Part 13

What shall I say when people ask, “What are the benefits of belonging to the C. L. S. C.? Why not take the same studies in the local circle, without such membership?” Answer: Persons who belong to the local circles and avail themselves of the benefits of the suggestions, the courses of study, etc., which come from the central Circle, do so without making any contribution whatever toward the C. L. S. C. as a general movement in society. They get what costs them nothing. People who belong to the general Circle have the satisfaction of knowing that they are, by their annual fee of fifty cents, helping on a great movement that reaches over the whole world; and while no one of the officers of the C. L. S. C. makes any money out of the work, except the meager salary paid to our secretary, a great deal of time is given, a great deal of printing done, a great deal of postage paid, a great deal of advertising circulated, for the sake of acquainting the public with this educational movement. Members of local circles who do not belong to the general Circle know that they are making no contribution whatever to the general work, while they are, without paying a penny, reaping the benefits of it. To this, however, we do not object. We are always glad to have members of local circles. Those who belong to the regular C. L. S. C. have the benefits of the communications which come from the central office, the memoranda, the systematic ways of work, identification with a great fraternity like a college, the privilege of membership in the several societies within the circle, such as “The Hall in the Grove,” “The League of the Round-Table,” etc., etc. They also receive diplomas, and additional incentives to add seals to them during the years. There are many benefits accruing to those who belong to the C. L. S. C.

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Who is the son of Capaneus, mentioned by Wilkinson (Prep. Greek in English), page 165? Answer: Sthenelus. He was one of the Epigoni by whom Thebes was taken; he commanded the Argives under Diomedes in the Trojan war. He was one of the Greeks concealed in the wooden horse.

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How is _Euxine_ pronounced? Answer: Yṳx´in.

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Is there any firm that makes a reduction in price of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary to members of the Circle? Answer: H. L. Hastings, 47 Cornhill, Boston, Mass., reduces the price from $12.00 to $9.00.

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A young lady in Wisconsin writes: I am denied the privilege of school. My parents are poor, and they work hard to secure a living. I have done housework for some time at seventy-five cents per week, buying my own clothes; so I said to myself I will save enough of my wages to purchase the books in the C. L. S. C. course, and I have succeeded. I have enjoyed the study of geology, though I could not afford to have the maps and charts. A map of Ancient Greece was sent me by Dr. Vincent. I hope to soon begin a course in literature and music in an academy.

C. L. S. C. TESTIMONY.

How can such deeply-imprinted images sleep in us at times, till a word, a sound, awakes them?—_Lessing._

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_Ohio._—Much of my reading has been done in the sickroom. I wish I could tell you how thoroughly I have enjoyed my reading so far. I know I have acquired a much more eager desire for “solid reading” than I ever had before.

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_Indiana._—My own illness, and other afflictions in my home, have delayed my work for ’82, but I hope my paper is not too late to be accepted for last year’s work. I have commenced the C. L. S. C. work with the intention of completing it some time, in spite of all hinderances.

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_Maine._—I have noticed several times your school mentioned in different papers, and have thought I might, perhaps, be able to take the course. My time is pretty well taken up, but I have a boy, nine years of age, who takes _The Wide Awake_, and is interested in the articles contained in the supplement, and I think I might be better able to answer his questions if I were reading what would help me to do so. I have quite a good selection of books, but perhaps can obtain what you use.

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_Connecticut._—I can not tell you how well I like the C. L. S. C. course. It is just what I want, and what I need. There is no way I could so well fill up the vacant moments as to read from some of the books of the Chautauqua course. It contains so much good solid reading. I am _determined_ to keep on, doing the best I can, and think I can about catch up before commencing on the next year’s study.

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_Pennsylvania._—I believe that I have made some improvement by my studies, for I have not read so much for six years. I have made but a feeble effort in answering questions, but I hope to do better in the future. I really had not the time to read the special course. Next year I hope to have help for myself from some new books. I am truly thankful for the privilege of membership in the C. L. S. C., and I hope I can catch up with the class in 1885.

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_Massachusetts._—I have pursued the C. L. S. C. course entirely alone, and at times I have felt a little discouraged, but never have wanted to give it up, and now that I have graduated I want to keep right on, but hardly know which of the special courses to take up. I will continue to have THE CHAUTAUQUAN because I enjoy it very much. I can not express to you how much good this course has done me, although I can not repeat much of it yet. The world and life seem very different to me now from what they did four years ago.

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_Vermont._—I want to tell you how much I thank you for the C. L. S. C. course. I was obliged to leave school before I graduated, on account of my father’s death, to take care of my mother, who is an invalid. The Chautauqua course was just what I wanted, and it has cheered many lonely hours. I have studied alone this year but am hoping that some of my friends will take the course next year. I think it is a grand and noble work and just fitted to meet the wants of a large class of people who are denied the privilege of a course of study at school.

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C. L. S. C. SONG.

JOIN, O FRIENDS, IN A MEMORY SONG.

MARY A. LATHBURY. (ALUMNI SONG.) WM. F. SHERWIN, 1877.

[Illustration: Music]

1 Join, O friends, in a mem’ry song, A song of service, of faith, of praise; Of love that gathers its fiber strong From forest soil and Chautauquan days.

CHORUS.

Sing, O sing! for the Word shall spring From seed to scion, from bud to bloom, Since life immortal the Lord did bring From the Seed that fell in an open tomb!

2 Join in a hymn of hope, O friends, The Lord is coming his own to bless, And tried and true is the band he sends To open a way in the wilderness.

_Chorus._

3 After the brier, the thorn, the weed, Shall spring a plant of a wondrous birth; And Love—the flow’r of a heavenly seed— With bloom and beauty shall fill the earth.

_Chorus._

Copyright, 1877, by J. H. Vincent.

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_Wisconsin._—While at the Monona Lake Assembly, at Madison, Wisconsin, I was induced through Rev. A. H. Gillet to enter the C. L. S. C. for 1883. I have commenced and followed the readings so far with much interest. Owing to increasing business complications as clerk of circuit court, added to my law studies, I am not certain that I shall be able to keep up with the readings near enough to pass creditably. I shall endeavor, however, to go through with the course in the time required. I am the only C. L. S. C. student I know of in this part of the State (southern). I would be glad to know of others, and would be glad if I could establish a circle in Monroe, where I shall be after January 1, 1883. The Chautauqua course fills a long felt want among those who have never had the advantage of a collegiate education, as well as among overworked professional men, who have only a limited time in which to keep up a course of reading in science or literature. I shall endeavor in all possible ways to extend the knowledge of the benefits of this course. I have heard some objections to the Circle from those who held aloof, owing to the fact that it was conducted wholly by a religious denomination. In fact, I held this idea at first, and a further one, that the course was one wholly religious. I am convinced to the contrary, and shall convince others. I should be glad to hear by letter from some others who are engaged in this course alone. We might be a mutual help to one another.

LOCAL CIRCLES.

[We request the president or secretary of every local circle to send us reports of your work, or ask the circle to elect a member to write up your method of conducting the circle, together with reports of lectures, concerts, entertainments, etc.—Editor THE CHAUTAUQUAN, Meadville, Pa.]

=Vermont (Bennington).=—Our circle is doing much better work this year than it did last year. Some of the members did not complete the readings last year, but they are going on with this year’s course.

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=Massachusetts (Brocton).=—We have twenty-five members, sixteen of whom are regular members of the C. L. S. C. We meet monthly and our method of work thus far has been the preparation and reading of essays on the subjects of the required reading, followed by discussions. The most of us are enthusiastic Chautauquans and we look for large results from our winter’s work. Although there have been members of the C. L. S. C. here since its organization in 1878, this is the first effort that has ever been made to form a local circle.

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=Massachusetts (Hopkinton).=—We have a circle of thirty members who do whatever is assigned to them, and a committee of five who arrange for the meetings which occur in two weeks.

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=Massachusetts (Walpole).=—Our circle numbers nineteen members. Mr. S. E. Baily, principal of the High School is president. The meetings are held every alternate week at the secretary’s house. At each meeting the president drills us on our work for the past fortnight.

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=New York (Albany).=—Our Albany circle was organized in 1880, with a membership of five. Since then we have been steadily growing, and our list of regular members now numbers fifty. During the first year we met at the homes of the members, but since then we have met in the Assembly room of the old Capitol. We vary in the method of conducting our meetings, which are held monthly. Two or three subjects are generally assigned, and essays are prepared and read, followed by a general discussion. Then, again, the evening will be devoted to one subject. Century arches and our question-box are interesting features. We have had several fine lectures from our own and neighboring clergymen and scientific men. Dr. Vincent gave a new impetus to the work by a lecture, delivered in one of our churches a year ago.

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=New York (Spencerport).=—The first meeting of the Spencerport circle for the year 1882-3, was held September 12. The meeting was more especially for the purpose of showing to the public the aim of the C. L. S. C., the work which had been accomplished by the Spencerport circle during the past year, and the work which was laid out for them to do during the coming year; and as the public were invited to attend the meeting, the purpose was not in vain. There were nearly one hundred present, exclusive of the members of the circle, and the program was excellent and entertaining; a very pleasant feature of which was a description of the Chautauqua Assembly, and graduating exercises of the Class of ’82, by Mrs. James Hickcok, she being a member of that class. Subsequently another meeting was held, at which the officers for the ensuing year were elected, and arrangements made for the work of the year. Quite a number of new members have been admitted, and the number has increased from a membership of nine regular and nine local members of last year, to sixteen regular and sixteen local members for this year. The meetings are held every alternate Saturday afternoon, at three o’clock. The program consists of essays on the lives and works of various authors, and reading selections from their writings, taking one author at each meeting; after which the questions in THE CHAUTAUQUAN are asked and answered, with the privilege of discussing points in the subjects treated. The authors already treated upon have been Tennyson, O. W. Holmes, Irving, and Bryant. At the first regular meeting after the election of officers, the ex-president of the circle, Mrs. H. H. Hartwell, was presented with a very fine cabinet photograph album, by the members of the circle, as a token of their esteem, and the well wishes of the entire circle go with her to her new home in Albion, Michigan. The meetings are very well attended, and the interest is increasing.

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=Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh).=—The following remarks were made in response to a toast, “The Chautauqua Idea the unchained Prometheus,” proposed at the banquet of the C. L. S. C. alumni of Pittsburgh, Pa., January 25, by Dr. J. J. Covert: “It is written in ancient story that one ambitious Prometheus once ridiculed the gods, and deceived even Jupiter himself. As a punishment to himself and the rest of mankind, Jupiter took fire away from the earth. But the stealthy and ambitious Prometheus, by the aid of the beautiful Minerva (you see no great thing could be done without woman), climbed the heavens and stole fire from the chariot of the sun, which he brought down to earth again. This so enraged the Olympian god that he ordered Prometheus chained to a Caucasian rock for thirty thousand years, while every day a vulture was to come and dine upon his liver. The mighty Hercules slew the hateful vulture, rent the granite rock, broke the galling chains that bound his limbs, and the unchained hero rises from his granite bed of ages, the pride of all the earth and the envy of the gods. Prometheus chained was ignorance and superstition enthroned; with limbs unfettered he is literature and knowledge sown broadcast in all the land. How fitting a figure then, the language of the toast, ‘The Chautauqua Idea the unchained Prometheus.’ The selfish gods of fortune doomed the Promethean masses to cruel and hopeless bonds of ignorance and illiteracy forever. From age to age the hateful vulture of fate fed upon the imperishable and irrepressible liver of aspiration, until the mighty hero Vincent Hercules arose, and heard the crying want, and armed with giant weapons forged by the Vulcan Miller, smote the granite rock, severed the galling chains, slew the greedy vulture, and set the prisoner free, opening wide the golden gates that guard the perennial groves and Pierian springs of Academia, where ambitious thousands have entered—are entering still; giving to renewed thought the wings of the morning, freighted with literature, art and science, that it may ‘circle’ the earth with the gilded, jeweled, mystic C. L. S. C. opportunities. See that beautiful, shadowy, Academian grove yonder, nestling in the fond embracing arms of that silvery lake! What a fitting home and dwelling place for our unchained hero, and all the muses of the ages! Chapels, temples, palaces, amphitheaters, obelisks, and pyramids spring up as by Herculean power. Here Phidias, and Homer, and Plato, and Demosthenes, and Xenophon, and Raphael, and Angelo, have their dwelling-place. Surely this is where our unchained hero and his attendant muses dwell, and hither his disciples love to make their pilgrimage. Look out upon the shimmering lake in the brightness of the early dewy morn, and listen to the music of the rippling waves as they break upon the pebbly shore, surpassing far the mystic notes of Memnon’s shaft at early dawn of day. But now ’tis night, and stars are looking down and sparkling like jewels on the bosom of the placid lake. Sloops, and yachts, and steamers large, and smaller craft of every name and form, fly swiftly round with colors high and blazing lights; music of bands and ringing bells commingle with ten thousand happy voices in the glad acclaim, and highest heaven hears the song. And now I know that this is where Prometheus dwells, whence all the muses come to celebrate the breaking of his chains, and the setting of him free; and whence again they fly abroad through all the land, the message-bearers of the beautiful and true. It is the apocalyptic angel flying through the midst of heaven with the everlasting truth that shall fill the world with light and joy. I see the mystic band with robes of light and arms of love, from every walk of life, while joy and peace sit undisturbed upon their brows. Oh, what a mighty host! They are forty thousand strong. A mystic circle binds them round, and every link within the golden chain is set with pearls. O, for some mystic tongue of fire, that I might the better speak the glories of our chosen muse! The world-renowned ‘Chautauqua’ may not sparkle o’er our heads as a constellation in the skies, but if true Chautauquans we prove ourselves to be, we shall far outshine the stars in the kingdom of his love forever and forevermore.”

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=Pennsylvania (Sunbury).=—The circle has been in existence since October, 1880, and at present has a membership of twenty, all ladies. Our method of conducting meetings this year is very simple. We meet once a week, on Saturday afternoons. Questions on the lesson assigned are previously written out by the president and numbered. They are then distributed among the members and answered as they are called off. There is a great deal of free and easy discussion of the topic on hand.

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=Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).=—West Philadelphia has a thriving local circle of fifteen ladies. We are officered with a president and secretary, and meet weekly at the homes of the members. A teacher is appointed for each subject under consideration; for instance, next week we have a teacher to hear the astronomy, and another to hear the Russian history. These teachers are very thorough in their questionings; we are obliged to study our lessons well, or be mortified by a failure. Last year, while studying chemistry, we had a lecture (with experiments) by Prof. English. This year we gave a Christmas entertainment and invited our friends. The exercises consisted of a little drama, readings, music and an essay on Chautauqua, read by one of our members who visited Chautauqua last summer. At every meeting, in addition to the regular work, we have quotations from different authors, or else readings of an amusing as well as instructive character, and often we close our meetings with what we call Chautauqua games. Thus we combine solid work with entertainment and mirth, and consider ourselves hard-working enthusiastic Chautauquans.

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=District of Columbia (Georgetown).=—The first circle of the Chautauqua Literary Society in this city was organized in the fall of 1880, by eight colored young ladies who are employed as teachers in the public schools. This circle now numbers more than thirty members. The meetings of this circle are held on Saturday evenings at the residence of each member alternately. The Chautauqua Literary Course is becoming quite popular among the colored people throughout the country, and especially in this city. A circle has been organized at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church.

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=Louisiana (New Orleans).=—We, the “Longfellow” circle, are still alive, though probably we are about the only circle in the country that has progressed backward in point of numbers. A year ago we had sixteen members, now we have only half that number, owing to departures from the city. Those who remain are still faithful and true. We understand that there are several other parties in New Orleans who are pursuing the course outside of any local circle. We meet every Thursday evening at the residence of Mr. D. L. Mitchel. The meetings are generally well attended and very enjoyable. We have essays on various subjects connected with the reading, and take the questions and answers as published in THE CHAUTAUQUAN, with a general conversation on the reading for the week. Milton’s day was celebrated in an appropriate manner, there being a good essay on the life and works of Milton by the secretary, with selected readings from his writings by other members of the circle. Byron’s memorial day (an innovation of our own) we celebrated with appropriate exercises on the 25th of January. The president read a splendid essay entitled, “Byron, the Man and the Poet.” Selections from the writings of Byron were also read.

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=Ohio (Wooster).=—Our class meets bi-monthly; the lesson assigned at a previous meeting is recited topically and catechetically, under the direction of an instructor selected from the class at a previous meeting. The assignment of the lesson is made with a view to accepting the suggestions and appointments of the subject as formulated in THE CHAUTAUQUAN. We have had no lectures, concerts, or public social entertainments, but we observe now and then memorial days. Our members are very much interested in the Chautauqua Idea. Kind fellowship distinguishes all our meetings. We have twenty-three members, of whom two are graduates of 1882, three are enrolled in the class of 1883, and eighteen are pursuing the course as local members, each of whom we think will ultimately enter the lists and capture the prize of a full course.

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