THE FIRST RECOGNITION DAY (1882)
THE opening service of the ninth session was begun, as all the opening
sessions of previous years, in the out-of-doors Auditorium in front of
the Miller Cottage. But a sudden dash of rain came down and a hasty
adjournment was made to the new Amphitheater. From 1882 onward, "Old
First Night" has been observed in that building. A few lectures during
the season of '82 were given in the old Auditorium, but at the close of
the season the seats were removed, save a few left here and there under
the trees for social enjoyment; and the Auditorium was henceforth known
as Miller Park.
The crowning event of the 1882 season was the graduation of the first
class in the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. Taking into
account the fact that it was the first class, for which no advertising
had been given and no announcement made in advance, the number graduated
at the end of the four years was remarkably large, over eighteen
hundred, of which eight hundred received their diplomas at Chautauqua
and a thousand more at their homes, some in distant places. Years
afterward I met a minister in a small town in Texas who had seen the
report of the inauguration of the C. L. S. C., had read Dr. Vincent's
address on that occasion, and joined the Class of 1882, its only member,
as far as he knew, in his State. One member was a teacher in South
Africa, others were missionaries in India and China. Most of the regular
visitors to Chautauqua in those early days were members of this class,
so that even now, after nearly forty years, the Pioneer Class can always
muster at its annual gatherings a larger number of its members than
almost any other of the classes. For many years Mrs. B. T. Vincent was
the President of the Class, and strongly interested in its social and
religious life. She instituted at Chautauqua the "Quiet Hour," held
every Saturday evening during the Assembly season, at Pioneer Hall, by
this class, a meeting for conversation on subjects of culture and the
Christian life. It is a touching sight to look upon that group of old
men and women, at their annual farewell meeting, on the evening before
the Recognition Day, standing in a circle with joined hands, singing
together their class song written for them by Mary A. Lathbury, and
then sounding forth their class yell:
Hear! Hear! Pioneers!
Height to height, fight for right,
Pioneers!
Who are you? Who are you?
We are the class of eighty-two!
Pioneers--Ah!
No college class was ever graduated with half the state and splendor of
ceremony that was observed on that first Recognition Day, in a ritual
prepared by Dr. Vincent, and observed to the letter every year since
1882. He chose to call it not a Commencement, but a Recognition, the
members of the Circle being _recognized_ on that day as having completed
the course and entitled to membership in the Society of the Hall in the
Grove, the Alumni Association of the C. L. S. C.
A procession was formed, its divisions meeting in different places. The
graduating class met before the Golden Gate at St. Paul's Grove, a gate
which is opened but once in the year and through which none may pass
except those who have completed the course of reading and study of the
C. L. S. C. Over the gate hung a silk flag which had been carried by the
Rev. Albert D. Vail of New York to many of the famous places in the
world of literature, art, and religion. It had been waved from the
summit of the Great Pyramid, of Mount Sinai in the Desert, and Mount
Tabor in the Holy Land. It had been laid in the Manger at Bethlehem, and
in the traditional tomb of Jesus in Holy Sepulcher Church. It had
fluttered upon the Sea of Galilee, upon Mount Lebanon, in the house
where Paul was converted at Damascus, and under the dome of St. Sophia
in Constantinople. It had been at the Acropolis and Mars' Hill in
Athens, to Westminster Abbey, and to Shakespeare's tomb at Stratford, to
the graves of Walter Scott and Robert Burns. Upon its stripes were
inscribed the names of forty-eight places to which that flag had been
carried. The class stood before the Golden Gate, still kept closed until
the moment should come for it to be opened, and in two sections the
members read a responsive service from the Bible, having wisdom and
especially the highest wisdom of all, the knowledge of God, as its
subject.
[Illustration: Lutheran Headquarters]
[Illustration: United Presbyterian Chapel]
At the same time one section of the parade was meeting in Miller Park,
in front of the Lewis Miller Cottage. Another was at the tent where
lived Dr. Vincent, and still another division, the most interesting of
all, on the hill, in front of the Children's Temple. This was an array
of fifty little girls in white dresses, with wreaths in their hair and
baskets of flowers in their hands. At the signal, the procession moved
from its different stations, and marched past the Vincent Tent, led by
the band and the flower girls, and including every department of
Chautauqua, officials, trustees, schools, and Sunday School Normal
Class. In the later years each class of graduates marched, led by its
banner, the Class of 1882, the Pioneers, bearing in front their symbol,
the hatchet. Before all was the great banner of the C. L. S. C.
presented to the Circle by Miss Jennie Miller, Lewis Miller's eldest
daughter, bearing upon one side a painting of the Hall of Philosophy and
the three mottoes of the Circle; on the other a silk handkerchief which
had accompanied the flag on its journey to the sacred places. The pole
holding up the banner was surmounted by a fragment of Plymouth Rock.
The march was to the Hall of Philosophy, where the orator, officers, and
guests occupied the platform, the little flower girls were grouped on
opposite sides of the path from the Golden Gate up to the Hall; the
graduating class still standing outside the entrance protected by the
Guard of the Gate. A messenger came from the Gate to announce that the
class was now prepared to enter, having fulfilled all of the conditions,
and the order was given, "Let the Golden Gate now be opened." The
portals were swung apart, and the class entered, passing under the
historic flag and successively under four arches dedicated respectively
to Faith, Science, Literature, and Art, while the little girls strewed
flowers in their path. As they marched up the hill they were greeted by
Miss Lathbury's song:
THE SONG OF TO-DAY
Sing paeans over the Past!
We bury the dead years tenderly,
To find them again in eternity,
Safe in its circle vast.
Sing paeans over the Past!
Farewell, farewell to the Old!
Beneath the arches, and one by one,
From sun to shade, and from shade to sun,
We pass, and the years are told.
Farewell, farewell to the Old!
Arise and possess the land!
Not one shall fail in the march of life,
Not one shall fail in the hour of strife,
Who trusts in the Lord's right hand.
Arise and possess the land!
And hail, all hail to the New!
The future lies like a world new-born,
All steeped in sunshine and dews of morn,
And arched with a cloudless blue
All hail, all hail to the New!
All things, all things are yours!
The spoil of nations, the arts sublime
That arch the ages from oldest time,
The word that for aye endures--
All things, all things are yours!
The Lord shall sever the sea,
And open a way in the wilderness
To faith that follows, to feet that pass
Forth into the great TO BE
The Lord shall sever the sea!
The inspiring music of this inspiring hymn was composed, like most of
the best Chautauqua songs, by Prof. William F. Sherwin. The class
entered, and while taking their seats were welcomed in the strains of
another melody:
A song is thrilling through the trees,
And vibrant through the air,
Ten thousand hearts turn hitherward,
And greet us from afar.
And through the happy tide of song
That blends our hearts in one,
The voices of the absent flow
In tender undertone.
CHORUS
Then bear along, O wings of song,
Our happy greeting glee,
From center to the golden verge,
Chautauqua to the sea.
Fair Wisdom builds her temple here,
Her seven-pillared dome;
Toward all lands she spreads her hands,
And greets her children home;
Not all may gather at her shrine
To sing of victories won;
Their names are graven on her walls--
God bless them every one! _Chorus._
O happy circle, ever wide
And wider be thy sweep,
Till peace and knowledge fill the earth
As waters fill the deep;
Till hearts and homes are touched to life,
And happier heights are won;
Till that fair day, clasp hands, and say
God bless us, every one! _Chorus._
Another responsive service followed, read in turn by the Superintendent
and the class, and then Dr. Vincent gave the formal Recognition in words
used at every similar service since that day:
_Fellow-Students of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle._
DEARLY BELOVED:
You have finished the appointed and accepted
course of reading; you have been admitted to this
sacred Grove; you have passed the arches dedicated
to Faith, Science, Literature, and Art; you have
entered in due form this Hall, the center of the
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. And now
as Superintendent of Instruction,[1] with these
my associates, the counsellors of our Fraternity,
I greet you; and hereby announce that you, and
your brethren and sisters absent from us to-day,
who have completed with you the prescribed course
of reading, are accepted and approved graduates of
the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, and
that you are entitled to membership in the Society
of the Hall in the Grove. "The Lord bless thee and
keep thee; the Lord make his face shine upon thee,
and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up his
countenance upon thee and give thee peace."
After another song, the Marshal of the procession took charge, and the
order of march was renewed, the newly graduated class in the rear,
followed by the Superintendent, Counsellors, and officers. The company
marched to the Amphitheater, on the way the procession dividing and
forming on both sides of the street, while the officers and the
graduating class passed through the open files, thus bringing the
graduating class at the head of the line into the Amphitheater. Here
more songs were sung and other responsive readings were rendered before
an audience that thronged the building. The oration on the first
graduation service was given by Dr. Henry W. Warren, who had been
elevated to the episcopate two years before. After the oration a recess
was taken, and in the afternoon the concluding service was held and the
diplomas were conferred upon the eight hundred graduates present by the
hand of Dr. Vincent.
In most college commencements that I have attended, the President takes
the diplomas at random from a table and hands them to the class as they
come, not giving to each graduate his own diploma, and afterward there
is a general looking up one another and sorting out the diplomas until
at last each one obtains his own. But Miss Kimball, the Secretary,
devised a plan by which all the diplomas were numbered and each graduate
was furnished with a card showing his number. These numbers were called
out ten at a time, and each graduate was able to receive his own (mostly
_her_ own) diploma, while the audience heard the name upon it and the
number of seals it bore for special reading and study.
It should be mentioned that some members of the class arrived on the
ground too late to pass with their classmates through the Golden Gate
and under the arches. For their benefit the Gate was opened a second
time before the afternoon meeting, and a special Recognition service was
held, so that they might enjoy all the privileges of the class. This is
another custom continued every year, for always it is needed.
After a year or two it entered the facetious minds of Mr. and Mrs. Beard
to originate a comic travesty on the Recognition service, which was
presented on the evening after the formal exercises, when everybody was
weary and was ready to descend from the serious heights. This grew into
quite an institution and was continued for a number of years--a sort of
mock-commencement, making fun of the prominent figures and features of
the day. Almost as large an audience was wont to assemble for this
evening of mirth and jollity, as was seen at the stately service of the
morning. This in turn had its day and finally grew into the Chautauqua
Circus, an amateur performance which is still continued every year under
one name or another.
We have given much space to the story of the first Recognition Day, as a
sample of the similar services held every year afterward, growing with
the growth of the C. L. S. C. But there were other events of '82
scarcely less noteworthy. On that year a great organ was installed in
the Amphitheater, and its effect was soon seen in the enlargement of the
choir and the improvement in the music. We can mention only in the
briefest manner some of the speakers on the platform for that year: such
as Dr. W. T. Harris of Concord, Mass., afterward U. S. Commissioner of
Education; Professor William H. Niles of Boston; Mr. Wallace Bruce; Dr.
T. DeWitt Talmage; Dr. Wm. M. Blackburn of Cincinnati, the church
historian; Dr. A. D. Vail of New York, who told in an interesting manner
the story of the banner and the flag; Dr. Mark Hopkins, the great
college President; Bishop R. S. Foster; Anthony Comstock and John B.
Gough, with others equally distinguished whose names we must omit. One
new name appeared upon the program of this season which will be read
often in the coming years, that of Mr. Leon H. Vincent, the son of Rev.
B. T. Vincent. He gave a course of lectures on English literature,
mingling biographical, social, and critical views of the great writers,
attracting large audiences. We shall find him among the leading lights
of Chautauqua in the successive chapters of our story.
An institution which began that year and has been perpetuated must not
be omitted--the Devotional Conference. Both of the Founders of
Chautauqua were strong in their purpose to hold the Christian religion
ever in the forefront at the Assembly. Various plans were tried during
the early years, but none seemed to reach the constituency of Chautauqua
until Dr. Benjamin M. Adams, at Dr. Vincent's request, began holding a
daily service of an hour. This attracted a large attendance and was
continued for a number of years, as long as Dr. Adams could conduct it.
Afterward an arrangement was made which has become permanent. Every
season a series of eminent clergymen are engaged, each to serve for one
week as chaplain. He preaches the Sunday morning sermon in the
Amphitheater, and on the following five days at ten o'clock conducts the
Devotional Hour in the same place, giving a series of discourses, Bible
readings, or addresses. The speaker of each week is a man of national or
international fame. The greatest preachers in the American pulpit have
spoken at this service, and the audience is surpassed in numbers only by
the most popular lectures or concerts. Many there are who deem this the
most precious hour in the day.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] After Dr. Vincent's title was changed to "Chancellor of the
Chautauqua University" that form was used; and in his absence the
President said instead "as representing the Chancellor of the Chautauqua
University."