientific foundation for the proposed work.

His position as the head of that influential scientific organization, given by an Englishman to the United States, “for the increase and diffusion of useful knowledge among men,” enabled him to secure at once the aid of a body of trained specialists.

I wish to emphasize the idea that _the work of the Fish Commission owes its value solely and entirely to the fact of its being based upon an extensive and long continued system of scientific investigations_, for the purpose of discovering unknown facts, the knowledge of which is essential to the welfare of the fisheries, the economical management of the national fishery resources, the success of fish culture, and the intelligent framing of fishery laws.

The resolution establishing the Commission requires that its head shall be a civil officer of the government, of proved scientific and practical acquaintance with the fishes of the coast—thus formally fixing its scientific character.

The work of the Commission is and always has been under the direction of eminent and representative scientific specialists, acting as heads of its several divisions, and the employes, with the exception of a very limited number of clerks, are trained experts, usually scientific students—so exact and special is the training required even for subordinate positions, that in a majority of cases each man employed is the only man in the country who understands and can perform his own individual work.

Pure and applied science have labored together always in the service of the Fish Commission, their representatives working side by side in the same laboratories; indeed, much of the best work in the investigation of the fisheries and in the artificial culture of fishes has been performed by men eminent as zoölogists.

The work of the Fish Commission is naturally divided into three sections:

1. The systematic investigation of the waters of the United States, and the biological and physical problems which they present. The scientific studies of the Commission are based upon a liberal and philosophical interpretation of the law. In making his original plans the Commissioner insisted that to study only the food fishes would be of little importance, and that useful conclusions must needs rest upon a broad foundation of investigations purely scientific in character. The life history of species of economic value should be understood from beginning to end, but no less requisite is it to know the histories of the animals and plants upon which they feed, or upon which their food is nourished; the histories of their enemies and friends, and the friends and foes of their enemies and friends, as well as the currents, temperature and other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to migration, reproduction and growth. A necessary accompaniment to this division is the amassing of material for research to be stored in the National and other museums for future use.

2. The investigation of the methods of fisheries, past and present, and the statistics of production and commerce of fishery products. Man being one of the chief destroyers of fish, his influence upon their abundance must be studied. Fishery methods and apparatus must be examined and compared with those of other lands, that the use of those which threaten the destruction of useful fishes may be discouraged, and that those which are inefficient may be replaced by others more serviceable. Statistics of industry and trade must be secured for the use of Congress in making treaties or imposing tariffs, to show to producers the best markets, and to consumers where and with what their needs may be supplied.

3. The introduction and multiplication of useful food fishes throughout the country, especially in waters under the jurisdiction of the general government, or those common to several states, none of which might feel willing to make expenditures for the benefit of the others. This work, which was not contemplated when the Commission was established, was first undertaken at the instance of the American Fish Cultural Association, whose representatives induced Congress to make a special appropriation for the purpose. This appropriation has since been renewed every year on an increasingly bountiful scale, and the propagation of fish is at present by far the most extensive branch of the work of the Commission, both in respect to number of men employed and quantity of money expended.

The limits of this article do not permit the discussion of work in connection with the fisheries, or of the scientific investigations which form the bed for the whole current of its activity.

The principal activity of the Commission has properly been directed to the wholesale replenishment of our depleted waters, as is shown by the fact that from seventy-five to eighty-five per cent. of the appropriations have been directed into this channel.

For fifteen or twenty years prior to the establishment of the Commission, popular interest in the fisheries, and a desire for their maintenance had been on the increase, the state of public opinion being doubtless under stimulation from the action of the French government in fostering the still infant art of fish culture.

The publications and experiments of Garlick, Fry, Atwood, Lyman, Green, Stone, Ainsworth, Roosevelt, Atkins, Stady, and others, awakened everywhere a sense of the fact that our rivers and streams were being rapidly cleared out, and the feeling that a similar state of affairs was probably existing in the adjoining ocean. Measures were set on foot for restoration and protection as early as 1605, when Massachusetts appointed the first commission, and prior to 1870 this example was followed by several other states. Nearly all the states and territories now have similar organizations. The United States has distanced all its competitors, as was evinced by the manner in which the prizes were distributed at the recent fishery exhibitions in Berlin and London.

The fertilization of the fish egg is the simplest of processes, consisting, as every one knows, in simply pressing the ripe ova from the female fish into a shallow receptacle, and then squeezing out the milt of the male upon them. Formerly a great deal of water was placed in the pan, now the “dry method,” with only a little water, discovered by the Russian Vrasski, in 1854, is preferred. The eggs having been fertilized, the most difficult part of the task remains, namely, the care of the eggs until they are hatched, and the care of the young fry until they are able to care for themselves.

The apparatus employed is various in principle, to correspond to the physical peculiarities of the eggs. Fish culturists divide eggs into four classes, viz.: (1) heavy eggs, non-adhesive, whose specific gravity is so great that they will not float, such as the eggs of the salmon and trout; (2) heavy adhesive eggs, such as those of the herring, smelt and perch; (3) semi-buoyant eggs, like those of the shad and whitefish (_Coregonus_), and (4) buoyant eggs, like those of the cod and mackerel.

Heavy, non-adhesive eggs are placed in thin layers, either upon gravel, grilles of glass, or sheets of wire cloth, in receptacles through which a current of water is constantly passing. There are numerous forms of apparatus for eggs of this class, but the most effective are those in which a number of trays of wire cloth, just deep enough to carry single layers of eggs, are placed one upon the other in a box or jar, into which the water enters from below, passing out at the top.

Heavy, adhesive eggs, are received upon bunches of twigs, or frames of glass plates, to which they adhere, and which are placed in receptacles through which water is passing.

Semi-buoyant eggs, or those whose specific gravity is but slightly greater than that of the water, require altogether other treatment. They are necessarily placed together in large numbers, and to prevent their settling upon the bottom of the receptacle, it is necessary to introduce a gentle current from below. For many years these eggs could be hatched only in floating receptacles placed in a river, with wire cloth bottoms, placed at an angle, the motion of which was utilized to keep the eggs in suspension. Later, an arrangement of plunging buckets was invented, cylindrical receptacles with tops and bottoms of wire cloth, which were worked up and down at the surface of the water by machinery. The eggs in the cylinders were suspended in rows from beams which were worked up and down at the surface of the water by machinery. The eggs in the cylinders were thus kept constantly in motion. Finally, the device now most in favor was perfected; this is a receptacle, conical, or at least with a constricted termination, placed with its apex downward, through which passes from below a strong current, keeping the eggs constantly suspended and in motion. This form of apparatus, of which the McDonald and Clark hatching jars are the most perfect developments, may be worked in connection with any common hydrant.[A]

Floating eggs have been hatched only by means of rude contrivances for sustaining a lateral circular eddy, or swirl of water in the receptacle.

The use of refrigerators, to retard the development of the egg until such time as it is most convenient to take care of the fry, is now extensively practiced in the United States, and has been experimented upon in Germany.

In the discussion of fish-cultural economy, the distinction between _private fish culture_ and _public fish culture_ must be carefully observed, and it must also be borne in mind that by _public fish culture_, or _modern fish culture_, I mean fish culture carried on at public expense, and for the public good. Public fish culture, to be effective, must be conducted by men trained in scientific methods of thought and work.

The distinction between private and public fish culture must be carefully observed. The maintenance of ponds for carp, trout, and other domesticated species, is an industry to be classed with poultry raising and bee-keeping, and its interest to the political economist is but slight.

The proper function of fish culture is the stocking of the public waters with fish in which no individual can claim the right of property.

The comparative insignificance of the private fish-culture of Europe is, perhaps, what has led to the recent savage attack upon fish culture in general by Malmgren of the University of Helsingfors. European fish culturists have always operated with small numbers of eggs. The establishment of Sir James Maitland at Howieton, near Stirling, Scotland, is the finest and largest private establishment in the world, and yields a handsome addition to the revenues of its proprietor. A description of this hatchery is published as one of the conference papers of the International Fisheries Exhibition, and that the distinction between public and private enterprise in fish-culture may be understood, it should be compared with the following statement by Mr. Livingston Stone, the superintendent of one of the seventeen hatcheries supported by the United States Fish Commission—that on the McCloud River in California.

“In the eleven years since the salmon-breeding station has been in operation, 67,000,000 eggs have been taken, most of which have been distributed in the various states of the Union. Several million, however, have been sent to foreign countries, including Germany, France, Great Britain, Denmark, Russia, Belgium, Holland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the Sandwich Islands.

“About 15,000,000 have been hatched at the station, and the young placed in the McCloud and other tributaries of the Sacramento River. So great have been the benefits of this restocking of the Sacramento, that the statistics of the salmon fisheries on the Sacramento show that the annual salmon catch of the river has increased 5,000,000 pounds each year during the last few years.”

In the two government hatcheries at Alpena and Northville, Michigan, in the winter of 1883-84, there were produced over 100,000,000 eggs of whitefish, _Coregonus clupeiformis_, and the total number of young fish to be placed in the Great Lakes this year by these and the various state hatcheries will exceed 225,000,000. The fishermen of the Great Lakes admit that but for public fish culture half of them would be obliged to abandon their calling.

Instances of great improvement might be cited in connection with nearly every shad river in the United States. In the Potomac alone the annual yield has been brought up by the operations of the Fish Commission from 668,000 pounds in 1877 to an average of more than 1,600,000 in recent years.

In 1882, carp bred in the Fish Commission ponds in Washington was distributed in lots of from 20 to 10,000 applicants in every State and Territory, at an average distance of more than 900 miles, the total mileage of the shipments being about 9,000,000 miles, and the actual distance traversed by the transportation cars 34,000 miles.

Public fish culture is only useful when conducted upon a gigantic scale—its statistical tables must be footed up in hundreds of millions. To count young fish by the thousand is the task of the private propagator. The use of steamships and steam machinery, the construction of refrigerating transportation cars, and the maintenance of permanent hatching stations, seventeen in number, in different parts of the continent, are forms of activity only attainable by government aid.

Equally unattainable by private effort would be the enormous experiments in transplanting and acclimating fish in new waters—California salmon in the rivers of the east; landlocked salmon and smelt in the lakes of the interior; the planting of shad in California and the Mississippi valley; and German carp in thirty thousand separate bodies of water distributed through all the states and territories of the Union. The two last named experiments, carried out within a period of three years, have met with success beyond doubt, and are of the greatest importance to the country; the others have been more or less successful, though their results are not yet fully realized.

It has been demonstrated, however, beyond possibility of challenge, that the great river fisheries of the United States, which produced in 1880 48,000,000 pounds of alewives, 18,000,000 pounds of shad, 52,000,000 pounds of salmon, besides bass, sturgeon, and smelt, and worth “at first hands” between $4,000,000 and $6,000,000, are entirely under control of the fish culturist to sustain or destroy, and are capable of immense extension.

Having now attempted to define the field of modern fish culture, and to show what it has already accomplished, it remains to be said what appear to be its legitimate aims and limitations. Its aims, as I understand them, are:

1. To arrive at a thorough knowledge of the life history from beginning to end, of every species of economic value; the histories of the animals and plants upon which they feed or upon which their food is nourished; the histories of their enemies and friends, and the friends and foes of their enemies and friends, as well as the currents, temperature and other physical phenomena of the waters in relation to migration, reproduction and growth.

2. To apply this knowledge in such a practical manner that every form of fish shall be at least as thoroughly under control as are now the salmon, the shad, the alewives, the carp, and the whitefish.

Its limitations are precisely those of scientific agriculture and animal rearing, since, although certain physical conditions may constantly intervene to thwart man’s efforts in any given direction, it is quite within the bounds of reasonable expectation to be able to understand what these are and how their effects are produced.

An important consideration concerning the limitations of fish culture must always be kept in mind in weighing the arguments for and against its success. It is simply this: _that effort toward the acclimation of fishes in new waters is not fish culture, but is simply one of the necessary experiments upon which fish culture may be based_. The introduction of carp from Germany was not fish culture, it was an experiment: the experiment has succeeded, and fish culture is now one of its results. The introduction of California salmon to the Atlantic slope was an experiment. It has not succeeded. Its failure has nothing to do with the success of fish culture. If any one wants to see successful fish culture in connection with this fish, let him go to the Sacramento River. The introduction of shad to the Pacific coast was an experiment. It succeeded. Shad culture can now be carried on without fear of failure by the fish commissions of the Pacific states.

Shad culture is an established success, so is whitefish culture in the Great Lakes. The experiments with cod and Spanish mackerel were not fish culture, though there is reason to hope that they may yet lead up to it.

Public fish culture, then, scarcely exists except in America, though in Europe many eminent men of science appreciate its importance and are striving to educate the people to the point of supporting it. Germany is at present in the vanguard, and the powerful _Deutscher Fischerei Verein_ is doing all in its power to advance the interests of fish culture.

[A] Trans. Amer. Fish Cultural Association, 1883.

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If we could take all things as ordained and for the best, we should indeed be conquerors of the world. Nothing has ever happened to man so bad as he has anticipated it to be. If we should be quiet under our troubles they would not be so painful to bear. I can not separate the existence of a God from his pre-ordination and direction of all things, good and evil; the latter he permits, but still controls.—_Chinese Gordon._

HONESTY IN THE C. L. S. C.

BY CHANCELLOR J. H. VINCENT, D.D.

The system of examinations which prevails in secular schools has its advantages, but is not an unmixed benefit. It is an incentive to study. It aids the teacher in determining the proper time and degree of the promotion sought by the pupil. It is an approximate test of the place which a candidate may be able to command in the advanced grades.

But the examinations may become an end instead of a means. Pupils may work for success in a process rather than for the possession of power to think on any subject at any time. Examinations may give advantage to an inferior type of mind, rewarding mere memory and facility of expression, thus putting to a disadvantage the steadier, calmer, slower movements of a thorough student.

While in the day school, which deals with youth, we think the examination in some form or other is indispensable, in our Circle it is entirely impracticable. It is equally undesirable and unnecessary. We aim at reading and not study, except as reading by mature minds, eager to know, must necessarily induce the most fruitful kind of study. This, our aim, is the highest and wisest. People join the C. L. S. C., not for degrees in college, not for recognition as competitors in departments of exact scholarship, but for direction in useful reading, and for the pleasures of association in literary pursuits. It gives no pecuniary reward in the shape of prizes or professional diplomas. It would seem to present no inducement to dishonesty on the part of its members. They read for personal profit. Their compensation lies chiefly, if not wholly, in the joy of knowing, in the sense of increasing taste and power, and in the delights of high and honorable companionship.

In our Circle moral worth is assumed. The men and women who join us have long since learned that knowledge without character is not only worthless, but is a curse. They come, through faith in the highest ends of life, to improve their intellectual faculties. The gate by which they enter the C. L. S. C. bears this legend: “We study the Word and the Works of God.” On our holiest altar they read: “Let us keep our Heavenly Father in the midst.” The most fervent appeals which fall from the lips of our leaders are based upon the lofty religious standards which are lifted by the institution. The memorial days, the Sunday vesper hour, the sacred songs, all bear testimony to the religious character of the Circle. There would seem to be no inducement to dishonest souls to knock at our doors, or record their names on our lists.

A fact or two, not widely representative, justifies this word of warning. I am glad to believe that to but few members in the Circle can it be necessary or appropriate. We should all be watchful where temptation is not excluded, and we may as well recall the fact that in the old story from a very old book, there was a lurking serpent in a garden of innocency and delight.

A C. L. S. C. diploma, though radiant with thirty-one seals—shields, stars, octagons—would not stand for much in Heidelberg, Oxford, or Harvard. As an American curiosity it would not attract a moment’s notice, save as thoughtful men might come to measure its real significance. But even then it would be respected, not as conferring honor upon its holder, but as indicating a popular movement in favor of higher education. No wearer of the badge of the “S. H. G.” or of the “Guild of the Seven Seals,” would thereby stand any chance for appointment from any of these institutions, to wear an honorary degree, or take a professor’s chair.

At Chautauqua in the season, and at local circle receptions, and recognitions, the C. L. S. C. badge and diploma are not thus impotent. The color and stamp assign the holder to the place of honor. It is something even to our learned and honored Dr. Eaton to be the first member of the “Guild of the Seven Seals,” and the only member of its highest degree. It is something to be able to linger to the last in the Hall of Philosophy at Chautauqua at the sunset, as the successive societies are requested to remain—“S. H. G.,” “O. W. S.,” “L. R. T.,” and the “G. S. S.” Members of our Circle appreciate the distinction, and it is a distinction with meaning in it, and with genuine pleasure accompanying it. It is something to have a high place in the Chautauqua procession, and to frame a diploma at home with increasing luster as new seals flash out upon it as stars in the evening sky.

But along these lines of promotion lie the perils indicated. The recognition given to the members of the C. L. S. C. graduates and members of its advanced societies may prove a temptation to unguarded souls, and in an evil moment reading may be reported that has not been done, and seals solicited on false representations.

An anonymous note (which none but contemptible people ever write) called my attention to a possibility in a particular case, and a careful investigation was made. The idle boast of a thoughtless woman was reported, and an official examination of her report papers seemed to corroborate the ungracious charge. Later investigations vindicate our member and relieve her from the implied condemnation. But the subject has weighed heavily upon my mind, so that I call the attention of all to a possible peril.

Since the organization of the Circle I have been greatly pleased with the conscientiousness of its members. Many of them were afraid, when we required a report of the time spent each day in reading, that they would not keep an exact account. They were afraid that if they could not recall the contents of the chapter, or book, as students at school would be required to do, that they could not report that chapter or book as thoroughly read. Many persons refused to join the Circle lest they should not be able to complete the four years’ course, believing as they did that members were pledged to such completed work.

While this conscientiousness was gratifying it was excessive, and was based on false views of the aims of the Circle. I have endeavored to correct these views, to modify details of working, and to impress all members with the simple aim of the Circle, to promote the reading of certain books, leaving every person free to decide how superficially or thoroughly the reading should be done.

Our only aim is to promote reading. If we enlist people in the reading of good books on a wide range of subjects we shall at some point strike their taste, and thus promote the culture that comes from the use of one’s faculties in the line of his inclination and opportunity.

This being the modest standard of the Circle, we have a right to expect that every member will honorably discharge his duty, reporting the books he has read and none else, filling out his memoranda (when he undertakes to do it at all) by his own hand, or by dictation, not by proxy, winning the honors he seeks in our Circle by the honesty which will render his recognition a pleasure to himself and a credit to the management.

If any member feels that his conscience would be quieted by re-reading portions of the required books, let him do it.

If any member expects to gain distinction or place among us by unfairness, let him remember that self-contempt is the severest penalty we care to predict.

Let us live honestly.

OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.

OUTLINE OF REQUIRED READINGS FOR MAY.

_First Week_ (ending May 8).—1. “Easy Lessons in Animal Biology,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

2. Sunday Readings for May 3, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Second Week_ (ending May 16).—1. “English as a Universal Language,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

2. Sunday Readings for May 10, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Third Week_ (ending May 23).—1. “Home Studies in Chemistry,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

2. Sunday Readings for May 17, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

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_Fourth Week_ (ending May 31).—1. “The Eyes Busy on Things About Us,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

2. Sunday Readings for May 24 and May 31, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

PROGRAMS FOR LOCAL CIRCLE WORK.

FIRST WEEK IN MAY.—ADDISON’S DAY.

“Give days and nights, sir, to the study of Addison if you mean to be a good writer, and, what is more worth, an honest man.”—_Samuel Johnson._

Music.

1. Roll call—Responses consisting of the name and distinguishing trait of some character in Addison’s writings.

2. A Paper on the Political History of England in Addison’s Time.

3. A Brief Sketch of Addison’s Life and Travels.

Music.

4. Selection—“The Transmigration of Souls—A Letter from a Monkey.”

5. A History of the Newspapers with which Addison was connected.

6. A Paper on two of Addison’s Works—“The Campaign” and “The Tragedy of Cato.”

Music.

7. Selection—“Reflections on the Delights of Spring.”

8. Essay—Addison’s Delineation of Woman’s Character.

Music.

A delightful entertainment for an evening can be given by preparing a banquet at which the guests are to personate the characters introduced in Addison’s “Vision of the Table of Fame.” These characters can be studied from other sources, so that each person may be enabled fittingly to carry on the representation during the time spent at the table.

The “Exercise of the Fan” can be prepared by a little practice so as to afford much amusement.

For books of reference see Thackeray’s “English Humorists,” Aiken’s “Memorials of Addison,” Macaulay’s “Life and Writings of Addison,” and the books on English Literature.

SECOND WEEK IN MAY.

1. Essay—The Aryan Race.

2. A Review Lesson—Questions from Chautauqua Text-Book, No. 5; Greek History.

3. Selection—“Orpheus and Eurydice.” By J. G. Saxe.

4. A Trip on Paper through the Soudan.

Music.

5. Story—“Circe’s Palace.” From Hawthorne’s “Tangle-Wood Tales.”

6. Book Review—“The Life of George Eliot.” By J. W. Cross.

7. A General Talk on the Mohammedan Power of To-day.

8. Question Box.

THIRD WEEK IN MAY.

1. A Paper on the Introduction of Temperance Text-Books into the Public Schools.

2. Selections—“Prometheus” and “Epimetheus.” By Longfellow. [The two read by different members.]

3. Brief Sketches of Literary Women who have assumed Masculine Pseudonyms.

Music.

4. Essay—What is the Oklahoma Boom?

5. A General Talk on the practical Home Use of the Study of Chemistry.

6. A Pronunciation Match—The circle chooses sides, the leader spells the words, and the class pronounces.

7. Critic’s Report.

FOURTH WEEK IN MAY.

1. “Questions and Answers,” in review.

2. Essay—May-day as Observed in Olden Times. [It might be well to suggest that a May-day suitably arranged for modern times would be fully as enjoyable as it used to be.]

3. Recitation—“Phaëton,” by J. G. Saxe. Compare this with “The Story of Phaëton,” by Addison.

4. Map Exercise—Locate all the most important battle fields of Greek history.

Music.

5. A Paper on the Foreign Service of the United States.

6. Essay—What Remains of Greek Art.

7. _Conversazione_—The Wrongs of the Indians as portrayed in Mrs. Jackson’s “Ramona.”

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Knowing there are times and places in which every little helps, we offer a few suggestions for Special Sunday. If they only serve as index fingers, pointing out the way to fields where each can glean for himself much more successfully and satisfactorily than to take what others have gathered, they will accomplish a good purpose. To hopeful, earnest, self-reliant workers with “eyes busy on things about us,” more help is not needed, and perhaps not even this much. In addition to the vesper service prepared, selections, essays or papers, and Bible studies can be very profitably used.

From “The Literature of the Age of Elizabeth,” by William Hazlitt, the part referring to the translation of the Bible is very fine. Also, “Christianity the Great Remedy,” by Robert Charles Winthrop, LL.D. These selections can be found in Allibone’s “Great Authors of All Ages.” In THE CHAUTAUQUAN for January, 1885, “The Inner Chautauqua” is a good reading. In _The Chautauqua Assembly Herald_ for August 9, 1884, “Mrs. Pickett’s Missionary Box” Miss P. J. Walden, 36 Bromfield Street, Boston, will send for three cents “Thanksgiving Ann.” Nothing could be better suited for such a service than selections from Miss Havergal’s writings.

Themes for Essays are: “Personal Culture a Christian Duty.” “How Best can I Help my Neighbor?” “Work in the Home Missionary Field.” “How to Make the Sabbath a Beautiful Day.” Papers can be prepared on Bible customs and manners, Bible lands, and Bible characters. With the aid simply of a Concordance and a Reference Bible, interesting Bible studies on any desired topic can be prepared. Hitchcock’s “Analysis of the Bible” would afford great help in arranging work of this kind.

LOCAL CIRCLES.

C. L. S. C. MOTTOES.

“_We Study the Word and the Works of God._”—“_Let us keep our Heavenly Father in the Midst._”—“_Never be Discouraged._”

C. L. S. C. MEMORIAL DAYS.

1. OPENING DAY—October 1.

2. BRYANT DAY—November 3.

3. SPECIAL SUNDAY—November, second Sunday.

4. MILTON DAY—December 9.

5. COLLEGE DAY—January, last Thursday.

6. SPECIAL SUNDAY—February, second Sunday.

7. FOUNDER’S DAY—February 23.

8. LONGFELLOW DAY—February 27.

9. SHAKSPERE DAY—April 23.

10. ADDISON DAY—May 1.

11. SPECIAL SUNDAY—May, second Sunday.

12. SPECIAL SUNDAY—July, second Sunday.

13. INAUGURATION DAY—August, first Saturday after first Tuesday; anniversary of C. L. S. C. at Chautauqua.

14. ST. PAUL’S DAY—August, second Saturday after first Tuesday; anniversary of the dedication of St. Paul’s Grove at Chautauqua.

15. COMMENCEMENT DAY—August, third Tuesday.

16. GARFIELD DAY—September 19.

The sensible, social way in which the February memorial days were observed has brought to our mind a comment on Madame Mohl and her methods of entertaining, how, “beyond ordering a good and abundant meal, she gave little thought to the mere material details of her entertainments; but she took great pains with the intellectual _menu_. She would give time and thought and personal trouble to provide for each guest intellectually what he would most enjoy, and would carefully consider whether this person would like to meet the other, and to sit next So-and-So. Her great preoccupation was the combining of congenial elements for all in general and particular.” We feel very much as if our circles’ friends have learned Madame Mohl’s wisdom. As if the long desired reform in the methods of social entertainment was beginning in our own C. L. S. C. family. To give entertainments where wit and wisdom and social freedom prevail, where thoughts are more desired than feasts, and music and art take the place of supper tables is, it may be, the Quixote and blue-stocking way to-day—but it is the true social method. Any one who will take a glance with us over the receptions, “socials,” “at homes,” and public meetings which our circles held in February will, we believe, conclude that it certainly is the C. L. S. C. idea of “society,” and of a “good time.” Such delightful programs are rare to find.

Founder’s day is a new and very welcome occasion for observance, and very many circles made it the time of a special or public meeting. Some prepared an extra program, invited a few friends and spent a quiet evening in pleasant, friendly talk and merriment; others prepared a public meeting and strove to celebrate the day by increasing the interest in the work. At FRANKLIN, NEW HAMPSHIRE, the “Webster” C. L. S. C. had charge of a joint meeting. The program they carried out was admirable. Two other Chautauqua societies assisted the “Websters” in the entertainment; the “Pemigewassett” C. L. S. C., and the “Crystal” C. Y. F. R. U.——February 27th was so close in the wake of February 23d that the celebration of the two days was united in several places, with excellent results, too, we should judge. At MILFORD, MASS., such a union meeting was held. The circle numbers twenty-eight, and as each member was allowed to invite one guest it made a goodly company. Vine wreathed portraits of the two heroes of the evening decorated the tables of the parlor where the circle met, and the program, divided into two portions, one devoted to Chancellor Vincent, the other to Longfellow, was happily arranged. We are glad that they have found out Lowell’s tribute to Longfellow; it makes a very appropriate number.——At FOXBORO, MASS., the “Star” circle quite distinguished itself by its celebration of Founder’s day. There were present several out-of-town circles, among them those from Franklin, Medfield, and Mansfield. In the notice which a local paper gave of this affair, we find some comments which are particularly encouraging: “Many have expressed their great delight at the manner in which the whole entertainment was carried out, which shows that these seasons are becoming more and more popular. Says a lady somewhere in the fifties, ‘How I wish there had been such an organization when I was young. My advantages for gaining an education were limited. If my memory was not so poor I should be tempted to join, even at this late day.’ Another says: ‘I have enjoyed the whole program very much, and have got a better idea of the work of the Circle from this evening’s entertainment than from any other source.’ Still another: ‘I enjoyed the whole of it very much indeed. The program was nicely carried out,’ and asks ‘Why don’t the circle give such entertainments oftener, so that people can better understand the object of this organization?’ Says a gentleman, a graduate of one of the higher schools, ‘I enjoyed it immensely. The exercises from the commencement to the close were very interesting.’ Another, ‘It carried me back to school-days and spelling schools, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, supper included.’”——At PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, the plan of the Milford circle was followed by the “Milton” circle. A paper on “The Chautauqua Movement” was one feature of the evening. It seems to have been an evening of practical work as well as pleasure, for good results are promised us as an outcome of the meeting. The “Miltons” now number twenty-two, an increase of seven over last year. Indeed, we can hardly see how a meeting at all suitable for Founder’s day could do anything else but convert people. It would necessarily be brimming over with such sparkling ideas, such enticing plans, that the fortunate guests at such an entertainment would very naturally want to join the company.——Another circle, that at NORTHFIELD, OHIO, adopted this theory, and combined the two memorial days, making their celebration a public meeting, to which about sixty guests were invited. The program was very skillfully arranged, including some excellent subjects for essays. The Northfield circle was organized last year by ten “Pansies,” and has been recruited this year by two of the class of ’88. A good idea of their program is that they begin each evening’s work with the vesper service. The “quiz” is a prominent feature of the evening, and as “discussion” sends them home alert, interested, and sorry that the evening is over. A discussion on a live subject, we would whisper to leaders, is one of the best methods of making your circle sorry that it is time to stop, a result which is the best possible proof of an enjoyable evening.——At SILVER CREEK, NEW YORK, Founder’s day was celebrated with much enthusiasm by the circle; an excellent program of the evening was prepared and published, the week previous, in the local paper. The program was divided into three parts—the first consisting of Chautauqua songs, mottoes, selections from Founder’s writings or sayings, a sketch of his life, and appropriate recitations; then a _petit souper_, and, on the principle, perhaps, that the best should come last, part third consisted of the reading of a letter from the Founder himself, sent in reply to a request from the circle for only a few words, and of a poem from the poetess of the class of 1886, Mrs. Cleveland.——The three Chautauqua circles of NEW ALBANY, INDIANA, have now about seventy-five members, and all memorial days are observed by them jointly. Among the several pleasant meetings of the year, none have been so successful as Founder’s day. On the program of exercises we notice that roll call was responded to by giving quotations on the “Companionship of Books.” These were collected and printed in a local paper for preservation in the circle’s scrap books. Prof. R. A. Ogg, of the class of ’84, presented “The Founder and his Chautauqua Idea” in his happiest manner. “The Founder at Chautauqua” was vividly pictured by Rev. W. S. Austin, secretary of the class of ’86. Every Chautauquan present left this memorial meeting with the expression upon his lips, “The best of all our union meetings,” and the public were loud in their praises of it.——The _sixth_ circle of MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, young, enthusiastic ’88s, all ladies, and hard at work for their own improvement and for the advancement of their circle, make a right jubilant report of the pleasant time they had with their friends of the “Beta” circle on Founder’s day. They held their meeting in the afternoon, and carried out the program very nearly as THE CHAUTAUQUAN prescribed. “To some of us,” a member writes, “our second _alma mater_ bids fair to become even dearer than the one of earlier remembrance.”——Right in tune with this glad greeting is a message which comes from the circle at INDIANOLA, IOWA, another circle that celebrated Founder’s day. “We have received so many helpful hints and useful suggestions through your local circle column, that we take courage to say: ‘May the Chautauqua work we love so well go on until it spreads from east to west, from north to south.’” Our Indianola friends were organized six years ago. Two of their number were members of the first graduating class. A method of leadership, which we believe to be very effective in a small circle, is pursued by them. It is that each member take turns in the leadership of the circle.

The 27th of February is the memorial day most universally celebrated, and this because, perhaps, our memories of Longfellow are so peculiarly near and tender. This season the memorial services celebrated by the C. L. S. C. were particularly prominent. To begin “at home,” the “Willis” circle of PORTLAND, ME., gave a charming entertainment. From a Portland paper we clip the following description: “The exercises were conducted in a very unique and pleasing manner. One of the double parlors was filled with about fifty invited guests, while the other, being fitted up in representation of the Wayside Inn, was occupied by members of the circle, each one representing in costume some one of Longfellow’s characters. Each of the participants in the exercises was introduced with appropriate selections by ‘John Alden,’ while by his side sat ‘Priscilla, the Puritan maiden.’ Other characters represented were the ‘Landlord and Daughter,’ ‘Evangeline,’ ‘Rabbi Ben Levi,’ ‘Astred, the Abbess,’ ‘Precissa, the Gipsy,’ ‘Spanish Lady,’ ‘Hiawatha,’ ‘Minnehaha,’ ‘Young Musician,’ ‘Paul Revere,’ ‘Theodore,’ and ‘Lady Wentworth.’ On the whole, the entertainment was decidedly a novel affair and will be long remembered by the members of the circle and their many friends.” This “Willis” circle was organized last September, and numbers eighteen members. They are blessed with the best of recommendations. They declare that willingness and good nature are their prominent characteristics. Certainly, with plenty of the sunlight and fresh air of society theirs, it is not strange that they “look forward from one meeting to the next, anticipating much pleasure and profit.” The “Dorionic” circle of BIDDEFORD, MAINE, laid aside its studies for one evening and held special exercises in honor of Longfellow. This circle has been doing exceptionally thorough work in chemistry this winter. A full course of lectures on the subject has been delivered in connection with the study of the text-book on chemistry.——One of the most novel programs with which we have been favored is from RICHMOND, ME. The “Merry Meeting” circle send it. A gay Japanese napkin, on which the title page, the committees and the exercises all find place. As in several of the programs, we find that tableaux take a prominent position. No better interpretation of striking scenes is possible than by _tableaux vivants_, and a strictly literary program can be readily enlivened by a well selected scene.——The Longfellow memorial day was especially and appropriately observed at OLD TOWN. The pleasant and commodious vestry of the Congregational Church was filled with the members and invited guests to the number of a hundred or more. The program—an excellent one—contained beside its essays, readings and music, extracts with tableaux from “Evangeline,” “Miles Standish” and “Excelsior.” The “Old Town” circle is one of our new friends, having been organized last October; young yet, but vigorous, for it numbers already thirty-five members.——At CASTLETON, VERMONT, the “Lone Pine” circle is doing very thorough work, and rejoicing in a good organization. Their Longfellow memorial program was very complete; though they have but fourteen members, they seemed to have no difficulty in securing the music, essays and readings for a full program. The closing feature of the evening was an informal _conversazione_ over their ice cream and cake, on Longfellow. With such an entertaining “something to talk about” the circle must have gone home full of ideas and happy thoughts.——A very energetic effort was made recently by the “Berkeley” circle, of BOSTON, MASS., to bring the Chautauquans of Boston and vicinity into more intimate relations. A union meeting was the means chosen, and Longfellow’s day was the time. Fifteen circles in all participated in the exercises; among them were: “Phillips,” of South Boston; “Hurlbut,” of East Boston; “People’s Church,” of Boston; “Parker Hill,” of Roxbury; “Floral Society,” of Tremont Temple; “Longfellow,” of Cambridge; “Pericles,” of Brighton; “Clark,” of Jamaica Plain; “Sherwin,” of Dorchester; “Henry M. King,” of Roxbury; “The Pilgrims,” of Dorchester; “Bromfield Street Church,” of Boston; “Berkeley,” of Boston. About fifty persons were present. Letters were received from the Rev. B. P. Snow, the president of the class of ’86, and Prof. W. F. Sherwin, who were unable to attend. This brave effort to strengthen the bonds of fellow-feeling will not be fruitless, we are sure. “Berkeley” circle, in undertaking such a reunion, has instituted one of the most practical and useful ways of increasing the breadth and strength of the C. L. S. C. It is to be hoped that it will be made an annual feature of the Chautauqua work of Boston.——The “Mount Hope” circle, of BRISTOL, R. I. believes in the liberal use of printer’s ink. Accordingly, all of their meetings have been reported in one or both of the papers most widely circulated in the town. Three of the reviews which have been read before the circle this year have been printed, and an essay read at their recent Longfellow memorial also appeared. This “Memorial” was an unusually pleasant affair.——The circle at GOUVERNEUR, N. Y., is the outgrowth of Mr. Hurlbut’s teachings at Thousand Islands Park, one year ago last summer. It has been successful beyond the hope of its organizers. At present its membership is about twenty-five, and these are all hard workers. Some two hundred of the circle’s friends met with them on February 27th to celebrate the day. There was music, recitations in costume, and an essay on a splendid subject—“Acadia”—and finally, a pleasant hour of social life. This circle at Gouverneur has done great good in the community and the members seem to grow more enthusiastic the longer their connection with the circle lasts. Two features of their meetings which they find very interesting are the review contest and conversation on a certain given subject.——A flourishing C. L. S. C. exists at AMSTERDAM, N. Y. It is composed of forty members—double the number of last year. The circle recently celebrated Longfellow’s memorial day in a pleasant manner. The program consisted of an essay on the poet and his works; music, songs and readings, selected from Longfellow; “The Black Knight” and “Nun of Nidaros” were read and illustrated by tableaux. The program closed with a series of tableaux, taken from “Evangeline,” portions of which were read.——The “Courtship of Miles Standish” was dramatized for Longfellow’s day by the circle at JOHNSTOWN, N. Y., and with music and a few additional numbers, made a very interesting program. This is the first memorial day observed by the circle, and it brought together many old Chautauquans, who professed themselves highly pleased with the vigor of the circle. We hope that if any of these “old Chautauquans” are not lending to the vigor of the circle, they will hasten after this happy evening to renew their allegiance.——The program of a literary and musical entertainment given on this chosen day by the circle at EAST NORWICH, N. Y., has reached our table, in company with a genial letter about the C. L. S. C. life of that town. “We have been sarcastically spoken of,” our friend writes, “as that _great_ Chautauqua Circle, and no doubt we have rather bored the people by our enthusiasm. Hawthorne compared religion to a painted window in a cathedral; seen from the outside it is not admirable, and one wonders that they can be so much praised; for it must be viewed from the inside to see its full beauty. The C. L. S. C., it seems to me, could be fittingly compared to the same thing. You see, I know, for it is not very long since I was outside myself. Our entertainment was a great success. We have considerable talent in our circle, both elocutionary and musical.”——Another delightful entertainment was the social given by the “Alyssum” to the “Argonaut” circle, of BUFFALO, N. Y. The program was brightened by an excellent variety of tableaux, refreshments were bountifully served, and the delighted guests departed after a hearty vote of appreciation of the pleasant evening with Longfellow.——The program carried out by the “Allegheny” circle of PITTSBURGH was characteristic of the circle—that is, very good. This circle always does something good.——The “Pansy” circle, of CHESTER, PA., observed the “Longfellow Memorial” in a very appropriate and spirited manner, by a program which included the singing of Chautauqua songs, sketches and recitations. A pretty feature was the reading of “The Nun of Nidaros,” with organ accompaniment and tableaux. The greater portion of “The Courtship of Miles Standish,” with numerous tableaux, was given. The evening’s program ended with choruses from the songs. This “Pansy” circle was organized last October and its membership is divided between “Pansies” and “Plymouth Rocks.”——Another Pennsylvania circle formed last fall is the “Longfellow,” of PHILADELPHIA. The circle is made up of eight members. Their regular order of exercises is capitally arranged to cover all points of the readings. They invited the “Sappho” circle to join with them in commemorating Longfellow’s day, the members of both circles to take equal part in the entertainment. They spent such a very pleasant and profitable evening, that it has been decided to keep all the memorial days in the same manner.——In a recent letter from a WASHINGTON, D. C., friend, we find the following interesting points about one of the circles of that city: “The weekly meetings of ‘Parker C. L. S. C.’ during the past winter have been, for the most part, very interesting. The annual celebration of Longfellow’s day was no exception. An appropriate program was carried out, one of the best features of which was the account of the poet’s life. The whole time was divided into periods and assigned to different members. After the exercises, Mr. Lowe, Engineer U. S. N., at whose home the circle met, kindly gave a most interesting and instructive account of the Greely Relief Expedition, by previous request, he having been one of those brave rescuers. He was listened to with attention, and the scenes he pictured were rendered more vivid by the exhibition of various articles of fur clothing worn in that region, by photographs of the relief ships, natives, etc., and also by some of the identical food upon which Greely’s party were subsisting when found.”——The “Crescent” circle, organized at FREMONT, IND., three years ago, would like to extend greeting to their many fellow students, and claim a place in the great family of workers who are reading the same books and thinking the same thoughts. The circle is not large, but has abundant hope and ambition to make the work enjoyable. Every meeting is a treat to them, they say. They, too, observed Longfellow’s day and carried out an excellent program, in which some of the “little folks” carried off high honors for their share in tableaux and charades.——At HAMPSHIRE, ILL., the most interesting memorial service of the year was that celebrated on Longfellow’s day. A large audience collected to listen to the exercises and went away seemingly well satisfied with the ability of Chautauquans to furnish an evening which should be both literary and social. This circle is doing good work in Hampshire. The members are more active than ever, and there is a prospect of an increase in numbers.——Another delightful parlor entertainment was that at ELK HORN, WISCONSIN. The circle, bubbling over with C. L. S. C. devotion, mingled an occasional purely Chautauqua subject with the _Longfellowana_, not at all to the detriment of the program, so we think. At the close of the literary exercises, the guests, numbering about forty, were invited to a lunch, in quality and quantity “fit for a king.” Then came the “good-nights,” and each guest left with the wish that C. L. S. C. might long continue to flourish, and that such evenings might be in the ascendant among the diversions of the town.——A dainty invitation has come to us to be present at the Longfellow memorial exercises and social reunion held March 2, at the Grand Avenue Congregational Church in MILWAUKEE, WIS. The program which accompanied it has an essay subject which we hope our friends will tuck away in their memories for next year’s use. It is “The Women of Longfellow’s Writings.”——A houseful of Chautauquans and their friends gathered on the evening of Longfellow’s day at one of the delightful homes of MARSHALLTOWN, IOWA. The “Vincent” and “Alden” circles held a joint meeting which was a source of great pleasure to both the Chautauquans and guests present. The social notes of the local paper of Marshalltown contain a very complimentary reference to this pleasant affair.——Along with the notice of a Longfellow dinner given by the secretary of the circle at MAPLE HILL, KANSAS, comes a sparkling letter of the birth and growth of that same circle. Perhaps it will be more suggestive than even the pleasant exercises of the dinner would be. Our correspondent writes: “It would be too long a story to tell of the first infection of the secretary of this circle by visiting a _live_ Chautauquan in Topeka during the fall of 1883. Enough to say, she ‘caught’ the fever, as the diagnosis plainly showed. The first pronounced symptom, enthusiasm, was increased by the purchase of Pansy’s ‘Hall in the Grove,’ and finally culminated in the Chautauqua brain fever. She went home and showed a ‘method in her madness’ by inoculating her friends through the loan of that same ‘Hall in the Grove,’ and she was delighted to see the usual symptoms develop in due course of time. This same secretary was dubbed the ‘She-Talker’ by her friends, but all to no purpose, so far as discouragements go, for she had the satisfaction of forming a class in November of 1883, consisting of four members. Now be it known, Maple Hill is a sparsely settled farming town, made up mostly of large farms and ranches, and this makes it the more difficult to carry on such an enterprise. We, however, read on during the winter, but were disappointed when the fall of 1884 came round, to find that one of our most enthusiastic members had ‘taken a school’ some twelve miles away, and would have to read on alone, ‘probably,’ but before our first month had passed we had taken five new names, and had adopted two honorary members, who, although they were fully in sympathy with the movement, could not this year take up the regular line of work. So we number eight regular members, making a class of ten. It would make my letter too long to tell of all our work. Our readings have been not only profitable, but exceeding pleasant this ‘long and dreary winter,’ and this united class of ’87-88 extend the right hand of fellowship to their comrades all over our goodly land.”——At CHANUTE, KANSAS, the memorial service was equally pleasant. The circle there is composed of seventeen members, and they all contributed their best to make the program bright and taking. The success which attended their efforts is peculiarly gratifying, when we remember that for all save one of the members this is the first year of C. L. S. C. work.——Longfellow’s day was appropriately observed at CLINTON, MISSOURI, by the “Excelsior” circle, with a program modeled on that published in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. This circle, organized with four members, now numbers nineteen, all ladies. There is a growing interest in the work at CLINTON which insures future prosperity and increase of strength.——“Out among the Rockies,” at BOULDER, COLORADO, Longfellow’s day was appropriately observed by the circle. The meeting was made doubly pleasant by the fact that February 27th is the birthday of the hostess of the occasion.——“Central” circle of SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, has never yet been reported to THE CHAUTAUQUAN. It was organized in 1883, and reorganized in 1884, with a membership of twenty-three, fourteen of whom belong to the “Plymouth Rocks,” ’88. Their plan of work is to have a special leader for each study, and a paper or select reading has a place in nearly every program. Longfellow’s day was observed in a pleasing manner. In addition to a biography of the poet, each chapter of which was written by a different member, “The Bridge,” and “The Day is Done” were sung, and “The Builders” given as a recitation. At roll call responses were given from Longfellow’s most beautiful thoughts. A good degree of interest is manifested, and young and old find places in their ranks. Two of the members expect to graduate this year, but, writes one of them, “I shall be none the less a ‘Chautauquan,’ for that I intend to be through life.”

A large number of new circles are reported this month, with a few which, though organized for some time, have never be fore reported to us. At AUGUSTA, MAINE, a circle of fourteen members was formed in October last. The circle has been so interesting that the numbers usually swell beyond the actual fourteen—a good sign of the manner in which the circle conducts its meetings. They have observed the memorial days, and send us an excellent program of the Longfellow exercises. One of the numbers on this occasion was an original poem—from the pen of a “Pansy,” we suspect—one stanza of which we quote:

“Take whatever God sends, As the blossoming pansies do; He clothes them with royal grace; Shall he not take thought for you? Trust—for the trustful heart Knoweth the tenderest leading, Knoweth how certainly God Our need and our craving is heeding.”

The “Garfield” circle, at LEWISTON, MAINE, a new circle of seven members, gives us a delightful glimpse of their C. L. S. C. hour: “Our president is a dressmaker, and ‘we girls,’ or at least four of us, work for her. We have reading in the shop nearly every day, forty minutes or more, and then talk of what we read. Almost a Socratic school in a dressmaker’s shop! Friday evening of each week the shop takes on another look. The work is put away, the table drawn out, the bright cloth laid, the lamps trimmed and burning; the members take their seats and place at the ‘table square,’ and for two or three hours we spend a refreshing and enjoyable evening. We find the programs in THE CHAUTAUQUAN very useful, but always have to add to and rearrange the parts, for we all want to do something for the next meeting. Arrangements were made by the presidents of the ‘Garfield’ and ‘Scott’ circles to have a union meeting on Longfellow day. We spent a delightful evening. The work was divided between the two circles, and we all felt much benefited by the meeting. We heartily recommend the occasional union meeting.”

There are over twenty-one regular members in the “Alpha” circle of MELROSE, MASS., though it was started only last October, and any amount of enterprise. The secretary writes many appreciating words of the C. L. S. C.: “This is my fourth year,” she says, “but I can echo the sentiment expressed by some one in the last CHAUTAUQUAN—‘Once a Chautauquan, always a Chautauquan’—and rejoice to think that it is by no means my last year. I hope to send you annual greetings from our circle, for we anticipate a future for it.”——A share of the honor which is bestowed upon the circles of ’88 certainly belongs to the “Hestia” circle, of LEOMINSTER, MASS. Their motto, _Festina lente_, they are faithfully carrying out. In addition to the Chautauqua course, they are taking a systematic course in botany, which they expect to enjoy very much this coming summer. One of their number is a zealous student in botany and chemistry, and is a great help to them in these branches, performing all the experiments, and explaining the difficult points.

The “Gardner” circle was organized in PASCOAG, R. I., last November, with a membership of seven, which rapidly grew to its present number of twenty-two, all, with the exception of two, “Pansies,” of the class of ’88. The circle was named in honor of Mr. E. P. Gardner, of Norwich, Conn., to whose inspiring words it owes its formation. The interest of the members is steadily increasing, and although few of the number are persons of leisure, yet the earnest work accomplished by this circle, we are confident, would cheer the hearts of those who love the C. L. S. C.

A second circle in PLAINFIELD, N. J., has met with a cordial recommendation from Dr. Hurlbut. There is no lack of enthusiasm in the new circle. The members are thoroughly pleased by the readings, and give a hearty support to the work, writing many interesting papers. At a recent meeting it was decided that the circle be hereafter known as the “Hurlbut” circle, in recognition of the assistance which has been received by them from the able C. L. S. C. worker, the Rev. J. L. Hurlbut.——At PHILADELPHIA, PA., so a note informs us, the “Arcadia” circle was organized in February, with a membership of five, and a promise of gathering in more.——On February 16th, through the efforts of Mrs. Dr. Seeley, a circle of the C. L. S. C. was organized at JEFFERSON, OHIO, which at present numbers thirteen members. It is the first circle organized in the place, although two of the members are graduates of ’82.——The C. L. S. C. of ELLSWORTH, OHIO, has never before been noticed in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. A circle of seven members was organized there more than a year ago. Each made an effort to enlarge the circle this year, but succeeded in obtaining but one new member. It is a country place, and the members are scattered, but meet occasionally; although they can not meet often they are busy workers.

This little note from IOWA explains itself: “We are glad to announce an organized local circle in IOWA CITY, of eleven members. At our first meeting we received an invitation from the Nineteenth Century Club, to attend a lecture given by the president of the State University. Subject: ‘Our National Constitution.’ We are all enthusiastic over the C. L. S. C., are working now for a large membership to begin fall work in time.”——At HOPKINTON a circle was formed last October of fourteen members. A bright, interested circle it is, too, quite up to the times in the variety and quality of its fortnightly exercises. The special days afford much pleasure to the circle. College day was spent in a half day’s visit to their flourishing local college, Lenox.

At the confluence of the Vermillion and Missouri rivers in the town of VERMILLION, DAKOTA TERRITORY, a new circle came to life in November last. The circle has an active membership of twelve, consisting of lawyers, teachers, printers, university students, milliners, business men and their wives. Among the special features of the circle may be mentioned that of thorough interest in the readings; special effort to acquire accuracy in pronunciation; the utmost freedom in conversing about, and discussing questions that incidentally arise during the evening’s reading; essays on the important facts of the subjects considered; and the roll call, the responses thereto being made by reciting mottoes, wise sayings, proverbs, quotations from the poets, brief descriptions of foreign countries (the assignments for this exercise having been made at a previous meeting). At its next meeting the responses will consist of three minute biographical sketches of eminent American statesmen.——Still another new circle sends greetings from the heart of the Rockies. A class of three has been formed at GUNNISON, COLORADO, and neither the small number nor their far-away home dampens their ardor. They are “greatly interested, and feel a thousand times repaid.”

Several of our senior friends from NEW YORK have come in with how-do-you-dos and cheerful news this month. The C. L. S. C. readers in the “Flower City” (ROCHESTER) have not been idle during the past months, and although, like most Chautauquans, they are busy men and women—teachers, professional and business men, housekeepers and students—still they find time to keep abreast with the prescribed reading, and do not fail to attend the meetings of the circle. The circle is known as a section of the Rochester Academy of Science. By affiliating with this body they secure an excellent hall for a place of meeting, as well as increased dignity and importance, and frequently members of other sections are attracted to their meetings as interested spectators. Their circle was reorganized early in the fall, starting off with nearly twice as many members as last year. They hold meetings twice a month, and the interest and attendance are constantly increasing. The leaders in the Academy of Science, at first somewhat adverse to connection with them, are only too glad now to welcome the circle in their monthly meetings, and the vice president of the circle is now the corresponding secretary of the Academy. There are about fifty active members, and many others are quietly pursuing the course of reading. In character they are quite cosmopolitan, representing extremes in age and character, as well as every C. L. S. C. class, from that of ’82 to that of ’88. The president is an old Chautauquan, and although an active business man, never misses a meeting; other leading members are quite as punctual in their attendance.——At ANDOVER the circle of nine is steadily working away, and with good results, too, for their work has brought this experience: “We all agree that the C. L. S. C. has brought a blessing and inspiration into our lives, and we give to all its projects our undivided and unswerving loyalty.”——At SOUTH LANSING the C. L. S. C. has lost one of its most devoted workers. Miss Emma Morrison, a member of the class of ’84, died at her home October 21, 1884.——Another bereaved circle is that of OLEAN. Nelson F. Butler, a warm admirer of the Chautauqua work, and a leader in the “Philomathic” circle, was taken from them February 20, 1885.——“Les Huguenots,” of NEW PALTZ, N. Y., was organized in 1883, since which time the circle has increased from fifteen to twenty-seven. The programs, prepared two weeks in advance, are very bright and interesting. The circle is faithful, and work promises well for the future.——Some excellent suggestions, and aptly called too, come from WEBSTER’S CORNERS, N. Y., where the “Iota” class of Orchard Park entered upon its second year’s work last October. It is at present composed of fourteen earnest members, the classes of ’84, ’86, ’87 and ’88 being represented. The aim of the class has been to make its meetings as informal as possible, and this year it has succeeded. Among their exercises are roll call, responded to by quotations or facts, talks on some given topic, select readings, pronouncing contests, and the question box. To vary the program a “basket of facts” is sometimes substituted for the usual question box. Sometimes they have conundrums on Greek History. One feature of a recent program which gave an excellent drill, besides affording much amusement, was a Greek memory test, consisting of twelve facts from Greek History. At first the leader gives but one fact, the class repeating it. As each additional fact is given, the ones previously given are repeated in reverse order. For instance, after the twelfth is given, all are repeated in this order—12th, 11th, 10th, 9th, … 2d, 1st. They have also had “An Historical Lingo,” commencing about 900 B. C., and giving prominent facts in Greek History down to the year 145 B. C., when the Romans controlled Greece.

Several PENNSYLVANIA items are at hand, too. The “Emanon” circle, of WEST PHILADELPHIA, now in its second year, is meeting with good success. The members of this circle have been delighted with the studies ever since the organization—no one regrets, they say, having joined the circle. While actively engaged in the literary, historical, and other studies, they pay more attention to the scientific studies, probably because they have more advantages in that direction. The circle has access to a very fine microscope, and is one of the circles to whom Mr. Hall, of Jamestown, N. Y., sends slides with instructions regarding them, and the preparation of the same. Again, they have a good outfit of chemicals and chemical appliances for experimenting in chemistry; also the use of stereopticon views, to illustrate some studies. And while thus well equipped in various instruments and appliances to help in their studies, it should be added that they are largely—indeed, altogether—indebted to their instructor, Mr. John S. Rodgers, for the explanation of these branches of study.——At LOCK HAVEN the circle has been enjoying a good winter, and prominent in their work has been chemistry, many experiments having been performed for them by an interested friend.——At the Y. M. C. A. parlors of HARRISBURG a meeting was held on March 20th, the program of which we have received. It has some very pleasant features.

An excellent method of work has been adopted at BAYONNE CITY, NEW JERSEY. Each member makes a specialty of some subject in the course, and is prepared to furnish an article on the subject at any meeting when called upon, and also to answer any questions on that subject from the question box. The “Pamrapo” circle has ten members and one officer, a president—they do, however, have an extra official, a journalist, who is appointed at each meeting.

As enjoyable a C. L. S. C. banquet as we have heard of this year was that held in AKRON, OHIO. The circle entertained its friends royally on this occasion, some one hundred of whom were seated at the supper table. A happy surprise of the affair was an unexpected visit from Chancellor Vincent, who responded to the toast, “Chautauqua.” A fine speech was made by President Lewis Miller. “This is an age of quick things,” he said, giving an apt illustration of his remark by referring to his telephone talk with Dr. Vincent, at Cleveland, forty miles away, but for which conversation, voice to voice, Dr. Vincent would not have been the guest of the Akron C. L. S. C. Because one could talk with Pittsburgh by telegraph—by the quick medium which was the product of this latter day—did not obviate the necessity for the longer or slower trip by rail, requiring hours. In fact, the telegram might be only a preliminary to the trip by car. As this is an age of quick things, so it is an age of condensed things. The student sweeps over 1,000 years of history—of great events—in the story of an hour. This is the work of the C. L. S. C. It takes these broad, quick views of the great events in the world’s life. And because the C. L. S. C. student makes this general survey, we are not to infer that he is content with that. It is the hour’s study in the history of the Roman empire that precedes the trip to Rome.

“Though we are so late in reporting the existence of our little circle, known as the ‘Philomaths,’ of ACKLEY, IOWA, we are confident that none other has been carrying on the season’s work with more enthusiasm than our own. September 19, 1884, we organized with an enrollment of ten; since that time the number has increased to fourteen—all ‘Plymouth Rocks.’ Each member leads a busy life, yet we meet each Friday evening, and are convinced that we can not spend our few spare minutes more profitably than in following the C. L. S. C. readings. Our programs, prepared by an efficient board of three members, are based on the proposed programs of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, and are published each week in the town papers. The quotations selected as responses are brought into the circle on uniform slips of paper and are preserved in a ‘Mark Twain Scrap Book.’ In course of time we shall possess a very choice collection of ‘gems.’ Bryant and Milton days were observed in their turn, as was also a Burns day. We are all delighted with the work, and our only regret is that the wave reached us no sooner.”——“We have organized in our village—BLANCHARD—a local circle of the class of ’87, of eleven members. This year we have nineteen members, one being a lady seventy-four years old, a graduate of the class of ’82. We hold our meetings weekly, members answering by quotations. We pursued THE CHAUTAUQUAN plan of questions and answers last year very successfully, and are proceeding in the same way this, although our programs vary according to the option of the leader. We usually have written questions on the readings in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. The work has proven pleasant and profitable.”——Another IOWA circle from which we are very glad to hear is that of GRUNDY CENTER. They had the misfortune to have their goodly membership of fifteen of last year dwindled down to five when they started last fall, but their enthusiasm was too much for discouragement. They have “caught up” again, and now are a democratic assembly composed of three ministers, Methodist, Baptist and Presbyterian, and their wives, one doctor, four lawyers, an editor, and two school teachers, a banker’s wife, two merchants’ wives, a county officer and two farmers.

It is a matter of congratulation that the CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE, branch has joined the “local circles.” The cheery letter giving their past history is a guarantee that we will get the lines from them giving accounts of their future progress which they promise to send from time to time: “We have a very active little circle in Chattanooga, and think we have accomplished a fair amount of work in a short time, and under somewhat adverse circumstances. In the latter part of March, 1883, seven of us met and organized a class. We hoped and expected to increase our numbers in a short time, but resolved to pursue the course of reading and cling together, whether successful or unsuccessful in our efforts to induce others to do likewise. A month passed before we got fairly to work, the Chautauqua term being then two thirds gone. We preferred, however, doing double work and studying during the summer months to waiting until the following October to commence. We completed the first year’s reading in December, and were ready to begin the third year the first of last October. Our meetings are intensely interesting, for we are all in love with the course, and intend to finish it. Our silence respecting our circle and its work is attributable to the fact of our work and the jealous economy of every moment of time. We hope, however, to forward an account of our progress from time to time.”

“We can not do without the Chautauqua movement here,” so writes the secretary of the circle at KAHOKA, MISSOURI. The class of workers there is large, including twenty-two regular members, beside many local ones. They are studious and regular, and as a result interested. Last year this circle held an open session in June, which was very successful, and they are looking forward hopefully to the next one.

The _personnel_ of the circle at COLUMBUS, NEBRASKA, is very striking, and, we think, decidedly an advantage. Here is what the secretary says: “One farmer, one teacher (our pioneer, all honor to her), one book-keeper, and two housewives. We are also decidedly cosmopolitan; one hailing from Switzerland, another from Alsace, one from Nova Scotia, and two from Ohio. One Nihilist, four woman suffragists (the ladies included), four prohibitionists, but all enthusiastic Chautauquans. What we lack in quantity we make up in quality, versatility and power. Our Longfellow anniversary was a right pleasant affair, and instructive withal. ‘Ah, that’s the way you literary people entertain yourselves!’ exclaimed one aged visitor. Our town is not a ‘literary’ one, by any means. Saloons, skating rinks and ball rooms seem to crush all upward tendencies. It is evident that a mingling of people from the four quarters of the globe has a depressing effect on public morals here.”

At SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, much more interest is taken in the Chautauqua readings this year than ever before. The circle has regularly observed memorial days. It meets every Tuesday evening. The roll call, responded to by quotations from different authors, is always profitable and entertaining. The Rev. T. C. Iliff, pastor of the Methodist Church, is the president. He is an enthusiastic leader, and frequently entertains them with accounts of his travels in many of the places mentioned in the Greek studies. In its platform the circle is broadly Chautauquan, four churches being represented. A class in the “Spare-Minute Course” has lately been organized in Salt Lake City, composed mostly of pupils from the various schools in the city. Excellent work is being done.

We are heartily glad that our loyal Chautauqua worker, Mr. Burnell, brought out the SEATTLE friends who were consenting to hide their light under a bushel. Here is a second come forward to vindicate Seattle’s C. L. S. C. honor. However, it must be said, in order to in turn vindicate Mr. Burnell, that his work on his western tour was evangelistic, that his efforts to aid the C. L. S. C. was an extra labor of love, done because his heart was so warm toward Chautauqua, so zealous for her welfare that he was glad to use any effort to extend her usefulness. He was in Seattle only a few hours and was driven with work all the time. It is not strange that he did not find the workers which now come so valiantly to the front. As we said before, we are glad Mr. Burnell has “brought them out.” And here is the second vindication. It contains much excellent news about the work in that section: “The article from K. A. Burnell is entirely behind the times. Three active circles are in Seattle, with an average attendance of forty in all. The University of Washington has just arranged a series of twelve lectures, six on ‘Chemistry,’ and six on the ‘Greek College Course.’ Professor G. O. Curme, Professor of Greek, Latin and German, is an earnest worker and enthusiastic lecturer on Greek history and literature, and four of the professors are actively engaged in the course. An executive committee of five from each circle, and two from the university faculty, have organized to hold a Chautauqua Assembly on Puget Sound the coming summer, and the teachers of the public schools are in full sympathy with the movement. The first public movement in the Chautauqua course known to me was the formation of a literary society for the study of American authors, in the Seattle Baptist Church, September, 1883, at which THE CHAUTAUQUAN was regularly read for one year. This society resolved itself into a Chautauqua circle the first of September, 1884, and engaged Prof. G. O. Curme, Prof. C. B. Johnson and J. C. Sundberg, M. D., to lecture before its members. Other circles were formed, and a general society centered in the university, resulting in the present combination, as above stated. I think there will be twenty circles in Puget Sound next year.”

THE C. L. S. C. CLASSES.

CLASS OF 1885.—“THE INVINCIBLES.”

“_Press on, reaching after those things which are before._”

OFFICERS.

_President_—J. B. Underwood, Meriden, Conn.

_Vice President_—C. M. Nichols, Springfield, Ohio.

_Treasurer_—Miss Carrie Hart, Aurora, Ind.

_Secretary_—Miss M. M. Canfield, Washington, D. C.

_Executive Committee_—Officers of the class.

Class badges may be procured of either President or Treasurer.

The thousands of men and women who belong to the Chautauqua Class of 1885 are beginning, we think, to feel the pressure of the responsibility of their position—which is something more than that which has rested upon the shoulders of their honored predecessors; that the expectations of the Chautauqua public are becoming higher, year by year; that what was equal to the great occasion in former years will not meet the hopes that will be entertained by the masses of people who will be gathered on the grounds this year. The readings must not only be faithfully and intelligently completed, so that the diplomas may be earned and received, but it should be the purpose of every member to answer, entire, the list of questions submitted, and answer them correctly. And an organized attempt should be made to secure the attendance of all members of the class who can possibly be present on Commencement day. We should have a larger class present in front of the Golden Gate than has ever appeared in that conspicuous place. Members should commence their preparations at once, and so arrange matters as to enable them to do their part in swelling the ranks of a class which is to honor itself by the work of the year, and by the demonstration of strength and spirit which shall bring it to the front at the supreme hour!

For Chautauqua is growing! And its career is onward, and upward, and outward! It has planted itself in hundreds of cities and villages throughout the land, and in some other lands, and in thousands of social circles it has shown an influence and potency that is not only wholesome, but inspiring and wonderful. Well may the class of 1885 sing in behalf of the whole fraternity:

“No pent-up Utica contracts our powers; The whole boundless continent is ours!”

And the whole world, too! For Chautauqua is not only reaching outward, in all countries, but the peoples of all climes and zones are beginning to reach toward Chautauqua. Her representatives have their hands upon the machinery which moves many of the country’s most important enterprises; the new administration could not carry on its work without Chautauquans, and we can not now tell whereunto this great thing will grow. For the end is not yet. Chautauqua has only made a fair beginning. Let us hope that Dr. Vincent and Mr. Lewis Miller will live to experience a long series of annual surprises at the wonderful developments and achievements of Chautauqua!

The work of generating, cultivating, and executing the first of these surprises belongs to the class of ’85. Classes of former years have done so well that it will require thought, and effort, and scheming, and coöperation, and energetic pushing on the part of our class to do better! There must be hard studying, and close figuring on expenses, and a vast deal of management, and a world of rallying and enthusiastic work, if we are to have the best and the largest of classes at the foot of the Chautauqua Acropolis this year! But let us have it! Let the ’Eighty-Fivers, of all classes, sexes and colors, flock toward Chautauqua early in August, from Oregon, and California, and Texas, and Florida, and Canada, and England, and China, and India, and the Soudan, with a common impulse, and inspiration, and a common purpose to honor their _alma mater_ and the cause of popular, intellectual and moral culture, and growth, and progress, which she represents.

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NOTES FROM MEMBERS.—One lady, mother of two little children, writes: “I only wish every young mother in this land could see her way clear to try this course, not only for her own pleasure, but the influence it would have on her home.”

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Another from Massachusetts, “the solitary ’85” in a circle of fourteen, writes: “I read alone for a year, then succeeded in starting a circle. I have had some advantages of education, but this C. L. S. C. has made my life very different from what it would have been without it.”

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From Philadelphia, likewise, report comes of good work by the ’85s, who organized the “Ivy” circle of that city.

* * * * *

An “Invincible” asks, “Why can not the class of ’85 have a seal for reading the course of biographies, etc., which was provided for the ’84s last year?”

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A classmate now residing in Kansas challenges all his fellow-students that, being born in the year in which the battle of Waterloo was fought, he is the oldest—_no, the youngest_, who will claim his diploma this year among the “Invincibles.” Does any one dispute the honor? His letter, together with many others, will be read at our class gatherings at Chautauqua, the coming season. Let us all be there.

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Those of the ’85s who can not possibly be at Chautauqua this summer, but who can visit, if for only one day, Ocean Grove, N. J., will be pleased to learn that during the Sunday-school Assembly exercises at that popular resort, C. L. S. C. Recognition services will be held, July 29th, and then those who have won their parchments can not only obtain them, but also hear eloquent words of congratulation from Dr. Vincent, who has consented to be present. All who expect to be present, and desire their diplomas, should send their names immediately to the Rev. E. H. Stokes, D.D., the president of Ocean Grove, or the Rev. B. B. Loomis, Superintendent of Instruction for Ocean Grove Assembly, at Troy, N. Y.

* * * * *

It is proposed that the “Invincibles,” after their graduating exercises are over, publish in a small volume the Baccalaureate Sermon by Chancellor Vincent, Oration by Bishop Warren, Class Poem by Mrs. Frank Beard, the Memorabilia of the Class Meetings, and whatever else may be deemed of interest. Such a book could be issued and bound in cloth, in class colors, for fifty cents each, or seventy-five cents in gilt edges, if (500) five hundred copies are desired. If enough names are received by Miss M. M. Canfield, our secretary, Washington, D. C., before July 1st, arrangements will be made to issue the book.

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Many inquiries are still made, notwithstanding several explanations have been given in this column, as to the purpose of the class fund. It is that we may present to our _alma mater_ a suitable remembrance of the “Invincibles.” Just what it shall be will be decided by the class at Chautauqua, at such time as the largest representation may be on the grounds. Every true ’85 should send their contribution at once to Miss Carrie Hart, Treas., Aurora, Ind, as it is very desirable to have as little of this business to do at Chautauqua as possible; we want all the moments then for the ever-to-be-remembered “good time coming,” when we meet as a class at the Hall in the Grove.

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The Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D., Chancellor of the Chautauqua University, will conduct Recognition services for the benefit of ’85s who can not be at Chautauqua, at Ocean Grove, N. J., July 29th, and at Framingham Assembly in July—date to be announced in next CHAUTAUQUAN.

CLASS OF 1887.—“THE PANSIES.”

“_Neglect not the gift that is in thee._”

OFFICERS.

_President_—The Rev. Frank Russell, Mansfield, Ohio.

_Western Secretary_—K. A. Burnell, Esq., Chicago, Ill.

_Eastern Secretary_—J. A. Steven, M.D., Hartford, Conn.

_Treasurer_—Either Secretary, from either of whom badges may be obtained.

_Executive Committee_—The officers of the class.

* * * * *

The Allegheny, Pa., circle, Class of ’87, is gaining a reputation for enthusiasm and thoroughness of work. They hold regular meetings, have printed programs, and sometimes are entertained at times of meetings or excursions, at a good hotel.

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The Toledo, Ohio, circle, with the Rev. H. M. Bacon for its president, issues a beautiful program of the whole course of winter meetings, with a list of the memorial days, put in handsome shape.

* * * * *

The officers of the class are in receipt of many pleasant letters, speaking among other things of many letters which have been written to Pansy containing suggestions about the class memorial book which is expected from her pen, and which will receive most enthusiastic welcome from every member of the class.

* * * * *

As the dreary winter weather is likely at last to give way to spring, Pansy blossoms are appearing on paper in preparation for their appearance in the memorial Pansy bed, which it is hoped will be a treasured improvement in the Chautauqua grounds.

* * * * *

Williamsburg, Kansas, writes of a circle of forty members, all but two of whom are members of ’88. These two delightful Pansy blossoms, a minister and his wife, represent the class of ’87.

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Here is a C. L. S. C. inspiration from a lonely but enthusiastic reader in New Virginia, Iowa: “I have never had the benefit of a circle, and could seldom attend if one were here, having four small children, the eldest of whom is not yet seven, and besides, I am trying to fill my mission as the wife of a pastor whose work takes him much away from home. After the little ones are tucked up in bed, and the good-nights are spoken, I find it delightful to rest with my book and reading for an hour or more. I am determined that my husband with his studies shall not leave me far behind. Two years is a long look ahead, but I am planning for that one trip to Chautauqua, when I shall hope to grasp the hand of many an ’87.”

* * * * *

The Lower Oswego Falls circle, New York, is doing a most excellent work by downright hard study, in their class meetings.

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The circle in Hartford, Conn., with Secretary Steven for its president, issues a fine program for its meetings, which already for this winter run into the twenties.

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A new circle has been organized in Chicago, called the Oakland circle. All of its members belong to the Pansy class, though that can not account for their all being ladies. They are doing a most excellent work.

* * * * *

Great gifts are not given to all, Great tasks from all not required. The Master is just—faithful use Of talent is all desired.

“Neglect not the gift that is in thee,” Oh! heed well that resonant call; Teach, write, or speak, at its bidding— To thy work, ere the shadows fall.

—_Margaret Heath, Class ’87._

* * * * *

Miss Eliza Gummage, a member of the class of ’87, recently died at her home in Lewiston, Me. She was a devoted and enthusiastic Chautauquan.

* * * * *

MASSACHUSETTS.—I am a member of the Pansy class, but am entirely alone in my reading. My attempts to form a circle have not yet been successful. Not because our people are not interested in all good work, but they have some “first loves” in the way of clubs, the proceeds from which are appropriated for good at home or abroad. Still I hope that very soon they will expand their hearts and take in the C. L. S. C., the benefits of which are so many. I read with much interest all items from our class. In fact, I think the Pansy column is the first thing I look for upon the arrival of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. I am not only alone in my reading, but have not the acquaintance of a single member of the great family of “Chautauquans.” However, I am far from discouraged, and look forward to meeting a goodly array of Pansies in ’87.

* * * * *

Miss Flora Warren Potter, a member of “Pansy” class (’87), C. L. S. C., and of “Union” circle, of Washington, D. C., died in that city on the evening of March 20th, at the residence of her brother-in-law, Geo. H. Walker, Washington correspondent of the Cleveland _Leader_. Becoming a member of the C. L. S. C., she foresaw the advantages and possibilities which it opened out before her, and though an humble toiler in the work, none loved it more than she. At five o’clock on the Sabbath afternoon following her death, at the regular Chautauqua vesper hour, funeral services were held in the Union M. E. Church, the members of “Union” circle being present in a body and rendering the music, some new and choice selections, on the occasion.

* * * * *

In the past winter the C. L. S. C. lost a devoted member of the class of ’87 in Miss Maggie R. Elwell, of Salem, New Jersey. Most appreciative resolutions of condolence and respect were sent the bereaved friends by the Salem circle.

CLASS OF 1888.—“THE PLYMOUTH ROCKS.”

“_Let us be seen by our deeds._”

CLASS ORGANIZATION.

_President_—The Rev. A. E. Dunning, D.D., Boston, Mass.

_Vice Presidents_—Prof. W. N. Ellis, 108 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y.; the Rev. Wm. G. Roberts, Bellevue, Ohio.

_Secretary_—Miss M. E. Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio.

_Treasurer_—Miss M. E. Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio.

All items for this column should be sent, in condensed form, to the Rev. C. C. McLean, St. Augustine, Florida.

We give name, locality, and number of members of new circles formed: “Kate F. Kimball,” Minneapolis, Kan., 12; “Delta,” Norwich, Conn., 16; Orlando, Fla., 20; “Evening Star,” Torreyville, N. Y., 7; “Oird,” Oird, Mich., 27; “Lawrence,” Chillicothe, O., 18; “Souri,” Blair, Neb., 22; “Progressives,” Danielsonville, Conn., 16; “Colton,” Colton, Cal., 16; “Gleaners,” Zumbrota, Minn.; “Euclid,” Vicksburg, Miss., 18; “Olympic,” Yarmouth, Me., 14; “Adelphic Union,” Holden, Mo., 21; South Manchester, Conn., 50; oldest member seventy-four, youngest sixteen; West Lebanon, N. Y., few members; Carpinteria, Cal., 8; Hopkinton, Ia., 12; Tiffin, O., organized with 6, now 13; “St. Johns,” Toledo, O., 26, was organized by a “lone member.” In Barrie, Ontario, Canada, the enthusiasm of 5 enrolled 24 more; smallest attendance has been 16. Two teachers of Brainard, Neb., have failed but twice during the severe winter, to meet every week. Their walk is several miles to the home of an invalid, who, with them, composes a circle, “The Triangle.” “Straight Line,” Matawan, N. J., 2. These object to name, saying “it speaks of poultry.” Can not the class suggest names and have them given in our column, and be voted upon, selecting the one receiving the highest number of votes? Portland, Ind., circle desires a change of name. One from Darlington, Ind., also objects to name. One member from Chicago, Ill., suggests change of motto to “Let us be doers of the Word, not hearers only:” Matt. v:16. “Evening Star,” Terryville, N. Y., “started late, but worked hard and caught up, and have not yet had a dull meeting.” “Oird,” Mich., writes: “After starting, no one wishes to turn back.” Quite a number have written regarding their “Longfellow” day. One circle, “Delta,” of Norwich, Conn., sends a poem respecting their “Washington” day. Want of space crowds out this, and much more.

* * * * *

THE PLYMOUTH ROCKS.

Why should we take with such pretense A name so great? and in what sense Should we be likened to the stone Which to the Pilgrims first was known?

This answering thought then came to me; “The teachings of our class should be A stepping-stone for coming youth, From seas of doubt to shore of truth.”

So, when the ocean waves of wrong Shall dash about us fierce and strong, We may not fear, nor be dismayed— Truth never in the grave was laid.

And when the surging waves subside And calmed shall be the raging tide We, like the “rock,” may firmly stand To “welcome home” the storm-tossed band.

These principles our lives will lead, If to our name we give good heed; True helpfulness to others give, And firmness for the right to live.

Our influence will then appear, Proving more clearly year by year, The motto which our class now leads, “Let us be seen by our (good) deeds.”

—_Marietta S. Case._

* * * * *

Many write of the “unbounded pleasure” they find in our reading course.

* * * * *

“Adelphic Union,” Holden, Mo., says their circle has neither “flaw nor break.” They have sent us a program of a symposium. Each member assumed a Greek name and wore an appropriate costume. The Greek idea was carried out even to the “Master of Revels.”

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“Kate F. Kimball,” Minneapolis, Kansas, sends us their _menu_. The invitation to this tempting repast we could not accept, though the food _was_ prepared in accordance with THE CHAUTAUQUAN’S directions. We must also decline the kindly invitation to the reception tendered our president, the Rev. A. E. Dunning, by the Congregational Sunday-school Superintendents’ Union, of Boston. The card is itself a treat.

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Make your items for this column very brief, as we are not allowed much space. Write _no more words_ than are necessary, and yet state everything of interest.

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ILLINOIS.—“The North Side C. L. S. C., of Chicago, held a public examination and reception at the parlors of the Grace M. E. Church, recently; it was a great success. There were about 150 persons present, and they evinced great interest in the exercises. We belong to the class of ’88, and this is our first reception, and we all feel delighted over our success, and we will have another in a short time. We know that our meeting will be of interest to all Chautauquans, particularly those of Chicago and vicinity.”

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From a packet on the Tensas River comes a bit of history telling how one new member has been added to the class of ’88: “Having complained to a passenger on board my steamer that time hung heavily on my hands during a portion of each trip, and asked her to suggest a remedy, she immediately named the Chautauqua school, and advised me to become a member of the class of ’88, and gave me a list of questions I would be obliged to answer. As my education has necessarily been limited, I thought favorably of the scheme of self-improvement, as a relief to the monotonous long watches.” The master of the packet is now a member of the class of ’88.

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Way down in Texas, at Hempstead, is a faithful band of fifteen C. L. S. C. workers of the class of ’88. They are college folks, the president of the institution—Soule College—to which they belong being the president of the circle. They are very enthusiastic over the course, and do a great deal of work.

EDITOR’S OUTLOOK.

GENERAL GRANT’S ILLNESS.

The pathetic interest surrounding the illness of General Grant recalls the intenser, but not more persistent, emotions of the days when President Garfield lay dying. The strong and sustained popular interest in the illness of General Grant is shown by the constant attention of the press to the theme. No day is allowed to pass without a telegraphic bulletin informing the nation how well or ill the distinguished patient slept the last night, and reporting any change for the better or the worse. We are all gathered about the invalid chair, in which the illustrious sufferer spends his wearisome days; and any word which drops from his lips flies on the wires all over the country. It is not a passion, or a folly, or a nullity. It is a piece of modern Providential education. What distinguished patient, ever before Garfield had so large and so _near_ an audience of sympathy? And who does not see in the strong-flowing tide of sympathy for General Grant another lesson of the same kind? Eminence has been honored before; but these thought-laden wires take us into the very chamber of the patient and set us all upon muffled words of regret, and pity, and sorrow. We are learning, hardly knowing it, how eminence claims our regard and commands our attention, and how rapidly we can forget our criticisms and our antagonisms when Death knocks at the great man’s door. There is nothing political, nothing sensational, in this illness. No public fortunes, or hopes, or fears hang upon the event. General Grant is dying; that is all; but the man who has filled so large a space in his country’s history, and dwelt so long in the world’s eye, can not die without quickening all pulses, and awakening every soul to pitiful attention. Great worlds of mysterious human powers of interest and sympathy seem to open before us, and invite us within the awe and solemnity of their spiritual skies. It is better—we see why, now—to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. No day of triumph in General Grant’s life had such an uplifting and educating power as is borne along in the arms of these days’ sickness and sorrow. Dying so among us, the illustrious patient does indeed die for us—his death lifting us into better life.

There are many smaller lessons. What an education in gunshot wounds we got at the bedside of Garfield! What a window into one of the awfully mysterious diseases we are looking through at the bedside of Grant! Before the end comes, cancer will have parted with much of its mystery. What doctors know the nation will know; and the education will save human lives; perhaps impel men to closer and more effectual search for the causes and remedies of this terrible disease. A human interest, such as we are feeling throughout the nation and the world, has a stimulating power which no man can measure. It may be that out of Grant’s dying of cancer may come discoveries of permanent and universal value to mankind.

THE UNITED STATES SENATE.

Many circumstances have combined to fix attention at the present time upon the Senate of the United States. We have seen a Republican majority confirm the appointments of a Democratic President with the calmness and dignity of a Supreme Court passing upon questions of law. The event is not a new one, but it is still an impressive one, quite as much so as the change of the presidential office on the fourth of March. We then saw a defeated party resign the control of the government with decorum and civic reverence. We waited with bated breath for the first conflicts between the President and the Senate. No conflict came. Appointments were confirmed by the Senate without partisan bickerings or lamentations. The dignity of the Senate was seen to be a splendid and honorable reality. We catch other lights shining upon the Senate by going back a little. Last year, when the English people were “mad to the verge of insanity” because the House of Lords refused to pass a bill extending the franchise, the English magazines and newspapers overflowed with commendations of our Upper House. In the light of their own trouble, the English saw how happily our fathers had founded an Upper House upon enduring foundations, and how deftly they had combined popular representation with conservative privilege in our Senate. No other American institution ever had so much first-rate advertising as this Senate of ours had last year. The praise came from the best foreign sources; from men deeply versed in history, rich in public experience, and renowned for candid and sober judgment. What the historian sees in our Senate is an Upper House which reposes upon the elective principle, and is in fact constituted indirectly by the same vote which fills the Lower House—and therefore as truly from the people—but which has at the same time a distinct and original and impressive office in the government. The result was achieved by the fathers with a few well-aimed strokes of political art. For example, _the Senate never dies_. There are many Congresses, but there is only one Senate. There is at this time no House of Representatives; there never was an hour of constitutional history when there was not a Senate. This was achieved by a simple provision that one third of the Senators should retire biennially. The Senate must “advise,” that is to say, confirm all the President’s appointments. It is his council for considering and completing treaties with foreign powers—and without the consent of the Senate the President can make no treaty. And if the people through the House of Representatives impeach the President, it is in that august presence that he must appear and plead in his defense. The Senate has exercised all these peculiar functions during the century past, and in all of them it has displayed in the main those special qualities which the framers of the constitution sought to enlist in the service of government. It has even tried a President in the intense heat of controversies begotten in civil war—and acquitted him in the face of the clamorous dominant party to which the majority belonged. Its record is full of striking triumphs over the bitterness of party spirit. It has been judicial in its temper many a time when the air was full of rancorous strifes and malignant personalities. It has sloughed off the partisan sores caused by factional poison; and though it was seriously endangered by such devices as “the courtesy of the Senate,” it has refused to be used for narrow and selfish ends. The wranglers have passed out of sight; the Senate never dies.

The judicial character of the body is apparent in its methods of discussion. There is no “previous question” gag upon debate. A conspicuous unfairness to a member is impossible. A neat way of showing self respect by respecting brother Senators is the custom of confirming, without reference to a committee, any nomination of a Senator to an office. All other names must go to the committees; the names of Senators are honored by immediate action. Members of the Lower House are, not without reason, jealous of the power and “arrogance” of the Senate. But the people enjoy the breadth and decorum of their Senate. It can be trusted to _judge_, to put its candid opinion into all the peculiar functions which it exercises. In the field of politics, senatorial action may be very like any other human behaving in such environments; but in the special judicial tasks of the Senators there is the serenity and probity of a court room. And yet the Senate has its dangers, and it has in recent years been close to the perilous edge of the precipice. A tendency to venal methods of electing Senators came in after the civil war, and a number of rich nobodies have disgraced the high office. It is believed that there are now a few Senators whose purses are far longer than their heads, and in some of the wrangles over recent elections of Senators, the power of money has been very freely talked of and boasted of. But in this matter the worst is over. The election of Mr. Evarts in New York is a proof that legislatures can be lifted above money influence; for if any senatorships would invite special efforts to win them by venal arts, they are those of the Empire State. When that state chose last winter one of its most eminent citizens—a man known rather as a great man than as a politician—it set an example which will have no small influence over other states. The Senate has in both parties men of great ability. There is undoubtedly a growing desire and purpose that only great men be clothed with senatorial honors. We are well past the civil war and reconstruction periods, and as we advance into happier conditions we are likely to take an increasing popular pride in our unique, original and successful Upper House. There is nothing like it in the world. It is the most conspicuous work of American political genius. The more the people realize it, the more pains will they take in filling it with great men.

SUMMER AMUSEMENTS.

We are, as a people, growing in taste for amusements. Some of the manifestations of this taste are not of an entirely satisfactory character; but there are other aspects of a very agreeable nature. Our summer amusements are in the open air. We have not yet learned to play outdoors in the winter; but we are slowly learning of the Canadians, and it is not improbable that Southern people will by and by come north in the season of short days to play in the frost of our most Arctic states. We have commented in a former number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN upon the advantages of the Canadian winter sports. Our summer sports are in a more advanced state of development. Base ball, Lacrosse, lawn tennis and croquet are established institutions, while we are only experimenting with tobogganing. It needs no argument here to satisfy people who think at all that amusements should be in the open air and require exercise enough to increase the strength and expand the lungs. Exercise is a farce unless the heart is put into it; and play is unwise if it is not healthful. Play is primarily a demand of the physique; its value to the mind begins with the refreshment of the body by wholesome use of the muscles. The summer amusements in which women take part are above all just criticism. Croquet and lawn tennis have no doubtful elements. The exercise they afford will not content an athlete, but they are adequate to the wants of sedentary people in warm weather. There is no doubt that many persons would be greatly benefited by such games. They are too sedentary; they live too much indoors; they are too closely tied to a routine of thought or feeling. The open air, the mild exercise, the social chat, would give them a change of feeling and an agreeable exercise. Nor is there any conceivable avenue of approach for moral dangers. It is not wise for any one to make a business of croquet or of any other amusement; but the danger of excess is not worth considering. It will occur so seldom and have such limited consequences that the moralist need not post sentinels upon croquet grounds.

The “manly sports” are less satisfactory. Cricket, base ball and Lacrosse have the disadvantages following: First, they are exhibitions and public rather than social; second, they require violent exertion in hot weather; third, they are accompanied by gambling and other unmanly vices. Cricket and Lacrosse are not open to the last objection to any considerable extent. Those who engage in them are for the most part gentlemen; they are, so to say, the aristocratic games, while base ball is the great popular athletic game. It is not very old. When men now fifty were boys they did not know the modern game, though they did know a much simpler and far less strenuous practice with a soft ball—a game also called base ball. There is some reason to fear that this form of athletics is being ruined by immoral attachments and environments. Of boating we make special mention because it _requires_ no overstrain—since boating need not mean boat-racing—and, indeed, is open to none of the objections urged against the exhibitory public games. On Chautauqua Lake, in the Assembly season, boating is one of the most healthful and enjoyable recreations. The exercise can be adjusted to strength, arrested at any time or prolonged at pleasure, and the boatload is enough for pleasant society—which may, of course, be selected to suit one’s tastes. Of this amusement we have only one regrettable feature to mention—it can be enjoyed only where there is convenient water.

Of the vigorous sports, we are compelled to speak with some reserve. We doubt the wholesomeness of athletics; they involve excess of exertion, and the gambler is the curse of base ball games. The other games may escape the influence of the demoralization, and cricket, polo and Lacrosse become great American exhibitory games of strength and skill. But the quiet social amusements ought to flourish among us, and indefinitely increase. The pleasure row-boat, the croquet and lawn tennis grounds, deserve our special attention. Let us play a little more. We can spare the time, for we shall live longer; we can well afford the hours, because the other hours will be worth more to us. In these quiet games we get refreshment of body and of spirit.

THE MODERN TREATMENT OF THE SOLDIER.

Decoration Day has many happy outlooks upon the humanities. Philanthropy may use it as a finger-board indicating the direction of our modern progress. The soldier’s grave is its special theme; it as clearly suggests the happier fate of the modern soldier as compared with his ancient brother. Great nations have always honored their dead soldiers; it is only in modern times that nations have given their whole hearts to the living soldiers. In the long wars between France and England from the twelfth century onward, the armies had no surgeons, and medical supplies were unknown. The medical equipment of a modern army is costly and ample; and that no man may die unnecessarily, woman hangs on the verge of battle to nurse the wounded, sheltered and safe under a red cross or a red crescent. In the old navies of England and France, the men were slaves who had been captured in their own lands and sent to suffer in crowded bulkheads of ships, or in the galleys, steaming with the most abominable odors. A French duchess in the sixteenth century wrote of that “living hell,” the many-oared galley war ship of the Mediterranean. One can not recall the horrors of any battle on sea or land with composure, but the whole life of soldier and sailor in public service was in the old days full of the horrors of battle fields.

It is often said that war will eventually be stopped by the increased and perfected effectiveness of engines of war. It may well be doubted on general grounds; but it is specially true that humanity has robbed war of many of its terrible aspects; it may well be that those who open again the gates of mercy are competing successfully against those who “shut the gates of mercy” on mankind.

The modern treatment of the soldier is conspicuous in providing for his comfort. Why should England buy canned meats for her soldiers? Some crusts would have sufficed the providing spirit of an ancient general. The British army in the field must be well fed or there will be a great noise about the ears of the government. Let it be written home that the biscuits were stale, or the army went without its supper, and the newspapers will roar out the indignation of the nation. It is an immense task; but it must be accomplished; the modern soldier must have his regular meals with certainty, and the food must be good. The Mahdi has no such cares or duties. His soldiers must forage and browse as best they can. The superior power of the civilized soldier lies as much in his regular feeding as in his discipline—the feeding is an element of his discipline. The soldiers must also be comfortably clothed and sheltered. Woe to the commander who exposes his men to needless hardships. The country will not allow its loyal and brave defenders to suffer a needless deprivation or hardship. If commissaries are careless or venal, the nation will pillory them in eternal infamy. The soldier must have, even in the far off desert, many of the comforts of home or the country will know the reason why. And when the battered veterans come home, how the air rings with huzzas, how tender the pity for the wounded, how liberal the pensions for the widows and orphans of those who did not come home! Neither Cyrus nor Alexander had any such pension rolls. Rome idolized her armies, but she let them starve abroad, and forgot their families at home. This whole line of treatment means more than we can express in words. It is a very real and royal worship of the nobility which we see in the soldier. Often he is a sorry human creature, but it is almost a profanation to say so. We idolize him and his office. He is our defender, our chivalric knight, our personation of the flag over us, and of the civilization in us. But—but—what chance does this treatment of the soldier afford for the Day of Universal Peace? Will a sword ever become a pruning hook so long as it is glorified by such a symbolism and illumined by these soft lights of pity and reverence? Let us not take too gloomy a view of the effects of our philanthropy toward the soldier. The causes of war probably lie out of the range of these influences. Wars would still be, if they were still as diabolically merciless as they were in the mediæval days when a war galley was “a living hell.” Peace is a question of universal civilization; and the pity we yield to the soldier is one of the undying agencies of universal civilization.

THE LIGHTING OF TOWNS.

Street lighting is a modern invention. The history is imperfect, but Alexander Dumas gives credit to the tradition that Naples was first lighted in the seventeenth century by the cunning of a popular and sagacious priest, who induced the people to burn votive lamps before the numerous images of St. Joseph, the patron saint of the city. In the ancient towns people went about at night with lamps; and in mediæval times crimes of vengeance and greed found shelter and safety in the gloom of unlighted thoroughfares and bridges. When lighting began with oil lamps, the situation was not much improved; the feeble glimmer of the lamp-wicks only made certain corners less gloomy. When gas lights began to be used the millennium seemed to have come, and gas was expected to abolish midnight crimes. Until about a score of years ago, there was general satisfaction with gas light. Very satisfactory results were obtained in small towns by the use of petroleum, and the only formidable difficulties were those arising from the high cost of gas in towns of moderate wealth. It almost doubled the tax-levy, and when this bill did not materially decrease the cost of a police force the tax-payers murmured. Still, the work of lighting went on, and as soon as a town became ambitious, its citizens demanded street lights of some kind. The general result has been an immense increase of the aggregate outlays for this purpose. If we take into account the growth of towns and the extension of public lighting, it is safe to estimate that the public lighting bill of the world is twenty times as large as it was fifty years ago.

The invention of electric lights has, by the superior efficiency of this method, rendered oil and gas unsatisfactory; and the electric lamp furnishes three or four times as much light as gas at the same cost. But there are a dozen or more methods of using the electric lamp, and it may be doubted that we have yet reached the end of our inventive wits in this field. It is quite probable that the electric lamp of the next century will cost far less than any now in use. We are yet in the infancy of electrical invention, and it may be wise for communities to suffer a little longer the evils of darkness in order to obtain the best appliances for public lighting. The time is at hand when all towns will have street lamps; the inventors are busy and hopeful, and a little cautious patience in the public will probably stimulate rather than discourage invention. It is a good trait in our people that they want the newest device, at whatever cost; but on the other hand the ability of A to stock the market with an inferior article discourages the efforts of B to devise a superior one. The plant for lighting a town is expensive, and can not easily be thrown aside for a better one. Besides, we are in some danger of hatching a new brood of monopolies to plague us with unreasonable exactions.

We need street lights much more than our fathers did. In large towns—and in many small ones—the din of toil does not cease when darkness comes on. There is a steady increase of night occupations. Some of these occupations are of high convenience, such as the pharmacies, the printing offices, and the depots of travel. Others are means to profitable ends for individuals. In a great city a multitude of people use the streets at night. The market gardener must be in his stall before day dawn. The daily bread is baked or distributed to depots of sale in the night time; a thousand small trades are plied in the darkness to provide the tables of the families with the necessaries and luxuries of life. The result is a growing demand for artificial sunshine, and this demand will be amply met in a near future. The bright lights will do what the feeble lights partially failed to do. The night will cease to be the hour of crime. If one will but think of it, a marvelous change has come over the world since petroleum was discovered in Western Pennsylvania—which was, as it were, but yesterday. Then we had tallow dips in all but the largest towns for all lighting purposes, except when extravagant people burned on rare occasions the costly illuminating oils. To make noonday in a whole town at midnight would have seemed a foolish dream thirty years ago. The world moves—into the light.

EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.

The world was never kept busier studying its geography than just at present. All quarters of the world are demanding attention. In China the Tonquin trouble has assumed such proportions that the daily papers have come out with a map of the disputed country. The Afghan difficulty has set us to locating Herat and learning how to pronounce the barbarous names; the Soudan is pinned up on everybody’s wall or tucked into their note-book; the revolution in Central America demands that we familiarize ourselves with a country we never did know much about, while the Oklahoma boomers of the West and rebellious Manitoba keep us interested enough in home affairs not to forget how our boundaries lie.

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One of the most popular places in Washington during inaugural week was the National Museum. During the 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th and 6th days of March 23,000 visitors were registered. Going to the inauguration, like “goin’ to the Fourth,” is becoming an American custom. To express the peculiar habits of those who surrendered themselves to the festivities, Washingtonians say that they have gone “inaugurating,” a noun which we may be obliged to put into the dictionary if we continue to make so much of our political moultings.

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A useful improvement in letter delivery is to go into effect on July 1st. A ten-cent stamp is to be provided, which, attached to a letter, entitles it to immediate delivery in all cities having 4,000 inhabitants or over, within the carrier limit of any free delivery office, or within one mile of the postoffice. It is a perfectly practical scheme, and it is apparent that there is a demand for a quicker means of communication than an uncertain and delayed letter delivery, for a class of letters which are unsuited for telegraph or telephone.

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The “Bird’s-Eye View of Forestry” which appears in this issue of THE CHAUTAUQUAN from the pen of the Rev. S. W. Powell will be read, we trust, with attention. Mr. Powell is an authority on the subject, being corresponding secretary of the New York State Forestry Association recently organized at Utica, New York.

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There is something new in bills of fare. For several seasons _littérateurs_ have rejoiced in _menus_, with quotations. The “allusive” _menu_ takes its place now. Here is a sample from a mid-Lent luncheon party in London: “Beauty draws us with a single hair” turned out to be jugged hare; “My Lord, the early village cock,” curried spring chicken; “Sing me songs of Araby,” coffee.

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The year 1884 did nothing brilliant for astronomy. Nine new asteroids were added to the list, giving us a family of 244. Six new comets were noted, but none of them created much of an excitement save in astronomical circles, and even there they were rather disappointing.

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Russia threatens to completely outstrip America in the production of petroleum. Their richest petroleum region has but 400 wells, while in America there are over 23,000; but one well of the 400 is declared to produce, in a day, more than all our daily production. Spouting or flowing wells throw out such mammoth quantities that the oil is allowed to run into the sea or is burned.

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Everybody knows that we get our trained artisans from Europe; that our trades unions have discouraged apprentices until it is very difficult for boys to get any instruction in trades. What shall take the place of the former system of apprenticeship? It seems to us that the New York Trade Schools are framing a practical answer. The schools offer courses in bricklaying, plastering, plumbing, carpentry, wood carving, pattern making, stone cutting, and fresco painting; they furnish the best instructors procurable, and for such a cost that almost any young man can afford the instruction. These schools, if encouraged, will make it as possible for young Americans to become skilled mechanics as it is for young Germans or Englishmen.

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The re-appointment of Postmaster Pearson, of New York City, will do more for civil service reform than many speeches in favor of the measure. The wholesomeness and reasonableness of appointing men because they are competent to do the work, and not because they belong to a particular party, will be more forcibly demonstrated to the country by a few such illustrations than by any other means.

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In a recent crusade movement at Cornwall, N. Y., several ladies of the “Society of Friends” besieged a saloon, where they remained several days, praying and singing. Pepper was burned on the stove, the room was smoked full by the loafers, but with more valor than discretion the ladies staid in spite of every insult. It is difficult to see what has been gained. The saloon had law on its side, and the good women were arrested for trespass and fined, while the leading men of the Society published a card declaring that they did not “approve nor consent to all their unwise practices.” “Wise as serpents, harmless as doves,” is the only motto for those who contend effectually with the liquor traffic.

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Some one has set afloat, in the midst of all the attention which has been given to the Washington monument, a touching story of a monument erected seventy-five years ago to the “Father of his Country,” by the inhabitants of Boonesboro, Md. It was purely a labor of love. Near the town stands South Mountain, and on the most conspicuous point a site was chosen, where the farmers of the vicinity hauled and laid with their own hands the rocks which they themselves had quarried. Labor and time were given willingly until the work was complete. The humble, eloquent tribute still stands, a witness to the honest devotion of a faithful people.

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The Afghan frontier difficulty between England and Russia came in like a lion, and bids fair, at this writing, to go out like a lamb. War was announced to hang by a thread. The Russians were declared to be advancing into the territory of the Ameer; England to be ready with an ultimatum, which might be accepted or not, as Russia pleased. Announcements were made that no such vast stores of ammunition, unbounded supplies of provisions, and altogether gigantic preparations for a ferocious war had ever before been made. British consols and Russian securities went down, and American wheat went up. Undoubtedly the war cry has been fostered in England—a shrewd maneuver of the ministry—to take the attention from the Soudan trouble, and there is but little doubt now that the negotiations in progress will be successful. England has her hands full already, while Russia is not so hot-headed as to rush into a war without counting its cost.

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A pleasant surprise has stirred literary circles this past month. A favorite magazine contributor for several years has been Charles Egbert Craddock, whose striking, original stories, full of freshness and keen observation have been constantly becoming more popular. “Mr.” Craddock kept himself quietly in St. Louis until his literary position was well established, and then went to Boston to make the acquaintance of his publishers. What was the astonishment of the latter to find that this contributor was a lady, Miss M. N. Murfree by name. The revelation was almost “too good to be true,” for no one had suspected the vigorous writing to come from other than a masculine mind. The surprise has greatly increased her popularity, of course.

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The striking public spectacle of 100,000 visitors gathered to witness and to swell the pageant of the 4th of March is not yet at an end. The month goes, but it still leaves in Washington hundreds of office seekers, who have before themselves the belittling, wearing, unmanly business of _etching_ their way into public service. The way in which most of the appointments have thus far been made signifies very plainly that this work is at a discount, and that we may reasonably hope to soon see the office seeker starved out.

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Niagara is to be preserved. The bill which passed the New York State Assembly recently, providing for the preservation of the banks of the rivers from the works of the vandals, proves conclusively how quick we Americans are to do the right thing when we are fully persuaded what is right. Most of our wrongs against good taste and our depredations against rivers and forests are rather to be attributed to a lack of thought than, is usually the case, to be laid at the doors of avarice.

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We are pained to record the death of our able contributor, Mr. Richard Grant White. For several months Mr. White has been seriously ill, though making a brave effort to continue his labors. The excellent series of articles on Good English, which have appeared in the Required Readings in this volume of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, from his pen, was interrupted by his illness, and now his death leaves a vacancy which President Wheeler kindly comes in to fill for our readers. Mr. White’s work for THE CHAUTAUQUAN has very deeply interested him. As late as March 18th, he wrote us: “I may be obliged to abandon the series entirely, but this I should greatly regret.” His expressions of interest in our work have been encouraging and hearty. Mr. White was only sixty-three years old at his death. He first gained public distinction as a musical critic in the _Courier and Enquirer_. He was subsequently attached to the staff of the _World_, the _Albion_, and the _Times_; and of late years he has been widely known as a writer on English topics, and especially as a critic of social and philological subjects. The news of his decease will be received with sincere sorrow by the wide circle of his friends and professional associates.

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The Rev. Joseph Leslie, an honored minister, who for about fifty years served churches within a few hundred miles of Chautauqua Lake, died at his home in Cattaraugus, New York, March 13th. He was a pioneer preacher in the grove at Chautauqua many years before the Assembly was held there. As a faithful preacher, a man of fine character and sunny disposition, he has made a strong impression for Christianity on the people among whom he lived. He was a trustee of the Chautauqua Assembly, and in his death the Board lose one of their most honored members.

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Mr. T. S. Arthur, author and publisher, died at his home in Philadelphia, on March 6th. Mr. Arthur is well and widely known as the author of one of the most effective temperance stories ever written—“Ten Nights in a Bar Room.” Temperance people, particularly, owe him a kind remembrance for his vigorous works against strong drink.

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Another writer of a widely popular book died the past month, Miss Susan Warner, the author of “The Wide, Wide World.” A healthy, vigorous story it is, and its continued popularity for a third of a century is an almost unknown phenomenon in American novels.

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Think of it! On the first day of April there were eighteen inches of snow covering the Assembly grounds at Chautauqua, and the robins were singing in the trees.

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A most remarkable work has been accomplished in the last twelve years by Mr. Anthony Comstock and his associates. When he put his hand to the work in 1872 there was a systemized business for spreading vile literature and vile pictures over the land. Out of 201 books published in New York, the plates of 199 have been seized, 230,955 pictures, 1,402,444 circulars and leaflets have been destroyed, and 982,010 names which the managers of this infamous business had collected from the catalogues of schools and seminaries seized. In 1877 there were six hundred open gambling dens and nine lotteries in New York City; to-day there is not an open saloon or lottery in the city where gambling can be done or lottery tickets purchased. The character of criminal papers has been so restricted by law that two out of the four worst papers scattered through the country have died of enforced respectability. The circulation of a third has been reduced from 125,000 to 67,000, and that of another has fallen fifty per cent.

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There is probably no doubt in the mind of the magic-working electrician that the horse car of the future, and, indeed, the railway car, will be run by electricity, and the public has seen so much of the wonderful that it is quite ready to believe in anything promised. Already a very successful experiment with a tram car has been made in Millwall, England, where it has been proven that the electric machine necessary has in weight an advantage of five to one compared with a steam or air locomotion, that the speed can be increased much more easily than with horse power, and if necessary, a propelling power equal to sixteen horses can be gained. The changing of batteries requires less time than the change of horses; the arrangement of bells and lamps is much superior, and the cost per mile just one half. Another consideration suggests itself to the member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals—it will prevent much wicked abuse of horses.

* * * * *

There is a society in London which has undertaken to furnish two-cent dinners to poor children. The first thought would be that such a scheme must fail entirely of paying its own way, and sooner or later collapse if not endowed. The organization sends out a report, however, which declares that it is a financial success—such a success, in fact, that a second society has undertaken to furnish one-cent dinners to the very poor children. This latter enterprise, it is believed, will nearly pay its way. Here is one of the worthiest schemes for the philanthropists of our cities and larger towns, and one which can be conducted without taxing anybody’s pocket-book.

* * * * *

Mr. Richard Proctor says: “One of the most remarkable inventions of the age is the ammoniaphone.” The inventor, Dr. Carter Moffat, has for years believed the beauty of Italian vocal tones was due to something in the air of Italy. Visiting Southern Italy he made over seventy-five analyses of the air and dew, and finally became convinced that its peculiar characteristic was its saturation with ammonia and hydrogen peroxide. He has spent nine years in perfecting an instrument for inhaling vapors. Mr. Proctor says after testing the instrument: “One draught of air was inhaled, when, to our great astonishment, the intensity of the voice was about doubled, while its cleanness was as greatly increased.” The inventor claims that the “employment of the ammoniaphone according to direction Italianizes the voice, and makes a weak voice or a drawing room voice strong, rich, clear, and ringing.”

C. L. S. C. NOTES ON REQUIRED READINGS FOR MAY.

ENGLISH AS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE.

1. “Max Müller.” (1823-⸺.) An English philologist, and one of the most eminent living orientalists. He prepared an edition of the “Rig-Veda” (a collection of ancient Hindoo literature), with a commentary. This stupendous work is composed of six volumes, and each volume contains more than 1,200 pages. He has published many philological works, and has done more than any other one scholar to awaken a taste for the science of language.

2. “The Aryan tribe.” See in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for October, 1884, the first article, “Why we Speak English.”

3. “Sanskrit.” The literary language of the Hindoos, the Aryan inhabitants of India.

4. “Dark Ages.” The name given to the time of intellectual depression in Europe, extending from the fifth century to the fifteenth. During this time some periods were darker than others, the darkest occurring about the seventh century.

SUNDAY READINGS.

1. “Gil-filˈlan,” George. (1813-1878.) A Scottish minister and author; has published many works.

2. “Herbert,” George. (1593-1632.) All English divine and poet. He was generally known as “Holy George Herbert,” his life being most exemplary and zealous.

3. “Prof. Upham,” Thomas Cogswell. (1799-1872.) An American author. For two years he was pastor of the Congregational church in Rochester, and in 1825 he accepted a professorship in Bowdoin College.

CHEMISTRY.

1. “Adams,” John Couch. (1819-⸺.) An English astronomer, who shares with Leverrier the honor of having calculated the place of the planet Neptune before it had been seen.

2. “Leverrier,” Urbain John Joseph, lŭh-vair-yā. (1811-1877.) A French astronomer. His “Tables of Mercury” and some memoirs led to a friendship with Arago, and opened to him the door of the French Academy. He then began the study of the disturbances of the planets, which led to the discovery of Neptune. By a remarkable coincidence the existence of this planet was discovered at the same time, and independently, by Adams.

3. “Foucault,” Leon, foo-kō. (1819-1868.) A French natural philosopher, who for years turned his attention exclusively to optics, and was very successful in mechanics. He invented an electric lamp which was adopted by natural philosophers for physical experiments, and was used for lighting large factories.

4. “Brobˈdig-nag,” also written Brobdingnag. The imaginary country described by Dean Swift in “Gulliver’s Travels,” which was inhabited by a race of giants.

5. “Perihelion,” perˈi-hēlˌyun; “Aphelion,” af-hēlˈyun.

6. “Kepler,” Johann. (1571-1630.) A distinguished German astronomer and mathematician, to whom the world is indebted for the discovery of the laws that regulate the movements of the heavenly bodies. He was appointed to the chair of astronomy in Gratz University, in Styria, but in 1598 was dismissed because he professed the reformed religion; he was afterward recalled. He was an earnest disciple of Copernicus, and published in seven volumes the “Epitome of the Copernican Astronomy,” which was placed in the list of prohibited books by the inquisition. He was the author of many other works.

7. “Dr. Maskelyne,” Neville. (1732-1811.) An English astronomer.

8. “Dr. Cavendish.” See Notes in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for October, 1884.

9. “Archimedes,” ark-i-mēˈdes. (B. C. 287-212.) The most celebrated mathematician of antiquity. Cicero and Livy both refer to him in their writings, the former to his aptness in solving problems, the latter to his ingenuity in the invention of warlike engines. The law referred to was, that a body plunged in water loses as much weight as is equal to the weight of an equal body of water. King Hiero suspected that a gold crown had been alloyed with silver, and asked Archimedes to test it. He was trying to find some means by which he could decide the matter, when going one day to the bath tub he found it full, and immediately saw that as much water must run over the tub as was equal to the bulk of his body. He saw at once a method for determining the matter of the crown, and crying “_Eureka, eureka_; I have found it, I have found it,” he ran home.

THE EYES BUSY ON THINGS ABOUT US.

1. “Turner,” Joseph Mallord William. (1775-1851.) An English painter. His greatest fame was acquired through Ruskin, who in “Modern Painters” gives a full account of his works. As an artist he is distinguished by the strong lights and high colors of his landscapes.

2. “Ruskin.” In addition to what was said of him in the Notes in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for April, the following is given: His books upon art are the most eloquent and original ever written. His “Modern Painters” was revolutionary in its spirit, and roused the hostility of conservative art lovers. Its design was to prove the superiority of modern landscape painters, and particularly Turner, over the old artists. Its high merits gave it a fixed place in literature.

3. For Galileo, Humboldt and Hugh Miller, see former Notes in the present volume of THE CHAUTAUQUAN. “Newton,” Sir Isaac. (1642-1727.) An English philosopher. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1669 accepted the mathematical professorship in that institution. While there he made his three great discoveries, of fluxions, the nature of light and colors, and the laws of gravitation. He was the author of many works, chief among which is the “Principia,” containing his theory of the universe, which brought him fame and riches. His generosity was remarkable; he frequently entertained in a royal manner his many friends, and his kindness and courtesy toward foreigners was very marked.

“Agassiz,” Louis. (1807-1873.) One of the most eminent naturalists of the century. He was born in Switzerland, and educated in the universities of Zurich, Heidelberg and Munich. He made great researches in the field of science in different lands, and published extensively on subjects of natural history. From 1846 his biography belongs to the scientific history of the United States. For some years he was professor in the scientific school founded at Cambridge by Mr. Abbot Lawrence. For two years he held the professorship of comparative anatomy in the medical college of Charleston, S. C., and in 1868 was appointed professor in Cornell University, in Ithaca, N. Y. His eminence as a scientific man was early recognized in Europe. He was made a member of the Academy of Science in Paris, and of the Royal Society of London.

4. “Vergers,” verˈjers. 1. An attendant upon a dignitary. 2. A beadle in a cathedral church; a pew opener or an attendant.

5. “Cathedral at Pisa.” One of the most remarkable structures in the world. It was commenced in 1068 and finished in 1118. It is built of white marble, and its noble dome is supported by seventy-four pillars. It contains some celebrated works of art, and these, together with its variegated marbles and stained windows, add much to its attractiveness.

6. “Count Maurice of Nassau.” (1567-1625.) The second son of William of Orange. He was in his seventeenth year at the time of his father’s assassination, and was soon after proclaimed governor by the states of Holland and Zealand. His talents, as a general, in the troublous times that followed, surpassed all expectations.

7. “Sir Samuel Browne.” (1776-1852.) An English engineer who brought into use both chain cables and iron suspension bridges.

8. “James Watt.” (1736-1819.) A Scottish inventor. He began life as a mathematical instrument maker. In this capacity he was employed in the university of Glasgow from 1757 to 1763. He devoted his evenings to the study of modern languages and music. In 1758 he began his experiments with steam as a propelling power, which led to the invention of the steam engine. Among his other inventions are a micrometer, a copying machine, and a machine for making drawings in perspective. For some years he devoted himself to land surveying and superintending the works on canals, to the improvement of harbors and the building of bridges. He possessed an extraordinary memory, and a more than superficial acquaintance with many sciences and arts.

9. “Sir Isambert Bru-nelˈ.” (1769-1849.) The well known executor of the Thames tunnel. He was a Frenchman, and was intended for the church, but manifested so strong a liking for the physical sciences, and so great a genius for mathematics, that he was allowed to follow his natural bent and adopt the profession of a civil engineer. During the French Revolution he emigrated to the United States, where he engaged in many great works. After a stay of some years he went to England and there invented a number of useful machines, and was steadily employed upon important architectural and engineering works. His greatest achievement was the construction of the tunnel under the Thames River, which after many difficulties and disasters was completed in 1843, eighteen years after it was commenced. He was a member of the Royal Society, and also of the French Academy.

10. “Cuvier,” kūˈvyā. George Leopold Christian Frederic Dagobert, Baron. (1769-1832.) An eminent French naturalist. Such was his talent and such the perseverance with which he followed up his examination and inquiries, that he was soon looked upon as one of the best zoölogists in Europe. His fame reached the ears of Napoleon, and he bestowed upon him the most important offices in the department of public instruction. France is indebted to him for the finest osteological collection in the world; and the world is indebted to him for the great addition he has made to the science of zoölogy.

11. “Buffon,” George Louis Leclerc. (1707-1788.) A French naturalist. He studied law, but never practiced it, being strongly inclined to scientific and mathematical studies. Euclid was his constant pocket companion. After having traveled extensively, he settled down in France and devoted himself to study and to his literary works. His fame rests upon his “Natural History,” in thirty-six volumes, which has been translated into almost every European language. It is a wonderful work in the extent of its information and its eloquence, though it is often inaccurate, and is full of wild theories.

12. “Cuttle-fish.” A molluscous shell-fish. The shell is internal, and is of a friable, calcareous substance, much used for making pounce, tooth powder, and for polishing purposes. The fishes are provided with eight arms and two long tentacles, all of which are ranged round the head and provided with suckers, which take such fast hold of objects that the limbs will sometimes tear away before they will let go. The animal is provided with an ink bag as a means of defense; when attacked it instantly darkens the water with this black fluid, and so conceals itself, and often makes its escape. They have very large eyes, which are designed for use in the night, as the animal seems to shun the light of day. It is not easily caught, and is one of the pests of Scottish fishermen, as it frequently devours the fish which have been caught in their nets.

13. “Cromˈar-ty Firth.” A landlocked inlet of the North Sea, on the northeast coast of Scotland. It is a fine harbor, eighteen miles long, running southwest, and from three to five miles broad. The largest fleet could be safely sheltered within it.

14. “Amˈmon-ites.” A genus of fossil shells, somewhat like the _Nautilus_. They are found in all fossiliferous rocks from the transition strata to the chalk. They vary in size from those that are exceedingly small to those three and four feet in diameter. Some of them resemble in form the coil of a ram’s horn, and others a snake coiled up. For a long time they were taken by the common people to be petrified snakes. They are so abundant in Burgundy that in some places the roads are paved with them.

ANIMAL BIOLOGY.

1. “Barˈna-cles.” A kind of shell fish, now recognized as belonging to the _Articulata_. They are provided with a long, flexible footstalk, by means of which they adhere either to fixed or floating objects. At the summit of this stalk are shelly valves, five in number, which enclose the principal organs of the animal. This shell opens and closes to admit of its spreading out and retracting a net-like organ, by means of which the animal catches its food, which consists of small crustacea. On emerging from the eggs, young barnacles are free, and are furnished with organs of locomotion, and with large eyes, but in a short time a change occurs in them. They assume the form of their parents, and attach themselves to some place of residence. In warm climates they are exceedingly abundant, and often fasten themselves in such numbers to the bottom of a vessel as to retard its progress.

2. “Fourteen-footed Crustacea.” The beach-fleas which are found so commonly among weeds, belong to this order, and the mantis shrimp.

3. “Ten-footed Crustacea.” This order is represented by the shrimp.

4. “Cephalo-thorax,” sephˈa-lo thoˈrax. Head-chested. The first segment of the animal contains the head and the chest.

5. “Carapace,” carˈa-pace.

6. “Epidermis,” ĕp-i-dermˈis. The thin, semi-transparent covering over the true skin. It is readily seen in the occurrence of blisters, as the fluid is always contained between it and the dermis, or true skin. It extends over the whole body, even the front of the eye.

7. “Acarina,” ă-ka-reeˈna.

8. “Pedipalpi,” pedˈi-palˈpĭ. The word is derived from two Latin words, meaning a foot, and to touch softly.

9. “Araneina,” ar-a-nīˈna.

10. “Centipedes,” senˈti-pēdes. The word means hundred-footed.

11. “Chitine,” kīˈtēn.

12. “Chilognatha,” kī-logˈna-thä.

13. “Chilopoda,” kī-lopˈa-dä.

14. “Neuroptera,” new-ropˈte-rä.

15. “Orthoptera,” or-thopˈte rä.

16. “Hemiptera,” hĕ-mipˈte-rä.

17. “Coccus Cacti,” cocˈcus cac-ti.

18. “Nopal,” nōˈpal. A plant of the genus cacti; the Indian fig.

19. “Cortes,” or Cortez, Fernando. (1485-1554.) The Spanish conqueror of Mexico.

20. “Coleoptera,” cō-lē-opˈte-ra.

21. “Imago,” ī-māˈgo.

22. “Elytra,” elˈī-tra.

23. Ornaments made from the sheaths of beetles. In the National Museum at Washington are many articles made by Indians and trimmed with beetle wings. There are leather capes and straps decorated with them, and head-dresses on which rows of the wings are sewed together edge to edge. Besides these, many little fancy ornaments are made of them. They may also be seen in large millinery stores, as they bid fair now to come in vogue as decorations for ladies’ bonnets.

24. “Lepidoptera,” lĕp-i-dŏpˈte-ra.

25. “The silk worm.” This insect is a native of the north of China, and a large part of the raw silk for Europe and America comes from that country. The silk worm was brought into the south of Europe in the sixth century, whence the insects, being found profitable, gradually spread into Italy and France, in both of which countries the production of silk has long been an important industry. The worms, when properly cared for, do remarkably well in this country, where, in an early day, considerable attention was given to silk culture. In colonial times the government encouraged the industry, and the production was considerable. In all the middle and southern parts both soil and climate were found favorable, and there was fair prospect of success; but for some reason the production of raw silk has fallen far behind other American industries, and certainly is not now in a flourishing condition. As late as 1844 the production was 396,700 pounds, worth $1,400,000. It has been much less since. But with our superior natural advantages, and the very fine quality of silk that can be produced, if ever the price of labor in other countries is raised to near the same it is here, it will be profitable, and capitalists ready to invest largely in the business.

26. Such statements as these call to mind the following doggerel couplet:

“Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ’em And these again have other fleas; and so on, _ad infinitum_.”

27. The habits of ants form a most interesting study. The males and females are provided with delicate glistening wings, the infertile females, or neuters, are wingless. The latter are divided into two classes—the workers or nurses, and soldiers. There is on the part of the fertilized females a disposition to desert the colony, but the workers, who are always on the lookout for any such manifestations, prevent it if possible. The nurses take all the care of the eggs, which are so small as scarcely to be visible to the naked eye, and which the mother never notices unless she is left alone; they also care for the young ants. When the proper time comes they cut them from the cocoons in which the pupæ envelop themselves, but from which they are unable to extricate themselves without help. Winged ants are seen most frequently in the autumn, and the greater part die before cold weather. Ants feed mostly on the sugar found in vegetable substances, and on the secretions of the _aphides_, or _plant lice_, called honey dew, which is found smeared over the leaves of plants. Some kinds of ants catch these _aphides_ and carry them to their cells where they carefully provide for them in order that they may have the honey dew for food. Thus in their way they keep cows. The workers also have the care of building the habitations of the colony, forming the streets and chambers, repairing them, and fortifying them against the weather. The soldiers are larger, and are provided with stronger jaws. They do the heavier parts of the work, and the fighting for the colony. Some species of ants are slaveholders. They attack other colonies, and if not repelled, carry off the eggs and cocoons, which they care for, and when they are hatched and grown they are compelled to life service for their captors.

28. “Ascidian,” as-sidˈi-an.

29. “Lamprey,” lamˈpry.

30. “Marsipobranchii,” mar-sipˈo-brankˈĭ.

31. “Lamprey pie.” Lampreys were formerly held in high esteem for the table, and it was an old custom for the city of Gloucester annually to present a lamprey pie to the sovereign. Worcester, also, is famous, for its pies and potted lampreys.

32. The American lamprey likes best shallow places in rapidly flowing streams where there are pebbly bottoms. Out of the pebbles it builds its circular nest of stones, which vary in size from a hen’s egg to a cannon ball. It carries the stones in its mouth. The eggs are laid in these nests, and the young remain here until able to care for themselves. For full account of nest building fishes see the Christmas number of _Harper’s Monthly_ for 1883.

33. “Nictating membrane.” “A thin membrane at the inner angle of the eye, capable of being drawn across the ball beneath the lid, as in birds and some ruminant animals; the third eyelid.”—_Webster’s Dictionary._

34. “Operculum,” ō-perˈcu-lum.

35. “Vascular,” vasˈcu-lar. Consisting of vessels. The vascular system in animals contains the arteries, veins, and like parts.

36. “Elasmobranchii,” e-lasˈmo-brankˈĭ.

37. “Teleosti,” tē-lē-osˈti.

38. “The electric eel.” These animals are found in several of the rivers of South America. They are three or four feet in length, though a few have been found measuring six feet. The viscera lie close to the head, and all the rest of the body is taken up by the electrical apparatus, which consists of four batteries, two on each side. These batteries consist of horizontal membranous plates, intersected by delicate vertical plates; the spaces contain a glutinous matter. The batteries are supplied with two hundred and twenty-four pairs of nerves on each side. Humboldt gave much study to these eels, and wrote a graphic description of how the Indians captured them by driving horses into the water occupied by them. The powers of the fishes were exhausted in shocking the horses (some of which died from the effects), and the eels were caught. It is said, too, that the Indians sometimes caught wild horses by driving them into the water and capturing them while they were under the influence of the shock. Faraday calculated that the eel emitted a force as great as the highest charge of a Leyden battery of fifteen jars, having a coated surface of 3,500 square inches. The most powerful shocks are felt by touching the head of the eel with one hand, and the tail with the other.

39. “Blind fishes.” These are fishes found in caves, especially in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. They possess organs of touch so delicate that they are able to pursue and overtake fishes with eyes, that stray into their domain. It is very difficult to capture them, their sense of hearing being as acute as that of touch. They are nearly colorless and present a ghostly appearance in the water. They vary in length from two to five inches; they are viviparous.

40. “Sargossa Sea.” The name given to that part of the Atlantic Ocean lying between 25° and 36° north latitude, and west of the Azore islands, which is covered by a kind of seaweed distributed in great masses by the Gulf Stream. Humboldt speaks of it as “that great bank of weeds which so vividly occupied the imagination of Christopher Columbus, and which Oviedo calls the seaweed meadows.” On his first voyage Columbus passed through this sea, which caused great alarm to his companions, who thought there must be rocks or shoals near. The quantity of the weed is such as often to impede the progress of vessels.

TALK ABOUT BOOKS.

The histories of James Anthony Froude are best appreciated by and adapted to those who already have a good knowledge of history. They are like studies in higher mathematics, which always demand a careful preparation in the branches preceding them. All who read Thomas Becket[B] will readily assent to this. Without some knowledge of the “Constitutions of Clarenden,” one could hardly gather from this book what the beginning of the trouble was about, and would lose much of the enjoyment to be had in the fine analysis of the event. The first chapter contains a few incidents illustrative of the spirit of the times; then comes a very brief sketch of the famous archbishop, up to the time of the rupture of friendship between him and the king from that time until his murder in the cathedral of Canterbury, his life and characteristics are very fully drawn. The book lacks entirely that which no good book should ever be without—a full index.

Abridged dictionaries have been among the most unsatisfactory works which we have ever owned. They never cover the ground. A fresh attempt to make a complete, compact work has resulted in a book that no one need hesitate to recommend. It has been revised from Webster’s unabridged dictionary, and the editing has been subject to President Noah Porter. Several plans have been adopted for saving spaces, which neither cheapen the work nor injure the quality. The abridgment has been accomplished, we believe, after carefully comparing the abridged and unabridged works, without sacrificing either pronunciation, definitions or derivations. The aid of examples and synonyms is lost in the smaller work. The invaluable appendix of the larger work is very adequately represented by a pronouncing vocabulary of Biblical, classical, mythological, historical and geographical proper names. The cost of the book places it in the reach of almost every one. We have felt for a long time that there was no really desirable dictionary of low price which we could recommend willingly to our C. L. S. C. readers. This work will fully meet their needs, and we take pleasure in calling attention to it.[C]

A study of frontier life and government is to be found in “Mining Camps.”[D] As one reads the book the old saying “One half of the world does not know how the other half lives,” recurs again and again to the mind. That such great organizations should have been in existence, governed by local laws devised by themselves to suit the necessities of their condition, and carried up to a high state of development, while other parts of the country were almost in ignorance concerning these commonwealths, seems hard to understand. The book is not designed as a technical history of mining. Ancient and mediæval mining systems are examined, and the development of their institutions carefully traced. The greater part of the book is devoted to the study of camps in the remote West.

The “Historical Reference Book”[E] at once takes its place among those works which cause one to wonder how he ever did without them. It comprises a chronological table of universal history, a chronological dictionary of universal history, a biographical dictionary, and geographical notes. Great care has been taken in the biographical dictionary to select all the names of those men who have a strong claim to distinction, and from the list, which is necessarily limited, those have been omitted whose renown is fleeting. For those who can not provide themselves with cyclopædias, large dictionaries, and books of reference, we know of no work better calculated to meet their needs, and those who have these other helps at hand will find this the most convenient for brief notices. It is especially adapted to the use of students.

In “Workday Christianity”[F] the names of tradesmen, as “The Carpenter,” “The Potter,” etc., have been used as the subjects of chapters, and the history of each calling is briefly given, from the earliest Bible times down to the present. They are then used as figures, and around them are draped moral lessons from which may be gathered many useful suggestions. There is, however, a gloomy outlook spread before the Christian; his life is made to seem only as “a life of work, of trial, of tears and fears, of conflicts fierce and long.” In the author’s denunciations of hypocrisy, style, cant and caste in the churches, he inconsistently pays them the high honor of allowing them to overshadow all else. He never sees the true, the beautiful and the good existing there also. Such sentences as the following have a wrong tendency and do harm: “It was not considered a disgrace in those days to ply a trade.” “How many rich young ladies would scorn to associate with the sons and daughters of our workmen.” For some strange cause there is a large class of laboring people who are always debasing themselves by supposing other people feel above them. They are constantly snubbing themselves, in the fear that somebody is going to do so. This feeling should never be fed by a religious book. The author stands on the wrong side of many questions he attempts to handle.

The most pleasing observations of nature at present being contributed to our literature are those by John Burroughs. Most writers in their descriptions of the outside world are one-sided. They see the landscape but forget the sounds. Burroughs never does this. He catches everything: the dew, the color, the sound, the accent of the country-folk, the lay of the land, the build of the plow. In his “Fresh Fields”[G] the effect is exactly what the walk through the fields would have been. A vivid, fresh, constantly changing panorama is spread before you. The style suits the shifting scenes. It is not “fine writing,” but it is clear, plain and appropriate; like the corduroy trousers, short coat, and top boots which form the outfit for tramps like those of Mr. Burroughs, it is not elegant, but exactly “the thing.” While the observations of flower and bird and sky are so exact and pleasing, there is much “humanization of nature.” He is not so enamored with the fields that he can not take a genuine interest in men. The most delicious story we have read for a long time is his “Hunt for the Nightingale.” No knight in fiction ever followed his lady-love more eagerly than does this ardent wooer his Philomel, and it has been a long time since we have been more eager to have a story turn out well.

In “Letters to Guy”[H] boys will find an interesting book. These letters are written from Australia, by a mother to her son left at home in England. They tell of the voyages from one place to another, of the places visited, of the people, and of the natural history of the country. They are written in a bright, racy style, and are so homelike that any boy could easily forget they were penned by a titled lady, and imagine they might be his own mother’s letters to himself.

In “How to Get On in the World”[I] will be found a full account of the life and literary works of William Cobbett. In his preface the author says: “It is thought that an account of the life and writings of one of England’s most powerful writers and most remarkable characters, with some of the best productions of his pen, can not fail to be useful.” And a very useful and entertaining book he has succeeded in giving to the public. The making it serve the double purpose of biography and autobiography affords, as is always the case, a pleasing variety. His early history, his experience in the British army, in the United States, and as an editor, his trial and imprisonment for the libels he placed on government and individuals, and all of the leading events in the stirring life of this great political writer are clearly set forth. There is also a full account of his works, which are very numerous. Better than any theoretical treatise on this subject is the history of this self-made man, conquering difficulties and winning successes along the lines in which he sought it.

A story of the times of Wyckliffe is given under the title “Dearer than Life.”[J] One of the best means of doing good now in use is that of teaching the young people useful lessons in the form of these attractive historical novels. In this one, the fortunes of a family who were for a long time divided in their opinions concerning the doctrines of the great reformer are narrated, and are so closely interwoven with the real history of the times that there can be no skipping of the facts for the sake of the fancy.

Of the recent text-books published for use in schools, on physiology and hygiene, none deserves higher commendation than “Our Bodies, and How we Live.”[K] The lessons are all so arranged and expressed as to awaken and hold the attention of the scholar, and can not fail, especially in the hands of a skillful teacher, to make this important study an exceedingly interesting one. The effects of strong drink on different parts of the system are carefully shown. The numerous illustrations are very clear, and so well labeled that they perfectly supplement the lessons and leave no chance for misunderstanding or mistake. The book contains a glossary and an index.

Two little books by Charles Kingsley,[L] put into the hands of children who have been taught to love good reading—and indeed the books of themselves would teach any child to do this—would prove a treasure-house to them. The prefaces alone, with their cordial, sympathetic greeting, their natural, straightforward statements, and their spirit of love and reverence, are worth the price of the books.

Any one who has had experience in arranging tableaux knows how true it is that there is a false and a true way of producing effects. Not knowing how to drape, to select colors, to arrange a group, to copy this or that, spoils many tableaux and discourages managers. We are glad to find a suggestive book on this difficult art.[M] Without any theorizing the authors teach us how to do by plunging _in medias res_ and producing the tableaux before our eyes. The book describes twenty-four tableaux, but the variety of subjects is such that study of them furnishes a very complete drill for producing any desired effect.

A good game will occasionally fill a niche in an evening, in a way entirely its own. We believe we have found two such in Miss Alice M. Guernsey’s Shakspere Game,[N] and Elements and Compounds.[O] The games are pleasing variations of the well known game of “Authors.” The latter is particularly novel in its arrangement, and local circles who want to fix in mind the troublesome “compounds” will find it very useful.

It is a very convenient thing for a reader of history to have at hand a chart which gives in brief the synchronological events of nations. So many charts of this kind, however, are cumbersome, that the trouble of using is almost as time-taking as that of consulting books. A chart without this drawback is the “Concentric Chart of History”[P] which Dr. Ludlow has recently published. It can be held in the hand when in use, and folds up into small compass. It contains all the facts which readers ought to go to a chart for, and some interesting items on the useful arts, on sculptors, artists, and literary characters. Altogether it makes a very convenient reference table for a reader of history.

The “Common School Compendium”[Q] is a little volume, intended, the author says, “to serve several purposes—to provide graduates of high schools and colleges a quick means of reviewing the work of early school days; to give to teachers a reliable hand-book of knowledge they are expected always to have at command, and above all to provide that large class of young people who are striving in the privacy of home to master the difficulties of a systematic course of study, a work that should do away with the necessity for large numbers of text-books.” It outlines, and gives brief lessons in, geography, arithmetic, grammar, natural history and history. It will be found by all to be a valuable reference book.

GORDON IN THE SOUDAN.—“I have certainly got into a slough with the Soudan; but looking at my banker, my commander-in-chief, and my administrator, it will be wonderful if I do not get out of it. If I had not got this Almighty Power to back me in His in finite wisdom, I do not know how I could ever think of what is to be done. With terrific exertions I may in two or three years’ time, with God’s administration, make a good province, with a good army and a fair revenue and peace and an increased trade, and also have suppressed slave raids, and then I will come home and go to bed and never get up again till noon every day, and never walk more than a mile.”[R]

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Evolution and Christianity, or an Answer to the Development of Infidelity of Modern Times. By Benjamin F. Tefft, D.D., LL.D. Boston: Lee and Shepard. New York: Charles T. Dillingham. 1885.

How to Do It. By Edward Everett Hale. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1884.

Weird Tales. By E. T. W. Hoffmann. A new translation from the German. By J. P. Bealby, B.A. In two volumes. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1885.

Words and Ways; or, What They Said, and What Came of It. By Sarah J. Jones. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, $1.00.

Edward Arnold as Poetizer and Paganizer, Containing an Examination of the Light of Asia for its Literature and for its Buddhism. By William Cleaver Wilkinson. Funk & Wagnalls. New York: 1884.

The Clerk’s Manual of Rules, Forms, and Laws for the Regulation of Business in the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York. Including Croswel’s Manual. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co. 1885.

Consolation. A Special Collection of Standard Hymns, Tunes, and Chants for Funeral and Memorial Services, together with suitable “Gospel Songs,” New and Old, designed to Comfort those Who Mourn. Edited by James R. Murray. Cincinnati: Published by John Church & Co.

Serapis. A Romance. By George Ebers. New York: William S. Gottsberger, Publisher. 11 Murray Street. 1885. Price, paper cover, 50 cents.

A Railroad Waif. By Mrs. C. B. Sargent. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. New York: Phillips & Hunt. 1885. Price, 75 cents.

Mind-Reading and Beyond. By William A. Hovey. Boston: Lee and Shepard. 1885.

The Three Pronunciations of Latin. By M. M. Fisher, D.D. LL.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1885.

The Story of the Resurrection By William H. Furness, D.D. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1885.

Composition and Rhetoric. By G. P. Quackenbos, LL.D. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1885.

Organic Chemistry. By Ira Remsen. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co.

Continuity of Christian Thought. By A. V. G. Allen. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1884. Price, $2.00.

The Hallam Succession. A Tale of Methodist Life in Two Countries. By Amelia E. Barr. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, $1.00.

The Lenâpè and their Legends. Library of Aboriginal American Literature. By D. G. Brinton, M.D. Philadelphia. 1885.

The Open Door. The Portrait. Two Stories. By the author of A Little Pilgrim, and Old Lady Mary. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1885. Price, 75 cents.

Tales from Shakspere. By Charles and Mary Lamb. Edited for the use of Schools. Boston: Ginn, Heath & Co. 1885.

[B] Thomas Becket. By James Anthony Froude. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1885. Price, 50 cents.

[C] Condensed Dictionary of the English Language. Edited under the supervision of Noah Porter, DD., LL.D. By Dorsey Gardner. New York and Chicago: Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Company. Price, $1.80.

[D] Mining Camps. By Charles Howard Shinn. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1885. Price, $2.00.

[E] The Historical Reference Book. By Louis Heilprin. New York: D. Appleton and Company. 1885. Price, $3.00.

[F] Workday Christianity. By Alexander Clarke. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Price, $1.00.

[G] Fresh Fields. By John Burroughs. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 1885. Price, $1.50.

[H] Letters to Guy. By Lady Barker. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1885. Price, $1.50.

[I] How to Get On in the World, as Displayed in the Life and Writings of William Cobbett. By Robert Waters. New York: R. Worthington, 770 Broadway. 1885. Price, $1.50.

[J] Dearer than Life. By Emma Leslie. New York: Phillips & Hunt. Cincinnati: Cranston & Stowe. 1885. Price, $1.00.

[K] Our Bodies, and How we Live. By Albert F. Blaisdell, M.D. Boston: Lee and Shepard. New York: Charles T. Dillingham. 1885. Price, 60 cents.

[L] The Heroes. Price, 30 cents. Madam How and Lady Why. Price, 50 cents. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1885.

[M] Artistic Tableaux, with Picturesque Diagrams and Descriptions of Costumes. Text by Josephine Pollard. Arrangement of Diagrams by Walter Satterlee. New York: White, Stokes & Allen. 1884.

[N] Quotations. A Shaksperean Game. By Alice M. Guernsey. Chicago: S. R. Winchell & Co. Price, 25 cents.

[O] Elements and Compounds. A Chemical Game. By Alice M. Guernsey. Chicago: S. R. Winchell & Co. Price, 25 cents.

[P] Ludlow’s Concentric Chart of History. By James M. Ludlow, D.D. New York City: Funk & Wagnalls. Price, $2.00.

[Q] The Common School Compendium. For Home Students and Teachers. By Mr. L. J. Lanphere. Chicago: Fairbanks & Palmer. 1885.

[R] Chinese Gordon, the Uncrowned King. His character as it is portrayed in his Private Letters. Compiled by Laura C. Holloway. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. 1885. Ribbon-tied. Price, 25 cents.

CHAUTAUQUA, 1885.

Chautauqua is the original recreative and educational summer resort on Chautauqua Lake;

Chautauqua is the center of an elegant and literary social life;

Chautauqua is the first of many similar movements in all parts of the land, and the one from which they have received their idea and inspiration;

Chautauqua is the seat of the world-wide “C. L. S. C.” (the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle), which enrolls more than fifty thousand readers, and provides more than thirty distinct courses of reading and study for persons of all ages and degrees of culture;

Chautauqua is a place of rest and recreation; with grounds, high, dry, perfectly drained, clean, delightful; with three lovely natural plateaus rising from the lakeside to an elevation among the very highest on the lake. The sanitary regulations are scientific and effective. The healthfulness of the place is not excelled in America.

Chautauqua has a charming hotel, the Hotel Athenæum, one of the most elegant and substantial summer hotels on the continent. Its lovely outlook on the lake, its ample piazzas, spacious halls, parlor and dining room render it equal to any hotel outside of New York City.

Chautauqua provides cottage-boarding at all rates, and persons preferring cheap board to that of the more expensive and elegant Hotel Athenæum can easily find it.

Chautauqua is CHAUTAUQUA. The name of the ground is CHAUTAUQUA. The landing is CHAUTAUQUA. The postoffice is CHAUTAUQUA. The express office is CHAUTAUQUA. It is not “Point Chautauqua” or “Chautauqua Point,” or “Chautauqua Lake,” but simply CHAUTAUQUA, N. Y.

Chautauqua is the children’s paradise. Games, romps, bathing, boating, calisthenics, roller skating under judicious control, bonfires, concerts, stereopticon exhibitions, a splendid museum of oriental curiosities and pictures, a useful “hour-a-day” during the Assembly season (if children wish it) of lessons, story-telling, and songs—all these make Chautauqua a most charming resort for children.

SUNDAY SCHOOL NORMAL WORK.

At the summer session of the Assembly the normal work is conducted in five departments, viz.:—

1. The Children’s Class, for young people, taught by the Rev. B. T. Vincent.

2. The Intermediate Normal Class, for advanced scholars and teachers, also taught by the Rev. B. T. Vincent.

3. The Sunday School Normal Class, in the two sections of the Bible and the Sunday School, taught by the Rev. J. L. Hurlbut, D. D., and Prof. R. S. Holmes.

4. The Advanced Normal, conducted by the Rev. A. E. Dunning and the Rev. Frank Russell.

5. The Primary Teachers’ Normal Class, for the instruction of teachers of little people. By Mrs. B. T. Vincent.

6. Among other exercises valuable and interesting to Sunday School workers are the following: Daily Bible Reading, under the direction of Dr. John Williamson, of Chicago, Ill.; Daily Devotional Services, led by the Rev. Dr. B. M. Adams, of New York; Occasional Question-drawers and Normal Councils, under the direction of Dr. J. H. Vincent; Sunday School Teachers’ Meetings on Saturday evenings, and the great NORMAL ALUMNI REUNION on Thursday, August 13th.

Information concerning the Normal Course may be obtained by addressing either the Rev. J. L. Hurlbut, D. D., 805 Broadway, New York; or the Rev. A. E. Dunning, Congregational House, Boston, Mass.

THE CHAUTAUQUA COLLEGE OF MODERN LANGUAGES.

PROF. J. H. WORMAN, PH. D., Director.

PROF. A. LALANDE, Associate, School of French.

The College of Modern Languages, under the direction of the distinguished teacher and author, Dr. J. H. Worman, will open July 11th, and continue in session for six weeks.

Concerning Prof. Worman, it is not necessary that anything be said in this announcement. As a teacher he is unexcelled in this country. As an author of school books in language he is widely known.

Prof. Lalande, a Parisian, a thorough Frenchman, a born teacher, captivates his pupils while he leads them on to a mastery of his native tongue through his aptness to teach, distinct enunciation, and personal enthusiasm.[S]

For full information concerning the COLLEGE OF MODERN LANGUAGES for the coming season, address as follows: German, Italian, and Spanish, Dr. J. H. Worman, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.; for French, Prof. A. Lalande, Bridgeport, Conn.

[S] Indiana Cottage, 253 North avenue, Chautauqua, N. Y., will furnish for $55.00 for the six weeks (July 11th—August 24th) of the Chautauqua Schools of Language, room and board, including all the comforts of a quiet home, with a private table to be presided over by Prof. A. Lalande, where nothing but French is to be spoken.

THE ACADEMIA OF LATIN AND GREEK.

(Summer Term of Six Weeks.)

Professor Shumway writes to the Chancellor of Chautauqua University:

_My Dear Doctor Vincent:_

It gives me great pleasure to be able to offer this summer, at Chautauqua, a course in Latin and Greek of unusual merit. Of the assistant teachers, Mr. Otto is already favorably known to our pupils of last summer, and to many correspondence students as an energetic and thorough teacher. Dr. Bevier will be a great acquisition for Chautauqua. He was graduated from Rutgers with first honors, having also during his course won honors in Latin and Greek at the inter-collegiate contest. After graduation he studied at Johns Hopkins University (which conferred on him the degree Ph.D.), and then continued his studies in Europe. He was a student at the American School at Athens, Greece, and is now an enthusiastic and successful teacher. He is the author of a paper on the _Olympieion_ (in the report of the School at Athens, published by Professor Goodwin, of Harvard).

Although our session in Latin last year began a week late, and we suffered from other disadvantages, I believe our numbers in Latin reached a total unparalleled in the history of Chautauqua.

What was, however, especially gratifying, was the improved quality of scholarship manifested by students.

For this summer we offer the following course:

1. ROMAN LAW (using the Institutes of _Justinian_) with information. Not only every lawyer, but every teacher of Latin to-day should familiarize “_thon_”self with Roman law, lying, as it does, _at the base of Roman civilization_.

2. THE LATIN OF THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS.—Recent publication and discussion have brought into such prominence the influence of the early Latin Fathers on church doctrine that _every clergyman_, present or prospective, will do well to examine this question for himself.

3. COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY (using Halsey’s Etymology; Ginn, Heath & Co.)—(Every student preparing to enter either of these three classes should _at once_ communicate with the principal, that there may be no delay at the opening of the session, in securing apparatus.)

4. PLATO.—Apology and Crito, Tyler’s Ed. (Appletons.)

5. CICERO.—_De Natura Deorum_, Stickney’s Ed. (Ginn, Heath & Co.)

6. HOMER.—Odyssey.

7. VERGIL.—Æneid.

8. HORACE.—Chase’s Ed. (Eldridge & Bro.)

9. CICERO.—Orations.

10. XENOPHON.—Anabasis.

11. CÆSAR.—_De Bello Gallico_ (two hours per day).

12. BEGINNERS IN GREEK. Harkness’s Text-Book, last ed. (Appletons.)

13. BEGINNERS IN LATIN (THREE HOURS PER DAY BY THE INDUCTIVE METHOD, WITH CONSTANT USE OF LATIN QUESTION AND ANSWER).

🖙 Latin students must have the “Hand-Book of Latin Synonymes.” (Ginn, Heath & Co.)

🖙 _Special rates will be made for correspondence pupils, and all are urged to attend._

I hope you will give us at Chautauqua zealous students, who will concentrate their work on Latin and Greek, and especially two classes: TEACHERS of Latin and Greek, and those who are absolutely BEGINNERS. A clear-headed student who doesn’t know a word of Latin, can, by devoting six weeks to it, FIVE HOURS per day (_Beginners_ and _Cæsar_) or ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY HOURS in six weeks—quite as much time as the average school gives in one year—make decided progress.

It is thought that teachers of Latin and Greek will find of value not only the method, but also the inspiration which indubitably does arise when teachers gather.

It is perhaps hardly necessary to add that _the use of Latin not only in elucidating text, but also in discussing syntax, derivations, synonymes, history, geography, archæology, etc., is an essential feature of our work in Latin_. Worthy of the attention of teachers is the fact that our colloquial work is not the mere parrot-like repetition of phrases of the text.

Your ob’t servant,

EDGAR S. SHUMWAY, Principal of Chautauqua _Academia_.

RUTGERS COLLEGE, February 23, 1885.

THE CHAUTAUQUA SCHOOL OF HEBREW.

DR. W. R. HARPER, of the Institute of Hebrew, Director.

The Chautauqua School of Hebrew will open August 4, at 2 p. m., and continue until August 31, at 12 m.

The tuition fee is $10.00. This sum includes admission to the grounds.

Elementary, Intermediate, Progressive, and Advanced Classes will be organized. For further information, correspond with Dr. W. R. Harper, Morgan Park, near Chicago, Ill.

THE CHAUTAUQUA COLLEGE OF ENGLISH AND ANGLO-SAXON.

The Chautauqua College of English and Anglo-Saxon is under the direction of Prof. W. D. McClintock, who has by steadiness, fidelity, tact, and rich scholarship commanded the respect and enthusiastic devotion of his pupils during several summers at Chautauqua. For particulars concerning the Summer School of English, address Prof. W. D. McClintock, Millersburgh, Ky.

THE CHAUTAUQUA TEACHERS’ RETREAT.

The Teachers’ Retreat is a three weeks’ meeting of secular school teachers, opening July 11, 1885, for lectures, illustrative exercises, biographical studies, and scientific experiments, combined with the recreative delights of a summer vacation and the quickening influence of the summer school. The teachers in the “Retreat” for this season are: Dr. J. W. Dickinson, of Boston, Dr. J. T. Edwards, of Randolph, N. Y., W. C. J. Hall, Esq., of Jamestown, N. Y., Prof. R. L. Cumnock, of Evanston, Ill., Prof. C. R. Wells, of Syracuse, N. Y., Prof. W. D. Bridge, of New Haven, Conn., Prof. Henry Lummis, of Boston, Prof. E. A. Spring, of Perth Amboy, N. J., Mrs. A. L. Blanchard, of New York City, Miss Mary A. Bemis, of Fredonia, N. Y., Prof. Walton N. Ellis, etc.

Lessons in experimental science, microscopy, kindergarten, elocution, the science and art of pedagogy, penmanship and book-keeping, mineralogy and geology, calisthenics, phonography, stenograph reporting, botany and forestry, drawing, painting, needle-work, clay modeling, voice culture, harmony, organ instruction, etc.

Tickets of admission to the Chautauqua Teachers’ Retreat for the three weeks in July, $5.00. This ticket admits to all general Amphitheater exercises, lectures, concerts, etc., and to the following: The special and general exercises of the “Chautauqua Foreign Tourists’” ideal excursion through Italy, brilliantly illustrated with the stereopticon; fourteen lessons in pedagogy; fourteen lessons in the practical application of pedagogical science; four tourists’ conferences; four expositions of method in chemistry; one exposition of method in penmanship; one exposition of method in elocution; two admissions to each of the several classes in the Schools of Language; two lectures on school method, by Prof. Edward E. Smith, superintendent of schools in Syracuse, N. Y.; one exposition of method in standard phonography; one exposition of method in reporting by the stenograph; ten half-hour drills in school calisthenics, etc.

For circulars, address W. A. Duncan, Esq., Syracuse, N. Y.

THE AMERICAN CHURCH-SCHOOL OF CHURCH WORK.

REV. GEORGE P. HAYS, D. D., of Denver, Director.

Dr. Hays will open at Chautauqua this season a “School of Church Work,” for the benefit of the laity in all denominations and in all branches of Christian activity. [See announcements in May issue of _Assembly Herald_.]

CHAUTAUQUA IDEAL FOREIGN TOUR.

Among the most instructive and entertaining features of the Chautauqua season is the annual “foreign tour” to some of the “lands beyond the sea.” The “Ideal Foreign Tour” this year will be made through ITALY. Foreign tourists’ conferences, parlor soirees, stereopticon illustrated lectures, and a large library of well-selected works on foreign travel, with a large variety of engravings, photographs, etc., will furnish abundant enjoyment and profit to all the members of the Teachers’ Retreat and the members of any department of the Schools of Language.

SCHOOL OF ORATORY.

PROF. R. L. CUMNOCK, Director.

The school will open on the 13th of July, and continue in session six weeks. The instruction in elocution will be thorough, practical and progressive. Four classes will be organized: Juvenile, General, Advanced, Ministerial.

TERMS:—I. Juvenile Class: $10.00 for the session; $7.00 for three weeks; $5.00 for two weeks; $3.00 for one week.

II. General or Advanced Class: $12.00 for the session; $8.00 for three weeks; $6.00 for two weeks; $4.00 for one week.

III. General and Advanced Classes: $20.00 for the session; $14.00 for three weeks; $9.00 for two weeks; $6.00 for one week.

IV. Ministerial Class: $8.00 for three weeks; $6.00 for two weeks; $4.00 for one week.

V. Private Hours, $3.00. In sections of four, $1.00 each per hour.

For further particulars, address Prof. R. L. Cumnock, Evanston, Ill.

Prof. Cumnock will give two public readings at Chautauqua during the season.

LESSONS IN ART.

Mrs. A. L. Blanchard, of the American Art School, New York, will conduct this department at Chautauqua the coming season. She will give thorough instructions in free-hand drawing, all branches of painting, crayon portraiture, and art needle-work.

TERMS:—10 Lessons in Drawing $5.00 12 ” ” Painting, Mineral, Oil and Water Colors 10.00 10 ” ” Needle-Work 5.00 12 ” ” Out-door Sketching 10.00 10 ” ” Object Drawing and Perspective 5.00

THE ORGAN.

Isaac V. Flagler, of Syracuse University, will preside at the organ. A full program for ten organ recitals will be given in an early program. Many of the organ selections are not to be found in this country elsewhere, and will be played for the first time at Chautauqua. They were sent to Prof. Flagler by the composers, whose acquaintance he made in Europe.

The principal purposes of organ-playing will be demonstrated theoretically and practically by Mr. Flagler.

1. Playing for divine services.

2. Playing for concerts and exhibitions.

3. Playing accompaniments.

Especial attention will be given to manual and pedal technique, and the art of registration, or the employment of such stops as will display not only the different degrees of power, but also the utmost variety of tone color. Terms for a course of lessons on the organ at Chautauqua, $10.00.

KINDERGARTEN.

This department will be in charge of Miss Mary A. Bemis, a pupil of Mrs. Kraus-Boelte, of New York, and for years teacher in this department at Chautauqua. An opportunity will be given, as last year, to observe the children under training by Miss Bemis. After each recitation, parents and teachers may receive practical instruction in the use of kindergarten material and the application of kindergarten principles to home and school life.

PHONOGRAPHY AND THE STENOGRAPH.

This department will be in charge of Prof. W. D. Bridge, of New Haven, Conn., for thirty years a shorthand writer, and for many years a practical shorthand reporter. For the last four years he his been engaged constantly with Dr. Vincent as shorthand secretary and assistant. Classes for beginners and advanced pupils in “Standard Phonography” will be organized. There will also be organized in this department of shorthand one or more classes in instruction on the “Stenograph,” the newly invented machine for practical reporting. A competent teacher will be in attendance from July 11th to August 24th.

TERMS: $10.00 for either department, “Standard Phonography,” or the “Stenograph,” in classes; seventy-five cents per hour in private.

For full information concerning this department, address Prof. W. D. Bridge, New Haven, Conn., up to July 1st; after that, at Chautauqua, N. Y.

THE CHAUTAUQUA MISSIONARY INSTITUTE

Will open Saturday, August 1st, and continue for several days, with conferences on important missionary topics, conducted by earnest men and women; with lectures, sermons and platform meetings.

MUSIC AT CHAUTAUQUA.

The arrangements for musical entertainment this year will exceed those of any former year in the history of Chautauqua.

The season of 1885 may justly be called the “summer of song” at Chautauqua. Among the attractions are the following:

A grand chorus under the direction of Prof. W. F. Sherwin, of the New England Conservatory of Music, in Boston; Prof. C. C. Case, of Akron, Ohio; and Prof. A. T. Schauffler, of New York City;

The famous Schubert Quartette (male), of Chicago, will be present from August 8th to 22d;

Miss Dora Henninges, of Cleveland, Ohio, _mezzo soprano_, will be at Chautauqua from August 4th to 18th.

Prof. Isaac V. Flagler, of Syracuse, N. Y., will preside at the great organ during the season;

Miss Adele M. Dodge, of Williamsport, Pa., will preside at the piano.

Mr. H. N. Hutchins, of Chicago, Ill., one of the greatest cornetists in America, will be at Chautauqua from August 4th to 18th.

THE FISK JUBILEE SINGERS.

The original company who so charmed Chautauqua three years ago with their matchless music, will be at Chautauqua July 11-18, and July 28-August 5. In this company are four of the original members of the earliest Fisk Jubilee Company, our old friends: Miss Jennie Jackson, soprano; Mrs. Maggie L. Porter-Cole, soprano; Miss Minnie W. Tate, contralto, and Miss Georgia M. Gordon, soprano.

THE PLATFORM.

The entire program has not been completed, but the following lecturers are engaged:

Dr. Geo. C. Lorimer, of Chicago, Ill.;

Dr. B. G. Northrop, of Connecticut;

Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, of Boston, Mass., who will lecture on Wendell Phillips, and a Dream of To-morrow;

Miss Kate Field, of Boston;

Dr. Geo. Dana Boardman, of Philadelphia, Pa.;

Rev. Robert Nourse, now of Washington, D. C.;

Philip Phillips;

Rev. J. W. A. Stewart, of Ontario;

H. K. Carroll, Esq., editor of _The Independent_, N. Y.;

Col. Homer B. Sprague, Boston, Mass., who will deliver two lectures on Shakspere, and two on Milton;

Miss L. M. Von Finkelstein, of Jerusalem;

Bishop R. S. Foster, of Boston, Mass.;

Dr. J. M. Buckley, of New York;

W. M. R. French, the brilliant crayonist;

Dr. C. F. Deems, of New York;

Edward Everett Hale, of Boston;

Bishop Cyrus D. Foss, of Minnesota;

It is hoped that John B. Gough and Frank Beard may be present. Other names will be announced in due time.

The distinguished English orator and scientist, George Sexton, M.A., LL.D., will deliver several lectures on scientific subjects.

The full program of the CHAUTAUQUA ASSEMBLY and the SCHOOLS will be ready in a short time. Questions addressed to Dr. J. H. Vincent, Plainfield, N. J., or W. A. Duncan, Esq., Syracuse, N. Y., will receive prompt attention.

THE FLORIDA CHAUTAUQUA.

The Florida Chautauqua is a success. Four months ago we had a dubious feeling that such an undertaking would fail of any real support in a clime which has always been so averse to adopting progressive ideas. Our healthy Chautauqua tree, we feared, would be enervated by tropical sunshine; but it has taken root with surprising readiness. And its growth is assured by the hearty northern support it is receiving. This support is a striking feature of Lake de Funiak. You see it in the pretty cottages that are being built about the grounds. They are generally owned by northerners. Wallace Bruce has a cottage there; Pansy is building one; Mrs. Harper, of Terre Haute, Ind., another; Dr. Hatfield, of Chicago, one, and Mrs. Emily Huntingdon Miller another. One delightful spot has been turned into an “Artist’s Corner” by Joaquin Miller, Mr. Durkin, Harper Brothers’ well known artist, and Mr. Gross, of Covington.

The attraction which Lake de Funiak has for literary and artistic people is easily explained. The country is enveloped in a mist of most fascinating story. Ponce de Leon and his warriors once searched its forest, and, perhaps, who knows, bathed in the lake’s clear waters.

It has an ideal climate. The lake lies on a ridge eighty by thirty miles in extent, and three hundred feet above sea level. “Too cold to raise oranges here,” the natives say, and sure enough it is, though east, at a lower altitude in the same latitude, orange groves are abundant. The beautiful LaConte pear, peaches, apples, and quinces, are the favorite fruits of this ridge. The result is that here in this overheated, indolent land, is formed an oasis with an even temperature, unknown to the mosquito, and unvisited by the cyclone.

No better place could be found for gathering the “material” in which the artist and the writer revel. These mammoth forests of pine, magnolia, cypress, palmetto, and oak, are broken by the settlements of a peculiar people. Northerners find here a fresh field of study for pen and pencil.

And it is a fresh field for the Chautauqua Idea. During the progress of the Assembly the people of the surrounding country were in a constant wonderment over the peculiar performances, but when they understood what was meant, their coöperation was the heartiest, and their interest was untiring. The earnest workers who have undertaken to introduce the Chautauqua plans, if they are still in the first stage, are yet sure of abundant results.

In arranging the Florida Assembly the effort has been to have everything truly Chautauquan. Naturally we think of the Auditorium first, and at Lake de Funiak the situation is superb. The lake, which is about a mile in circumference, some sixty-four feet in depth, and its water of extraordinary clearness and purity, has a setting of grassy banks which slope upward from the lake some fifty feet to the edge of the forest. Into this bank, looking out over the lake, is built a square auditorium, large enough to seat 4,000 people, enclosed and furnished with an iron roof. All of the various Chautauqua developments have found their way there. The platform, presided over by the Rev. A. H. Gillet, the C. L. S. C., the normal work, a school of Greek, a kindergarten, school of cookery, and an art school. Prof. Sherwin was there, presiding over the chorus. Messrs. Fairbanks & Palmer opened a bookstore. There were Chautauqua singers, songs, speeches, and ideas, and they all took root. The beautiful situation, the desirable company that is building the new town, the vigor of the management, and its sound financial backing, evidence the future of Lake de Funiak. What more beautiful southern home could those of us who migrate southward from this land of snow and ice wish, than under the pines of Ponce de Leon’s fountain, surrounded by a band of the most earnest workers in the world, and in daily reach of the best thought which money and skill can bring together? Or if we can find time and money for but a month’s study of Florida and her people, what more delightful headquarters?

SPECIAL NOTES.

A SCHOOL OF PEDAGOGY has been arranged in the CHAUTAUQUA UNIVERSITY. Its purpose is to assist the directors of popular education, and especially teachers, in the study—1st, of the subjects taught in the schools; 2nd, of the principles and art of teaching; and, 3d, of the history of education. Two courses of study and of reading will be arranged. One course may be completed in a year, the other in two years. Books to be studied and read will be suggested. Examinations for promotion and certificates will be made at the close of each year. The design of the course of studies and reading is to prepare school directors and teachers for the work of organizing and teaching the schools in accordance with the best methods. Any person may become a member of the School of Pedagogy by paying the Matriculation Fee of $5, unless it has already been paid in connection with some other department, and the Tuition Fee of $10. The Tuition Fee is a yearly fee. All fees are payable in advance, to R. S. Holmes, Registrar of the Chautauqua University, Plainfield, N. J., from whom all particulars in reference to the school may be obtained.

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Miss Susan Hayes Ward, in her article in the March impression of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, spoke disparagingly of electro-silicon as a cleaner for silver. Some good housekeepers represent it to be both a very useful and safe cleaning material. In all such cases, however, the person using the article must be the judge. But in this case we favor the opinion of the good housekeepers.

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The Easter cards of the season just past were very bright and beautiful, and many of them exceedingly rich. Prang’s cards, as usual, took the lead in artistic design and fine finish. They issued a very large number of new designs, and some very taking novelties in satin and plush.

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At Siloam Springs, Benton Co., Arkansas, another Chautauqua has been established. A joint stock company, with ample capital, has been organized, and a state charter secured. Prof. E. Dolgoruki was elected director-general. Siloam Springs is a place of 2,000 inhabitants, near the southwest corner of the state, one mile from Indian Territory. An amphitheater large enough to seat 2,500 persons is in process of erection, and efforts are being made to secure a good and diversified program for the coming session, which opens June 11, 1885, and continues three weeks.

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In the March number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, among the errata, appears the following: “Arann, the Rev. J. M., not _Araun_.” It seems it is not right yet; it should be Avann.

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Transcriber’s Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired.

Page 437, “transfered” changed to “transferred” (and transferred it to their own home)

Page 451, “crochety” changed to “crotchety” (crotchety but kind)

Page 455, “insistance” changed to “insistence” (ill-timed insistence)

Page 458, “tation” changed to “station” (the station agent was kind enough to say)

Page 459, “corrider” changed to “corridor” (a corridor nearly two hundred feet long)

Page 468, “fnnctions” changed to “functions” (the authority and functions of)

Page 474, “Broomfield” changed to “Bromfield” (36 Bromfield Street, Boston)

Page 479, “Eebruary” changed to “February” (February 20, 1885)

Page 480, “wvies” changed to “wives” (two merchants’ wives)

Page 487, “fnlly” changed to “fully” (when we are fully persuaded)