PART I.

When any portion of the earth is colonized by civilized man, an era

of change and readjustment at once begins. The untilled plain, the

primeval forest, the bridgeless river, the malaria-breathing swamp, and

the jungle—lurking place for beasts of prey—are all obstructions which

must be removed from the highway of social and industrial progress.

Until a new environment had been created, the colonists of Virginia

and New England were like helpless children, compared with the Indians

whom they had come to disinherit. The hills were soon cleared, and the

water-courses dried up, swamps were drained, and lakes were made in the

valleys, the plains were plowed and planted with exotic vegetation, and

great regions of land were entirely changed in character by irrigation

and the use of manure. The New World has in two centuries become in

very truth a new world, for its physical features have been entirely

reconstructed. The aboriginal man retreated before the advancing strides

of civilization, and has now been practically exterminated, at least east

of the Mississippi River.

The manner in which the man of European descent has eliminated and

replaced the son of the soil is fairly typical of changes which have

occurred in the animal and vegetable life of the continent. Bear,

moose, caribou, deer, wolf, beaver, and all other large animals have

been entirely destroyed in many parts of the country, and the time is

not far remote when they will exist among us only in a state of partial

or entire domestication. The prairie chicken once reared its brood

in Massachusetts, but is now never seen east of the Alleghenies. The

alligator is fast being exterminated in Florida and Mississippi, and the

buffalo is now rarely to be seen except in captivity. The sea cow of the

north Pacific, the great auk of New England and Newfoundland stand with

the dodo, the moa, and the zebra in the list of animals which have become

extinct within the memory of man, and the list will continue to increase.

A similar story might be told for birds, reptiles, and plants. The

rattlesnake is retreating to the mountain tops, the turkey, the pigeon,

the woodpecker and hosts of others are disappearing, the medicinal plant

ginseng, once so important in the Alleghenies, is almost a rarity to

botanists.

The aboriginal animals and plants go. They are replaced by others,

which in that struggle for existence which plays so important a part in

determining careers for plants and animals, have become particularly

well fitted to be man’s companions. The clover, the ox-eye daisy, the

buttercup, the thistle, the mullein, the dandelion, followed the European

to America, and with them the broad-leaved plantain, which, as every one

knows, the Indians called “the white man’s foot,” because it sprung up at

once in every meadow where the soles of his shoes had touched. With these

came the European mouse, the rat, the cat, the dog. The browsing herds of

deer and buffalo were replaced by oxen, horses and sheep, and the greedy,

quarrelsome, impertinent sparrow was permitted to drive out the native

birds which many of us would have been glad to keep as relics of the old

dispensation.

Not less important in many regions have been the changes in the life in

the waters. In many of our streams and lakes the fish, formerly abundant,

have been entirely exterminated. Sometimes, perhaps we may charitably say

usually, this has been the result of ignorance, but often, I fear, it may

be ascribed to recklessness or cupidity.

Fishes may be grouped, according to their habits, into two

classes—resident and migratory. Representatives of each of these classes

may be found both in fresh water and in the sea. Among resident fresh

water fishes may be mentioned the perch, the catfish, suckers and dace,

the pike and pickerel, the black bass. Resident sea fishes are typified

by the flounders, cod, sheepshead, blackfish and sea bass, which are

found near the shore in winter as well as summer. In cold climates,

resident fishes always retreat in winter into deeper water to avoid the

cold, and if they can not get beyond its reach they subside into a state

of torpidity or hibernation, in which all the vital functions are more or

less inert. The carp, and many other kinds of fish, at this time, burrow

into “kettles” or holes in the mud in the bottom of the pond, where they

remain for months. A hybernating fish may be frozen solid in the middle

of a cake of ice, and emerge when thawed out, unharmed.

Migratory fishes, on the other hand, are those which wander extensively

from season to season. There are migrating fish in the sea, which, like

the mackerel, the bluefish, the menhaden and the porgy come near our

northern coasts only in the summer, and in winter retreat to regions

either in the south or far out at sea unknown; others, like the smelt and

the sea herring, which retreat northward in summer and only appear in

quantity on the Atlantic coast of the United States in the colder months

of the year.

Then there are migratory fishes which live part of the year in the

rivers. Such are the shad and the river-herrings or alewives, which leave

the sea in the spring and ascend to the river heads to spawn, and the

salmon, which does likewise, to spawn in the brooklets in November and

December. Still more remarkable is the eel, which breeds in the sea,

where the male eels always remain, while the young females, when as large

as darning needles, ascend in the spring to inland lakes and streams,

there to remain, until, after three or four years, they are grown to

maturity, when they descend to salt water, to reproduce their kind and

die.

There are also migratory fish in fresh water, like the white fish, the

salmon, trout, and the siscowet, which live in the abyssal depths of the

great lakes and swim up into the shallows and creeks in winter to spawn

their eggs, and the brook trout and dace, which for a similar purpose

ascend from the pools and quiet meadow stretches to the pebble-paved

ripplets near the spring sources of the brooks in which they live.

Having, in a general way, classified fish according to their habits, we

are in a position to consider the manner in which man has succeeded in

exterminating them. As a general rule, fish deposit their eggs in shallow

water, and the time of egg-laying is very closely dependent upon the

temperature of the water. The eggs of a fish are, as every one knows,

enclosed in two sacs, or ovaries, which are situated close to the walls

of the abdominal cavity, and separated from the water by thin walls of

skin and flesh, rarely, even in the largest fish, more than a sixteenth

of an inch in thickness. Experiment has shown that the temperature of

the blood in the abdomen of a fish deviates very little from that of the

water in which it is floating. Experiment has also shown that as soon

as the water has reached a certain degree of warmth, variable with each

kind of fish, the eggs are sure to be laid within a very few hours. This

being the case, it usually happens that great schools of fish always

congregate together at one time upon the spawning grounds. Since the

spawning grounds of many kinds of fish are in shallow water, and the fish

are at that time most easily caught, it happens that many of the most

extensive fisheries are carried on in the spawning season. The delicious

little smelts which our neighbors in Maine and New Brunswick send us by

the hundred car-loads each winter, packed in little boxes of snow, are

always full of eggs—so are the lake white fish, when they are caught, and

the shad, and the Potomac herrings, and the cod, and the mullet, and the

herring, and in early spring the mackerel.

Now consider how easy it is, taking these fish so much at a disadvantage,

to diminish their numbers, simply by catching them. The man who catches

a spawning cod destroys anywhere from 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 of eggs, a

spawning halibut at least 2,000,000, a shad from 50,000 to 2,000,000. Is

not the American breakfasting on broiled shad roe a modern representative

of him who killed the goose which laid the golden egg? When we consider

that the yearly catch of mother-fish along the New England coast does

not fall short of ten to fifteen millions of individuals, we may gain an

adequate idea of the destruction of fish life by the fisheries.

Still it is not necessary to be alarmed at these figures. They are

presented simply in illustration of the immense possibilities of

destruction when the fisheries are carried on at the spawning season. As

a matter of fact, cod are just as abundant along our coasts as they ever

were, and it has not yet been demonstrated that any kind of sea fish has

ever been diminished in numbers by hook and line fishing or by netting

them at a distance from the shore.

Some kinds of fishes, however, enter narrow bays and estuaries to spawn,

and if they are there recklessly destroyed, the local supply at least

may be permanently interfered with. This has apparently been the case

with certain species in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. For instance,

the scuppaug or porgy has been seriously diminished in numbers in

certain seasons, years ago; the supply will probably be replenished from

adjoining waters by the reparative tendencies of nature, if this indeed

has not already been done. So, too, the halibut has been exterminated

in Massachusetts, where it was once so abundant as to be regarded as a

nuisance by the fishermen. It is in the inland or freshwater fisheries,

however, that the work of extermination has been thorough, and here, from

the nature of the case, the work once accomplished, it is beyond the

power of nature to remedy the damage. If I could take the reader with

me next May to one of the many little streamlets of Cape Cod, flowing

southward into Nantucket Sound, I could show him a scene which he would

never forget. The little rill has been encased at bottom and sides with

planks, so that it flows for a mile or two, down to its junction with the

sea, in a straight trough not over fifteen inches wide, and a foot in

depth. At a convenient level place a shed has been built over the trough,

and in the floor is a kind of cistern, through which the waters of the

brook flow as it goes on its course. In the shed stand two men, each

with a great scoop of netting, with which they labor, dipping the fish

out of the cistern as they fill it, swimming up the trough from the sea.

Several barrels are taken out every day, and in some of these streams one

or two thousand barrels always reward a season’s work, the brook being

the property of the township, and the privilege of fishing being sold at

auction for the benefit of the public. Dip! dip! dip it is all day long,

and as the little alewives are tumbled into barrels and carts, the eye of

the practiced observer notes the plump sides and the brilliant iridescent

coloring of the silvery scales, which indicate that the fish are loaded

with a precious burden of eggs, to deposit which in the pond at the head

of the stream is the motive which leads them to press forward so blindly

into the trap men have set for them.

In these enlightened days the town laws generally require that the brooks

shall be unobstructed for one or two days each week, and so a few fish

get by the barriers and are allowed to perpetuate their kind. In the

past, however, many excellent “herring brooks” have been completely

deprived of their fish.

This illustrates how completely man has the destinies of river fish

under his control. Suppose that instead of a fish house with movable

barriers, an impassable dam had been built. Of course the fish would

have been locked out, and their kind exterminated in that immediate

region. This is precisely what has happened in almost every river and

stream on the Atlantic coast of the United States. Shad and salmon were

formerly abundant in every river of New England—and shad and alewives

in every considerable stream south to Florida. Now, they are excluded,

either entirely or in great part from the waters in which they once

swarmed in great schools. Take, for instance, the Connecticut River. In

colonial days, salmon were there in immense numbers. All summer long

they were swimming up from the sea to the headwaters of the river, to

Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, where they deposited their

eggs in the cool, clear rapids of the main river and its tributaries.

They were so abundant that the shad fishermen used to require their

customers to take one salmon with every shad, and, as the hackneyed

old story goes, the apprentices were accustomed to stipulate in their

papers that they should not be required to eat salmon above three times

a week. In 1798 a dam was built across the river at Miller’s Falls.

Next year many salmon were seen at the base of the dam, the following

year a smaller number, and in less than ten years salmon had entirely

disappeared from the Connecticut. Not a salmon was seen in those waters

until seventy years later, when, in 1871, a single artificially bred fish

was caught at Saybrook. I could show you a map prepared by an associate

of mine, in which the present and former limits of the shad are shown,

and you would see how they once ranged clear up into the mountains, far

up the Susquehanna into New York State, up the Connecticut into New

Hampshire and Vermont, and how now, in many rivers, they are confined to

very restrictive stretches at the river mouths.

The dams operate in still another way. We have considered hitherto only

their influence upon the sea fish which ascend the rivers to spawn.

Their effect upon the resident fish is quite as baneful. As the suckers,

and the bass, and the cat fish, and dace, and trout, grow large, they

naturally go down stream in search of deeper water and wider pools, where

they get more room and better food. If they luckily escape the baskets

and traps set for them in every dam, they never can get back. The streams

are gradually sifted out and left tenantless.

Little need be said of the manner in which ponds are drained dry in

order to get all the fish in them, in which immense seines are hauled

in little lakes, clearing out everything, great and small, of the use

of explosives, lime, or _cocculus indicus_, in the work of wholesale

destruction. The fact stands undisputed and undisputable, that in many

parts of the United States the native fish are actually exterminated, and

the mud turtles, muskrats and fresh water clams left as sole occupants.

Even the harmonious bull-frog has been devoured by man, and only his

diminutive cousins, the cricket frogs and hylas left—the aquatic choir

can henceforth perform only soprano and contralto songs, unless the fish

culturist finds some way of bringing back the basso whose obligatos we

once admired.

Oysters, scallops, and lobsters are going the same way. Although they

live in free waters, they are stationary in their habits, and wholesale

gathering will soon complete the work of extermination so recklessly

begun. The forthcoming census reports on the fisheries will show

conclusively the need of immediate protection.

What is the remedy for these great evils? One hundred thousand men are

actively engaged in the fisheries of the United States, and at least

one fiftieth of the entire population of the country are, to a large

extent, dependent on the fishery industry. Fish is the poor man’s food,

for unlike any other food product it may be had for the taking. A fish

swimming in the water has cost no man labor. There floats four pounds of

savory shad, fifty pounds of nutritious sturgeon, a hundred barrels of

whale oil; there lies a bushel of oysters, or a barrel of sponges. They

are God’s gift, and man has only to gather them in, and possibly submit

them to a very simple process of preparation, to be the possessor of a

valuable piece of property. If the matter can be properly regulated, good

fish ought to be sold in every town and village for two thirds or half

the price of beef and pork. As it is, poor fish often cost more than beef

and pork, and in many localities good fish can not be had at any price.

It is a great problem in political economy, and one which we are, as yet,

far from thoroughly understanding.

We are confronted with the question, What can be done to neutralize these

destructive tendencies?

There are evidently three things to do.

1. To preserve fish waters, especially those inland, as nearly as

possible in their normal condition.

2. To prohibit wasteful or immoderate fishing.

3. To employ the art of fish breeding.

_a._ To aid in maintaining a natural supply;

_b._ To repair the effects of past improvidence, and

_c._ To increase the supply beyond its natural limits, rapidly

enough to meet the necessities of a constantly increasing

population.

The preservation of normal conditions in inland waters is comparatively

simple. A reasonable system of forestry and water purification is

all that is required, and this is needed not only by the fish in the

streams, but by the people living on the banks. It has been shown

that a river which is too foul for fish to live in is not fit to flow

near the habitations of man. Obstructions, such as dams, may, in most

instances, be overcome by fish ladders. The salmon has profited much by

these devices in Europe, and the immense dams in American rivers will

doubtless be passable, even for shad and alewives, if the new system of

fish-way construction devised by Col. McDonald, and now being applied on

the Savannah, James, and Potomac, and other large rivers, fulfills its

present promises of success.

Up to the present time, however, although much ingenuity and expense

have been lavished upon fish-ways by the various state fish commissions

of this country, there has been little practical outcome from their use.

Our dams are too high, and the shad and alewives, which we are especially

desirous to carry over these obstructions, do not seem to take kindly to

the narrow, tortuous defiles of the fish ladders.

The protection of fish by law is what legislators have been trying to

effect for many centuries, and we are bound to admit that the success of

their efforts has been very slight indeed. Protective legislation rarely

succeeds. The statute books of each state are crowded with laws which no

one understands, least of all the men who made them, and which the state

governments are powerless to enforce. Every one remembers Whittier’s

grand old hero, Abraham Davenport, the Connecticut statesman, who, “on

a May day of that far old year 1780,” when the earth was shrouded in

darkness, and he and all his colleagues in the State Assembly felt that

the judgment day had come, stood up, “albeit with trembling hands and

shaking voice, and read an act to amend an act to regulate the shad and

alewife fisheries”—and then went on to rebuke those around for their

fearfulness and desire to leave the post of duty. Connecticut is as

much at a loss now as then to know how to regulate her shad and alewife

fisheries. Under a republican form of government, restrictive laws are

not popular, and money would never be voted to enforce such laws, which,

without an extensive police force, would be powerless. Some one has

sagely remarked that the salmon is an aristocratic fish, which can only

thrive under the shadow of a throne. Many states now have laws protecting

fresh water fish in the breeding season, and numerous game protective

associations are laboring with some success for their enforcement. Sales

of fish out of season are also successfully prevented in certain city

markets.

The attempts to regulate the fisheries at the mouths of rivers, so that

spawning fish may be allowed free passage for a few hours, generally from

Saturday evening to Monday morning, are meeting with but little success.

Maryland and Virginia attempt to some extent the protection of their

oyster beds, and the former state keeps up an expensive police

organization. The oyster law is founded in ignorance, however, and the

chief effort being to keep away fishermen from other states, for the

benefit of their own, there are small results except frequent quarrels

and occasional bloodshed.

Connecticut is making the experiment of giving to individuals personal

title to submerged land, to be used in oyster culture, and this,

perhaps, is the wisest step taken. Oyster production must soon cease to

be a free grabbing enterprise, and be placed upon the same footing as

agriculture, or the United States will lose its beloved oyster crop, and

in this country, as in England, a fresh oyster will be worth as much as

a new-laid egg. Great Britain has, at present, two schools of fishery

economists, the one headed by Professor Huxley, opposed to legislation,

save for the preservation of fish in inland waters, the other, of which

Dr. Francis Day is the chief leader, advocating a most strenuous legal

regulation of the sea fisheries. Continental Europe is by tradition

and belief committed to the last named policy. In the United States,

on the contrary, public opinion is generally antagonistic to fishery

legislation, and our Commissioner of Fisheries, after carrying on for

fourteen years investigations upon this very question, has not yet

become satisfied that laws are necessary for the perpetuation of the

sea fisheries, nor has he ever recommended to Congress enactment of any

description. Just here we meet the test problem in fish culture. Many of

the most important commercial fisheries of the world, the cod fishery,

the herring fishery, the sardine fishery, the shad and alewife fishery,

the mullet fishery, the salmon fishery, the whitefish fishery, the smelt

fishery, and many others, owe their existence to the fact that once a

year these fishes gather together in closely swimming schools, to spawn

in shallow water, on shoals, or in estuaries and rivers. There is a large

school of _quasi_ economists, who clamor for the complete prohibition of

fishing during spawning time. This demand demonstrates their ignorance.

Deer, game birds, and other land animals may easily be protected in the

breeding season, so may trout and other fishes of strictly local habits.

Not so the anadromous and pelagic fishes. If they are not caught in the

spawning season, they can not be caught at all. I heard a prominent fish

culturist recently advocating before a committee of the United States

Senate, the view that shad should not be caught in the rivers, because

they came into the rivers to spawn. When asked what would become of our

immense shad fisheries if this were done, he said that doubtless some

ingenious person would invent a means of catching them at sea.

The fallacy in the argument of these men lies in the supposition that

it is more destructive to the progeny of a given fish to kill it when

its eggs are nearly ripe, than to kill the same fish eight or ten months

earlier.

We must not, however, ignore the counter argument. Such is the

mortality among fish that only an infinitesimal percentage attain to

maturity. Möbius has shown that for every grown oyster upon the beds of

Schleswig-Holstein, 1,045,000 have died. Only a very small percentage,

perhaps not greater than this, of the shad or the smelt ever come upon

the breeding grounds. Some consideration, then, ought to be shown to the

individuals which have escaped from their enemies and have come up to

deposit the precious burden of eggs. How much must they be protected?

Here the fish culturist comes in with the proposition “_that it is

cheaper to make fish so plenty by artificial means that every fisherman

may take all he can catch, than to enforce a code of protective laws_.”

The salmon rivers of the Pacific slope, and the shad rivers of the east,

and the whitefish fisheries of the lakes, are now so thoroughly under

control by the fish culturist, that it is doubtful if any one will

venture to contradict his assertion. The question now is, whether he can

extend his domain to other species.

Legislation and fish-ways, then, are, as yet, of little practical

importance. Actually, they repeat the proverbial act of the clown who

locked the stable door after his horse had been stolen. No one makes laws

or builds fish-ways until he is of the decided opinion that the fish are

pretty nearly gone.

Artificial fish culture seems to offer the only remedy for the evils

which have been described.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

THE LIFE OF GEORGE ELIOT.

There is now and then a biography so written that the reader is able to

become intimately acquainted with the subject, to feel after reading that

he has had a personal contact, and has formed a friendship which is warm

and living. Such “Lives” are rare. Most works of this kind are so biased

by the interpretations of the author, so full of facts and opinions that

the reader loses all feeling of companionship in reading; he closes the

book, knowing much about the subject, but rarely understanding him. A

book which presents a man or woman in that personal way which makes a

friendship through the medium of the book possible, confers a great gift

upon the reading public.

The peculiar fitness of Mr. Cross’s “Life of George Eliot”[B] for giving

us a new friend, must be attributed to the really remarkable taste and

skill of his editing. The work bears the mark of a reverential hand. It

is an _In Memoriam_ whose only object has been to lay before the world a

memory too strong and precious to be kept secret. But no such a biography

could have been given the world had it not been for the peculiar nature

of George Eliot herself. The material for this “Life” grew out of two

strong elements in her character: the affectionate and persistent

friendship which led her to reveal herself so fully to those she loved

in her letters, and that constant introspection which made her journal

often a mirror of her inner life. These materials make up the book, which

is largely a study of her character, and, too, of her character as she

understood it. She has verily written her own life. The interpretation

remains for the readers.

It would have been possible for Mr. Cross to have given much information

about her character which he has withheld, her opinions and much of her

conversation; but he has wisely given the world only what she herself

chose to reveal to her friends.

The story begins early. The first revelations in character are the

strongest; the happiness and misery of the future life are revealed in

the childhood traits. The earliest revelations which we find in George

Eliot’s life are of affection and ambition; either, if strong enough to

become a passion, drives its possessor along a thorny path until it is

itself mastered, and where both exist in a nature, continual collision

must occur between them. Before each is satisfied there must be a life

struggle of the keenest sort. Such a struggle was presaged for Marian

Evans very early. She herself tells how, when she was but four years

of age, she played on the piano, of which she did not know a note, in

order to impress the servant with a proper notion of her acquirements

and generally distinguished position. As eager, too, she was for love as

for recognition. In her reminiscences of her early life most vividly

she portrays her earliest passion—one very common among affectionate

girls—her love for her brother. “She used always to be at his heels,

insisting on doing everything that he did.” When his first boyish

craze took possession of him in shape of a pony, and she found it was

separating them, she was nearly heart broken. Impressible, eager for work

and ambitious for knowledge, she began life under an emotional pressure,

which drove her into incessant distress lest those she loved should

fail her, and which brought her devotion to her loved ones in constant

collision with her ambition. At twenty-one, writing to a very intimate

friend, she said: “I do not mean to be so sinful as to say that I have

not friends most undeservedly kind and tender, and disposed to form a

far too favorable estimate of me, but I mean I have no one who enters

into my pleasures and griefs, no one with whom I can pour out my soul.”

Eight years after this, having lost her father, she went abroad for a

few months’ residence, and her letters home were full of eager longing

for their sympathy and restless fear lest they should forget her. No

change in her life diminished this feeling. She became an editor of the

_Westminster Review_, and while overwhelmed with manuscripts and proofs

she wrote: “You must know that I am not a little desponding now and then,

and think that old friends will die off, and I shall be left with no

power to make new ones again.” Undoubtedly this feeling tended to make

her morbid in her younger days, and consequently dwarf her power. It

is an important study of her life to trace the gradual melting of this

disposition, and the final growth into a healthy happiness. When quite

past the heyday of her life, she wrote a friend of her girlhood: “I am

one of those, perhaps, exceptional people whose early childish dreams

were much less happy than the outcome of life,” and again, but four years

before her death: “I have completely lost my _personal_ melancholy. I

often, of course, have melancholy thoughts about the destinies of my

fellow creatures, but I am never in the mood of sadness, which used to

be my frequent visitant, even in the midst of external happiness; and

this, notwithstanding a very vivid sense that life is declining, and

death close at hand.” This release from morbidness had two causes. She

had taught her strong, affectional nature to find satisfaction in that

commonplace, but little understood duty, loving her neighbors, and she

had learned to enjoy things on their own account. The first article in

this creed of happiness became George Eliot’s religion. She had abandoned

her belief in the Christian religion when twenty-one years of age. She

could not believe fully, and she was too independent and too reliant upon

her own mind to conform to a religion she did not believe. The steps she

took did not destroy the religious sense in her life. The earnestness

which led her to write at nineteen, “May the Lord give me such an insight

into what is truly good, that I may not rest contented with making

Christianity a mere addendum to my pursuits, or with tacking it as a

fringe to my garments;” which induced her to consider the novel and even

oratorio as dangerous to spiritual development still remained, though

without form. She was intensely in earnest, but it was many years before

her love for mankind became a religion to her. A less strong character

would have become flippant or scornful under this loss; hers only became

more serious. She seems never to have forgotten what she had abandoned.

Though radically differing from most of her friends on religious

questions, she never was uncharitable. “Of all intolerance, the

intolerance calling itself philosophical is the most odious to me,” she

wrote, and she lived out this opinion, in no way allowing the widest

diversity to separate her from her friends. Her sympathy and charity

indeed seem to increase, even if the breach in their opinion widened.

This habit of thought and feeling resulted in much personal moral

benefit. “My own experience and development deepen every day my

conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which

we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.”

As she grew older, she comforted herself with the thought that “with that

renunciation of self which age inevitably brings we get more freedom

of soul to enter into the life of others.” She tried for “a religion

which must express less care for personal consolation and a more deeply

awing sense of responsibility to man, springing from sympathy with that

which of all things is most certainly known to us, the difficulty of the

human lot.” This was the great lesson in her growth toward happiness. A

secondary step was her appreciation of the value of things in themselves.

It is a serious obstacle to the happiness of women, that in the main they

care for exterior life only as it is of value in the personal life. A

book is dear because a friend has read or recommended it. This verse is

fine from association; this strain of music because they heard it in a

certain connection. Take the _personal_ out of Art and Nature, and too

often women care little for them. George Eliot learned to appreciate and

love things for their own value. Music, to which she was from childhood

deeply susceptible, she cultivated thoroughly, and no fine rendering of

_good_ music ever was missed by her. She took the true, high view of

life, which declares that from every good all possible enjoyment should

be gained. Art was very dear to her, and we find in these quotations

from her journal, notes on all the leading galleries of Europe, but in

the very midst of her art studies she drops this comment, after noting

a sight she had had of the snow covered Alps: “Sight more to me than

all the art in Munich, though I love the _art_ nevertheless. The great,

wide-stretching earth, and the all-embracing sky—the birthright of us

all—are what I care most to look at.”

But it would have been impossible for even her deep love for mankind,

her fine enjoyment of the good and beautiful, to have completed her

life. These things satisfied her affections, but there was another

quality we have mentioned as prominent in her life: it was her ambition.

At twenty she wrote despondently: “I feel that my besetting sin is the

one of all others most destroying, as it is the faithful parent of them

all—ambition, a desire insatiable for the esteem of my fellow-creatures.”

Whatever she did, was done with all her might. Her mother died early,

and she became housekeeper. Her struggles with the knotty questions

of housewifery kept her in a constant worry, but she would do things

right—whether it be currant jelly or a German translation. The same

perfection marked her novels. Her progress was soon marked; it

recommended her to people of standing, and gradually she had a circle of

friends—people of strong minds and much culture—about her. Eager to do

something, a way opened to her in 1844, when she was twenty-five years

old. It was to translate into English a work of the German philosopher,

Strauss. She did it, and what was better, did it well. Five years later

she writes: “The only ardent hope I have for my future life is to have

given me some woman’s duty.” The ambition to excel is already bending

to the stronger emotion of affection. For a long time she worked, eager

and anxious, but nothing seemed to open. In 1851 she went to London as

assistant editor of _Westminster Review_, and here most satisfactory

opportunities for culture opened. She formed lasting friendships with

Herbert Spenser, Harriet Martineau, Florence Nightingale, and indeed with

all the people worth knowing, who filled London in the ’fifties. But her

editing left no opportunity to do that special work to which she was

looking, and which she did not understand. She wrote many reviews and

essays. This writing was a sort of safety valve for her intellect, but it

was not until September, 1856, that the new era began in her life. It was

when she began to write fiction. The popular idea of fiction as stories

which will do to kill time, but which for serious reading are quite

useless, was not the idea of George Eliot. A nature so intensely serious,

so anxious for noble work, could not content itself with trivial story

telling; she did not aim at that, but at studies of life. As she finely

writes to Mr. John Blackwood, who became her publisher: “My artistic bent

is directed not all to the presentation of irreproachable character, but

to the presentation of mixed human beings, in such a way as to call forth

tolerant judgment, pity, and sympathy. And I can not step aside from

what I _feel_ to be _true_ in character.” And again: “I should like to

touch every heart among my readers with nothing but loving humor, with

tenderness, with belief in goodness.” The story of her great success

is familiar—her books are well known. In rapid succession she sent out

“Scenes of Clerical Life,” “Adam Bede,” “The Mill on the Floss,” “Silas

Marner,” “Romola,” “Felix Holt,” “The Spanish Gypsy,” “Middlemarch,”

“Daniel Deronda,” and “Theophrastus Such.” Her convictions about how

she should work were intense. She wrote and _lived_ her story, and once

when urged to re-write a tale, replied that she could no more re-write

a book than she could live over a year in her own life. Her novels are

the embodiment of what she had felt, written that they might strengthen

others. The conscientiousness with which she labored made her work

sometimes most painful to her. Despondency lest she should fail, fear

lest she had misinterpreted a character, depression lest this chapter

should fall below a preceding in merit, tortured her in succession, but

she worked because she believed she had found her place, and to do her

best for mankind was her religion. The slow-growing nature struggling

with eager desire for human love, and with a mastering ambition,

not often reaches so ripe a stage as did hers. The rigid system of

self-culture which she pursued through her life was the outgrowth of her

ambition and of her intense interest in things, an interest which we have

noticed as being one of the leading elements in her happiness. Reading,

study, conversation, observation, writing, travel, were in turns employed

in her course of self-discipline. She read incessantly, and _thoroughly_.

Notice this list of books, the work of one month, and that when she was

nearly fifty years of age: First book of “Lucretius;” sixth book of

the “Iliad;” “Samson Agonistes;” Warton’s “History of English Poetry;”

“Grote,” second volume; “Marcus Aurelius;” “Vita Nuova,” vol. iv; chapter

one of the “Politique Positive;” Guest on “English Rhythms;” Maunce’s

“Lectures on Casuistry.” Few months fell below this in reading, and this,

too, while she was writing, seeing people, conversing, and suffering, for

she had the misfortune to know, as she says, that “one thing is needful:

a good digestion.”

As a life of earnest purpose, of continued struggle for a high living, of

deepest desire to make the most of everything, and for everybody, there

is none more marked than that of George Eliot. Non-conformity to the

religion and the law in which we believe, must sadden her life for all,

but an honest student of her character must, after reading this “Life,”

accord to her what she herself never failed to give to the erring—charity.

FOOTNOTES

[B] George Eliot’s Life, as related in her Letters and Journals. Arranged

and edited by her husband, J. W. Cross. In three volumes. New York:

Harper & Brothers.

ARBOR DAY.

BY THE HON. B. G. NORTHROP, LL.D.

Recent spring floods and the diminished flow of rivers in summer have

called public attention to the cause and the remedy as never before. At

the opening of the last session of Congress, its attention was called

to the subject of Forestry, for the first time in any presidential

message. Bills for the protection and extension of forests are now

before Congress, and before many state legislatures. The last census

presents striking facts which prove this to be a question of both state

and national importance. The recent action of the national government

shows a new appreciation of forestry. The marvel now is, that the general

government did not earlier seek to protect its magnificent forests, once

the best and most extensive in the world. Their importance to the nation

was little understood. Even after a century of reckless waste, the United

States government still owns 85,000,000 acres of timber—a mere fraction

of what has been cut, or burned, without a thought of reproduction.

The Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture,

though organized but six years ago, has already spread much valuable

information before the country by its reports and by those of its special

agents, commissioned to investigate the forests of the country and the

means of their protection and extension. Ex-Governor R. W. Furnas, of

Nebraska, for example, investigated the forests of California, Oregon,

Washington Territory, and the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. His

official reports on the stealing and reckless destruction of those timber

lands, and also in regard to the new and extensive timber growing on the

treeless plains of Nebraska, were of great public interest. The reports

of Dr. F. B. Hough of New York, and F. B. Baker, of Kansas—also agents of

the United States Forestry Division—have been extensively circulated and

still more widely summarized in the press.

The National Forestry Congress is another index of the growth of popular

interest on this subject. A large volume of the proceedings of that

association at its meeting in Montreal was officially published by

the Dominion of Canada. The best papers given at its three subsequent

meetings have been published by the United States Department of

Agriculture. The subject has been ably discussed in State Agricultural

Reports, and many state and local associations have been formed to

further this interest. The passage of the Timber Culture Act has greatly

increased the area of planted woodland.

But of all these agencies no one has awakened so general an interest in

agriculture as the appointment of Arbor Day, by governors of states, by

legislatures, and by state, county and town superintendents of schools.

The plan of Arbor Day is simple and inexpensive, and hence the more

readily adopted and widely effective. In some states the work has been

well done without any legislation. The best results, however, are secured

when an act is passed requesting the Governor, each spring, to recommend

the observance of Arbor Day, by a special message. The chief magistrate

of the state thus most effectually calls the attention of all the people

to its importance, and secures general and concerted action. _How_

forests conserve the water supplies and lessen floods is aside from the

topic of this paper. While the fact of the increase of spring freshets

is everywhere admitted, and scientists agree as to the cause, the

popular disbelief of the true theory is the great hindrance to remedial

action. The bills for the protection of the Adirondack forests, in the

legislature of New York, in 1884, failed by reason of the opposition of

the lumbermen, and the common doubt and denial of the benefits of forests

in the conservation of the rainfall. I often met the same skepticism in

the Ohio valley, even among the sufferers from the flood disasters. They

were attributed to the extensive use of tile drains. But both in 1883

and 1884, these floods occurred when the ground was frozen deep, and the

drains were therefore inoperative.

That so simple a cause as forest denudation should produce such

disastrous results seems at first incredible. It is only when the vast

areas contributing to a single river are considered, that the proof of

the forest theory seems clear. Take the Ohio River, for illustration. The

area drained by it is 214,000 square miles, or twenty-two times as much

as that which in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut

is drained by the Connecticut River; an area which includes portions of

New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, West Virginia, Virginia,

North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky.

The length of the Ohio is about 1,000 miles, and that of its ten leading

tributaries nearly 4,000, and that of the many minor affluents as much

more. The smallest influences working over such immense regions, and

ultimately combining in one stream, may enormously swell its volume.

As the destruction of forests has been going on for centuries, the

remedy must be the work of time, for it must include slow processes

and agencies, each _separately_ minute, which become important when

multiplied by myriads and extended over broad areas. Arbor Day has proved

such an agency.

A brief history of Arbor Day will show its aims. The surprising results

already accomplished promise a still broader influence in the near

future. The plan originated with ex-Governor J. Sterling Morton, the

pioneer tree-planter of Nebraska. He secured the coöperation of the State

Board of Agriculture, some thirteen years ago, when the Governor was

induced to appoint the second Wednesday in April as a day to be devoted

to economic tree-planting. By pen and tongue, as editor and lecturer,

with arguments from theory and facts from his own practice, Mr. Morton

succeeded in awakening popular enthusiasm in this work, in which he was

ably seconded by Ex-Governor Furnas, of Nebraska, who has long served as

Forest Commissioner for the United States Department of Agriculture.

In Nebraska a remarkable interest was awakened in the observance of

her first Arbor Day, and over 12,000,000 trees were planted on that

day. That enthusiasm was not a temporary effervescence. Each successive

Governor has annually appointed such a day by an official proclamation,

and the interest has been sustained and even increased from year to

year. The State Board of Agriculture annually awards liberal prizes to

encourage tree-planting. Hence Nebraska is the banner state of America

in this work, having, according to official reports, as I am informed

by ex-Governor Furnas, 244,353 acres of cultivated woodland, or more

than twice that of any other state. The originator of Arbor Day is now

recognized as a public benefactor, and hence, during the last campaign,

as a candidate for Governor, ran some three thousand ahead of his party

ticket. Though at first aiming at economic tree-planting, Nebraska now

observes Arbor Day in schools. The example of Nebraska was soon followed

by Kansas, which had over 120,000 acres of planted woodland. The Governor

of that state issues an annual proclamation for Arbor Day, and it is

observed by teachers and scholars and parents, in adorning both school

and home grounds.

Four years ago the legislature of Michigan requested the Governor

to appoint an Arbor Day. Such an appointment has been repeated each

succeeding April. For the last three years a similar day has been

appointed by the Governor of Ohio. Many schools, especially those of

Cincinnati and Columbus, fitly kept the designated day. No man in this

country has had a better opportunity of observing the influence of Arbor

Day in schools than Superintendent Peaslee, who, after a trial of three

years, says: “The observance of Arbor Day is the most impressive means

of interesting the young in this subject. Should this celebration become

general, such a public sentiment would lead to the beautifying by trees

of every city, town, and village, as well as the public highways, church,

and school grounds, and the homes of the people. If but the youth of Ohio

could be led to plant their two trees each, how, by the children alone,

would the state be enriched and beautified within the next fifty years.

By our Arbor Day observance the importance of forestry was impressed

upon the minds of thousands of children who then learned to care for and

protect trees. Not one of those 20,000 children in Eden Park on Arbor Day

injured a single tree.”

West Virginia furnishes another illustration of the influence of

observing Arbor Day in schools. In the face of many difficulties, State

School Superintendent Butcher appointed an Arbor Day in schools in April,

1883. Without waiting for any legislative or gubernatorial sanction,

solely on his own responsibility, he invited the school officers,

teachers, parents, and pupils on the designated day to plant trees on

the grounds of their schools and homes. He made the April number of

his _School Journal_ an “Arbor” number, and circulated it gratuitously

over the State. The results exceeded his expectations. It started good

influences on _minds_ as well as grounds. This great success prompted

a similar observance last April, for which greater preparations were

made, with still better results. When called to advocate this measure In

various parts of West Virginia last spring, I found the people and the

press most responsive in encouraging this practical movement. On the day

after the celebration, the papers of Wheeling, for example, commended

the work in such terms as the following: “Arbor Day was gloriously

celebrated yesterday, and was a splendid success. All—the oldest and the

youngest—evinced the liveliest interest. Arbor Day will be one of the

institutions of our schools.”

At the annual meeting of the State Teachers’ Association of Indiana,

held in December, 1883, a kindred plan was recommended and unanimously

adopted, and an efficient committee appointed to carry it out. The State

Board of Horticulture heartily endorsed the measure. After a statement

of the plan, the State Board of Agriculture invited me to prepare a

resolution in its favor, which they promptly adopted. Governor Porter

received my suggestions with special interest, and said the measure

should have his cordial support. He soon after gave it his official

sanction, and issued a proclamation to the teachers and people of the

state, in which he predicted that the appointed day would be a memorable

one, and “the beginning of a movement for a much more extended system

of tree-culture, and the restoration of the varieties of trees, useful

and beautiful, which have been so recklessly sacrificed that nature

cries aloud for redress,” closing by calling on “the teachers to do all

in their power to make Arbor Day a day of the most ardent and inspiring

interest.” State School Superintendent Holcombe gave his personal and

official influence heartily to this work. The lectures given by his

invitation on this subject were fully reported by the press, for the

newspapers of Indiana cordially coöperated in this movement. These

combined influences secured the general observance of the appointed day,

and the results were most gratifying. Such combined agencies in nearly

every state of the Union would promise similar results.

At the last annual Convention of the State Teachers’ Association of

Wisconsin, the presentation of Arbor Day in schools led to the adoption

of a resolution in favor of such an observance, and to the appointment

of an efficient committee to carry out the plan. At the National

Educational Association held in Madison, Wisconsin, with an attendance of

over five thousand, a resolution recommending the observance of Arbor Day

in schools in all our states was unanimously adopted. Such a day has been

observed with great interest in some of the provinces of Canada.

The American Forestry Congress, which includes the leading arborists of

Canada and the United States, adopted, at my suggestion, the following

resolution: “In view of the wide-spread results of the observance of

Arbor Day in many states, this Congress recommends the appointment of

such a day in all our states and in the provinces of the dominion of

Canada,” and appointed a committee, consisting of the Chief of the

Forestry Division of the United States Department of Agriculture, the

State Superintendent of Schools of West Virginia, and myself to secure

the general adoption of this plan, and especially Arbor Day in schools.

As chairman of that committee, I have already presented this subject to

the Governors of many states, and the proposition has met a favorable

response.

It may be objected to Arbor Day, or to any lessons on forestry in

schools, that the course of study is already overcrowded, and this fact

I admit. But the requisite talks on trees, their value and beauty, need

occupy but two or three hours. In some large cities there may be little

or no room for tree-planting, and no call for even a half-holiday for

this work, but even there such talks, or the memorizing of suitable

selections, on the designated day, would be impressive and useful. The

essential thing is to _start_ habits of observation and occupation with

trees, which will prompt pupils in their walks, or when at work, or at

play, to study them. The talks on this subject, which Superintendent

Peaslee says were the most interesting and profitable lessons the pupils

of Cincinnati ever had in a single day, occupied only the morning of

Arbor Day, the afternoon being given to the practical work. Such talks

will lead our youth to admire trees, and realize that they are the

grandest products of nature, and form the finest drapery that adorns this

earth in all lands. Thus taught, they will wish to plant and protect

trees, and find in their own happy experience that there is a peculiar

pleasure in their parentage, whether forest, fruit, or ornamental—a

pleasure which never cloys, but grows with their growth. Like grateful

children, trees bring rich filial returns, and compensate a thousand fold

for all the care they cost. This love of trees, early implanted in the

school, and fostered in the home, will make our youth practical arborists.

They should learn that trees have been the admiration of the greatest

and best men of all ages. The ancients understood well the beauty as

well as the economic and hygienic value of trees. The Hebrew almost

venerated the palm. It was the chosen symbol of Judea on their coins,

and was graven on the doors of the Temple as the sacred sign of justice.

The Cedar of Lebanon was justly the pride of the Jews, and became to

them the emblem of strength and beauty. The Egyptians, Greeks, and

Romans were proficients in tree-planting. Hence Thebes, Memphis, Athens,

Carthage, Rome, Pompeii and Herculaneum, as their ruins still show,

had their shaded streets or parks. Two thousand years ago, the richest

Romans maintained a rural home, as does the wealthy Londoner, Viennese,

or Berliner to-day, and their ancient villas were lavishly adorned. The

Paradise of the Persians was filled with trees and roses. This taste for

beautiful gardens was transplanted from Persia to Greece, and the Greek

philosophers held their schools in beautiful gardens, or groves. The

devastations of parks, the destruction of shade trees, the neglect of

public streets and private grounds, the decay of rural tastes, and the

utter slight of home adornments, were clearer proofs of the great relapse

to barbarism than the vandalism which destroyed the proud monuments of

classic art and literature.

Arbor Day has already initiated a movement of vast importance in eight

states. In tree-planting, the beginning only is difficult. The obstacles

are all met at the outset, because they are usually magnified by the

popular ignorance of this subject. It is the first step that costs—at

least, it costs effort to set this thing on foot, but that step once

taken, others are sure to follow. This very fact that the main tug is at

the start, on account of the inertia of ignorance and indifference, shows

that such start should be made easy, as is best done by an Arbor Day

proclamation of the Governor, which is sure to interest and enlist the

youth of an entire state in the good work. When the school children are

invited each to plant at least “two trees” on the home or school grounds,

the aggregate number planted will be more than twice that of the children

enlisted, for parents and the public will participate in the work.

Tree-planting is fitted to give a needful lesson of forethought to

the juvenile mind. Living only in the present and for the present,

youth are apt to sow only where they can quickly reap. A meager crop

soon in hand, outweighs a golden harvest long in maturing. They should

learn to forecast the future as the condition of wisdom. Arboriculture

is a discipline in foresight—it is always planting for the future.

There is nothing more ennobling for youth, than the consciousness of

doing something for future generations, something which shall prove a

_growing_ benefaction in coming years. Tree-planting is an easy way of

perpetuating one’s memory long after he has passed away. The poorest can

in this way provide himself with a monument grander than the loftiest

shaft of chiseled stone which may suggest duty to the living, while it

commemorates the dead. Such associations grow in interest from year to

year and from generation to generation. By stimulating a general interest

in tree-planting among our youth, Arbor Day will yield a rich harvest

to future generations. George Peabody originated the motto, so happily

illustrated by his munificent gifts to promote education: “Education—the

debt of the present to future generations.” We owe it to our children

to leave our lands the better for our tillage and tree-planting, and

we wrong ourselves and them, if our fields are impoverished by our

improvidence.

Arbor Day in school has led youth to adorn the surroundings of their

homes, as well as of the schools, and to extensive planting by the

wayside. How attractive our roads may become by long avenues of trees!

This is beautifully illustrated in many countries of Europe. In France,

for example, the government keeps a statistical record of the trees along

the roads. The total length of public roads in France is 18,750 miles, of

which 7,250 are bordered with trees, while 4,500 are now being, or are

soon to be, planted. Growing on lands otherwise running to waste, such

trees are grateful to the traveler, but doubly so to the planter.

The influence of Arbor Day in schools in awakening a just appreciation

of trees, first among pupils and parents, and then the people at large,

is of vast importance in another respect. The frequency of forest fires

is the greatest hindrance to practical forestry. But let the _sentiment_

of trees be duly cultivated, first among our youth, and then among the

people, and they will be regarded as our friends, as is the case in

Germany. The public need to learn that the interests of all classes are

concerned in the conservation of forests. Through the teaching of their

schools this result was long since accomplished in Germany, Switzerland,

Sweden, and other European countries. The people everywhere realize the

need of protecting trees. An enlightened public sentiment has proved

a better guardian of their forests than the national police. A person

wantonly setting fire to a forest would there be looked upon as an

outlaw, like the miscreant who should poison a public drinking fountain.

HOW TO WORK ALONE.

BY CHANCELLOR J. H. VINCENT, D.D.

Not all members of the “C. L. S. C.” can enjoy the benefits of a local

circle. Some live in the country, or in remote parts of the city. They

can not get out at night, through lack of company, or because the house,

the boys, or the baby must not be left alone; the local circle is not

under wise direction, and is unprofitable; or it may be that the only

accessible local circle is a close corporation, and is “inaccessible.”

Father or husband objects to the time wasted, or the long walk, or

something else. So the student is solitary. Whatever is done must be done

alone.

This is not an unmixed evil, because it may develop power in the student,

or drive him or her to find associates at home, associates who are not

enrolled in Plainfield as “regulars,” and some of whom are quite too

young to be enrolled at all. No deprivation in this world that does not

make a place for some other unsought, unexpected blessing.

I purpose to offer a few hints to these solitary readers, who may, I

trust, find much profit out of the restrictions of providence, and do

their work well even though it be done alone. On the blank pages of

your necessity you may make records of your own, worth more to you than

volumes of other people’s print.

1. Although alone, remember that you are associated with a great Circle

numbering thousands and tens of thousands of members. You are not alone,

but one of many. This thought helps you. It sets currents of sympathy in

motion. It annihilates distance. It fills the very air about you with

companions with whom you are in sweet fellowship, although you have

never seen them. They are a great cloud of witnesses. They march under

the same banner; put their names on the same great record book in the

central office; read the same pages; sing the same songs; answer the same

questions; recite the same mottoes; observe the same memorial days; and

turn with tender hearts to the same heavens, under the mystic spell of

the vesper hour; experience the same longings after true culture, and

have hearts full of sympathy for their fellow-students everywhere. This

thought of oneness in work gives feelings of kinship and companionship.

The solitary student in the little room—kitchen, sitting room, library,

or bed chamber—is surrounded by thousands of fellow-students. They seem

to look over the page with you. They seem to whisper words of good will

and faith, and some of them, I assure you, are royal people. They would

give you such greeting, if they had opportunity, as would make you proud

and glad of your connection with the Circle. Indeed, solitariness is

impossible to the thoughtful member of the C. L. S. C.

2. This sense of fellowship is increased, and a helpful stimulus given

to the solitary worker, by reflecting on the character of the great

fraternity of which you are a part. We now enroll more than seventy

thousand members. Perhaps twenty-five thousand have practically given

up the readings. Only fifty thousand remain with us. Many thousands

of readers are connected with local circles who have never joined as

“regulars” at the central office in Plainfield, N. J. There are thousands

who are reading a part of the course, but who neither belong to the local

nor general circle. I believe that these non-recorded and irregular

readers make up for the lapsed thousands, so that to-day we have nearly

or quite seventy thousand people doing all or a part of the required

reading. This, therefore, becomes a great institution. Its territorial

extent is as vast as its numerical strength. There are “C. L. S. C.s”

in all parts of the world. Our office records contain names from India,

China, Japan, the Sandwich Islands, and many other outlying regions,

while the list in Canada and on the Pacific coast runs up among the

thousands. In every state and territory members are to be found.

And who are these with whom you, my solitary student, are associated?

They represent every calling in life, and almost every grade, social and

intellectual. Here are lawyers, judges, physicians, clergymen, doctors of

divinity, college graduates, literally by the thousand, who seek through

our course to review the studies of other and earlier years. Here are

seminary and high school graduates, and people old and young who dropped

out of the grammar school when they were too young to understand their

folly in doing so. Here are business men, mechanics and farmers who

have been prospered, and who covet now a measure of culture to fit them

for society, that their money may gain for them and their families more

than a mere social recognition. Here are mothers good and true, who do

not want to part hands with sons and daughters as they enter the higher

schools, but who propose by our course of reading to keep in the literary

and scientific world where their children are to be at home. Here are

people of “low degree,” who toil for bread, with lengthened hours of

service, that they may help those who are dependent upon them. They are

in shops and kitchens, and have souls that would put honor into palaces.

They want outlook as they go weighted down through busy and weary years.

They do not expect always to be slaves to society and circumstance. There

is blood-royal in every heart-beat, and power to hold princedoms in some

near future. So, despised of men who live, they hold converse through

books with gifted and kingly souls who, though dead, yet live, and who

work in other kingly souls. There are many of these disguised princes and

princesses in your Circle.

Here too are sufferers in homes of bereavement and pain, where arms are

empty and hearts are full, where love calls but receives no answer, where

disease binds the body but leaves the mind free to grieve over its loss;

where lack of work gives place to temptation, and renders occupation of

some sort a moral and religious necessity; where worldliness, that makes

the soul barren, needs thoughtfulness to moisten, beautify and fructify

the life.

In such great and gracious companionship you sit down for solitary study.

Dismiss the thought, therefore, that this is solitude. Reach out your

soul to greet the currents of invisible and loving influence that pour in

upon you from every quarter.

3. Select and furnish your Chautauqua corner. Do not be too anxious

to have it harmonize with other corners of the room. Put shelves for

your books “required” and for “review.” On the lowest shelf pile THE

CHAUTAUQUANS. On the wall put up the motto cards, the list of memorial

days, the Chautauqua calendar, the photograph or engraving of the Hall

of Philosophy, and such other Chautauqua views as you approve. Put up

busts or engravings of the great leaders—Homer, Cicero, Dante, Milton,

Goethe. Somewhere place a picture of Bryant, the earliest distinguished

friend of the C. L. S. C. By gradual additions fill the Chautauqua corner

with pictures and bookshelves, busts and mottoes, all in the line of

your reading, until the other corners and the intervening walls shall be

filled with reminders of Chautauqua and the world of literature, science

and art it represents. And if somehow you can place on the wall that

matchless engraving representing the great Master with his two disciples

on the way to Emmaus, you will, in a sense, sanctify your room, and set

forth most effectively, the aim, scope and spirit of the great Chautauqua

movement. In such a room, or in such a corner, can students be solitary?

4. You will greatly increase your power by systematic habits. One may

“read up” at any time, but the regular daily reading which renders

unnecessary what is called “reading up,” is much the better way. It

renders the work comparatively light; it makes the C. L. S. C. a help

to other less congenial work of the day into which it falls like a

refreshing shower. It forces life into a system which always expedites

and lightens labor. It schools the will. It brings lower duties into

proper subjection to the higher. It is every way better to do each day’s

work as each day comes. Thus working alone, but systematically, one keeps

the hand in and does not lose grasp, taste or delight.

5. Though compelled to work alone, make casual contacts with others

afford opportunities for drawing them out, for finding out what they

know, or for corroborating your own views. Ask questions. Elicit

opinions. Start conversation. Try to tell what you know or think. Tell

your children. Tell your neighbors. As you interest them, you set them in

search of knowledge, which finding, they will later on report to you, and

you thus give them a start in lines of self-improvement.

6. This setting others at work in quest of knowledge for you is a most

practicable way of getting knowledge and doing good to the finders

thereof.

Write out ten different questions, and give one to each of ten young boys

and girls of a high school, for example. They will ransack libraries,

consult teachers, find out and report what you want to know, and be

immensely helped by the knowledge found and the service rendered. Though

alone, you need not work alone.

7. Practice talking to yourself about the things you have read. Put facts

and dates into sentences. Now and then write out these sentences, or

speak them off. Recite a lesson to yourself every day. Make a speech with

yourself as audience. Put facts into recitative lullabies, by which you

sing baby to sleep. Don’t do too much of all this, lest it weary you,

but do a little of this sentence-framing and solitary speech-making, and

nursery-crooning every day. You will then have a local circle of you,

and yourself and your own soul. Now one’s self makes very good society

sometimes; there are so many powers and voices and thoughts and projects

in a single soul.

8. Lift your soul up to its height, now and then, and breathe a thought

of the heart that may grow into a prayer as you recall the great Circle

of which you are a member. Think in silence of their multiplied and

varied circumstances, perils, temptations and necessities. Think of the

disheartened, the bereaved, the suffering, the doubting; those who have

great power, but do not know how to use it; those who are sick of sin and

worldliness, and do not know how to get into the path of holiness and

peace. Think of all these, and then pray. Let your heart swell toward God

in sympathy and longing.

Thus will you find in your solitude the presence of the Spirit invisible

and eternal, whose name is love, and whose home is heaven, and whose

children are the lowly and meek and devout, who love souls—the world full

of souls—and who daily bear them in tender sympathy to the throne.

They who do these things can not be alone.

* * * * *

If it were not for my love of beautiful nature and poetry, my heart would

have died within me long ago. I never felt before what immeasurable

benefactors these same poets are to their kind, and how large a measure,

both of actual happiness and prevention of misery they have imparted to

the race. I would willingly give up half my fortune, and some little of

the fragments of health and bodily enjoyment that remain to me, rather

than that Shakspere should not have lived before me.—_Lord Jeffrey (from

a letter to Lord Cockburn, 1833)._

OUTLINE AND PROGRAMS.

OUTLINE OF REQUIRED READINGS FOR APRIL.

_First Week_ (ending April 8).—1. “Chemistry,” chapters XVIII, XIX and XX.

2. “History of the Reformation,” from page 1 to 27.

3. “The Circle of the Sciences,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

4. Sunday Readings for April 5, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Second Week_ (ending April 15).—1. “Chemistry,” chapters XXI and XXII.

2. “History of the Reformation,” from page 27 to 55.

3. “Home Studies in Chemistry and Physics,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

4. Sunday Readings for April 12, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Third Week_ (ending April 22).—1. “Chemistry,” chapter XXIII.

2. “History of the Reformation,” from page 55 to 88.

3. “Easy Lessons in Animal Biology,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

4. Readings in _Our Alma Mater_.

5. Sunday Readings for April 19, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Fourth Week_ (ending April 30).—1. “Chemistry,” chapters XXIV, XXV and

XXVI.

2. “History of the Reformation,” from page 88 to 117.

3. “Aristotle,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

4. Readings in _Our Alma Mater_.

5. Sunday Readings for April 26, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

PROGRAMS FOR LOCAL CIRCLE WORK.

FIRST WEEK IN APRIL.

1. Essay—Easter.

2. Selection—“All Fool’s Day.” By Addison.

3. A Paper on the Life of Martin Luther.

Music.

4. Fifteen Minutes’ Talk on the Cause of the Present Troubles in the

Soudan.

5. Character Sketch—General Gordon.

6. Debate—Resolved, that dynamite is more productive of evil than good.

SECOND WEEK IN APRIL.

1. Selection—“Martin Luther.” From Robertson’s “History of Charles V.”

Found also in Chambers’s “Cyclopedia of English Literature.”

2. A Paper on the Inquisition.

3. Recitation—“The Prisoner of Chillon.”—By Byron.

4. Character Sketch—John Knox.

Music.

5. Essay—The Vegetation of the Carboniferous Period.

6. A General Talk on Socialism.

7. Critic’s Report.

THIRD WEEK IN APRIL.

1. Essay—The Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

2. Recitation—“Robinson of Leydon.”—By O. W. Holmes.

3. Character Sketch.—William of Orange.

Music.

4. A Paper on Mount Cenis.

5. Selection—“The Chambered Nautilus.” By O. W. Holmes.

6. Conversation on New Books.

7. Questions and Answers for the month in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

SHAKSPERE DAY.

Music.

1. Roll call—Quotations from Shakspere.

2. A Paper on the Life and Times of Shakspere.

Music.

3. The Story of “The Tempest.”

4. Recitation—“Perseverance.” Selected from “Troilus and Cressida,” Act

III., scene 3; beginning, “Time hath, my lord, a wallet,” etc.; ending,

“One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin.”

5. Essay—Characteristics of Shakspere’s Women.

Music.

6. Analysis of “Winter’s Tale.”

7. Court scene in “Merchant of Venice,” Act IV., scene 1; beginning, “Is

your name Shylock?” ending with the exit of Shylock.

The plan followed by many Shakspere clubs would afford a fine

entertainment. They assign the characters in any one of the plays (that

of “Julius Cæsar” being exceptionally fitting for an evening of this

kind) to the different members of the circle, who read the parts assigned.

To hold a Shakspere carnival would be a very interesting way in which to

commemorate the day. Let each one come dressed in costume to represent

any one of Shakspere’s characters and personate that character throughout

the evening.

LOCAL CIRCLES.

C. L. S. C. MOTTOES.

“_We Study the Word and the Works of God._”—“_Let us keep our Heavenly

Father in the Midst._”—“_Never be Discouraged._”

C. L. S. C. MEMORIAL DAYS.

1. OPENING DAY—October 1.

2. BRYANT DAY—November 3.

3. SPECIAL SUNDAY—November, second Sunday.

4. MILTON DAY—December 9.

5. COLLEGE DAY—January, last Thursday.

6. SPECIAL SUNDAY—February, second Sunday.

7. FOUNDER’S DAY—February 23.

8. LONGFELLOW DAY—February 27.

9. SHAKSPERE DAY—April 23.

10. ADDISON DAY—May 1.

11. SPECIAL SUNDAY—May, second Sunday.

12. SPECIAL SUNDAY—July, second Sunday.

13. INAUGURATION DAY—August, first Saturday after first Tuesday;

anniversary of C. L. S. C. at Chautauqua.

14. ST. PAUL’S DAY—August, second Saturday after first Tuesday;

anniversary of the dedication of St. Paul’s Grove at Chautauqua.

15. COMMENCEMENT DAY—August, third Tuesday.

16. GARFIELD DAY—September 19.

* * * * *

The difficulty of holding a circle together is sometimes very great. Not

a little thorough study of the needs and natures of the members must tax

the leader who would hold a circle which has no interest in its work.

At RICHMOND, MAINE, our friends have experienced this difficulty. A

circle of fifteen was formed in January, 1884, but did not continue its

meetings. The lukewarmness of a few broke the interest of all; but ten

of the members did their reading apart. These ten took matters into their

own hands last fall, and now Richmond has a “Merry Meeting” circle, of

twenty-two members, interested and promising.

NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE, has a Chautauqua circle. It has been in existence

for two years past, with varying fortunes. Last fall, when reorganized

for the season, it consisted of ten ladies, but now numbers fourteen.

Though this number is less than one half that of the last year, the

interest and enthusiasm are much greater. The weekly meetings are

occasions of great interest and instruction. They follow, with frequent

modifications, the program arranged in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, making the roll

call and question box regular features. The only difficulty with which

they meet is that they are all so busy that they can scarcely prepare for

each program. They also derive much pleasure and profit in observing the

memorial days. The circle is called the “Raymond” circle, in honor of the

Rev. B. P. Raymond, president of Lawrence University, Appleton, Wis.,

founder of this branch.

The “Athenian Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle” of WEST

ENOSBURGH, VT., has entered upon its first year in the Chautauqua

course. Although in its infancy, it shows a great deal of interest and

enthusiasm. The circle was organized September 29, 1884. The officers

are president, vice president and secretary. The circle began with eight

members and has increased to thirteen. One of the most interesting

exercises of this circle is the pronouncing match, each person being

allowed to try once; if he misses he sits down. The words for the next

match are the names of the sixty-six elements in chemistry.

Our travels through MASSACHUSETTS this month furnish much interesting

circle news. The “Star” circle, in FOXBORO, reorganized in October

with twenty-eight members, which includes all the graduates with one

exception. They believe there in once a C. L. S. C. always a C. L. S.

C. The weekly meetings are reported in the local paper, and more are

inquiring about the work than in previous years. One reason may be

that they are but eighteen miles from the “Hall on the Hill,” which

is in process of erection in South Framingham.——The “Henry M. King”

circle, connected with the Dudley Street church, BOSTON, was organized

in November, and has twenty-five members. Of these the larger part are

gentlemen, not of leisure, but business men, who bring with them into the

bi-weekly meetings the same energy and perseverance that characterize a

successful business enterprise. These are certainly the ones who might

with a good show of reason say: “No time.” But on the contrary they

_have_ time, not only for the regular work, but for the preparation of

papers requiring much time and research.——At NORTH ATTLEBORO the new

“Bryant” circle is four months old, and numbers twenty-six members. They

open the meetings with reading Scripture lessons and singing Chautauqua

songs. Roll call is responded to by quotations from a standard author,

followed by essays, recitations, blackboard exercises, questions,

discussions, etc., as the committee of instruction has arranged. The

secretary writes: “If we are not great, our hopes are.”——“Profit as well

as enjoyment we are getting from our studies,” says a member of the

circle at NORTH WEYMOUTH. This organization is a circle of ’83, and has

had time to thoroughly test the course. They have had recently a pleasant

memorial service, and have been favored with chemical experiments

by a chemist.——Pleasant notes of the work at WEST MADFORD have been

sent us by the secretary: “Through the influence of one sturdy little

lady, six or eight people met together last October and talked up the

feasibility of the C. L. S. C. They elected a president and secretary,

drew up a few by-laws, and are now in good running order. They meet

once in two weeks. Their membership was limited to twenty, which was

quickly reached. The opinion of these members seems to be that this

circle is as good, if not better, than any reported in your magazine.

We all work with a will, cull the best from the programs given for the

local circles, and add original ideas. Each member, in the order of his

enrollment, makes out the program. This gives each one an opportunity

to do his share, as well as to add his own ideas. We think this feature

much superior to the general mode of allowing the ‘chair’ to prepare all

programs.”——AMESBURY has a circle of unusual strength. We have been so

fortunate as to receive a letter which gives an account of a delightful

entertainment held by them in December. Our friend says: “Thinking

perhaps you might like to hear from us once again, we are glad to write

you of our pleasant and prosperous winter of literary work, brought about

by the grand C. L. S. C. movement. Our meetings are held on the second

and fourth Tuesday of each month, the programs comprise essays, music,

readings and conversation, and are social and very delightful, showing

a marked improvement on our ‘feeble beginning’ a year ago. Two new

circles have been formed this winter, one, the ‘Delphic,’ having forty or

more members. On the 18th of December we held our first public meeting

in honor of ‘Our Poet’s’ (Mr. John G. Whittier) birthday, to which we

invited the ‘Delphic’ circle, also the ‘Thursday Evening Club,’ an older

literary society of Amesbury, and other friends, about three hundred in

all. Members from the three circles took part in the program, which had

been carefully prepared. We were greatly pleased to receive from Mr. W.

C. Wilkinson a paper entitled ‘Whittier at the Receipt of Customs,’ which

was read to us by his friend, the Rev. P. S. Evans, of Amesbury. As Mr.

Whittier, owing to a previous engagement, could not be present with us,

resolutions were drawn up and sent to him, as follows:

“‘DEAR MR. WHITTIER;—The three literary circles, together with

a goodly company of the citizens of Amesbury as their invited

guests, are met to celebrate the return of your birthday. We

have talked together of all that you have done and suffered in

the cause of freedom and of truth. We have listened to many of

your words, rendered by living voices. We have looked at your

‘counterfeit presentment’ as it has hung before us covered with

evergreen—our New England laurel. Because you were not with

us in person, to receive them, we desire to send you our most

hearty congratulations on the completion of your seventy-seventh

year. We rejoice that after your “Thirty Years’ War” you have

been spared to enjoy so many years of peace, and that in the

prolonged “Indian Summer,” the “Halcyon” days of your life, you

are receiving a well deserved tribute of reverence and affection.

We think ourselves happy to have known you, not merely as a poet,

but as a citizen, a neighbor, and a friend.

“‘We feel we can not better voice our sentiments than by

retaliating upon you the words you once so fitly spoke of one who

has been a co-laborer with you in the cause of humanity—the mild

“Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.”

“‘“The world may keep his honored name,

The wealth of all his varied powers;

A stronger claim has love than fame,

And he himself is only ours.”’

“‘In the name and by the request of three hundred citizens of

your own village.’

“To which Mr. Whittier responded with the following charming letter:

“‘OAK KNOLL, DANVERS, 12 MO., 23, 1884.

“‘MY DEAR FRIEND:—Thy kind letter in behalf of the literary

associations of Amesbury and Salisbury has just been received,

and I hasten to express my thanks for the generous appreciation

of my life work by “mine own people,” who know the man as well

as the writer. That I am neither a prophet myself, nor the son

of a prophet, may account perhaps for the rather remarkable fact

that I am not without honor in my own country. I scarcely need

say that among the many kind testimonials of regard which, on

the occasion of my birthday, have reached me from both sides of

the water, none have been more welcome than that conveyed in thy

letter. If the praise awarded me is vastly beyond my due, I am

none the less grateful for it.

“‘I know too well my own deficiencies and limitations, but my

heart is warm with thankfulness to the Divine Providence which

so early led me to consecrate the ability given me to the cause

of heaven, freedom, and the welfare of my fellowmen. The measure

of literary reputation which has come to me is as far beyond my

expectation as my desert, and I am glad to share the benefit of

it with my home friends and neighbors. With thanks to thyself

personally, and to those whom thee represents, I am, very truly,

thy friend,

“‘JOHN G. WHITTIER.’”

The “Crescent” circle, of WAKEFIELD, grew out of a meeting held last

September, and addressed by Mr. Fairchild, of Malden, in the interest

of the Chautauqua movement. A circle was formed as a result of their

meeting. About twenty members are now recorded on the books, although

more than that proposed at first to join. The meetings are quite

interesting, the programs being varied.——The “Alpha,” of UXBRIDGE, is a

new name on the books. This cutting from a recent letter is suggestive

of their spirit: “We start with six members only, but all are _very_

enthusiastic. We propose to do thorough work. Our object is improvement

and genuine culture. We shall use the best means to bring in others to

reap with us the golden harvest, and not be selfishly content with ‘our

set.’”——There are in FALL RIVER about sixty members of the C. L. S. C.,

but the “Amity” circle is the first organization in the city. It at

present numbers only thirteen members. A larger number certainly ought

to be in the organization. The “Amity” will undoubtedly soon bring them

in.——From PITTSFIELD a friend writes: “I am happy to report to you a

constantly increasing interest in the C. L. S. C. work in Pittsfield.

Our circle reorganized in October for another year’s work. To the

leadership of our efficient president, the Rev. Geo. Skene, we owe our

present prosperity. We have now sixty-four members, twenty-three of

whom belong to Class ’88. We have one graduate, our president, who took

his diploma at Chautauqua last summer. We also have one member of Class

’85, making five classes represented in our circle. Our meetings are

full of interest, and the attendance is excellent, the smallest number

present at any meeting this year being twenty-five. Programs are arranged

by a board of seven managers, who serve for three months. Singing,

prayer, roll call, with responses by quotations and reading of minutes

of last meeting, always form the opening exercises. We have also used

the Chautauqua vesper service, and enjoyed it. Our pastor has had the

Sunday vesper service several times, and we have found it very enjoyable

in both church and circle. We have had, too, experiments in chemistry,

illustrating some of the articles on that subject in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. As

another specialty we have had ‘pronunciation of Greek names,’ conducted

as the old fashioned spelling matches. This proved highly entertaining,

as well as instructive. We have recently changed our name to ‘Bryant

Chautauqua Circle.’ We think it particularly appropriate, as Cummington,

the birthplace of Mr. Bryant, and where he spent much of his life, is

situated only twenty miles from this town. Another circle has been formed

here since November, taking as a president one of the members of our

circle. They have at present thirty members. On Monday evening, February

2d, Dr. Vincent gave a lecture, both circles attending, and after the

lecture a joint reception was given him. It is expected that arrangements

will soon be made for occasionally holding union meetings. Thus the C.

L. S. C. prospers in Pittsfield. We find that here, as elsewhere, the C.

L. S. C. is promoting the best interests of the people.”——For several

years the two or three members of the C. L. S. C. in MARSHFIELD have been

accustomed to meet weekly for reading, study and conversation, but they

never dignified the gathering by the name of a local circle. Within a

few months they have organized under the name of the “Webster” circle,

inasmuch as they are the nearest members of the C. L. S. C. to the home

and burial place of that great statesman. They meet once in three weeks,

and have a membership of eight or ten, including representatives of

nearly every class.

The “Phelps” local circle, of NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, of the C. L. S. C.,

started in November with five Chautauquans, and now numbers twenty-six,

with a number of others who are reading. So far they have kept very

closely to the Greek part of the course, and in the meetings have had a

number of map exercises, which they find very interesting.——WEST WINSTED,

of the same state, has a year-old circle, from which we have had our

first letter: “Our local circle numbers sixty, thirty of whom are regular

members of the central Circle. Nearly all of these members belong to the

‘Pansy’ class, and are loyal to it. We have never labored under great

difficulties, always having had good meetings. We have a most efficient

lady president, to whom, in a large degree, the success of our circle is

due. Early in the fall of 1883 a few enterprising men and women sent for

the books for the year and commenced reading, hardly daring to hope that

a circle would be formed. Our village is not lacking in literary circles,

having an almost countless number of different kinds, and for this very

reason it seemed that another one would not meet with success, but at the

first call nearly forty responded. We organized our circle that night and

continued the meetings during the year, taking up the work in essays,

questions and readings, and observing, as far as possible, the memorial

days, by appropriate exercises. This year we reorganized in October, and,

if possible, have had more interesting meetings than last year. Some of

our members who have a long distance to walk in order to attend have

proved themselves filled with the Chautauqua enthusiasm by their regular

attendance, whatever the condition of the weather. At our last meeting

we had chemistry for the topic, and devoted the evening to experiments,

having twenty or more, nearly all of which are given in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

We have had sometimes, in addition to the regular literary work of the

evening, a personation of some author given by a member, the remaining

members guessing the author personated. One feature of our program for

January 20th was a match, similar to an old-fashioned spelling match,

upon the questions on ‘Preparatory Greek Course’ in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for

October and November. From the fact that new members join our ranks

at almost every meeting, we are encouraged in the feeling that though

popularity is not the winning feature, the good ‘Idea’ has taken deep

root.”

A RHODE ISLAND friend writes from WARREN: “To the numerous reports from

local organizations, I am pleased to add a few lines from the ‘Delta’

circle, organized last October, in this part of ‘Little Rhody.’ It

consists of nineteen ‘regular’ and four ‘local’ members, assembling on

the second and fourth Monday evenings of each month. Our president and

vice president are enthusiastic Chautauquans, respectively of the classes

of ’86 and ’87, the remainder belonging to the class of ’88. Our programs

are arranged by ‘the committee of instruction’ during the intermission,

and reported to the circle before its adjournment each evening. In the

arrangement of these great help is rendered by those published in THE

CHAUTAUQUAN. Our memorial days have been pleasantly observed, and we

shall shortly have a Sunday evening vesper service. We also intend to

have a supper, the cooking of which is to be ‘_à la_ CHAUTAUQUAN.’ While

waiting for the Chautauqua songs our president has carefully prepared by

hektograph, for our use, both notes and words of several selected from

his copy, and we are delighted with the harmonies. Should we discover

any new departure that would be helpful to local circles, we shall write

again.”

Almost as numerous reports reach us this month from the “Empire State”

as we received last; several are of circles hitherto unknown to our

columns. The “DeKalb” circle, of BROOKLYN, is one of these. It was

organized in the fall of 1883, with fifteen members. Since that time the

membership has increased to twenty-six.——At BATAVIA a local circle was

formed in October last, and consists of about fifty members. These are

mostly beginners in the Chautauqua course, with a few who will finish

next year. They have done some good work in the way of essays, readings

and experiments, and hope to do more. The work upon Greece has been made

particularly interesting, from the fact that the leader, the Rev. C.

A. Johnson, has described so faithfully many of these landmarks of the

past as seen by him in recent years.——In October, 1884, a new C. L. S.

C. was organized at WHITESTOWN. It is called the “Hestia” circle, and

has fifteen enthusiastic members, all ladies. At one meeting leaders are

appointed to conduct the exercises on the various readings at the next

meeting, having as many different leaders as there are different subjects

in the readings for the week. The leaders are appointed in alphabetical

order, so each member is required to lead in some exercise as often as

once in every three or four weeks.——The “Lakeside” circle, of FAIR HAVEN,

is to be counted “one of us.” Many readers have been at Lakeside, but the

circle is a new organization. Thus far the work has been, most of it,

on the Greek course; they take the questions in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, have

essays on the leading characters, selections, questions, discussions,

etc. The president drew for them a large map of Greece, which was a great

help in fixing the position of the different places in their minds—an

admirable plan, which more presidents would do well to follow.——A

delightful circle of seventeen exists in the pleasant city of ROME.

Unfortunately, they have recently lost their president, a gentleman of

scholarly taste, to whom the success of the first two years of their life

was largely due.——At LITTLE GENESEE there is an enthusiastic circle of

sixteen members. At each circle one of the members presents a program

for the next session, every member taking his turn in the order in which

his name stands on the secretary’s book. Although not formally made a

rule, it is understood that no member shall refuse to undertake any work

assigned on the program. Chautauqua songs, roll call, and “Questions and

Answers” from THE CHAUTAUQUAN are the standard features of the programs.

Essays, discussions, select reading, questions, etc., furnish variety,

and conversation is always in order. At the last circle the responses

were to be from “Kitchen Science.” The responses assumed form, as well as

expression, and a bountifully spread table gave opportunity for practical

tests of kitchen science.

At LATROBE, PENNSYLVANIA, a C. L. S. C. was properly organized, and went

earnestly to work October 1, 1884, with twenty-five members. It being the

first Chautauqua circle in the place some difficulties had to be overcome

before getting rightly started. The circle is now under good progress,

and doing a good work. They have enjoyable monthly meetings, where a

regular program is carried out, consisting of readings, recitations,

music, etc. The benefit gained by the members is far beyond expression.

Both old and young are alike profited and pleased with the readings.

October 22, 1884, the circle was called to mourn the sad death of Miss

Alice Newcomer, one of their most beloved members.——A very interesting

variation from the usual response by roll call has been introduced into

a program of the HARRISBURG circle. It is that each person respond by

mentioning some one important event which has occurred in the past month.

This circle sends a very skilfully prepared program.——At BERWICK the C.

L. S. C. pursues the plan of study laid down in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, finding

it admirably adapted to complete the required reading in the given time.

A friend telling of their prosperity says: “We have lost a few members by

removals, and one or two have withdrawn, after a year’s study, but the

backbone and sinew of the circle remain, and the body is growing vigorous

and symmetrical. At the dawn of the Chautauqua year we were compelled

to part with our learned and valued preceptor, Prof. L. H. Bower, who

was called to the Dickinson College Preparatory School. The circle, with

appropriate ceremony, presented him with a copy of ‘Knight’s Illuminated

Pictorial Shakspere,’ in eight volumes, as a token of their appreciation

of his services. His talented brother, Prof. A. V. Bower, was elected to

succeed him as president of the circle, and the change was made without

any friction whatever. We congratulate ourselves upon being members of

the Class of ’86.”

The outlook which a friend from MARYLAND sends of the new circle at

FREDERICK is very encouraging: “Through the energy of a lady of the

Methodist church we have organized a C. L. S. C. local circle under

the name of ‘Mountain City.’ We organized November 24, 1884, with nine

members, elected a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. We

are glad to say we now have thirteen members, and hope soon to increase

this number. We have enthusiastic meetings every week at the homes of the

members; read in the circle some of THE CHAUTAUQUAN required readings,

and carry out as far as practicable the programs for local circles, and

expect to observe all memorial days.”

We have just received a very encouraging report from the MADISONVILLE,

OHIO, circle which was organized last year. They have twenty-five

members, all of whom take a great interest in the circle. The committee

of instruction, composed of the officers, has a full program prepared

for each meeting. Two ministers of the town belong and take an active

part. Miscellaneous questions have been introduced, and beside a question

on the lesson, each member is required to bring one on outside matters.

All questions remaining unanswered are distributed, to be answered at

the following meeting. There is no doubt that if the interest in the

circle still continues there will be a second circle started in the town

next year.——At DEFIANCE a local circle was organized October 1st, with

a membership of twenty, all of whom belong to the general Circle of

the C. L. S. C. The president is the Rev. B. W. Slagle, pastor of the

Presbyterian church in the town. They have prepared special programs

for the memorial days, which have proved very delightful, as well as

instructive. There is a good prospect of doubling the membership by next

year.

The annual report of the work of Calvary church, DETROIT, MICHIGAN, for

last year, includes an account of the work done by the “Calvary” circle,

a society which has been made a part of the church organization. From

it we learn that the society has thirty-three active members. They have

held twenty-two meetings; the programs have included—essays, 36; select

readings, 28; music—instrumental pieces 21, vocal pieces 17; general

talks, 4; debates, 2. The regular CHAUTAUQUAN review questions have

been taken up at each meeting. There has been a great deal of interest

manifested in the meetings and a disposition on the part of officers and

members to make them a success; every one who has attended them has been

benefited, not only in the improvement of his or her mind, but also in

some degree morally.

INDIANA reports two circles: the “Wide Awakes,” of MOSCOW, a circle

of four, and the “Laconia,” of GUMFIELD. Some five years ago, when

the “Chautauqua wave” was moving westward, it reached Gumfield in a

modified form. Eight persons began taking THE CHAUTAUQUAN, but did

not perfect an organization; only one of the number matriculated and

kept up the required reading. In the fall of 1882 they began the work

vigorously, organizing a promising circle. As time advanced their

influence gradually widened and extended, until this year there are over

twenty enthusiastic Chautauquans enrolled at the Plainfield office. The

“Laconia” meets weekly, and has endeavored to make thoroughness one of

the characteristics of its work. It is composed entirely of housekeepers,

but they feel more than compensated for sacrifice of time by inspiration

received from the reading and study. Most memorial days have been

observed. By this means the public has become interested in the C. L. S.

C., and a similar society has been organized among the young people.

One of the most enthusiastic circles of ILLINOIS is a quartette of

“Irrepressibles,” at NOKOMIO. The circle had the novel experience of

graduating in a body at Chautauqua last August. Now they are working more

vigorously than ever, trying to cover their diplomas with seals.——ELGIN

has four large circles, the result of the “Alpha” circle, an organization

formed in December, 1883, with six members. Last fall this society

increased its numbers to nine, and most zealous has been their work. A

sad loss recently befell them in the death of one of the charter members,

Miss Mary Warde.——The circle at SULLIVAN, was organized in October, with

a membership of eleven—one “Progressive” and ten “Plymouth Rocks.” They

meet once a week at the homes of the members. The president appoints

the members in turn to act as leaders, and the circle is composed

of enthusiastic workers. Seven members visited New Orleans in the

holidays, and two are spending this month in the “Crescent City.”——From

PROPHETSTOWN a friend writes: “We are a modest bouquet of ‘Pansies,’

counting only seven, but we feel the charm of the Chautauqua Idea, and

propose to ‘Neglect not the gift that is in us.’ One of our number, Mrs.

Amelia K. Seely, passed ‘beyond the gates’ December 15, 1884. We sadly

miss her cheery presence and unfailing interest in the work.”——Wednesday,

January 21st, was a “red-letter” day for the Chautauquans of HINSDALE.

Their usual enthusiasm was raised to a high key by the long-looked-for

visit to their suburb of Chancellor Vincent, who made a stop of two hours

on his way to Aurora. He was received by the class, who were out in full

force, at the residence of the secretary. A lunch was served, and the

time was most agreeably and profitably spent in conversation upon topics

of interest connected with the C. L. S. C.

The “Oak Branch” circle was organized at OAKFIELD, WISCONSIN, in

November. There are only seven members, and all are busy people, but they

are zealous and interested in the work, and thankful that they may enjoy

the benefits of the C. L. S. C. They meet once in two weeks, their circle

being conducted similarly to others which have been reported in THE

CHAUTAUQUAN.

The “Centenary” local circle, of MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, writes us: “Our

city boasts no less than twelve circles, but Centenary, the pioneer

circle, still lives, and while our members are about one half what they

were when ours was the only one in the city, we are going on quietly and

promptly with all our work, and expect to furnish ten graduates for the

class of ’85. We have our cottage engaged for the coming Assembly at

Chautauqua, and hope to send a good delegation next summer. We have some

eight or nine members of the class of ’88, and several representatives of

classes of ’86 and ’87.”——At SPRING VALLEY, a circle of seventeen members

organized last fall, the president being from the class of ’84, but the

members from ’88. The interest in the circle is decidedly increasing.

The friends of THE CHAUTAUQUAN in IOWA have been unusually kind this

month. The following brief clippings from their letters give an excellent

outlook on the work there: “A circle was organized at AFTON, in October

last, consisting of eleven regular and fifteen local members. Although

nearly a month behind in organizing, we intend continuing our society

through July, so as to be able to commence the next year at the regular

time. In making out our program for local circle work we usually

follow the one given in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, and find it a great help, but

occasionally vary our exercises to adapt it to peculiar circumstances.

The average attendance is good, and most of the members seem to take

quite an interest. We hope the society will prove of lasting benefit to

each member.”——“Through the energetic efforts of our village doctor,

there was started last October a C. L. S. C. circle at LE GRAND, and

we feel worthy of mention in your columns. The circle consists of

eleven members of the great Circle, and four or five local members. We

appoint a new teacher for each book. We are learning much, and very much

enjoy the circles. We have chosen for our name ‘Philohellemon.’”——“The

‘Ladies’ Chautauqua Reading Circle,’ of SIOUX CITY, IOWA, has seventeen

members. We organized in October, 1884. Our society is full of earnest

enthusiasm. We meet once a week, following with slight variations the

programs suggested in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. Chemistry is a favorite study,

made specially interesting by the fact that a gentleman familiar with the

subject gives us lectures with illustrative experiments.”——The “Kelly

Humboldt” circle, of HUMBOLDT, was reorganized last fall with renewed

energy and vigor. About fourteen new members were admitted. “Our circle

being now so large (numbering about twenty-six) as to almost require

dividing, next season we intend organizing one in the adjoining town,

just half a mile from here; then those living in that vicinity can

withdraw from our circle to their own, leaving room for more to join

us. To say that we enjoy our study, would be saying but very little; we

can hardly wait for Monday evening to come, so anxious are we to meet

and discuss the topics prepared for us. The programs arranged in THE

CHAUTAUQUAN are a great help to us, although we vary them a little,

generally opening by prayer and music; then, as a sentiment, we each

give a current event of the week. We observe all the memorial days,

and are now making extensive preparations to hold a public meeting in

the church on Longfellow’s day. So that we may not be confused with

the other ‘Humboldt’ circle, we have, in honor of the originator, Miss

Mary Kelly, named our circle the ‘Kelly Humboldt’ C. L. S. C.”——WAPELLO

has the “Qui Vive” circle, which enjoys the work. It was organized in

September, 1884, and is composed almost entirely of members of the class

of ’88.——In a recent letter from BURLINGTON, we find some entertaining

news from still another Iowa friend: “You always have something in the

local circle column from Iowa. You know Iowa has two great staples, corn

and Chautauquans, and we think you would surely be glad to hear of our

flourishing circle, as well as others of the thousands of Chautauquans.

Our circle was organized for the year’s work on Garfield day. We have the

best circle we ever had, and are conceited enough to think there are no

better ones anywhere. Our president is a busy lawyer. Indeed, our circle

is composed of the busiest people in the town. We meet _regularly_ and

_promptly_ every Monday evening. Burlington is a city of seven hills.

Then you understand what regular meetings are here, for the circle is

comprehensive and takes in all the hills. Our chemistry lessons are

taught by a practicing physician who is a thorough chemist and teaches

intelligently and enthusiastically. We have the willing coöperation of

many of the educated people of the city, and when necessary for either

our own advancement, or more perfect instruction on a topic, we find

them ready to give us an address or essay. Our most enthusiastic members

are graduates of colleges, or advanced academies. We recognize each

memorial day. One of our daily papers freely makes any announcement we

have to make, and aids us all it can. I can not undertake to tell you the

good our circle is doing for us individually. Some of us, deprived of

early advantages, can not be too thankful for the C. L. S. C. It is an

influence for good that enters into our everyday life, and overbalances

and counteracts some of the _other_ influences that every soul must

encounter.”

With an excellent program of a regular meeting has come to us a notice

of a circle at HATBORO, TENNESSEE. The secretary says: “With great

pleasure I report a local circle in our little town. We started with

two members; we now enroll thirteen. We all are deeply interested,

and think the Chautauqua Idea a grand one. We call ourselves ‘Golden

Flower’ (Chrysanthemum) local circle, and our badges are clusters of

chrysanthemums.”

From GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, come very cheering reports: “Our

circle was organized in the fall of 1883, and we are therefore of the

‘Pansy’ order. We have twelve members, six young ladies and six young

men. Most of the members are college graduates, and take the course to

keep bright in their studies. We adhere, with occasional changes, to the

following order of business: First, roll call and reading of minutes;

second, examination of question box, in which each member is required to

deposit at least three questions, bearing directly on the subjects for

the time in the regular course; third, an essay; fourth, reading by two

members appointed by the president; fifth, twenty minutes allowed for

informal discussion of the lessons. We of course celebrate the memorial

days with appropriate ceremonies. Some additional interest is given by

having some extra literary entertainment. A Dickens party we had recently

was very enjoyable. The book we selected was ‘Our Mutual Friend.’ Each

member represented one of the leading characters in the book. Besides

we acted several scenes, which added much to the enjoyment. We are all

enthusiastic in our interest in Chautauqua, and fully determined to

finish the course.”

At ATLANTA, GEORGIA, there is a circle of fifteen in West End, the

largest suburb of Atlanta. The Rev. H. C. Crumley, a pastor of the city,

deserves the credit of founding this organization.

A very kindly and graceful courtesy has been extended to those

Chautauquans visiting New Orleans, by the “Longfellow” circle, of that

city. It is an invitation prettily framed, which has been hung in the

Chautauqua alcove. The placard reads:

C. L. S. C.

GREETING

OF THE LONGFELLOW CIRCLE OF NEW ORLEANS.

_To any and all Fellow-Chautauquans who may be visiting The

World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, we offer a

cordial invitation to attend the meetings of our Local Circle,

which are held every Tuesday afternoon, at five o’clock, at No.

393 South Rampart Street, corner of Erato Street._

_Also, we extend a like invitation to all Resident Chautauquans

to join our Circle, wishing to awaken renewed interest in the

Great Movement._

O. F. GROAT, Secretary.

J. HASAM, Cor. Sec’y.

K. L. RIGGS, President.

NEW ORLEANS, January 26, 1885.

A very encouraging report of the circle at EUREKA SPRINGS, ARKANSAS, has

reached us: “We organized the Eureka Springs Chautauqua Literary and

Scientific Circle October 1st, 1884. Our circle has about thirty members,

half of whom are reading the books. We follow the programs given in THE

CHAUTAUQUAN. A great many spectators attend. Everybody is interested

in our circle. We are talking of establishing a lecture course at this

place for the summer months, probably in July, in the interest of the

Chautauqua Circle. We always have between 4,000 and 6,000 people here,

in the summer many more. We have very suitable grounds, near the purest

water in the place. Our town is easy of access from Missouri and Kansas,

as well as from other parts of this State. So far as known, we are the

only organized Chautauquans in this State. Probably many persons are

reading the course at different places, but we know of no circle.”

From CLARKSVILLE, MISSOURI, a lady writes: “This Pansy bed by the ‘Father

of Waters’ has much for which to be thankful: Fifteen earnest workers

compose our number. We are all teachers and scholars, by turns. We

attempt as much thoroughness as practicable in the readings, brought out

by recitations and conversation. We carry out some parts of the programs

in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. Some of the Pansies hope to be transplanted for a

time to Chautauqua in ’87.”

OTTAWA, KANSAS, circle was organized in time for the October work, with

a membership of fourteen. “Our circle has increased, until now we are

twenty-eight in number. Our meetings, held twice a month, are both

pleasant and profitable, each member faithfully doing his part. We

respond to roll call by quotations or class mottoes. We find the programs

in THE CHAUTAUQUAN quite beneficial. The essays, recitations and music

form a pleasing variety. We adopted the question match, also the question

box, and find these not only amusing but profitable. This month we will

try some of the chemical experiments in connection with a lecture. We are

all looking forward to the Sunday-school Assembly, which meets here in

June, and to the meetings of the circle conducted by the Rev. Hurlbut.

The spirit of the C. L. S. C. is spreading, and we hope to report a large

circle to you next year.”

A friend writes from SEATTLE, WASHINGTON TERRITORY: “I notice in your

January number a communication from Mr. K. A. Burnell, in which he

states that at Seattle and Tacoma he found but a single reader and one

family reading the Chautauqua course, a statement from which one might

infer that he was indeed so much under the ‘shadow of Mount Tacoma’ as

to obscure his vision. There are at Seattle as many as forty readers,

at least, who have been pursuing the Chautauqua course of study since

October last. There are three regularly organized circles in this place,

holding weekly meetings, and a general semi-monthly meeting in which

the members of all the circles join. One of the circles, named ‘Alki,’

has a membership of sixteen. This circle has the honor and advantage

of numbering among its members a noted linguist and scientist in the

person of Dr. John C. Sundberg. Considerable interest is being awakened

throughout the whole of the Puget Sound country in the Chautauqua

readings, and it would not be surprising if, in another year, the regular

Chautauquans in this section of country are numbered by hundreds.”

The “Washakie” circle, of EVANSTON, WYOMING, was organized on the 10th

of last October. The names of twenty-six members have been enrolled.

Starting late, they were behind with their studies until lately,

consequently the program for each week as laid down in THE CHAUTAUQUAN

was not followed. The meetings, however, have been very interesting.

The leaders appointed for the different subjects on each evening came

well prepared. Essays on Milton, Burns, and others, have been read.

Prof. Halleck, of the public schools, has delivered short lectures on

the scientific subjects. Prof. Capen has given experiments in chemistry.

Music, and recitations from the classic authors by a fine elocutionist,

have rendered the meetings more entertaining. The enthusiasm has grown

with the year.

The first circle that was regularly organized in PORTLAND, OREGON,

was that established by the Y. M. C. A., last October. This circle is

composed of about twenty members. The other two circles which have joined

the class of ’88 are those connected with the Taylor Street and Grace

Methodist Episcopal Churches. The latter was organized during the month

of December, and is composed of about twenty-five members, who seem to be

now deeply interested in their work. The former is the largest circle in

the State, composed of about forty active and progressive young men and

women, who are now deeply interested in their studies, and a notable fact

of this circle is that there is no restraint in thought by the members,

as is often the case where freedom of opinion is withheld, thus repelling

the progress of the meeting. The able secretary of their circle deserves

great credit for the time and trouble he has exercised performing that

office, and volunteering to assume all responsibility with regard to

books, dues, and pamphlets. The Rev. G. W. Chandler, the efficient

president, is the originator of this circle. Their efforts and untiring

energies have made this circle most interesting, and have brought into

it some of the best scholars in the State. By perseverance and thorough

study, with the watchword “Forward,” they are determined to ever press

onward and upward in this grand work, and receive their reward.

THE C. L. S. C. CLASSES.

CLASS OF 1885.—“THE INVINCIBLES.”

“_Press on, reaching after those things which are before._”

OFFICERS.

_President_—J. B. Underwood, Meriden, Conn.

_Vice President_—C. M. Nichols, Springfield, Ohio.

_Treasurer_—Miss Carrie Hart, Aurora, Ind.

_Secretary_—Miss M. M. Canfield, Washington, D. C.

_Executive Committee_—Officers of the class.

Class badges may be procured of either President or Treasurer.

The members of the Chautauqua circles have now a third of a year only

in which to finish their readings and fill out their papers for the

current year. So far as we have been able to learn, a much larger number

of persons have been pursuing the C. L. S. C. course this year than

have been in the ranks during any previous corresponding period. Those

connected with journalism, in looking over their exchanges, rarely pick

up a local paper that does not have some reference to the doings of a

local Chautauqua circle. Then it has been discovered that those who read

the Chautauqua books and periodicals have been led to go beyond the

lines, and to search for intellectual treasures in “pastures new”—in

books, reviews, public journals of character and excellence, and, also,

to seek association with people of culture. Indeed, it is pleasantly and

encouragingly apparent that the Chautauqua system is becoming, from month

to month, broader, deeper, more far-reaching in its wholesome and really

powerful influence, in promoting moral as well as intellectual culture.

The members of the Class of 1885 should bear these facts in mind, and

accept the special degree of responsibility involved. Let this class be

not only the best, but the largest that has ever passed within the Golden

Gate on Commencement day! Why should it not be three thousand strong? If

we begin now, in April, to make our plans and preparations, perhaps we

can all “get there,” and present a solid phalanx of honest, thorough,

intelligent and aggressive Chautauquans, marching toward and through

the Gate and into the Hall, with banners and songs, that will promise

largely and grandly for the moral and mental improvement of thousands of

communities throughout the land.

* * * * *

“What would be the result if we report to Miss Canfield our intentions to

be at Chautauqua to receive our diplomas, and something should happen to

prevent?”

The only result would be that those who expected you would be as sadly

disappointed as you would be in not being able to come. The fact that you

intended to come and were detained by good cause would be accepted, and

you would “stand excused,” and would receive your diploma in good time.

* * * * *

MISSOURI.—As one of the “Invincibles,” I would add my testimony with

others of Class ’85 as having received pleasure and benefit beyond

computation in pursuing the C. L. S. C. course. I commenced alone, but

after a few months succeeded in organizing a circle for ’86, which keeps

up a large membership, persistent and thorough in study, with rigid class

drill; also remembrance of memorial days.

* * * * *

PENNSYLVANIA.—What a well-spring of joy is the C. L. S. C. in the homes

of those who have not enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education! The

students born of this great movement are rising up all over this great

land with blessings for the founder of this happy Circle. I am reading

alone, as there are no members near me, but at some little distance I

have interested some bright young friends of mine in the work, and I am

glad to know that they are so much pleased with it.

CLASS OF 1886.—“THE PROGRESSIVES.”

“_We study for light, to bless with light._”

CLASS ORGANIZATION.

_President_—The Rev. B. P. Snow, Biddeford, Maine.

_Vice Presidents_—The Rev. J. C. Whitley, Salisbury, Maryland;

Mr. L. F. Houghton, Peoria, Illinois; Mr. Walter Y. Morgan,

Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. Delia Browne, Louisville, Kentucky; Miss

Florence Finch, Palestine, Texas.

_Secretary_—The Rev. W. L. Austin, New Albany, Ind.

The new badge, bearing the motto and emblem of the class, is now ready

to be sent out. The design meets hearty approval. The cost, including

postage, will be 15 cents. For badges, address the president or the

secretary.

* * * * *

The New England branch of the class will have superior headquarters at

the Framingham Assembly in July. This important section of ’86 have plans

and arrangements in view that will insure a most pleasant and successful

class gathering at the Assembly.

CLASS OF 1887.—“THE PANSIES.”

“_Neglect not the gift that is in thee._”

OFFICERS.

_President_—The Rev. Frank Russell, Mansfield, Ohio.

_Western Secretary_—K. A. Burnell, Esq., 150 Madison Street,

Chicago, Ill.

_Eastern Secretary_—J. A. Steven, M.D., 164 High Street,

Hartford, Conn.

_Treasurer_—Either Secretary, from either of whom badges may be

procured.

_Executive Committee_—The officers of the class.

Class paper may be procured from Mr. Henry Hart, Atlanta, Ga.

The attention of the members of ’87 is called to the letter by Mrs. Alden

in the March number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN, page 353.

* * * * *

President Russell had charge of the Sunday-school Normal Department

at the Florida Chautauqua, Lake de Funiak, and is one of the Board of

Managers.

At Milton, Mass., recently, the representatives of the Class of ’87 had a

table at a church fair and cleared over $100.

It is our painful duty to record the death of two members of the Class

of 1887: Miss Mary Dayton, of Binghamton, N. Y., and Mrs. Lou L. Dunn,

of Bonham, Texas. The deepest sympathy not only of the class, but of all

members of the C. L. S. C. is with the sorrowing friends.

* * * * *

TO NEW ENGLAND ’87S.—The second mid-year reunion of New England ’87s will

be held on Friday, April 3d, in Union Congregational Chapel, Stewart

Street, Providence, R. I. The business meeting will be held at half-past

one o’clock p. m.; the literary and musical entertainment at two o’clock.

A social reunion will precede and follow the regular exercises. Will

all New England members of ’87 please make a special effort to attend

this reunion? Providence Chautauquans are enthusiastic, and will

doubtless strive to make this meeting thoroughly enjoyable. Let us, by

our presence, show our appreciation of their efforts. Our Providence

classmates have kindly offered to meet at the station any strangers who

will communicate the hour of their arrival to Miss Nellie F. Crocker, 6

Kepler Street, Providence.

CLASS OF 1888.—“THE PLYMOUTH ROCKS.”

“_Let us be seen by our deeds._”

CLASS ORGANIZATION.

_President_—The Rev. A. E. Dunning, D.D., Boston, Mass.

_Vice Presidents_—Prof. W. N. Ellis, 108 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn,

N. Y.; the Rev. Wm. G. Roberts, Bellevue, Ohio.

_Secretary_—Miss M. E. Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio.

_Treasurer_—Miss M. E. Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio.

All items for this column should be sent, in condensed form, to

the Rev. C. C. McLean, St. Augustine, Florida.

The “Chautauqua Quartette,” Avon, Indiana, organized December 5, 1884,

writes: “We are four country girls, living two to three miles apart, but

hold weekly meetings, alternately, at our homes.”

* * * * *

In Harlem, N. Y., is a class of seven, organized October 1, 1884. The

secretary writes: “Each member in turn takes charge, assigning lessons

and questioning the class.” In addition to the required study they take

some prominent author, giving biography and quoting from works.

* * * * *

From Portland, Maine, we learn that they have a large and interesting

circle, meeting semi-monthly.

* * * * *

The “Castalian,” of Philadelphia, ten members, was organized October,

1884. This circle thinks too many members make each other timid, and

therefore advocates many circles of few members. They are fortunate in

having a president who makes chemical experiments.

* * * * *

A flourishing circle of fifty members was organized in Batavia, New York,

October, 1884.

The Rev. J. D. Gillilan, of Toocle, Utah, writes that “here among the

Mormons a class of three is formed; one of the number was a Mormon

when he joined the circle, but has since united himself with the M. E.

Church.” There is a flourishing circle in Salt Lake City.

* * * * *

The “Wilkesbarre” circle, of Wilkesbarre, Pa., was organized October,

1884, with sixty members. This circle meets every alternate week, each

member responding to roll call with a quotation from the “readings.” A

physician makes fine experiments in chemistry.

* * * * *

A circle has been organized in Topeka, Kan., with thirty members. The

secretary says: “Most of us are busy girls, figuring as teachers, office

and store clerks, but find time to take the reading course thoroughly,

and hope to graduate with the 88s.”

* * * * *

KANSAS.—“I am well pleased with our class motto and name. I am a sculptor

by profession and wish a higher aim, a sculptor of life, for I have

caught that angel vision. I am pursuing my studies with energy and

enthusiasm, and life to me is more pleasant since I have taken up the

course. Whenever I feel vexed and comfortless I only need to read over

Chancellor Vincent’s articles in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for encouragement.”

* * * * *

From Buffalo, Pa., a friend says that “_all_ dislike the Class name, and

desire it changed.”

* * * * *

Toronto, Canada, raises a protesting voice against our name, saying, “I

am well aware of the fact that the name stands on history’s page as a

synonym for grand and noble qualities, but I am forced nevertheless to

object to it on account of its ‘fowl’ association. Could we not have a

name _unwinged_, _unplumed_, and of no marketable value.”

* * * * *

One of the ’88s, who is reading alone, tells us, “In the study of the

past four months I have received more instruction and enjoyment than in

any amount of the general reading done in the same number of years.”

* * * * *

“Vincent” circle, of Portland, Maine, sends us an interesting program of

a meeting held January 16th. A most exquisite Plymouth Rock engraving

graces its first page.

* * * * *