ROUNDING OUT THE OLD CENTURY (1897-1900)
THE Chautauqua session of 1897 was fifty-nine days long, from June 26th
to August 23rd. This year the School of Domestic Science, directed by
Mrs. Emma P. Ewing, attracted attention. Almost as many ladies whose
cookery was accomplished by servants, as those who broiled their own
steaks and baked their own puddings, met in Mrs. Ewing's model kitchen,
learning to make bread, to prepare appetizing sauces and dressings, and
to learn how to serve tables with refinement. I remember hearing one
lady remark that until she had received Mrs. Ewing's instruction she had
never really known how to make good bread.
Among those who gave lectures in 1897, we find the names of Anna Howard
Shaw, Ballington and Maud Booth, Bishop (better known as Chaplain)
McCabe; quite a list of college presidents--Goucher of Baltimore, Hyde
of Bowdoin, Harper of Chicago, John Finley of New York, and G. Stanley
Hall of Clark; also Professor Graham Taylor, Mr. Percy Alden of England,
and Mr. Jacob Riis. A new reader of noble presence, rich voice, and rare
dramatic power, recited on the platform of the Amphitheater and assisted
in the School of Expression--Mrs. Bertha Kunz Baker, who was to
entertain us through many years. Professor Clark gave readings; Mr.
George W. Cable rendered a number of his own stories; Mrs. Jessie
Eldridge Southwick and Miss Katherine Oliver also gave recitals.
After Dr. Vincent's election as Bishop in 1888, he found it increasingly
difficult to supervise the ever-increasing work of Chautauqua. Often
during the Assembly season he would be compelled to hold conferences in
the far west, and one year in South America. In 1896, his episcopal
residence was changed from Buffalo to Topeka, Kansas, and in 1900 he was
removed to Zurich, Switzerland, to take charge of Methodist missions in
Europe. More and more he delegated the care of Chautauqua to his son,
who, one of the most popular of lecturers, was supreme in his ability as
administrator. In 1898 Professor George E. Vincent was formally
appointed Principal of Instruction, and very soon every department of
Chautauqua, both in its lecture platform and its educational work, felt
the touch of a master hand. Some of us oldsters who had loved Chautauqua
from its earliest years, had felt anxious for its future as we saw one
of its Founders called aside into other fields, and the other failing in
strength, although we knew not how near was his earthly end. But we all
had a sense of relief and confidence that the future of Chautauqua was
assured when we found "George" taking his father's place as executive in
the Department of Instruction. The Bishop retained the title of
Chancellor, however, as long as he lived.
In 1898 a new building was erected on College Hill--The Hall of
Pedagogy. The report of the season's work showed that attendance had
increased in the schools twenty-five per cent. over the last year, the
advance being distributed quite evenly among the departments. By this
time nearly all the universities and many of the colleges were holding
summer schools, yet Chautauqua, first in the field, was still leading in
its membership. This year Chautauqua received a visit from Lord
Aberdeen, the Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada, and his wife,
the Countess. Americans are apt to look for a freezing dignity on the
part of the higher nobility, and some were a little surprised to find
the Governor-General and his Lady unreservedly approachable, and
unaffectedly democratic in manner.
Some of those who gave lectures in 1898 were Dr. Richard T. Ely of the
University of Wisconsin, President Thirkield of Atlanta, afterward
Bishop, Dr. Moulton, Miss Jane Addams, Hon. Murat Halstead, General John
B. Eaton, Mr. Leon H. Vincent, Bishop Daniel A. Goodsell, Dr. J. H.
Barrows, President of Oberlin, President Faunce of Brown, Dr. Robert
McIntyre, also to become a Bishop in due time, Dr. Charles E. Jefferson
of New York, Dr. Amory H. Bradford of Montclair, N. J., and Mr. John
Kendrick Bangs. Mr. Leland Powers was with us on his biennial visit, and
recitals were also rendered by Mr. C. F. Underhill, Mr. John Fox, Miss
Isabel Garghill, Mr. Will Carleton, and Miss Ida Benfey. Up to that
date, the season of 1898 was one of the most successful in Chautauqua
history.
At this time, the _Chautauquan Magazine_, the organ of the C. L. S. C.,
and the _Daily Assembly Herald_, were taken over by the trustees, and
the _Chautauqua Press_ was established as the publishing agency for the
periodicals and books of the C. L. S. C. Mr. Frank Chapin Bray was
appointed Editor. By birth and education he was a thorough Chautauquan,
having, as it were, grown up on the ground from early childhood and
gone through all the courses from the Children's Class to the C. L. S.
C. As a small boy he had sold the _Assembly Herald_; as a young man had
written for its columns, and he is not the only journalist who took
these steps upward to a literary career.
The season of 1899 opened with a cloud hanging over Chautauqua, bringing
sorrow to one family and deepest sympathy from many.
On February 17, 1899, Lewis Miller died in a hospital in New York where
he had been taken to undergo an operation from which he failed to rally.
He was seventy years of age and had given his whole heart and the best
of his life to Chautauqua. But for Lewis Miller there would have been no
Chautauqua, though there might have been an Assembly under some other
name. He had chosen the place, had urged the location, and in its
inception had aided in its plans, had supervised its business interests,
and had contributed generously to its needs. At the opening of the "Old
First Night" service in August, 1899, the white lilies bloomed in his
honor, but instead of being waved, were held in solemn stillness for a
full minute, and then slowly lowered, and this memorial has been
observed on every "Old First Night" since. The names of Lewis Miller
and John H. Vincent stand together in equal honor as the two Founders of
Chautauqua. Next to these Founders we remember on "Old First Night" two
of the Vice-Presidents of the Board of Trustees, the late Francis H.
Root of Buffalo, and Clem. Studebaker of South Bend, Indiana, both wise
counsellors and generous givers to Chautauqua.
During the session of 1899, Theodore Roosevelt was for the third time
the guest of Chautauqua. The war with Spain had come and gone; he had
been Colonel of the Rough Riders, and was now Governor of New York. One
of those Rough Riders was young Theodore Miller, the son of the Founder
of Chautauqua, and the only Yale student to lay down his life in that
campaign. His memory is preserved by the Miller Gate on the University
campus. Another Governor was with us that summer, Robert L. Taylor of
Tennessee. The two brothers Taylor were the heads respectively of the
two political parties in their State, were candidates opposed to each
other, stumped the State together, slept together every night, played
the violin together at their meetings, and then after the concert, made
their speeches against one another. The writer of these pages may claim
a humble part in their careers, for both of them as boys, and also an
older brother, were students under his teaching in 1864 and '65 in
Pennington Seminary, New Jersey. We could tell some stories about those
three Taylor boys, but we refrain. I think that the Republican Taylor,
Alfred, is even now (1920) the Governor of Tennessee, as his brother was
its Democratic Governor in 1899.
Another visitor of about this date, though we are not certain of the
precise year, was Mr. Horace Fletcher, whose name is in the dictionary
in the word "Fletcherize," which means to count the chewing of each
mouthful thirty times before swallowing it. We have tried some steaks in
the early Chautauquan days when fifty chews would hardly make an
impression. He spoke on the platform, and the few who could hear him
said that his talk was not about dietetics, but foreign politics, though
the two words are somewhat alike and they may have misunderstood him.
His fiftieth birthday came while he was at Chautauqua, and he celebrated
it by doing some amazing stunts, double somersaults, etc., into the lake
at the diving place. I sat at the table next to his at the Athenaeum and
noticed that he ate very slowly, but I could not count the chews on each
mouthful. A lady at the same table told me that Mr. Fletcher eschewed
coffee but put seven lumps of sugar in his tea, calmly observing that
his "system needed sugar." I know some young people who have the same
opinion concerning their own systems, if one may judge by the fate of a
box of chocolates in their hands.
In this year the School of Religious Teaching was reorganized, the
Department of Sacred Literature being conducted by Chancellor Wallace of
Toronto, and that of Religious Pedagogy, by Dr. J. R. Street. We may as
well insert here the fact that for many years before, and during the
seasons since that year, Sunday School lessons were taught in the
morning and a lecture given at the Park of Palestine in the afternoon by
the author of this volume. The plan with the lessons has been to give
every morning a preview of a coming Sunday School topic, so that by the
close of the season all the lessons for six months to come have been
taught, and at Palestine Park to treat the geography of the land
historically in a series of lectures. Also, it should be remembered that
every Sunday of the Chautauqua season, from the first year, a Sunday
School has been held in the morning, for all ages from youngest to
oldest, the grades being taught in different places on the grounds by
specialists in their several departments. For some years, if one strayed
on Sunday morning over Palestine Park, he might find a class of boys
seated on the hills around Nazareth listening to a lesson on the boyhood
of Jesus, and a group of girls looking down on the Sea of Galilee, while
a teacher was telling stories of the tempest stilled and the five
thousand fed.
Prominent upon the lecture platform in 1899 were Prof. C. T. Winchester,
Dr. Charles E. Jefferson, Prof. John Fiske, Prof. A. B. Hart, Bishop C.
B. Galloway of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, President Faunce,
Dr. George Adam Smith, Dr. E. E. Hale, and Governor G. W. Atkinson of
West Virginia. Mr. John Kendrick Bangs was also on the platform with
readings.
The year 1900 rounded out a century, and one of its outstanding events
at Chautauqua was a course of lectures by Principal Fairbairn of Oxford
on "The Nineteenth Century." He asserted that in the ages to come, this
hundred years will be looked upon as perhaps the greatest of all the
centuries in the world's progress made during that period. He spoke in
turn upon the historical, the political, the inventive, the literary,
the religious, and the philosophic progress, giving without a written
reminder names, dates, facts, processes of thought in the widest range.
Many regarded it as one of the ablest and most enlightening series of
addresses that they had ever heard.
[Illustration: South Gymnasium]
Among the new faces on the platform we saw Dr. Lincoln Hulley, the new
President of the John B. Stetson University of Florida, an exceedingly
interesting speaker and a charming personality. We heard also Mr. Edward
Howard Griggs in a series of lectures in the Amphitheater, and an
appreciative class also met him in the school. From 1900 until the
present, Mr. Griggs has given us biennial courses, and on "Old First
Night" his tall form rises and sits down as the record is made up for
every alternate year. No lecturer on thoughtful subjects has more
engagements or brings together larger audiences than Mr. Griggs. Dean
Charles D. Williams of Trinity Cathedral, and in a few years Bishop
(Protestant Episcopal) of Detroit, an independent thinker and powerful
preacher, welcomed both on the platform and in the pulpit many times
since that appearance, his first among us. I think also that Professor
Bliss Perry of Harvard spoke for the first time this season, also
President Benjamin Ide Wheeler. Others who came as old friends were
Prof. Moses Coit Tyler, President Henry Churchill King, Dr. Graham
Taylor, Dr. Cadman, Mr. Edward Howard Griggs, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt,
Miss Susan B. Anthony, and Miss Jane Addams. I must not forget that
this summer Mr. Francis Wilson was with us again, and gave a lecture
upon Eugene Field and his poetry, an appreciation inspired by friendship
as well as literary insight. On a former visit to Chautauqua Francis
Wilson not only joined the C. L. S. C., but formed a reading circle in
his dramatic company, directing their studies and holding their literary
meetings in railroad stations, in hotel parlors, and in the green rooms
of theaters, wherever they chanced to be when the meeting day arrived.
On August 7, 1900, the corner stone of the Hall of Christ, "Aula
Christi," was laid. The address on that occasion was given by Bishop
James M. Thoburn of India. Bishop Vincent was now living overseas in
Zurich, Switzerland, and could not be present. The stone was laid by
Principal George E. Vincent and a telegram from his father was read.
This Hall was one of the creations of Bishop Vincent's poetic mind. He
aimed to make it a building not large, but beautiful, a sort of shrine,
a chapel for meditation and prayer, a place of quiet, spiritual
fellowship, not of class teaching, but of thoughtful addresses on themes
directly relating to our Lord. Bishop Vincent did not possess the genius
for raising large sums of money for his conceptions; he shrank from
pressing them upon rich men. Another projector would have ventured
boldly, demanded contributions and obtained them, to build the Hall at
once; but Dr. Vincent was delicate in speaking of it, though all knew
his ardent desires for this ideal. The building grew slowly as gifts
were received. Begun in 1899, it was not dedicated until 1912. Although
no thought of his own honor in this building was in the Founder's mind,
yet to many it stands as his monument at Chautauqua. Most appropriately
it is used as the center for the Department of Religious Work, and daily
lectures are given within its walls on Biblical themes.
As Dr. George Vincent was now an associate professor in the University
of Chicago, it became necessary for him to have some assistance in the
management of the Chautauqua program and platform. Mr. Scott Brown was
this year appointed General Director and Vice-Principal of Instruction.