We have received many reports of the interesting celebrations held
in honor of Longfellow, on February 27—his birthday. These memorial
services are an excellent feature of the social work of the C. L. S.
C., and circles would do well to make an effort to observe them.
A public memorial service was held in Franklin, Mass., and the
_Sentinel_, of that place, expresses hearty commendation of its
character.
A very neat, printed program has been sent us from Spencer, Mass. The
exercises, held at the home of one of the members, consisted of essays,
recitations, and music, and were followed by supper.
The “Longfellow” afternoon at Westfield, N. Y., must have been very
pleasant. The society spent the time reading “Evangeline,” and talking
of incidents in the life of the author, completing the entertainment
with a supper.
The Lockport, N. Y., _Daily Journal_ congratulates the C. L. S. C.
of that town upon the success which attended their celebration, and
expresses the wish that the society will have many more such gatherings.
At Hiawatha, Kansas, the circle carried out an excellent program of
music, essays, and recitations.
At Media, Pa., an entertainment was given in honor of the poet. A
pretty feature was the response by a sentiment from each of the guests,
quotations having been written on cards and presented with their
invitations, so that all might join in the exercises. A novel exercise
was the reading of character sketches, the audience being permitted to
guess who it was that was portrayed therein. The literary feast was
followed by refreshments.
The C. L. S. C. of Westminster, Minn., held a celebration with
appropriate exercises.
The Longfellow Memorial Day was observed by the St. Louis, Missouri,
local circle, in a meeting of unusual interest, held Monday evening,
February 26, in their regular place of meeting, the pleasant parlors of
Pilgrim Congregational church. Though quite long, the program was heard
through to the end by a large and intelligent audience, mainly friends
of the members from without.
From Auburn, N. Y., we receive the following: “February 27 we
celebrated Longfellow’s birthday. It was the first really premeditated
entertainment we have had, and we of the committee looked forward to
it with fear and trembling, only to be so pleasantly surprised at the
willingness to do, and the amount of stored-away talent, that now we
complacently think our local circle can do almost anything. Prof. R.
Holmes talked to us, and it was such a delightful, encouraging talk,
I wished for the magic art of the stenographer, that I might send
his pleasant words to you all. Some of us had felt certain he would
‘tell us all about Chautauqua,’ but when he told us it was simply
indescribable, we gave a little sigh, and will try and wait until 1886,
the year to which most of us belong; then we just hope to go there, and
behold and appropriate for _ourselves_. Prof. Holmes explained to us
the full significance of the mystic C. L. S. C., and made us understand
more fully than ever how much we might make of it if we would.”
* * * * *
It is a proverbial expression that every man is the maker of his own
fortune, and we usually regard it as implying that every man, by his
folly or wisdom, prepares good or evil for himself. But we may view it
in another light—namely, that we may so accommodate ourselves to the
dispensations of Providence as to be happy in our lot, whatever may be
its privations.—_Wilhelm von Humboldt._