SOME STORIES OF THE C. L. S. C. (1883, 1884)
WE must hasten our steps through the passing years at Chautauqua. Our
readers may take for granted that the regular departments were
continued; that the Summer Schools were adding new courses and calling
new professors; that the Normal Class for the training of Sunday School
workers was still held, no longer in the section-tents nor in the
Children's Temple, but under a large tent on an elevation where two
years later was to stand the Normal Hall, built for the class, but after
some years transferred first to the Musical Department, later to the
Summer Schools and partitioned into class-rooms. The Children's Class
was still held by Dr. B. T. Vincent and Professor Frank Beard, for our
friend with the crayon was now in the faculty of the School of Art in
Syracuse University.
In 1883 the session was forty-five days long, from July 14th to August
27th. A new feature of the program was an "Ideal Foreign Tour through
Europe," with illustrated lectures on various cities by C. E. Bolton,
and "Tourists' Conferences" conducted by his wife, the cultured Mrs.
Sarah K. Bolton. Mrs. Emma P. Ewing of Chicago taught classes in the
important art of cookery. Professor Charles J. Little gave a course of
lectures. Hon. Albion W. Tourgee, residing at Mayville, who had achieved
fame soon after the Civil War by his story, _A Fool's Errand_, gave
lectures in the Amphitheater. Professor William C. Richards showed
brilliant illustrations in physical science. Dr. P. S. Henson
entertained while he instructed; President Julius H. Seelye, Dr. W. F.
Mallalien, later a Bishop, President Joseph Cummings of Northwestern
University, Hon. Will Cumback of Indiana, and many others, gave
lectures.
A new instructor entered the School of Languages in 1883, in the person
of William Rainey Harper, then Professor in the Baptist School of
Theology at Morgan Park, Illinois, afterward to be the first President
of the University of Chicago. No man ever lived who could inspire a
class with the enthusiasm that he could awaken over the study of Hebrew,
could lead his students so far in that language in a six weeks' course,
or could impart such broad and sane views of the Biblical literature.
From this year Dr. Harper was one of the leaders at Chautauqua, and soon
was advanced to the principalship of the Summer Schools. In the after
years, while Dr. Harper was President of the University of Chicago, and
holding classes all the year, in summer as well as winter, he was wont
to take the train every Friday afternoon, in order to spend Saturday and
Sunday at Chautauqua. Chautauquans of those days will also remember the
recitals by Professor Robert L. Cumnock of Northwestern University, a
reader who was a scholar in the best literature.
The class of 1883, though not as large as its predecessor, the Pioneers,
was graduated with the same ceremonies, the address on Recognition Day
given by Dr. Lyman Abbott of New York, one of the Counsellors of the
Circle. Five years had now passed since the inauguration of this
movement, and from every quarter testimonials of its power and incidents
showing its influence were received. Let me mention a few of these which
came under my own notice.
I met a lady who mentioned that she and her husband were reading the
course together and they found the only available hour between six and
seven in the morning, before breakfast. For the study of the course they
both had risen at half past five for a year or more. One result of this
early morning reading was, she said, that at the breakfast table they
told the children stories of history and science, which she thought
turned their minds toward knowledge. Among the books was one on Human
Physiology--a book, which, by the way, I did not rate very highly and
objected to as being so elementary as to become almost juvenile; yet
that book awakened such an interest that the lady began to read more
widely and deeply on the subject, after a few months entered the Woman's
Medical College in New York, during her course took several prizes, and
graduated with high honors. It may have been that she foresaw what came,
the failure of her husband's health, so that of necessity she became the
bread-winner for her family. She was a successful physician, honored in
the community, the Chautauqua Circle having opened to her wider
opportunities of knowledge and usefulness.
Two college professors of high standing have told me that they were
first awakened to a desire and determination for higher education
through their early readings in the C. L. S. C.
One rather amusing yet suggestive incident came to my notice. Visiting a
city in the Middle West, I met a lady who told me that she belonged to
a club of young people who met weekly in a card party. One member told
the rest about the C. L. S. C. which she had joined and showed them the
books, whereupon they all sent in their names as members, and the card
club was transformed into a Chautauqua Reading Circle.
I was seated with Dr. Edward E. Hale at a C. L. S. C. banquet in New
England, when he pointed out a middle-aged gentleman at the head of one
of the tables and told me this story about him.
While a boy he came to his father and said, "I
don't want to go to school any longer, I want to
go to work and earn my own living, and there's a
place in Boston that is open to me." "Well," said
his father, "perhaps you would better take the
place, I've noticed that you are not paying much
attention to your studies of late. I'm very sorry
for I have set my heart on giving you a good
education. You don't know now, but you'll find out
later that the difference between the man who
gives orders and the man who takes them is that
generally one of the two men knows more than the
other, and knowledge brings a man up in the
world." The boy went to Boston and took a job in a
big store, and he found that he was taking a good
many orders from those above him and giving none
to others. He realized that for success in life he
needed an education. Ashamed to give up and go
home, he began to attend an evening school which
some of us had established. There I met him and
was able to give him some encouragement and some
help. He became a well-read and, in the end, a
successful business man. As soon as he heard of
the Chautauqua Circle, he began to read its books
and was made President of a local circle. That
table is filled with the members of his circle and
he sits at the head of it.
I wish that I could write down a story as it was told me by Dr. Duryea,
at Chautauqua. It was of a man who sat at his table in the Hotel and was
always in a hurry, never finishing his meals in his haste to get to
lectures and classes. The Doctor got him to talking and he forgot to
drink his coffee while telling his story. He said that he kept a country
store in a village in Arkansas, where the young men used to come in the
evenings and tell stories together. He felt that he was leading a rather
narrow life and needed intelligence, but did not know where to obtain
it. There were books enough in the world, but how could he choose the
right ones? A newspaper fell under his notice containing some mention of
the C. L. S. C.; he sent his fee to the office, obtained the books for
the year, and began to read in the intervals of time between customers
in his store. For retirement he fixed up a desk and shelf of books in
the rear of the shop. Some of his evening callers said, "What have you
got back there?" and he showed his books, telling them of the C. L. S.
C. A number of them at once decided to join, and soon he found himself
the conductor of a Chautauqua Circle with twenty members. They fixed up
a meeting place in a store-room in a garret under the eaves, talked over
the topics, and read papers. When the text-book on electricity was
before them, they made experiments with home-made batteries and ran
wires all around the room. The man said, "Those fellows look to me to
answer all sorts of questions, and I find that I am getting beyond my
depth. I have come to Chautauqua to fill up and I'm doing it. But the
difficulty is that too many things come at the same time; here's a
lecture on American authors and one on biology, and one on history, all
at once, and I never know which to attend. But Chautauqua is a great
place, isn't it?"
A servant in a family, while waiting at the table, heard the lady and
her daughters talking of the Circle which was being formed. The girl
asked her mistress if she would be permitted to join. With some
hesitation, the lady said, "Why, yes, if you really wish to read the
books, you can be a member." This serving-maid soon showed herself as
the brightest scholar in the group, far superior in her thirst for
knowledge to her young mistresses. She was encouraged and aided to seek
a higher education, entered a Normal School, and became a successful
teacher.
One letter received at the office contained, in brief, the following: "I
am a working-man with six children and I work hard to keep them in
school. Since I found out about your Circle, I have begun to read,
getting up early in the morning to do it. I am trying hard to keep up,
so that my boys will see what father does--just as an example to them."
A letter from a night watchman said, "I read as I come on my rounds to
the lights, and think it over between times."
A steamboat captain on one of the western rivers wrote that he enjoyed
reading the books and found the recollection of their contents a great
benefit, "for when I stand on the deck at night I have something good to
think about; and you know that when one has not taken care of his
thoughts they will run away with him and he will think about things he
ought not."
I was well acquainted with a gentleman and his wife, both of unspotted
character, but unfortunately living apart from some incompatibility. He
was accustomed to call upon her every fortnight, in a formal manner,
professedly to meet their children, and on one of his visits he
mentioned that he was beginning the C. L. S. C. readings. She was
desirous of knowing what those letters meant; he explained and gave her
a circular of information. She, too, joined the Circle, and next time at
his call they spent an evening pleasantly discussing the subjects of
reading that both were pursuing. From a fortnightly they dropped into a
weekly interview, and after a time spent nearly all their evenings
together. One day I met them together, and being aware of their former
relations, I perhaps showed surprise. The husband took me aside and said
that they were now living together very happily, thanks to the C. L. S.
C. They had forgotten their differences in a common object of interest.
In the early years of the C. L. S. C. one book of the course was on the
subject of practical Christianity. At one time, the religious book was
_The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation_, by Dr. Walker, a work widely
read two generations ago and regarded as a standard. We received at the
office a letter from a high-school teacher who said that he was an
agnostic and did not wish to read such a book--could he not read some
scientific work by Tyndall or Huxley in place of it? Miss Kimball
referred his letter to me, and I took it to Dr. Vincent. He considered
the question, and then wrote in substance this answer:
If you were a Unitarian, you could read a volume
by James Martineau; if you were a Roman Catholic,
you could read one of many good Catholic religious
books; if you were a Jew you might take some book
upon your own religion. But you call yourself an
agnostic, that is, one who does not know God and
has no religion, and therefore, to meet the
requirements of your course it will be necessary
for you to read some candid, sane work on the
Christian religion; and such is Walker's "Plan of
Salvation."
The letter closed with a friendly request that he would read the book
without a strong prejudice against it, and some hearty sympathetic
sentences which Dr. Vincent knew how to write. For a year we heard
nothing of the man; we concluded that he had been offended at the
requirement and had left the Circle. We were surprised when at last
another letter came from him stating that he had read the book, at first
unwillingly, but later with deep interest; also that association with
believers in the Circle had shown them, not as he had supposed, narrow
and bigoted, but broad in their views. He had seen in them a mystic
something which he desired; he had sought and found it. "To-day," he
wrote, "I have united with the Presbyterian Church, and this evening I
led the Christian Endeavor meeting."
Dr. Hale told of a man who had been formerly a pupil and youth in his
church, who was suffering from nervous prostration, and lay down in a
shack in an out-of-the-way place in Florida, almost ready to die. His
eyes were drawn to the orange-colored cover of a magazine which he had
never seen before, _The Chautauquan_. He opened it at random and began
to read. "Are you a child of God? Are you a partaker of the divine
nature? If you are, work with God! Don't give up working with God!" It
seemed to him like a voice from heaven. On that moment he said to
himself, "I will not die, but live!" He began to read the magazine and
followed it by reading the books to which the magazine made reference.
They opened before him a new field of thought and made of him a new man.
He told this story to Dr. Hale in his own church and said: "I am here
because of that orange-covered _Chautauquan_ which I found lying under
the bench in that old cabin."
It is possible, nay, it is certain, that the Chautauqua Circle, by being
not a church society, but a secular organization permeated by the
Christian spirit, has exercised an influence all the stronger to promote
an intelligent, broad-minded Christianity.
[Illustration: South Ravine, Near Children's Playground]
[Illustration: Muscallonge]
[Illustration: Bathhouse and Jacob Bolin Gymnasium]
Everyone active in Chautauqua work through a series of years could
narrate many stories like the above, and doubtless some more
remarkable; but I have given only a few out of many that could be
recalled out of an experience with the C. L. S. C. through more than
forty years. As I have looked upon the representatives of the graduating
class in the Hall of Philosophy, I have often wished that I might know
some of the life-stories of those who, often through difficulties
unknown, have carried the course through to completion.
An eminent minister wrote to me recently as follows:
At a place where I became pastor I found two
sisters who were living in dark seclusion,
brooding in melancholia as the effect of a great
sorrow. They attended church, but took no part in
our work, and none at all in society. I did my
best to comfort those young women and bring them
out of their monasticism. But it was all in vain.
Their broken spirits revolted from a religion of
happiness. A few years after my pastorate was
ended there, and I was preaching elsewhere, I
visited the town and was surprised to find both
those women among the most active women in the
church, happy, gifted, and universally esteemed.
What had wrought the change? They chanced to hear
of the Chautauqua Reading Course and sent for the
books and magazines. They pursued the course,
graduated, and visited Chautauqua. It awakened
their entire being and brought them into a new
world. They were literally born anew. I have
witnessed wonderful changes in people, but never
any that was more thorough, real, and permanent
than in those young women.
Let us name also some of the leading events of the Assembly of 1884. As
the organ of the C. Y. F. R. U. Dr. Flood established _The Youth's C. L.
S. C. Paper_ for boys and girls. It was an illustrated magazine, but
only twelve numbers were published, as the field for periodical
literature for young people was already well covered. "The Chautauqua
Foreign Tour," a series of illustrated lectures on the British Isles,
was conducted this year by Rev. Jesse Bowman Young, Professor H. H.
Ragan, and Mr. George Makepeace Towle. Music was abundant and varied
this season, the choir being led by Professors Sherwin and Case in turn;
concerts by a remarkable quartet, the Meigs Sisters; the delightful
singers of southern plantation and revival songs, the Tennesseans; the
Yale College Glee Club; Miss Belle McClintock, Mrs. J. C. Hull, Mr. E.
O. Excell, and Miss Tuthill, soloists. Dr. Charles J. Little gave a
course of lectures on English literature; Dr. Henson, Miss Susan Hayes
Ward, Dr. J. W. Butler of Mexico, and Dr. S. S. Smith of Minnesota were
among the lecturers. We heard Ram Chandra Bose and Dennis Osborne of
India, and Sau Aubrah of Burmah, a most interesting speaker on the
customs of his country and his impressions of ours. Principal Fairbairn
of Oxford made the history of philosophy interesting, and the Rev. A.
J. Palmer of New York won instant fame by his great war lecture,
"Company D, the Die-no-more's," given on Grand Army Day to a great
concourse of old soldiers.
On Saturday, August 23d, a reception was given to the Governor of
Pennsylvania, Hon. Robert E. Pattison. Friday, August 15th, was observed
as the decennial anniversary of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
I find on the program of that year a series of colloquies named "The
Socratic Academy," conducted by Dr. H. H. Moore. I know not what
subjects they discussed, nor how they discussed them, but I remember Dr.
Moore as one able to shed light on any subject that he chose to present.
As I read the program of any one of those years at Chautauqua, I realize
how utterly inadequate must be any sketch like the above to bring it
before a reader.
By this time three classes of the C. L. S. C. had been graduated, '82,
'83, and '84. Four more classes were pursuing the course, so that C. L.
S. C. members present at Chautauqua might now be counted by the
thousand. There was a strong class-spirit. Each class had its name, its
motto, its badge, and its banner, and ribbon badges were fluttering
everywhere. Every day came announcements from the platform of
class-meetings, and it was sometimes difficult to provide for them all.
During the season of 1884 two classes united their interests, raised
money, and purchased a small octagonal building near the Hall of
Philosophy. These were the classes of '83 and '85. The movement for
class headquarters was growing; all the other classes began the raising
of building funds, and those who looked into the future saw all around
St. Paul's Grove the prospect of small buildings rising. How would the
grounds appear when forty classes should have little headquarters--a C.
L. S. C. village? The plan began to be mooted of a Union Class Building,
to be realized later.