The Chautauqua Circle is unlike all other circles. It possesses three
centers. Its intellectual center is the place where the superintendent
happens to be at any given moment; for where the king is, there is
the court. The center of its enthusiasm, the Mecca of its members, is
the Hall of Philosophy, among the beeches of St. Paul’s Grove, where
once a year the gates are opened, the Arches are garlanded, and the
Watch-Fires are kindled. Its business center, which may properly be
called the headquarters of the C. L. S. C., is in Plainfield, New
Jersey. Few who pass around the corner of a modest brick building near
the railway station in that lovely country city, are aware that they
are in the shadow of the walls within which is transacted the business
of an organization numbering more than fifty thousand, and extending
its arms around the world. Two rooms upon the second floor are all the
space at present afforded for the work of the office. There is great
need of more enlarged quarters. Its home was assigned when the Circle
was about a fourth of its present dimensions, and its business has far
outgrown the capacity of its capitol.
One of the two rooms is the place where most of the clerical work of
the Circle is carried on by the efficient young secretary and her lady
assistants, who number from five to ten at different seasons in the
scholastic year. One young lady opens the letters received, which
sometimes number twenty-three hundred in a week, and never fall below
eleven hundred, and assorts them. Another finds constant employment in
answering inquiries, addressing circulars of information, in changing
the names and addresses of members who change their residences, or of
lady members who get married and change their names. About ten per
cent. of these people forget to state to which class they belong,
and consequently their names must be hunted up in the different
class-registers. [MEM. Whenever you write to the office, _always_
mention the graduating year of your class.] Another young lady keeps
account of the fees, and writes receipts to those who pay them, and
quite frequently finds it necessary to search the big books for the
address of a member who has forgotten to tell in what State he lives,
and forgotten also that there are twenty-seven towns of that same name
in the United States. [MEM. Always be sure to give your postoffice
address fully.] A couple more of the staff are busy at certain seasons
in filling and addressing the envelopes which are sent three or four
times a year to upward of forty thousand people. It requires most of
the time of one person to file the letters, postal cards and outline
memoranda received from the members, for every scrap of writing sent by
members of the C. L. S. C. is duly arranged in its alphabetical place,
so that it can be referred to at any minute. The secretary herself
sits at a table whereon stands a formidable pile of letters containing
questions upon every subject imaginable (beside others unimaginable);
outline memoranda to be examined, inquiries concerning seals on
diplomas, a labyrinth so intricate that nobody except the secretary
has the clue; requests for permission to substitute for the Required
Reading Mac-Somebody’s history of which nobody else has ever heard the
name; and occasionally a letter which warms one’s heart, as it tells
of the blessing which the C. L. S. C. has brought to a far-away home.
No letter remains long unanswered, and no inquiry, however slight, is
passed by.
A very careful account is kept with each member of the C. L. S. C., so
that quite a history could be written of each student’s relation to the
office. To each class of the Circle is assigned a large volume, ruled
to supply blanks for all the data. In this the names of the members are
enrolled in alphabetical order. Opposite each name are recorded the
answers upon the application blank; receipts of fees of membership,
with dates; receipts of outline memoranda, and a space for report as
to the member’s final destiny in the C. L. S. C., whether diploma or
withdrawal.
The second of the two rooms at the headquarters might be, from its
general appearance, either a postoffice or a dove-cote. It is cut up
into pigeon holes, which fill it in every part, leaving only narrow
aisles for passage. In these boxes are kept the envelopes which
represent the members of the C. L. S. C. To every member is assigned
a large manilla envelope, upon which is written the name and address;
and into that envelope goes every letter received from the said
member, with his outline memoranda, and answers to the questions on
the application blank. The envelopes are constantly called into use,
as letters from the members are frequent; and even after the class
which they represent has graduated they are still kept, so that every
application, letter, or outline memoranda, from the first day of the
Circle’s history can be recalled to view. Thus each member can be
assured that his name will have a double title to be remembered in the
generations to come. In the archives of the C. L. S. C. will be found
his enrollment, upon the page of the volume containing the record of
his class, and the envelope which bears his name and contains several
specimens of his handwriting and signature.
We look forward to a day, it is to be hoped not far distant, when the
office work of the C. L. S. C. shall enjoy more ample accommodations.
Its growing numbers give increasing work and require larger room, and
not long can the headquarters of the C. L. S. C. be kept within their
present narrow bounds.