The C. L. S. C. is becoming a great social power. From the first it has
recognized that one of the great needs of the majority of the people is
healthy, active companionship; that for such companionship people will
undertake tasks for which they have otherwise little taste, and under
its stimulus will do much good work. It has recognized that if the
social life be kept clean and invigorating, there is no danger of any
one sinking into idleness or vice. Its power for good lies in the fact
that its method of work contains the very elements which are necessary
for a pure, wholesome social life. In the first place it calls people
together regularly and insures their intimate acquaintance. One of the
great hindrances to cordial social intercourse is that people do not
meet frequently and informally, so that they know each other well. We
are prone to invest those with whom we have but a passing acquaintance
with a dignity or knowledge so superior to our own that we are actually
afraid of them. The local circle breaks this up. We learn to know
our associates. No less important is it that the members of society
take their rank according to merit. No other standard will be used in
local circles. The ability to lead is the only quality which will give
a member the leadership. The C. L. S. C. is veritably the People’s
College, leveling all ranks.
_The_ reason, we may say, for the flatness of social life in the
ordinary town, is that the members have, or find, so little to think
about. People will not gossip, nor be recklessly extravagant, nor
indulge in insipid flirtations if they have wholesome subjects for
thought. The course of reading furnishes topics of vigor and interest.
The mind is kept active. The tone of the society is changed, because
the members are thinking and are experiencing the pleasure of an
interchange of ideas and knowledge. Their society life becomes a
recreation, instead, as is so often the case, dissipation.
There is, besides, a hearty good fellowship animating the circles
generally, which is one of their most promising features. The true
college spirit seems to inspire everyone with its life, energy, and
enthusiasm.
To what results have these elements led? Thousands of circles have
been formed all over the country, meeting for intellectual culture,
but bound together by strong friendship and sociability. In themselves
these circles are very powerful, but there are numberless offshoots
which are intended to develop cordial feeling among the members.
Among these are the large reunions, calling together the different
classes and circles. Invariably the reports of these affairs show that
all the appointments are in taste, and even elegance. Memorial days
furnish frequent opportunities for entertainments as pleasant as the
reunions. Large numbers of guests are frequently invited, the hall,
church, or parlor is decorated, bountiful refreshments are served,
and a carefully prepared and spicy program carried out. Numbers of
programs, some of them exquisite in design and finish, are sent to us,
giving the exercises of various memorial celebrations, and almost every
circle reports some charming novelty in entertainments. Nor are these
large and ambitious gatherings all. Informal “socials” sometimes take
the place of the usual work. The regular study hour is followed by a
merry half-hour devoted to games, music, spelling-matches, pronouncing
contests, or “visiting.”
All these pleasant features are combined to develop a strong social
feeling in every circle. New and better views of our social relations
are opened up, and we learn, perhaps for the first time, what good
fellowship means. The good which is done is inestimable. Indeed, we
do not hesitate to say that the opportunities of the C. L. S. C. for
social culture are excelled only by the opportunities it affords for
mental culture.