C. T. U.; Prof. I. P. Bishop showed "The Physiological Effects of
Alcohol," Prof. Frederick Starr, the anthropologist, gave an interesting
account of "Stimulants among Primitive Peoples." Other speakers were
Rev. E. C. Dinwiddie, Mr. Frederick H. Wines, and Mrs. John G. Woolley.

[Illustration: A Corner of the Playground]

Another Conference was held August 10th to 15th on "The Mob," and
attracted the deepest interest. President William G. Frost of Berea
College, Kentucky, told of "The Mountain Feuds"; Mr. John Temple Graves
spoke in defense of lynching, and declared that the only solution of the
negro problem in the south would be the enforced deportation of the
negro back to Africa; but other Southerners present did not agree with
him. Dean Richmond Babbitt gave "A Study of the Lynch Law"; Mr. D. M.
Parry spoke on "The Mob Spirit in Organized Labor"; Mr. Thomas Kidd on
"The Labor Unions and the Mob Spirit." Chief Justice Charles B. Lore of
Delaware and Judge John Woodward gave "The Legal Aspects of the Mob
Spirit." No discussion at Chautauqua awakened such feeling, although it
was carried on with perfect courtesy by speakers on the opposing
sides.

We can name only a few of the many lecturers in the regular program of
1903. One was Governor Robert M. La Follette of Wisconsin, soon to
attract attention as an insurgent in the United States Senate. Another
was Mr. George Willis Cooke, on social subjects. Mr. Hamlin Garland, the
story-writer, gave a lecture, also General John B. Gordon of Georgia,
Dr. Richard Burton, a course in literature; Hon. Wm. T. Harris, Dr.
Moulton, and the Rev. R. J. Campbell of London. The platform during the
season was fairly crowded, the speakers and concerts following in such
close succession.

In 1904, Bishop Vincent having been relieved from the cares of the
Episcopacy, went to live for a time in Indianapolis. He was now able to
come with more or less regularity to Chautauqua, and gave the opening
address of the season. The exercises of that year extended through sixty
days beginning June 30th and ending August 28th. We note that the School
of English included in its staff Prof. Richard G. Moulton and Edward
Howard Griggs. The work in Nature Study was enlarged to include courses
in Botany and Physiography. The courses for teachers embraced systematic
work in all the grades from the kindergarten to the college. This year
the new electric railway was opened from Jamestown to Chautauqua and
thence to Mayville and Westfield on Lake Erie. Bishop Vincent was a
passenger on the first car over the line. This improved means of
transportation enabled people to come by rail every hour to Chautauqua,
gave direct and speedy connection with the New York Central Railroad,
and resulted in making the principal entrance to the grounds no longer
by water but by land. Hence the crowds forsook the stores in the Pier
Building and the Arcade, and a new business center grew up on the hill.

This year the new Hall of Philosophy was opened, of the same general
plan as the old building, but with floor and pillars of concrete, a more
durable material. The building was also somewhat larger than its
predecessor and was in every way more convenient. In the concrete floor
are inserted tablets in honor of the classes that contributed toward the
building. The pillars also bear the names of their givers. The list of
exercises in the Hall during any Assembly season would of itself make a
long catalogue.

The Devotional Hour had now become a systematic order and called
together large congregations. It was not altogether the fame of the
great preachers, but also the strong religious atmosphere of the place
that gathered every day at ten o'clock for five mornings of each week a
thousand people for worship. How many churches could show a congregation
as large, not only on Sundays, when the service was attended by five
thousand people, but through the days of the week? Among the chaplains
of this season, each serving a week, were Dr. S. Parkes Cadman, Dr. Hugh
Black, Bishop Oldham, Dr. Daniel Dorchester of Pittsburgh, and the
evangelist, Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman.

The Conference of 1904 was from July 24th to 29th on the subject of
Missions, Home and Foreign. Among the speakers were Dr. Francis E. Clark
of the Christian Endeavor movement, recently returned from an all-around
the world visit to missions abroad, Dr. Frederick G. Stanley, Dr. George
M. Boynton, Dr. Homer Stuntz from the Philippines--afterward a Bishop of
the Methodist Episcopal Church--Bishop Oldham, and Mr. J. L. Joslin of
India.

I remember hearing Dr. Stuntz tell of a native Filipino who came to him
soon after the American occupation of Manila, and after carefully
closing the door, and looking in closets to be sure that no one was in
hearing, carefully unrolled a package, showed a small Bible in the
Spanish language, and asked: "Would it be safe for me to be found
reading this book? I have kept it hidden for years, for my life would
have been the penalty if it had been seen." Dr. Stuntz led him to a
window, pointed to the American flag flying over the castle, and said;
"Do you see that flag? As long as that flag flutters over these islands,
you can stand in the market place and read in as loud a voice as you
choose out of this book and you will be safe. Wherever that flag flies,
the Bible is an open book!"

Most of the men whom we have named gave lectures, as well as
participating in the conferences. Besides these, we saw on the platform
the massive form of William Howard Taft, then Secretary of War, after a
few years to be President of the United States; Mr. Griggs also gave a
course of lectures and taught classes in literature, and Prof. Frederick
Starr was one of the speakers. Dr. George Adam Smith of Scotland was
also with us during the season of 1904.

Some of the recitations this year were by Dr. S. H. Clark, Mrs. Bertha
Kunz Baker, Mrs. Emily M. Bishop, Miss Marie L. Shedlock, and Prof.
Henry L. Southwick.

CHAPTER XX

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AT CHAUTAUQUA

(1905-1908)

THE notable event in the Assembly of 1905 was the fourth visit of
Theodore Roosevelt. He was the President of the United States, not now
by succession, but by direct vote of the people, for his first term,
after the death of Mr. McKinley, had been completed. He had promised to
maintain his predecessor's policies during the period for which Mr.
McKinley had been elected, and through that term he had initiated no new
movements. But his pledge having been kept and his administration
ratified by the popular vote, Mr. Roosevelt was now free to bring
forward his own plans. His address at Chautauqua on August 11th, five
months after his inauguration, was the first public announcement of his
principles and policies, and in its boldness, its candor, and its
originality was fairly startling. Mr. McKinley was a cordial, but a
reticent party leader. Everyone who talked with him was charmed, but no
one could recall any definite promise or statement that he had made.
Mr. Roosevelt was absolutely, unreservedly open; he would state to
anybody his opinion on every public question. Lyman Abbott once said,
"Mr. McKinley and Mr. Roosevelt were both great men and great statesmen,
but between the absolute reticence of the one and the absolutely
openness of the other, there is no half-way house."

The presidential party included his son Kermit, his nephew Paul
Roosevelt, his cousin Philip Roosevelt, Mr. Jacob A. Riis, and a number
of leading politicians, besides secret service men, and the inevitable
troop of newspaper reporters. They were met at Lakewood by Bishop
Vincent, his son the Principal, and representatives of the Chautauqua
Board. A breakfast was served to the party and to some invited guests in
Higgins Hall. I sat beside a prominent politician who said to me that on
the train and boat he was absolutely amazed at the knowledge of
President Roosevelt upon every subject, and his readiness to state his
views upon even the deepest matters of State. At the table I noticed Dr.
James M. Buckley sitting beside the President and in earnest
conversation with him. As we passed out of the Hall, I mentioned to Dr.
Buckley what the public man had told me of Mr. Roosevelt's outspoken
candor, and Dr. Buckley said that the President had answered every
question in utter frankness, evidently having nothing to conceal; and
Dr. Buckley could ask searching questions.

The adage, "It sometimes rains at Chautauqua," was verified that day by
a steady downpour, which with the umbrellas lifted over the moving
procession made every avenue, seen from an upper balcony, look like an
endless serpent with a series of bulging black knobs on his back. No
words can express the jam of people in and around the Amphitheater and
the breathless interest with which all listened to the President's
address, which came like a revelation, with its outspoken utterances
upon subjects hitherto held as State secrets. He talked of our relations
with nations abroad, and of problems at home, the trusts, questions of
capital and labor, and, indeed, every subject under discussion at that
time. A statesman once said, "Language was invented to conceal thought,"
but that was certainly not the use of language by one eminent American.
As Mr. Roosevelt was leaving the Amphitheater, he saw the Boys' Club
standing together, on guard, and he gave them a short, appreciative,
practical speech.

Some of the speakers at the Assembly of 1905 were District Attorney
William Travers Jerome of New York, Governor Joseph W. Folk of Missouri,
the Hon. Robert Watchorn, Commissioner of Immigration, President Charles
Cuthbert Hall of the Union Theological Seminary of New York, recently
home from giving addresses in India and China under the auspices of the
Parliament of Religion, President Rush Rhees of the University of
Rochester, President Herbert Welch of Ohio Wesleyan, Dean Charles D.
Williams--on his next visit to be a Bishop--and Dr. Richard Burton. Mrs.
Bertha Kunz Baker, Dr. S. H. Clark, Mr. Leland Powers, and others
entertained us with readings and impersonations; but it should also be
said that the leading elocutionists at Chautauqua made it a large part
of their task to acquaint us with great literature, both in poetry, in
prose, and especially in the drama.

In 1905 the Colonnade Building was built and became the business center
of Chautauqua. During this season Mr. Scott Brown, the General Director
under Principal George E. Vincent, called into the service of the
Chautauqua Institution, as assistant, a young man to become in a few
years his successor, Mr. Arthur E. Bestor. Mr. Bestor also began
lecturing upon the platform in a course on "Studies in American
Diplomacy."

In the report of the year 1906, I notice a custom that is mentioned for
the first time this year, though it may have been observed before. On
the opening night, June 28, signal fires were lighted at prominent
points around the lake, notifying the summer residents, whose cottages
by this year were girdling Lake Chautauqua, that the Assembly had now
begun for another season. This illumination has been followed every year
since 1906, and appropriately gives notice to every village between
Mayville and Jamestown that the light of Chautauqua has begun to shine.

The program of July we find as full as that of August. During the
earlier month were lectures and addresses by Professor F. Hyatt Smith on
"Eminent Englishmen of the Nineteenth Century"--Coleridge, Macaulay,
Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, and others; literary lectures by Leon H.
Vincent, who was now "Doctor of Letters," Mr. Henry Turner Bailey, head
of the Arts and Crafts, but lecturer on many subjects; Newell Dwight
Hillis of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn; Dr. W. J. Dawson, an English
preacher and author who had lately come to live in America, equally
great in the pulpit and in literature; Dr. S. C. Schmucker, one who
could make a scientific subject plain to the lay-mind; Dr. John T.
McFarland, head of the Sunday School work of the Methodist Episcopal
Church; Mrs. Donald McLean, President-General of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, and other speakers.

During August a most interesting course of lectures was given by Mr.
John Graham Brooks on "America Viewed by Outside People"--showing how
the estimates of our country, especially by English writers, had arisen
from almost contemptuous criticism (much of it deserved, it must be
admitted) to high appreciation. Mr. Griggs gave a new course of literary
lectures. Bishop Vincent gave a lecture on Martin Luther. Prof. Cecil F.
Lavell spoke on historical subjects. Sir Chentung Lieng Chang, the
Ambassador from China, graduate of an American college, Amherst, I
think--was a visitor and spoke in excellent English. Prof. Edward A.
Steiner, the great authority on immigration, lectured on "Our Foreign
Population," and told a remarkable story of a journey that he had made
through underground Russia, visiting nearly a hundred revolutionary
centers. Mr. Ernest Thompson Seton talked on wild animals, to the
enjoyment of both young and old.

On Recognition Day of the C. L. S. C., August 15, 1906, the new Hall of
Philosophy was dedicated.

In 1907 Professor George E. Vincent was made President of the Chautauqua
Institution. His father retained the title of Chancellor, but the active
duties of the management were now entirely in the hands of the
President. In the following year, Mr. Arthur E. Bestor was advanced to
the place formerly held by Mr. Scott Brown, that of Senior Director in
charge of all business administrations and assisting President Vincent
on the educational side.

A man who made his mark deeply on Chautauqua came this year for the
first time, Mr. Henry Turner Bailey of the Arts and Crafts School. He
could not only teach, but could lecture on art or history in a most
fascinating manner, all the time drawing pictures on the blackboard with
both hands at once. Under his care the Arts and Crafts shops were
assembled, grew into a village, and later found their home in a series
of fine buildings on College Hill. He continued with us year after year
until a new position in Cleveland, Ohio, compelled him to sever
relations with Chautauqua.

Two great conferences were held this summer. The first was on "The
Juvenile Problem," July 8th-13th. Speakers on the subject were Rev. W.
Byron Forbush on "The Knights of King Arthur," an order of which he was
the founder; Mr. W. R. George, on "The George Junior Republic"; Judge
Ben B. Lindsey of Denver on "The Juvenile Court." Mr. Melvil Dewey, Rev.
Crawford Jackson, Judge Willis Brown and Mr. E. B. DeGrott spoke on
"Public Playgrounds," "The Public Library," "The Child and the State,"
and kindred subjects.

The other conference was held July 29th to August 3d, on "The Social
Unrest." A few of the speakers and their topics were: Mr. John Graham
Brooks on "The Challenge of Socialism"; Mr. James Wadsworth, Jr.,
afterward U. S. Senator from New York, on "Politics"; Mr. R. R. Bowker
on "The Corporation"; Mr. Henry Clews on "Capital"; Mr. J. G. Phelps
Stokes and his wife, Rose Pastor Stokes, on "A Defense of Socialism";
Bishop Henry C. Potter, "The Church"; Mr. Charles Stelzle, "The Church
and the Classes"; Miss Jane Addams on "The Settlement Movement."

On the regular lecture platform appeared Governor Charles E. Hughes of
New York, Mr. William Jennings Bryan who had just returned from a trip
around the world and spoke on "The Old World and Its Ways," President G.
Stanley Hall a series on "Five Non-Christian Religions," President
George E. Vincent on "Utopias," a series describing the ideals of men
for the community and the state from Plato's _Republic_ to the Community
of Robert Dale Owen. Bishop Vincent also gave a lecture, the father and
the son speaking on different days from the same platform. My
recollection is that the Bishop spoke this summer on "Sidney Lanier and
His Poetry," and placed him high on the roll of American poets.

Another lecturer who pleased us all was the bright essayist, Samuel
McChord Crothers. His paper on "The Society for Polite Unlearning" was
heard by a crowd in the Hall of Philosophy. Most of the audience caught
the undertone of wisdom with the wit, but a few thought that it was only
funny, in which they were mistaken. Dr. Shailer Mathews, Dr. C. F. Aked,
and Bishop McDowell were among those who conducted the daily Devotional
Services.

Grand Army Day was a dramatic occasion in the fact that before an
audience of old Union soldiers, in their G. A. R. uniforms, the address
was given by Mrs. LaSalle Corbell Pickett, the widow of General George
Edward Pickett of the Confederate Army, who led the famous "Pickett's
Charge" in the battle of Gettysburg--an attack that stands in history
beside the "Charge of the Light Brigade," sung by Tennyson. Her story
of that great day, deciding the destiny of a continent, was listened to,
not merely with interest, but with outbreaking enthusiasm by an audience
of Union soldiers, who honored the memory of a soldier whom they looked
upon less as a foe than as a hero.

One little incident told by Mrs. Pickett we must make room for; in
substance it was this: On Lee's march through Pennsylvania, Pickett's
division passed a young girl who waved a United States flag, and then,
fastening it around her waist, cried, "Traitors! come and touch this
flag if you dare!" At this fierce challenge, a mingled stir of many
voices went through the long gray ranks and many a rifle shifted
uneasily. General Pickett rode in front of his men, and with true
southern chivalry saluted her flag. Then he turned and faced his men.
The soldiers followed his example, and as they passed by, every hat was
swung aloft in honor of the girl and her flag. The little maiden was so
overcome by this generosity that she cried out, "I wish I had a rebel
flag; I'd wave that too!"

In October, 1907, the Colonnade Building, which had been standing only
two years, was wholly destroyed by fire, causing a loss of $100,000,
with an insurance of about $55,000. The indirect loss is not easy to
estimate, for it included the contents of the stores and the issues of
the Magazine ready for mailing, with much other printed matter of the
Institution. This was the fourth fire which had occurred during the
thirty-four years of Chautauqua; a remarkable record when one remembers
how close together are many of the houses, and all built of wood. Plans
for rebuilding the Colonnade were taken up immediately, also the
beginning of a quadrangle of buildings for the Arts and Crafts
Department and the erection of a Post Office Building.

In 1908 the July program included the names of Professor J. E. McFadyen
of Knox College, Toronto, Principal James Robertson of Scotland, and Dr.
W. L. Watkinson of England; all these in the Department of Religious
Work, which was unusually strong that year. Dr. Watkinson looked the
least like an Englishman that could be imagined. Long and lank and lean,
he might have been taken for a Yankee of the Yankees, until he began to
speak. His oratory is indescribable, original thoughts expressed in
original language, with here and there a solemn witticism at which the
hearer wanted to laugh but hardly dared to. Bishop Vincent gave a
lecture on "An Old School House." Dr. H. W. Wiley, the food specialist
and foe of misbranded packages of food, gave an address. Norman Hapgood
of _Collier's Magazine_, Hon. Everett Colby of New Jersey, a leader in
political reform, Prof. Graham Taylor, a sociologist and social
reformer, were among the speakers.

In August of 1908, a notable English lady spoke on the Amphitheater
platform, Mrs. Philip Snowden, wife of a member of Parliament. It was
said that her husband owed his election to her power of public speaking,
and especially to her skill in answering "heckling" questions--a
political method quite common in England, though regarded as not quite
proper in America. In our country when one party holds a meeting, it is
not considered fair to interrupt the flow of oratory and disconcert the
orator by disagreeable questions from the other side; but in Great
Britain every political speaker must face such enquirers, and the one
who put them to little Mrs. Snowden generally got the worst of the
encounter. Though slight and seemingly fragile, speaking apparently
without effort, every syllable of her speeches on the question of
woman's enfranchisement could be distinctly heard from every seat in the
Amphitheater. Other speakers in August, 1908, were Lieut.-Governor
Chanler of New York, Edward Howard Griggs, Prof. Charles M. Cobern, an
authority on Biblical archæology, Dr. Leon H. Vincent in a course on
"French Literary Celebrities," President J. D. Moffatt of Washington and
Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, Charles Stelzle on social rights and
wrongs, and George Riddle in some enjoyable recitations. Percy Alden,
M.P., spoke on "Social and Economic Questions" in England and Charles F.
Lavell gave a course on historical lectures. Dr. R. S. MacArthur and Dr.
J. Wilbur Chapman were among the preachers and leaders of the Devotional
Hour.

August 11, 1908, was Pennsylvania Day, with addresses in praise of the
Keystone State by Governor E. G. Stuart, Ex-Governor and General J. A.
Beaver, and others.

CHAPTER XXI

THE PAGEANT OF THE PAST

(1909-1912)

THE thirty-sixth session of Chautauqua was epoch making in the
development of material resources. The blackened ruins of the burned
Colonnade Building were replaced by a new structure, the official
headquarters of the Institution, the business center, and on its upper
floor a rooming place for many employees in the offices. On the southern
front of the Plaza arose the new Post Office Building, with the village
public library, the presses and office of the _Chautauqua Press_. The
first section of the projected Arts and Crafts quadrangle was built, to
the great joy of Mr. Bailey, who had labored and almost fought for its
construction. The Hall of Pedagogy arose at one end of the grounds and
the Athletic Club House at the other. The Hall of the Christ was
completed after many years of slow growth, and the Commons, a
boarding-place for students, was opened through all the year for
employees residing during the winter. As a venture, with some
questioning, the New York Symphony Orchestra was engaged for a week of
concerts, its leader being Walter Damrosch. Who would have dreamed in
1909 that in 1920 the same orchestra would sound its harmonies through
six full weeks!

The keynote of the year, and indeed of Chautauqua through all its
history, was expressed in President George E. Vincent's utterance in his
annual report--that Chautauqua must "be kept in close and sympathetic
connection with the great currents of national life. It must be a center
from which the larger and more significant movements may gain strength
and intelligent support." The season this year opened on Friday, July
2d, with a lecture by President Vincent on "Vocation and Culture."

To even name the speakers of the year and their subjects would
necessitate the enlargement of our book, and to omit any of them may
bring the author into peril of his life if he should meet any of those
left out; but he must face the prospect of a martyr's end, by naming
only a few. President Edwin Earle Sparks, of the Pennsylvania State
College, gave a series of lectures on American history; Prof. Archer B.
Hulbert on "The Military Conquest of the Alleghanies"; Prof. Stockton
Axson on "Literary Leaders"; Dr. Andrew Sloan Draper, Superintendent of
Education for New York State, spoke, also Prof. George Albert Coe, Prof.
Clyde W. Votaw, and Dr. Richard M. Hodge--these four on subjects
relating to education; Mr. Earl Barnes gave a course of lectures,
besides teaching in the schools; Booker T. Washington, President Frank
R. Sanders, Dr. P. S. Henson, Prof. Henry F. Cope, Mr. Ernest Hamlin
Abbott, of _The Outlook_, and many more were with us in July, 1908.

In August we heard Prof. Richard Burton in a course of literary
lectures; Dr. George Adam Smith, Richard G. Moulton, and J. M. Thoburn,
Jr., a nephew of Bishop Thoburn, also Bishop Samuel Fallows of the
Reformed Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, a son of the
Harvard President. Mr. S. S. McClure gave an offhand conversational
address on "The Making of a Magazine," the story of his own experience.

The Devotional Hour was by this year firmly fixed in the Chautauqua
system. The Chaplain preached on Sunday morning, at the great
Amphitheater service, and at ten o'clock for five days following gave an
address on some religious topic. Among our chaplains during the season
of 1908 were Dr. Charles E. Jefferson of New York, Prof. Herbert L.
Willett of the University of Chicago, President Herbert Welch, and Dr.
R. H. Conwell. The Recognition address to the graduating class of the C.
L. S. C. was by President Faunce of Brown University on "Ideals of
Modern Education."

This year a course in Esperanto, the proposed world-language, was
conducted, and the second Esperanto Congress of America was held at
Chautauqua. Not having studied the language and being too busy to attend
the convention, the writer is unable to state whether the lectures were
given in that tongue or in English, the inferior language which
Esperanto is expected to displace. Probably two or three hundred years
hence Shakespeare's plays, Milton's poems, and Mark Twain's stories will
be known only in that language, English being a quarry for archæological
research with about as many students as Greek or Sanscrit has to-day.

An event of 1901 which attracted crowds from all Chautauqua County and
its surroundings was the historical pageant of scenes in the history of
Chautauqua Lake. It included scenes from the Indian Wars before the
Revolution, the French explorers, the British and American soldiers of
the Revolutionary period, and the settlement of the shores. This was
followed by the rendition of a play, _The Little Father of the
Wilderness_, by Francis Wilson and his company. The concerts of the
preceding year by the New York Symphony Orchestra, under Walter
Damrosch, had been so successful that the management brought them for a
second visit in 1910.

One distinguished visitor in 1910 was the Right Honorable James Bryce,
Ambassador of Great Britain to our country. His lecture was on "History
and Politics." Dr. S. M. Crothers gave four lectures in his own
inimitable manner on "The One Hundred Worst Books." He proposed as an
interesting question, "Suppose that twenty centuries hence, when the
English language may be as dead as Latin and Greek are now, what authors
in English literature will be remembered?" Director Bestor found time in
the midst of his labors to give us a fine lecture on "Gladstone." Paul
Vincent Harper, son of President Harper, spoke on "Life in Palestine"
after a visit to that land. Dr. Griggs gave a course on "Social
Progress." Distinguished visitors from the old country were Sir William
Ramsay, the highest authority in the English-speaking world on the
church in the New Testament age, and Lady Ramsay. Both lectured, Lady
Ramsay on "The Women of Turkey." Mrs. Philip Snowden gave another
course of lectures, maintaining fully her popularity. She was strongly
in favor of the suffrage for women but as strongly opposed to the
methods of the militant suffragettes. Another speaker who attracted
attention, although his views were not accepted by the majority at
Chautauqua, was the Secretary of the American Federation of Labor, Mr.
John B. Lennon. On the questions pertaining to trade unions and
collective bargaining, however, one who talked with the Chautauqua
constituency was surprised to find so large a number of progressive
thinkers taking the side of labor against capital.

The Chautauqua Devotional Hour was represented in the season of 1910 by
Dr. Hugh Black, Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, Dr. G. A. Johnston Ross, and
Charles D. Williams, who was now Bishop of Michigan.

It has been found that many are eager to enjoy the advantages of the
Summer Schools at Chautauqua who are unable to meet the expense. To aid
these, various gifts have been made from time to time. On old First
Night in 1910 a system of fifty annual scholarships was established by
setting apart the offering of that evening for this purpose, and the
fund has since been increased from year to year.

In 1911, the Miller Bell Tower at the Point beside the Pier was
dedicated. For years the chime of Meneely bells had stood in the belfry
of the old building on the Pier. But the piles beneath it were becoming
decayed and the bells by their weight and their movement racked the old
edifice. Their removal was necessary and the Tower was built adjoining
the wharf. A fine clock presented by the Seth Thomas Clock Company, and
the chimes, were placed in the summit of the Tower which received the
name "Lewis Miller Bell Tower." These bells ring five minutes before the
lecture hours, and at certain times, morning, noon, and night, the
chimes play familiar music. After the night bell, which may be either at
10 or 10.30, silence is supposed to reign throughout the grounds. One of
the original peal of four bells, afterward enlarged to form the chime of
ten bells, is named the Bryant bell, and is rung precisely at twelve
o'clock noon on the first day of October as a signal for beginning the
readings of the Chautauqua Circle. The name is in honor of William
Cullen Bryant, in recognition of his interest in the C. L. S. C.

During the season of 1911 a number of illustrated lectures were given by
Prof. R. W. Moore on "The Rhine"; by C. L. Harrington on "Aerial
Navigation,"--a lecture fully up to date at that time, surprising to
many who heard it and looked at the pictures. But that was before the
great war, and the same lecture would be hopelessly behind the times in
1921. Mr. Henry Turner Bailey showed us "A Dozen Masterpieces of
Painting," and Mr. Jacob A. Riis, "The Making of an American," Dr. Henry
R. Rose exhibited "The Oberammergau Passion Play," and Dr. H. H. Powers,
"Venice." Both President George E. Vincent and Director Arthur E. Bestor
gave lectures; also Edmund Vance Cooke and Mr. Earl Barnes, Mr. Leland
Powers impersonated stories and plays as nobody else could. Mr. Frank A.
Vanderlip gave three lectures on "Banking," which proved far more
interesting than most of us had anticipated. Dr. H. H. Powers told in a
series of lectures the stories of five great cities, Athens, Rome,
Florence, Paris, and London. Dr. Gunsaulus gave a series of lectures on
"Some of the Great Plays of Shakespeare"; Prof. S. C. Schmucker, a
series mingling science with history on "American Students of
Nature,--Audubon, Agassiz, Gray and Thoreau." Dean George Hodges in the
Department of Religion lectured in a course on "Christian Social
Betterment."

Among the chaplains of 1911 are the names of Bishop E. E. Hoss of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Dr. John T. Stone of Chicago, Dr.
Shailer Mathews, also of Chicago, Dr. C. F. Aked, then a pastor in San
Francisco, and Rev. Silvester Horne of England. The baccalaureate sermon
before the C. L. S. C. was this year given by the Chancellor, Bishop
Vincent.

For twenty-two years William H. Sherwood was head of the piano
department in the schools and untiring in his labors. He died in 1910,
and in 1912 the Sherwood Memorial Studio on College Hill was opened and
dedicated to his memory. A hospital, long needed, was this year
established, named "The Lodge." The Department of Religious Work was
reorganized, made more prominent, and placed under the charge of Dean
Shailer Mathews as "Director of Religious Work." The headquarters of
this department were established in the Hall of Christ.

The Independence Day address was given by Director Bestor on "The Old
World and the New," the social, political, municipal, religious
conception on the two sides of the Atlantic. Two stories from his
lectures are worthy of being repeated. One was Theodore Roosevelt's
retort when accused of wanting to become a king. "A king! what is a
king? Why, a kind of perpetual Vice-President." The other was a
conversation that Mr. Bestor had with an Englishman whom he met in
Berlin. He asked "What would you do in England if the royal line should
develop a William II. or a Roosevelt?" The Englishman answered,
"Impossible! A man with any real political initiative is not to be
thought of in the English kingship!"

For the first time, partisan political addresses were given on the
Chautauqua platform. This was the year, it will be remembered, when Mr.
Taft had been renominated by the regular Republican Convention, Mr.
Roosevelt by the bolting Progressives, and Woodrow Wilson by the
Democrats. It was decided to allow each of the parties to be
represented. Attorney-General Wickersham spoke in behalf of the
Republicans. Mr. Eugene W. Chafin, the candidate of the Prohibition
Party, addressed a crowded Amphitheater, and seemed to give everybody
great enjoyment from the constant laughter and applause. He said after
the election that if everybody who applauded and cheered his speeches
had voted for him, he would have been President!

But the great audience assembled, packing the Amphitheater to its utmost
corner, with a great ring of people standing around it, to hear William
Jennings Bryan. On account of an afternoon lecture in Ohio, he sent word
that he could not arrive until 8.45 in the evening, and it was nine
when at last he stood on the platform. But he held the crowd in rapt
attention to the end of his plea in behalf of the Democratic Party and
its candidate, who was indebted to Mr. Bryan more than to any other
worker for his nomination and, as the result showed, for his election. I
am not certain who spoke in behalf of Mr. Roosevelt, but think that it
was Mr. William H. Prendergast, Comptroller of New York City.

Among the lecturers of 1912 we heard the Baroness Von Suttner, who had
taken the Nobel Peace Prize by her book _Lay Down Your Arms_. She gave a
strong plea for arbitration between nations, to take the place of war.
There was also a lecture by David Starr Jordan, President of Leland
Stanford University, on "The Case Against War," showing conclusively
that the day of wars was past and that the financial interrelations of
nations would make a great war impossible. How little we dreamed of the
war-cloud within two years to drench the whole world in blood! There
was, indeed, one warning voice at this Assembly, that of Mr. H. H.
Powers, in his clear-sighted lecture on "International Problems in
Europe." He did not predict war, but he showed from what causes a great
war might arise. There was a debate on Woman Suffrage. Mrs. Ida Husted
Harper gave several lectures in its behalf, and Miss Alice Hill
Chittenden on "The Case Against Suffrage." Professor Scott Nearing gave
a course of lectures on social questions, showing powerfully the evils
of the time, and setting forth his view of the remedy,--a socialistic
reorganization of the State and of society in general. Some conservative
people who heard Scott Nearing lecture, regarded him as a firebrand, in
danger of burning up the national temple, but those who met him in
social life were compelled to yield to the charm of his personal
attractiveness. Dr. Leon H. Vincent gave a course of lectures on
"Contemporary English Novelists." He began in the Hall of Philosophy,
but was compelled to move into the Amphitheater. Mr. Charles D. Coburn
of the Coburn Players gave a careful, critical address, summing up
fairly the good and evil, on "The Drama and the Present Day Theater."

The Daily Devotional Service in the Amphitheater, and the addresses on
"The Awakened Church," in the Hall of Christ, one at nine o'clock, the
other at ten, drew large congregations. It could not be said that
Chautauqua was losing interest in religion, Canon H. J. Cody of Toronto
gave a series of talks on "Bible Portraits of Persons we Know: 1, The
Average Man; 2, The Man in the Street; 3, The Man who Misapplies the
Past; 4, The Man who is Dying of Things"; Prof. Francis S. Peabody of
Harvard a series on "Christian Life in the Modern World." Bishop
McDowell (Methodist) conducted the Hour for a week to the great
spiritual uplift of the large audience. Dr. Shailer Mathews gave an
interesting series on "The Conversations of Jesus," Dr. James A. Francis
a course on "Evangelism."

Realizing how many worthy names I have omitted, I close regretfully the
record of Chautauqua in 1912.

CHAPTER XXII

WAR CLOUDS AND WAR DRUMS

(1913-1916)

THERE have been visitors at Chautauqua who, listening to some of the
lecturers and their radical expressions, were alarmed and inclined to
believe that the woods were full of cranks, faultfinders of the general
social order, wild agitators, and revolutionary reformers bent on
reorganizing the world. Chautauqua has always favored the freest
discussion of all subjects and has admitted to its platform spokesmen
upon all the questions of the time and from every point of view, even
some unpopular men airing their unpopular ideas, confident that in the
conflict of opinions the right will triumph. In 1913 the living question
under discussion was Socialism; what it means, its positive aims and the
arguments both for and against it. Here are the names of some speakers
on that controverted subject. Professor Scott Nearing, perhaps the most
radical of any, spoke on "Social Sanity," although his conception of
sanity was looked upon by many as absolutely insane. Mr. J. W. Bengough
explained and advocated "The Single Tax" and almost converted some of us
to his doctrine. Mrs. Rose Pastor Stokes, a most winsome speaker,
without opinion as to her views, told us of "The Socialist's Attitude
towards Charity," which was that much denominated charity is simple
justice. Mr. Victor L. Berger of Milwaukee, who has several times been
denied a seat in Congress to which he was elected on the Socialist
ticket, stated the views and demands of his party. Dr. H. H. Powers
spoke on "Present Day Socialism in Europe," John Mitchell gave us "The
Trades-union Point of View." Earl Barnes took part in the discussion,
and Dr. Charles R. Henderson of Chicago also touched upon it. Some
speakers were openly for, others as strongly against the movement.
Whether the Socialist Party gained voters may be doubted, but it
certainly enjoyed a full and fair hearing.

Turning from politics to religion, which should have a more intimate
friendship than most people give them, we notice the Devotional Hour
during the season of 1913. The Chaplain for the first week was Dr.
Charles F. Wishart of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, his addresses
being on "The Christian View of Some Facts of Life." Dr. Lynn Harold
Hough, then a Methodist pastor in Baltimore, and Rev. Arthur C. Hill of
London were on the list. Dr. S. M. Crothers of Cambridge, Mass.,
preached one Sunday and conducted the Devotional Hour a week in a series
on "Gaining the Mastery." Bishop Williams was on the platform again,
speaking on "Aspects of Personal Religion." Anyone who attended this
service through the season--and the daily congregation was not far below
a thousand--would obtain a pretty clear understanding of Christianity
and the character of its advocates.

Every year the musical element grows at Chautauqua. There was this year,
as had been the case for several seasons, a Musical Festival Week, with
daily concerts. For many years there had been a quartette of the best
soloists during July and another during August, supported by a chorus
often of three hundred voices and the great Massey organ. Henry B.
Vincent, who is the son of Dr. B. T. Vincent of the Children's Class,
grew up at Chautauqua, in a sense, spending his summers there from early
childhood. For many years he has been at the organ seat, except when
conducting the orchestra which he organized and trained. In 1912 he gave
an interesting course of lectures on "How to Listen to Music." Every
Sunday afternoon a large audience assembles to hear Mr. Vincent for an
hour in an organ recital. An oratorio of his composition and under his
direction was given at Chautauqua some years ago, entitled "The Prodigal
Son." With one Vincent Founder and Chancellor, his son the President,
one nephew a lecturer every year or two on literature, the other nephew
the organ and band master, and his mother the President of the Woman's
Club for many years, the Vincent family has been worthily represented at
Chautauqua.

While speaking of music we must not forget one course of lectures by Mr.
Olin Downes, musical critic of the _Boston Post_, on "Musical Expression
in Dramatic Form," a history of the music drama in general; early French
operas; the German Romantic School; Richard Wagner; Verdi and Latter-day
Italians.

Prof. Richard Burton gave an entire course of lectures on "The Serious
Bernard Shaw," which caused a run upon the library for Shaw's writings,
as I perceived, for I vainly sought them. Miss Maud Miner of the School
of Expression gave some recitals and a lecture, packed full of
suggestions on "Efficiency in Speech." Dr. George Vincent spoke to a
crowded Amphitheater on "A National Philosophy of Life." A Serbian,
Prince Lazarovich Hvebelianovich, gave a lurid picture of the Balkan
situation. Let me quote one sentence as reported in the Daily of July
11, 1913 (note the date):

"Within the next few months there will be a war; and such a war as has
not stirred Europe since the days of Napoleon; a war that will involve
all the principal nations on that side of the Atlantic."

Less than thirteen months after that prediction came the event in the
capital of his own little nation which let loose twenty millions of
armed men, filled the seas with warships, above and beneath the waves,
and the skies with fighting aeroplanes.

Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker of Texas, gave a series of addresses on the
Federation of Woman's Clubs, of which she was at that time the
President. We listened to a Chinaman, Ng Poon Chew, the editor of a
Chinese daily paper in San Francisco, on "China in Transformation," a
clear account of the new Republic of China in its varied aspects, spoken
in the best of English. We noticed too, that the speaker showed an
understanding and appreciation which foreigners are often slow to obtain
of American humor and jokes.

Another lecturer from abroad, though hardly a foreigner, for he came
from England, Prof. J. Stoughton Holborn, wearing his Oxford gown (which
we had not seen before at Chautauqua), gave a course on "The Inspiration
of Greece,"--a view of that wonderful people in the different fields of
their greatness. Think of one city which in the departments of
literature, drama, philosophy, oratory, art, and public affairs could
show more great men in two hundred years than all the rest of the world
could show in two thousand!

We were treated during the season of 1913 to a sight new at that time,
though common enough now. Mr. Engels brought to Chautauqua a Curtiss
hydroplane, and day after day made flights, skimming over the surface of
the lake, rising into the air, circling the sky and returning to the
starting-point, to the amazement of the watching multitudes. A few, and
but a few, dared to be strapped into the machine and take the flight;
Director Bestor was one of them, and when Mrs. Bestor heard of it she
said: "I told him that he must not do it, but I knew all the time that
he would!"

Another event of the season was the production of a Greek play, in the
original language, by a group of college students in Greek costume.
Another fact worthy of remembrance was the opening of a completely
furnished playground for the children in the ravine near the
ball-ground. To stand on the bridge and look down upon that company of
happy little people, is always a delight. Also it is not to be forgotten
that this year for the first time natural gas for cooking and heating
was supplied throughout the grounds.

The year 1914 was the fortieth anniversary of the founding of
Chautauqua. One of the Founders was with us, hale and hearty, and still
able to give an admirable address, although his memory of recent matters
and people had failed. The other Founder was no longer among us, and
even fifteen years after his departure we of the earlier days missed
him; but his memory will ever be kept green at Chautauqua, while the
white lilies are silently unfolded in his honor. On Friday, July 3d, the
signal fires were lighted all around the Lake. The celebration of the
anniversary did not take place until August, near the date in the month
of the first Assembly. On Sunday, August 2d, Bishop Vincent preached in
the Amphitheater with scarcely any lessening of his old power. At the
anniversary service, Dr. Jesse L. Hurlbut--who was exhibited as one of
the survivals of the prehistoric age, a sort of a dinosaurus or
pleiosaurus,--gave an address on "Memories of Early Days," of which the
reader may find the substance scattered through these pages. But we must
give a paragraph or two from Mrs. Frank Beard's paper.

In reference to the interdenominational aspect of the Assembly, she
said:

          The good Baptist brother, wandering down by the
          Dead Sea and Sea of Galilee to the Mediterranean,
          looked at the generous supply of water and was
          satisfied. The Presbyterian brother gazed into the
          cloudless sky above him, saw his favorite color,
          and felt that Chautauqua was foreordained for him.
          The lineal descendant of St. Peter croqueted his
          ball through the arch and rejoiced that he was on
          saving ground.

          We sat on the hard board seats with nothing to
          rest our backs upon but the salubrious atmosphere.
          We heard ponderous speakers who talked on
          ponderous subjects. Among the speakers was Joseph
          Cook, also Bishop Peck, 350 pounds. Some of the
          lecturers were recommended as cultured and highly
          finished. Mr. Beard said that he had attended
          these lectures, was glad that they were cultured
          and more than pleased that they were finished.

The music week had now become a permanent institution, bringing
thousands to the Assembly. This year it began on Monday, July 27th, with
Victor Herbert's orchestra through the seven days, the Chautauqua
soloists, and the great chorus trained by Alfred Hallam. Some musical
associations from Jamestown and elsewhere added their voices.

Among the lecturers, Mr. Griggs gave a course on "Dramas of Protest,"
the Book of Job, Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound," Galsworthy's "Justice,"
Calderon's "Life is a Dream," and some others. Bourke Cockran, the
brilliant orator of Irish descent, gave a great lecture on "Abraham
Lincoln--Original Progressive." Miss Mary E. Downey, Director of the
Library School, spoke on "The Evolution of the Library," Dean Edwin
Watts Chubb on "Shakespeare as a Moral Teacher." John Purroy Mitchel,
the reform Mayor of New York, spoke on "Municipal Government" on July
18th; Dr. Lincoln Hulley of Florida gave a course on the leading
American poets. Mr. E. H. Blichfeldt spoke most interestingly on "Mexico
as I Know It," the results of a year of wide travel and close
observation in that land.

During the month of July we read in the papers of complications in the
political world beyond the ocean, but few looked for serious trouble and
none for actual war. On the first of August, 1914, the storm burst, and
nation after nation in a few hours assembled their hosts for the most
terrible war in the history of the world. In accordance with the
Chautauqua tradition of free and open discussion, a War Symposium was
improvised and each of the contending nations had its speaker. On
Tuesday, August 4th, Dr. Hans E. Gronow who had served his time in the
German army gave "The German Point of View." On Thursday, August 6th,
Mr. Sanford Griffith, a newspaper correspondent and a student of public
affairs spending several years in Europe whom some of us had known as a
boy at Chautauqua, spoke on "European Unrest Due to Shifts in the
Balance of Power." On Friday, August 7th, Mons. Benedict Papot, formerly
a soldier in France, gave "The French Point of View," and on Saturday,
August 9th, Dr. W. S. Bainbridge, English in ancestry but American in
birth and spirit, presented "The British Point of View." All the
exercises of the crowded program were held, but amid all our efforts the
war brooded above us, a darkening cloud.

The Department of Religious Work was carried on with a strong force of
speakers and teachers under the direction of Dr. Shailer Mathews, its
details supervised by his efficient assistant, Miss Georgia L.
Chamberlin of Chicago, who also gave daily lectures. Among the
instructors were Dr. Charles F. Kent of Yale, and Dr. James Hope
Moulton, one of the richest minds of the age in Biblical lore, who gave
a series of lectures, learned yet simple, on "The Origins of Religion."
None of us could have thought then that this noble life in its prime was
destined to end in the Mediterranean by a shot from a German submarine.

The Devotional Hour and the Sunday services were led for a week by the
Rev. C. Rexford Raymond of Brooklyn, who told in several chapters the
old story of Joseph, yet seeming new in its application. The Rev. G.
Robinson Lees, Vicar of St. Andrews, Lambeth, England, who had lived in
Palestine and among the Arabs in the desert, had written a book
forbidden by the Turkish authorities, and had been banished from the
land, preached one Sunday morning and gave graphic pictures of Oriental
life through the week. Dr. W. H. Hickman, a former President of the
Chautauqua Board of Trustees, Rev. Peter Ainslie of Baltimore, Dr. C. F.
Wishart, Dr. Washington Gladden, one who was ever welcome at Chautauqua;
and a great-hearted man, Dr. George W. Truett of Texas, were also
chaplains, each serving a week.

This year also the new golf course was opened on the field beyond the
public highway, to the rejoicing of many patrons. At the close of the
season the annual convention was held by the International Lyceum and
Chautauqua Association, the union of bureaus and speakers in the "Chain
Chautauquas" held all over the continent, of which we shall speak later.
Their meetings were continued until September 10th, making 1914 the
longest session in the history of Chautauqua.

In 1915, the war of the world was bringing its unspeakable terrors to
Europe, and America was looking on, yet hesitating to plunge into the
welter; but Chautauqua held on its even way, its courses of instruction
as many, and its classes as large as ever. This year Dr. George E.
Vincent felt constrained by the pressure of his duties as President of
the University of Minnesota, with its eight thousand students and as
large a number in its University Extension courses, to withdraw from the
direct supervision of Chautauqua. He resigned his office as President of
the Chautauqua Institution, and Dr. Arthur E. Bestor became President.
But Dr. Vincent retained his membership on the Board of Trustees, was
named Honorary President, and has continued to come to Chautauqua almost
every year. Even for a few days, and with a lecture or two, his presence
gives strength to the Assembly.

In 1917, Dr. Vincent resigned the presidency of the University of
Minnesota to accept the same position with the Rockefeller Foundation,
disbursing millions of dollars every year in the interests of world-wide
education and health.

The lecture platform of 1915 was arranged under six great weeks, each
making prominent one subject, while popular addresses and the devotional
services went on parallel with them all. The first week was devoted to
the study of community service. Mary Antin, whose book, _The Promised
Land_, had been read by everybody, was greeted by an audience far beyond
the reach of her voice, speaking in her ardent manner. Dr. Lincoln Wirt
proclaimed "America's Challenge to the World"; Mr. E. J. Ward explained
the why and the how of "Community Service," and Norman Angell set forth
"American Leadership in World Politics." During this week Chancellor
McCormick of the University of Pittsburgh conducted the services of the
Devotional Hour.

The second week was devoted to the Drink Problem. Bishop Francis J.
McConnell of the Methodist Episcopal Church preached on Sunday morning
and spoke at the Devotional Hour each day. The opening address was by
Governor George A. Carlson of Colorado, who set forth powerfully the
methods and results of prohibition in his State. Dr. H. A. Gibbons spoke
on "The Prohibition Question in Europe." The Hon. J. Denny O'Neill, on
"Booze and Politics." While the temperance question was discussed in the
Hall of Philosophy, there were concerts and lectures in the
Amphitheater, one especially by Mr. Sanford Griffith, who had been at
the battle front as a war correspondent, on "Fighting in Flanders." Also
Dr. Hamilton Wright Mabie, editor and essayist, spoke on "The East and
West, Friends or Enemies?"

The third week was entitled "Justice and the Courts"--with such subjects
as law, legislation, the administration of justice, and penology. Among
the speakers were George W. Alger, Thomas Mott Osborne, Katharine Bement
Davis, Judge W. L. Ransom of New York, and Dean James Parker Hall of the
University of Chicago Law School. Mr. Charles Rann Kennedy, author of
_The Servant in the House_, a drama with a sermon, recited the play,
aided by Mrs. Kennedy. The play had already been read a year or two
before by Mrs. Bertha Kunz Baker, and also enacted by the Chautauqua
Players, so that we were familiar with it, but were eager to hear it
recited by its author. Mr. Kennedy also gave some dramatic
interpretations from the Bible. This week the Devotional Hour was held
by Dr. Charles W. Gilkey, of the Hyde Park Baptist Church in Chicago,
the church nearest to the University and attended by many of the
faculty and students.

The music week was notable from the presence of the Russian Symphony
Orchestra, led by a great player and delightful personality, Modest
Altschuler. One of his company said of him, "He rules his orchestra by
love." The Recognition Address this year was by President E. B. Bryan of
Colgate University, on the all-important question: "Who are Good
Citizens?"

The forty-third Assembly in 1916 found our country in the throes of a
presidential election, party strife bitter, and the nation divided on
the impending question of our entrance into the world war. The feverish
pulse of the time was manifested in the opinions expressed by the
different speakers. Dr. George E. Vincent gave a lecture on "What is
Americanism"--a sane, thoughtful view which was needed in that hour.

The week beginning Sunday, July 23d, was devoted to the subject of
Preparedness for War or Peace. The Ford Peace Expedition of that year
will be remembered, the effort of a wealthy manufacturer to stop the
war. Several who had taken part in that apparently quixotic movement
spoke in defense or criticism of it, and also the question of
preparedness was discussed by Governor Charles S. Whitman, President
Hibben of Princeton, Hon. Henry A. Wise Wood, Senator W. M. Calder, and
others. Mrs. Lucia Ames Ward, of the Woman's Peace Party, was opposed to
any participation in the war or preparation for it. The controversy
waxed warm, for the opinions were positive on both sides.

On subjects aside from the war we had an enlightening series of
addresses at the Devotional Hour by Dean Charles R. Brown of Yale; a
course of lectures by Dr. Edwin E. Slosson on "Major Prophets of
To-day," Bernard Shaw, G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, and some others; a
series of lectures by Dr. Percy F. Boynton on "The Growth of
Consciousness in American Literature,"--as shown in Irving, Cooper,
Emerson, Lowell, and Whitman. Raymond Robins gave four lectures on "The
Church and the Laboring Classes." Dr. Griggs awakened general interest
by his lectures on "Types of Men and Women," as illustrated in their
autobiographies and letters, presenting John Stuart Mill, Benevenuto
Cellini, George John Romanes, Marie Bashkirtseff, Sonya Kovalevasky (a
new name to most of us), and Henri Frederic Amiel,--all possessing
characters pronounced, some of them so peculiar as to be almost
abnormal.

The Russian Symphony Orchestra, with its beloved director, Modest
Altschuler, was with us again for another week, aided by the soloists
and Chautauqua Chorus. In our rapid survey, we have only glanced at the
prominent events in a great season.

CHAPTER XXIII

WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

(1917-1920)

WHEN the forty-fourth session of Chautauqua opened on Thursday, June 26,
1917, it found the American republic just entering upon the Great War,
which had already raged in Europe for over two years. Training camps had
sprung up like magic all over the land, from ocean to ocean, and young
men by the hundred thousand had volunteered, with others by the million
soon cheerfully to accept drafting orders. Almost every university had
been transformed into a war college. President Vincent was at the
intensive military training school at Plattsburg, N. Y. Every morning
before breakfast two hundred men at Chautauqua were marching and
counter-marching, and learning the manual of arms with wooden guns, with
President Bestor and most of the officials of the Institution in the
lines. The young women every afternoon were receiving similar drill
under a woman officer, and some said that they presented even a more
soldier-like appearance than the men. The headquarters of several
denominations had been commandeered for Red Cross work and training. A
stranger could scarcely get into the Methodist House without being
scrutinized as a possible German spy, with a pocketful of poison or
powdered glass to sprinkle on the bandages. War was in the air as well
as in the newspapers. No matter what was the subject of a lecture it was
almost sure to be on the war before the finish. There were discussions
on the platform and on the street about the League of Nations, some with
President Wilson in favor of it, others as vigorously against it. A
symposium on "Our Country" and a conference of "Organizations Engaged in
Education for Patriotic Service" were held during the session; also a
company of students from the Carnegie Institute of Technology,
Pittsburgh, presented a brilliant pageant, "The Drawing of the Sword."

The Fourth of July address was given by the Hon. G. W. Wickersham,
former Attorney-General of the United States. Captain A. Radclyffe
Dugmore of the British Army spoke on "Our Fight for Freedom." Miss Ida
Tarbell, who had won fame by a book showing the operations of the
Standard Oil Company, and had also written a life of Abraham Lincoln, to
be found in every public library and read more widely than any other
biography of the Greatest American, gave some lectures. Her literary
life, by the way, began in the office of the _Chautauquan Magazine_.
Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker this summer became President of the Chautauqua
Woman's Club, which office Mrs. B. T. Vincent had relinquished after
many years of leadership. Both these presidents were eminently
successful in different directions and by different methods, the earlier
having built up the Club by wisdom mingled with gentleness; her
successor carried it onward by an energy that brought everybody into
willing subjection to her far-reaching plans. Almost the first result of
the new administration was the purchase of a club house fronting on the
Lake, and holding in it almost a bewildering series of teas and
receptions. While the public meetings of the Club crowded the new Hall
of Philosophy every afternoon, Mrs. Pennybacker gave a stirring address
on "What our Country Asks of its Young Women."

During the first week Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick of the Union Theological
Seminary was the Chaplain, and his addresses blended fervent patriotism
and fervent religion in about equal measure.

The second week, from July 8th to 14th, was denominated "Arts and
Letters," with lectures on these subjects by Dr. Mitchell Carroll of
Washington, Henry Turner Bailey of Boston, and others. But underneath
the artistic and the literary, the echo of the war might still be heard
in many of the lectures, and it sounded out in the Devotional Hour
addresses of that soldier in the army of the Lord, the Chaplain, Bishop
Charles D. Williams.

During the week of July 15th to 21st, the Methodist Bishop, William Burt
of Buffalo, to whose "area" (for Methodists of course could not call it
a "diocese") Chautauqua belongs, was the Chaplain. During this week we
heard lectures by Admiral Peary, the discoverer of the North Pole; by
Thomas Adams of Canada; by D. R. Garland of Ohio; by D. A. Reed of
Michigan, and by George A. Bellamy of Cleveland.

July 22d-28th was Musical Festival Week, when we had with us once more
the Russian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Modest Altschuler, who was
welcomed with sincere rejoicing by Chautauqua's multitude. Looking over
the crowded Amphitheater during those daily concerts, the only reminder
of a war in progress was that scarcely a young man was to be seen,
although every seat was occupied.

From July 29th to August 4th, the Great War was the theme on the
platform. Mr. Earl Barnes gave a series of lectures on "Historical
Backgrounds of the War," respectively in the British Empire, France,
Germany, Austro-Hungary, the Russian Empire, and the Balkan Peninsular.
Dr. Herbert Adams Gibbons presented some of the "Problems of the Peace
Conference,"--though at that time nobody knew when the Conference would
be held or whether anybody would be left alive to hold it. But the
cheerful assumption was taken that Germany would be beaten, which proved
to be correct, and also that the Allies would rearrange the map of the
world, which does not now appear to be quite certain. Mr. Sanford
Griffith, just from the front, gave us an inspiring word-picture of
"Paris Reborn."

The concluding address of the symposium was given by President Bestor on
"America and the War." It was considered by the National Security League
as of sufficient value to be published in pamphlet form, and received a
wide circulation.

From August 13th to 18th, Bishop Charles B. Mitchell (Methodist
Episcopal), living at Minneapolis, held the post of Chaplain, and gave a
number of heart warming addresses on "The Transforming Power of Divine
Grace." During the week the Recognition Day exercises were held, with
all pomp and ceremonial, the address being given by President George E.
Vincent. His father was present and that afternoon, as Chancellor, gave
the diplomas to the graduates, but none of us knew that it was for the
last time, and that his face would not be seen again at Chautauqua,
although he lived nearly three years longer.

In 1917, President E. B. Bryan of Colgate University accepted the
position as Director of the Summer Schools. But to one who through the
rest of the year has a college full of students to keep in order, and
also a faculty to maintain in harmony--which one college president told
me he found the harder task,--the burden at Chautauqua of a hundred and
twenty-five teachers, two hundred courses of study, and forty-five
hundred students during nearly all his summer vacation, proved too heavy
even for Dr. Bryan's shoulders, and after three years, in 1919, he was
compelled to relinquish it into the hands of President Bestor.

This summer, also, the new traction station of the Chautauqua Lake
Railway was opened at the highway entrance to the grounds; a handsome
pillared structure with more room than Chautauqua had ever before
possessed for waiting room, ticket office, baggage, freight, and
express, a convenience appreciated by every visitor. Also, by the shore
a new bathhouse and the Jacob Bolin Gymnasium were built and opened, as
well as the Fenton Memorial Home for Methodist Deaconesses on the
Overlook addition.

In 1918, we were in the grip of the war, with our young men in camp by
the million, overseas and on their way by the hundred thousand, and
every woman "doing her bit" in the Red Cross work. Outwardly, Chautauqua
seemed as flourishing as in other years, the hotels and cottages
appeared to be full, the Amphitheater was crowded at the concerts and
popular lectures, and the main streets before and after lectures were a
continuous procession. But the gate receipts showed that the
Institution, in common with every college in the land, was lessened in
its attendance and its financial returns. Nevertheless, the program was
not allowed to decline in its extent and its interest. Indeed, one added
feature attracted attention. In the field of the Overlook a National
Service School was held in cooperation with the Woman's Naval Service. A
tented camp was maintained under the strict discipline of Mrs. George E.
Vincent, with regular guards, and training for more than two hundred
khaki-clad young women in agriculture, telegraphy, basketry, and
canteen management. I am not sure about carpentry, though I saw a
photograph of young women sawing boards and putting up a house.

The value of Chautauqua in national patriotic leadership was recognized,
not only by our own government, but by the Allies as well. Great
Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Greece sent official speakers,
either through their embassies or their special war missions. It was a
mark of distinguished favor that the French High Commission gave the
French Military Band to Chautauqua for a week, their longest engagement
in this country.

On the opening day, July 4th, President Bestor gave the oration on
"Mobilizing the Mind of America." For nearly a year before, and until
the Armistice in November of this year, Mr. Bestor was almost without
intermission in Washington in government service as head of the
Department of Publicity. He was Director of the Speaking Division of the
Committee on Public Information, and also Secretary of the Committee on
Patriotism of the National Security League, an organization which held
in many places training camps for patriotic speakers. Dr. Bestor was
carrying on more than double duty until the Armistice in 1918 gave him
something of a breathing spell between the sessions of Chautauqua.
During the week from July 7th to 13th, Bishop Edwin H. Hughes (Methodist
Episcopal) was Chaplain, and gave addresses of a high character on
"Varieties of Religious Experience." As samples of the type of lectures
during this strenuous battle summer, this week President E. B. Bryan
spoke on "War as a Schoolmaster," Mr. E. H. Griggs began a course on
"The War and the Reconstruction of Democracy," and Dr. L. A. Weigle of
Yale lectured on "Religious Education in War Times." One evening Dr. S.
H. Clark read war lyrics in the Amphitheater.

The week from July 14th to 20th was "Women's Service Week," and among
those who spoke on the subject were Anna Howard Shaw, who had been
called by the President to be Chairman of the Women's National Council
of Defense, in command of all the activities of women in aid of the war,
Miss Helen Fraser of England, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Mrs. Ella A.
Boole, Mrs. Pennybacker, and Mrs. George Thatcher Guernsey,--women whose
voices had often been heard in behalf of woman suffrage, now as ardently
speaking in aid of work to carry on the war. This week Dr. S. P. Cadman
had been engaged as Chaplain, but he was unable to remain more than one
day and other men were suddenly drafted to take his place on successive
mornings, one of them, the writer of these pages, on fifteen minutes'
notice called to conduct the Devotional Hour, immediately after an
hour's teaching in class. This little incident, of no particular
interest to anybody but the writer, is mentioned merely to illustrate
the instant change of front which must be made frequently at Chautauqua,
when a speaker is delayed by a railroad wreck or unexpectedly called
home to conduct a funeral.

"Our Allies" was the title of the week from July 22d to 27th. Dr.
Charles W. Gilkey of Chicago preached the sermon on Sunday morning and
led in the devotions through the week. Prof. Robert Herndon Fife of the
Wesleyan University, Conn., gave a series of lectures on "The New
Europe." Not all of his forecasts have yet come to pass, for the new
Europe is only slowly emerging out of the old. Mrs. Kenneth Brown--the
name sounds American, but she is a Greek lady of rank, born Demetra
Vaka--told a harrowing tale of her own experience and observation, "In
the Heart of the German Intrigue." Dr. Mitchell Carroll of Washington
gave an account of "Greece, our Youngest Ally," with Venizelos as the
hero. Lieut. Bruno Roselli of the Italian army spoke; Miss Maud Hayes
of "England in War Time." On Friday evening, July 26th, there was a
concert in the evening of national songs of the Allies; the flags of
more than twenty nations being hung above the choir loft. On Grand Army
Day in this week Lieut. Telfair Marion Minton spoke on "The Flags of a
Thousand Years."

In the following week, July 28th to August 3d, while the Musical
Festival was in progress, the French Military Band played every day, and
concert followed concert, with Gaul's "Joan of Arc" sung one evening by
the soloists and full chorus. Dr. Leon H. Vincent gave a course of
lectures, showing "War in Literature," the stories called forth by the
Wars of Napoleon, the Crimean War, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, and
the struggle in progress in 1918--a most interesting series. The
Chaplain of this week was the Rev. Wm. S. Jacobs, D.D., of Houston,
Texas.

Omitting a fortnight for lack of room, we must not omit "The Next Step
Forward," the topic of the week from August 18th to 24th, a discussion
of some movements to follow in the footsteps of war, such as
"Theological Reconstruction," by Shailer Mathews; "Christianity in
Foreign Lands," by Dr. J. L. Barton, Secretary of the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions; "The Sunday Evening Club" and
"Church Advertising," by W. F. McClure, and "The Art of Motion
Pictures," by Vachel Lindsay. There was also a course on "Art in Daily
Life," by our English friend, Prof. I. B. Stoughton Holborn, of Oxford.

Bishop McConnell, who conducted the Devotional Hour, August 11th-17th,
also gave the Recognition address to the graduating class of the C. L.
S. C., on "Ideals of Leadership." The skies were clouded, yet we were
able to hold the procession as usual (only once in forty-seven years has
the march been broken up by rain), but the storm fell during the
address, with such noise on the roof that the Bishop was compelled to
pause for some minutes until its rage abated. We missed on this day
especially the presence of Bishop Vincent and his son, and the diplomas
were conferred by Dr. Bestor, the new President of Chautauqua. Not long
after the closing of the Assembly, on November 11, 1918, "Armistice Day"
was ushered in by the blowing of every steam whistle upon the continent,
by all-day processions, by bands and horns, and a surrender of the
nation to the universal joy, through the news that the most terrible war
that ever desolated the world was over at last.

When the forty-sixth session of Chautauqua opened in 1919, it found the
land rejoicing over the conclusion of the war, happy in the return of
two million men in khaki, apparently rich with high wages, booming
business, and money in plenty. It was the top of a tide destined before
many months to recede to normal conditions. But while the flush times
lasted, Chautauqua shared in the nation-wide prosperity. This was the
period of astounding financial drives. One great church commemorated the
hundred years of its missionary enterprise by a centenary movement and a
subscription of more than a hundred million dollars. Other churches
followed with "New Era" and "Nation Wide" campaigns. It seemed to be the
opportunity for Chautauqua to reap some benefits from the spirit of the
time, and the trustees launched the "Comprehensive Plan" to raise half a
million dollars, freeing the Institution from all debt and placing it on
a safe, permanent, and prosperous basis. Here was a university of a
hundred and twenty-five instructors, two hundred courses of study, and
nearly five thousand students every summer, yet without a dollar of
endowment;--what college in the land was doing so much with an income so
small? Here was a property of three hundred and fifty acres, gradually
accumulated, partly by the demands of the Institution's growth, partly
from the necessity of controlling its surroundings. Debts had been
incurred by enlargement of the grounds, a sewer system, a water supply,
electric lighting, new buildings, new roads, and a hundred items of
improvement. The overhead expenses of Chautauqua, in the form of
interest that must be paid, were more than thirty thousand dollars every
year. How much might be accomplished if every debt could be cleared away
and the saving in interest be applied to the improvement of the property
and the enlargement of opportunities? Mr. John D. Rockefeller made an
offer of giving one-fifth of all that should be raised, up to the
desired half-million dollars. The trustees assigned to themselves
another hundred thousand of the amount, and a committee of the cottage
owners pledged $150,000 from those having property on the ground. The
plans were carefully laid, and during the season of 1919 every visitor
at Chautauqua was called upon to make his contribution.

Of all the forty-six years of Chautauqua up to 1919, this was the most
successful in its history. The attendance shown by the receipts at the
two gates--one at the Pier where the steamboats landed their thousands,
the other at the new station on the public highway where the trolley
brought the tens of thousands--were far beyond that of any former year.
The registration at the schools was sixty-two per cent. in advance of
1918, and eighteen per cent. beyond that of 1914, the best previous
year. Every hotel and boarding house inside the fence was full, and
pleas were made to cottagers to open their doors to incoming guests.
Many who could not find lodging places on the grounds found homes in the
hotels and hamlets around the Lake and came daily to the Assembly by
trolley or by boat.

During the opening week, Mr. W. W. Ellsworth gave two illustrated
lectures, one on "Theodore Roosevelt," the other "The Rise and Fall of
Prussianism," and Prof. Thomas F. Moran of Purdue University gave an
appreciation of "Mark Twain, Humorist, Reformer, and Philosopher." Miss
Maud Miner gave a popular recitation of "Comedy Scenes from
Shakespeare." It was noticed that in the very opening the Amphitheater
was filled;--what would it become at the height of the season, the first
two weeks in August?

The Devotional Hour from July 6th to 12th was held by Dr. Charles F.
Wishart, in a series of studies in the book of Exodus, entitled, "A Free
People in the Making," and from the story he drew frequent applications
to the history of another "free people." During this week, Dr. Louis A.
Weigle, Professor of Psychology at Yale University, began a course of
lectures on "Character Building in the Public Schools" suggesting many
thoughts--not all of them gratulatory--in those who heard them.

On Sunday morning, July 13th, the great congregation heard Dr. Wm. P.
Merrill, of the Brick Church, New York, deliver a sermon on the topic as
announced, "The League of Nations," of which he declared himself
unreservedly in favor. On this question there were two parties
throughout the nation strongly opposed to each other and fiercely
debating it, and when a fortnight later the chaplain, Bishop Williams,
who was never known to sit on the fence, also came out vigorously for
the League, Mr. Bestor began to look around for some speaker on the
other side, for it has been a principle at Chautauqua to give both sides
a fair showing, even when the Chautauqua constituency as a whole might
be opposed to a speaker. A speaker against the League was found in Mr.
John Ferguson, but he evidently represented the sentiments of the
minority. Among the speakers of the second week were several on "The
Aftermath of the Great War," among them Dr. Katharine B. Davis,
Major-General Bailey, who had been Commander of the Eighty-First
Division of the A. E. F., and Attorney-General A. Mitchell Palmer. Prof.
S. C. Schmucker also gave a course of lectures on "The Races of Man."

Musical Festival Week was from July 28th to August 2nd. The New York
Symphony Orchestra of sixty instruments was with us in concerts daily,
led in the absence of its conductor, Mr. Walter Damrosch (who was
abroad) by René Pollain of France. During this and the following week
Earl Barnes gave a course of lectures on "The New Nations of the World."
We listened to a discussion of "Zionism," in a lecture on "Jewish Aims
in Palestine" by Charles A. Cowen, of the Zionist organization, to which
Mr. Earl Barnes gave a cool, dispassionate answer, showing the
difficulty, amounting almost to an impossibility, of establishing a
Jewish State in the land looked upon as holy, not only by Jews, but by
Mohammedans and Christians of all the great churches. Another speaker in
this symposium was Mme. Mabel S. Grouetch, the wife of the Serbian
minister at Washington, who afterward became the Czecho-Slovak
representative to Japan.

Old First Night on August 5th was devoted to the Comprehensive Plan of
lifting Chautauqua out of debt. The elements seemed against the aim for
rain kept some away,--though the Amphitheater was full--and its thunder
on the roof made some speeches inaudible. But it could not dampen the
ardor of the people. Practically every organization, club, or class at
Chautauqua, besides many individuals, made pledges. Besides the chorus,
there was a children's choir in the gallery, and one gentleman offered
to give a dollar for every child in it, whereupon scouts were sent out,
boys and girls were gotten out of bed and brought to the gallery, so
that his pledge cost that gentleman considerably over $300.00. Before
the close of the Assembly $375,000 had been subscribed, inclusive of Mr.
Rockefeller's quota.

Americanization week was from August 11th to 16th, with timely addresses
by Prof. Herbert Adolphin Miller, Prof. Thomas Moran, and a delightful
lecture by Mrs. Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale, on "Reconstruction in
England and America." As a practical illustration of Americanization,
there was a wonderful pageant by the children of a public school in
Pittsburgh, practically all of foreign lineage. The Recognition address
on August 20th was by Bishop Charles F. Brent, who after heroic work in
the Philippines had been translated to the Episcopal diocese of Western
New York. His subject was "The Opportunities of the Mind."

We must not forget that some lectures were given at this session by Dr.
Charles A. Eastman, whose name does not suggest, as his complexion does,
that he is a full-blooded Sioux Indian. He is a successful physician and
a graduate of Dartmouth College,--which, by the way, was established in
1750 as a school for Indians, with no thought of Anglo-Saxon students.
This year also Dr. E. B. Bryan was unable to remain as Director of the
Summer Schools, and his work was added to the many tasks of President
Bestor.

We come finally to the Assembly of 1920, the forty-seventh session, and
at present the last upon our list, unless we undertake a prophetic look
into the future. We met in sadness, for our great Founder John Heyl
Vincent, who had lived to the age of eighty-eight years, died on Sunday,
May 9th, at his home in Chicago. He had outlived his fellow-Founder,
Lewis Miller, by twenty-one years. The two names stand together in the
annals of Chautauqua and in the thoughts of all Chautauquans, for
Chautauqua could not have been founded by either one without the other,
and on Old First Night, for both together the lilies of the white
handkerchiefs are silently and solemnly lifted, and as silently and
solemnly lowered. A memorial service was held for our beloved Bishop and
Chancellor on Sunday afternoon, August 1st, at the Vesper Hour, in the
Hall of Philosophy as the appropriate place, and the writer of this
story, as the oldest of living Chautauqua workers, was permitted to
offer the tribute in his honor. In the evening another service was held
in the Amphitheater, at which Dr. John H. Finley, Superintendent of
Education for New York State, and Bishop Herbert Welch of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, home for a few months from his field in Korea and
Japan, gave addresses. During the past year Chautauqua had sustained
another loss in the death of Mr. Alfred Hallam, who for nearly twenty
years had been the untiring and wholly devoted leader of the Musical
Department. It was felt that a musical service was his most appropriate
memorial, and the oratorio "Hora Novissima," by Horatio Parker, was sung
by the choir and soloists on Sunday evening, August 8th. During the
session news came that Dr. Bethuel T. Vincent of Denver, long conductor
of the Children's class and Intermediate class in the early years of the
Assembly, had followed his brother the Bishop, into the silent land. He
was remembered in an address by the writer at a memorial service. His
wife, Mrs. Ella Vincent, for many years president of the Woman's Club,
in a few months also joined the company of the church triumphant.
Another voice often heard at Chautauqua was stilled this summer, that of
Mrs. Frank Beard, always bright and sunny in her spirit, who fell asleep
in the cottage where she was abiding, soon after the opening of the
Assembly, fulfilling the wish expressed to a friend a year before that
she might die at Chautauqua.

The most notable feature on the program this summer was the presence at
Chautauqua for nearly six weeks, from July 26th to August 31st, of the
New York Symphony Orchestra, with daily concerts, conducted by René
Pollain and William Willeke,--a bold venture of the management but
evidently successful.

This was the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrims, and the event
was recognized by several addresses, one in particular by Mr. Charles
Zeublin, on "1620 and 1920." Prof. Weigle gave a lecture on "Education
of Children in Early New England"; Dr. Alfred E. Garvie spoke on "The
Message of the _Mayflower_ for To-day." Principal Alexander J. Grieve of
the University of Edinburgh gave lectures on the "Leaders of the
Pilgrims,--John Robinson and others."

Dr. Herbert Adams Gibbons, after an experience of years in Asia Minor
and in France, gave a series of valuable lectures on "After the War,"
and Mrs. Gibbons narrated the thrilling story of herself in Turkey,
during the massacres of 1908. Dr. Lynn Harold Hough was chaplain from
July 4th to July 10th, and in the morning talks spoke on the spiritual
experiences of St. Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley, then
summed them up in a conception of "The Christian Society." Prof. Richard
Burton lectured in a course on "Modern Literary Tendencies,"--the essay,
the novel, the drama, and other forms of literature. One of the great
acquisitions this year was Prof. T. R. Glover of Cambridge, England,
with a course of lectures on "The Jesus of History," the results of the
deepest study of the New Testament and also of the contemporary Roman
world. Dr. H. Gordon Hayes, just leaving Yale for the Ohio State
University, discussed most ably "Factors in Labor Unrest." On Roosevelt
Day, July 21st, Mrs. Douglas Robinson, his sister, gave "Recollections
of Theodore Roosevelt." In the week from July 26th-31st, the subject was
"Problems of the Present Day Civilization," discussed by Dr. E. H.
Griggs, Rabbi Louis Wolsey of Cleveland, and Dr. Cornelius Woelfkin of
New York. "Woman and the New Era" was the theme of the week August
2d-7th, a discussion participated in by Mrs. Thomas G. Winter, President
of the General Federation of Woman's Clubs; by Mrs. George Bass, who was
the woman, for the first time in history to preside for a day at the
Democratic National Convention which renominated Woodrow Wilson; and by
Miss Mary Garrett Hay, the President of the Affiliated Women's
Republican Clubs. August 22d-29th was the week of the Ministers and
Church Workers' Institute, with addresses by Bishop McDowell
(Methodist), Ozora S. Davis, Shailer Mathews, Mrs. Helen Barrett
Montgomery, and Chancellor S. B. McCormick, of Pittsburgh.

This was a great year. Subscriptions to the Comprehensive Plan brought
the amount up to $450,000, including Mr. Rockefeller's contribution, to
be increased if other gifts warranted it. The Summer Schools were
twenty-five per cent. in income and nearly twenty per cent. in numbers
over 1919, the highest mark of past years. Provision was made for
improving and enlarging the golf links, and for building a new club
house on the grounds of the golf course.

CHAPTER XXIV

CHAUTAUQUA'S ELDER DAUGHTERS

CHAUTAUQUA, planted upon the shore of its Lake, grew up a fruitful vine,
and within two years shoots cut from its abundant branches began to take
root in other soils. Or, to change the figure, the seeds of Chautauqua
were borne by the winds to many places, some of them far away, and these
grew up, in the course of little more than a generation, a hundred, even
a thousand fold. Many of these daughter-Chautauquas were organized by
men--in some instances by women--who had caught the spirit of the
mother-assembly; others by those who had heard of the new movement and
saw its possibilities; some, it must be confessed, by people who sought
to save a decayed and debt-burdened camp meeting, and a few with lots to
lease at a summer resort. From one cause or another, immediately after
the first Assembly had won success, Dr. Vincent began to receive
pressing invitations to organize similar institutions in many places. As
he was already fulfilling the duties both of an editor and a secretary
for the rapidly growing Sunday School cause, he could accept but few of
these many calls. But a number of younger men trained by a year or two
of experience in teaching at Chautauqua were around him and to these he
directed most of the enquirers. At least three Assemblies arose in 1876,
two years after the founding of Chautauqua. Of these I possess some
knowledge and will therefore name them, but without doubt there were
others which soon passed away and left scarcely a memory.

So far as I have been able to ascertain, the first gathering to follow
in the footsteps of Chautauqua was the Sunday School Parliament on
Wellesley Island, one of those romantic Thousand Islands in the St.
Lawrence River, where it emerges from Lake Ontario. This island stands
on the boundary line between the United States and Canada, but the home
of the Parliament was on the Canadian side of the line. The name
"Chautauqua" has now become generic and almost any gathering in the
interests of the Sunday School, or of general literature with a
sprinkling of entertainment, is apt to be named "a Chautauqua." But in
those early days the word Chautauqua was not known as the general term
of an institution of the assembly type, and the new gatherings were
named "Congress" or "Encampment" or "Institute," and for this gathering
the title "Sunday School Parliament" was taken, as smacking somewhat of
English origin. Its organizer and conductor was the Rev. Wilbur F.
Crafts, at that time a Methodist minister, afterwards a
Congregationalist, and still at present working as the head of the
International Reform Bureau in Washington, D. C. He was aided in the
plan and direction by Mrs. Crafts, for both of them were then prominent
leaders in Sunday School work. It was my good fortune to be present and
conduct the Normal Class during a part of the time. As compared with
Chautauqua, the Parliament was small, but its spirit was true to the
Chautauqua ideal and it was maintained faithfully for ten or twelve
years. The place had been established as a camp-meeting ground, but it
shared the fate of many camp meetings in gradually growing into a summer
resort for people in general. As cottages and cottagers increased the
Chautauqua interest declined, and finally the attempt to maintain
classes and meetings after the Chautauqua pattern was abandoned, and the
island took its place among the summer colonies in that wonderful group.

The same year, 1876, saw another camp ground becoming a Chautauqua
Assembly,--at Petoskey, near the northern end of Lake Michigan. Here a
beautiful tract of woodland, rising in a series of terraces from Little
Traverse Bay, about forty miles south of the Straits of Mackinac, had
been obtained by a Methodist camp-meeting association, and laid out in
roads forming a series of concentric circles. Here the first Bay View
Assembly was held in 1876, and again in its scope were combined the camp
meeting, the summer home, and the Chautauqua conception, three divergent
aims that have rarely worked well together. It will be remembered that
on its land side the original Chautauqua was shut off from the outer
world by a high fence, and everybody was compelled to enter the ground
through a gate, at which a ticket must be purchased. At Bay View, as at
most camp-meeting grounds, access was open on every side. At first they
undertook to support the Assembly by collections, but the receipts
proved inadequate, and they placed a ticket window at each lecture hall
and endeavored to induce the cottagers to purchase season tickets, a
plan which has been pursued down to the present time. One of the
founders of Bay View, perhaps the one who suggested it, was Dr. Wm. H.
Perrine, an ardent and intelligent Chautauquan, the rebuilder of
Palestine Park. Other men came to the aid of the Bay View Assembly,
some of them men of means, who gave liberally in the form of buildings,
an organ, and to some extent an endowment. One of these was Mr. Horace
Hitchcock of Detroit, another was John M. Hall, who organized the Bay
View Reading Course, analogous to the C. L. S. C., and by his personal
endeavor built up a reading and book-buying constituency. I was present
at the second session in 1877, when it was a handful of people in a
wilderness, and again thirty years later, when I found a beautiful city
of homes in the forest, rising terrace above terrace, with good roads,
fine public buildings, and a body of people interested in the best
thought of the time. Chautauqua points with pleasure and pride to her
oldest living daughter, the Bay View Assembly.

Mention should be made here of an Assembly established at Clear Lake,
beside a beautiful sheet of water in northern Iowa, nearly midway
between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. It was organized in 1876,
with the Rev. J. R. Berry as superintendent. For some years, beginning
in 1879, it was under the direction of the Rev. J. A. Worden, who, like
some others of us, had learned the Assembly trade in apprenticeship to
Dr. Vincent at Chautauqua. For ten years Clear Lake was fairly
prosperous, but in time it met the fate of most assemblies and dropped
out of existence.

During the year 1877 three more Assemblies arose, one of which remains
to this day in prosperity, while the two others soon passed away. The
successful institution was at Lakeside, Ohio. Like many others, it was
grafted upon a camp meeting which had been established some years
before, but was declining in its interest and attendance. The name
"Encampment" was chosen as an easy departure from its original sphere,
but after a few years the name "Assembly," by this time becoming
general, was assumed. The first meeting as a Sunday School gathering on
the Chautauqua plan was held in 1877, with the Rev. James A. Worden, who
had assisted Dr. Vincent for three years in the normal work at
Chautauqua, as its conductor. Afterward Dr. B. T. Vincent was in charge
for a number of seasons, and one year, 1882, Dr. John H. Vincent was
superintendent. For many years all the Chautauqua features were kept
prominent, the Normal Department, with a systematic course,
examinations, and an Alumni Association; the C. L. S. C. with
recognition services, Round Tables, camp fires, the four Arches, and all
the accessories. Lakeside drew around it helpers and liberal givers,
and still stands in strength. Lakeside has the benefit of a delightful
location, on a wooded peninsula jutting into Lake Erie, near Sandusky
City, and in sight of Put-in-Bay, famous in American history for
Commodore Perry's naval victory in the War of 1812. It still maintains
lecture courses and classes in the midst of a summer-home community.

Another Assembly began in 1877, with high expectations, at Lake Bluff
overlooking Lake Michigan, thirty-five miles north of Chicago. It was
confidently supposed that on a direct railroad line from the great city,
Lake Bluff would draw large audiences, and Dr. Vincent was engaged to
organize and conduct an Assembly upon the Chautauqua plan, with
lecturers and workers from that headquarters. A strong program was
prepared for the opening session. Among the lecturers was the Rev.
Joseph Cook, at that time one of the most prominent and popular speakers
in the land. I recall in one of his lectures at Lake Bluff a sentence,
wholly unpremeditated, which thrilled the audience and has always seemed
to me one of the most eloquent utterances I have ever heard. It was
twelve years after the Civil War, and on our way to the Assembly we
passed the marble monument crowned with the statue of Stephen A.
Douglas, the competitor of Lincoln for the Senatorship and Presidency,
but after the opening of the war his loyal supporter for the few months
before his death. Dr. Cook was giving a history of the forces in the
nation which brought on the secession of the Southern States. He
referred to Daniel Webster in the highest praise, declaring that his
compromise measures, such as the Fugitive Slave Law, were dictated by a
supreme love for the Union, which if preserved would in time have made
an end of slavery, and he added a sentence of which this is the
substance.

          Had it been given to Daniel Webster, as it was
          given to Edward Everett, to live until the guns
          were fired upon Fort Sumter, there would have been
          an end of compromise. He would have stamped that
          mighty foot with a sound that would have rung
          throughout the land, have called forth a million
          men, and might have averted the war!

Just then a voice rang out from one of the seats--"As Douglas did!"
Joseph Cook paused a moment. His chest swelled as he drew in a breath,
and then looking at the man who had interrupted him, he spoke in that
powerful voice:

          The firmament above the massive brow of Daniel
          Webster was a vaster arch than that over the
          narrow forehead of Stephen A. Douglas, and the
          lightning that rent the clouds from the dying face
          of one, would never have been needed to bring
          daylight to the other!

I was seated beside the Rev. Charles F. Deems of New York, a Southerner
by birth and in his sympathies through the then recent war. He turned to
me and said: "That was the most magnificent sentence that I have ever
heard!" There was a moment of silence, and then a burst of applause from
the audience.

The Lake Bluff Assembly never drew a large patronage, as no Chautauqua
Assembly ever has which depended upon a great city whose inhabitants can
hear the famous preachers and orators. The successful Assemblies have
been located in fairly large towns, with villages and small cities
surrounding, near enough to reach the Assembly, but so distant that to
enjoy its benefits the visitors must stay more than one day. The support
of a Chautauqua Assembly of the higher grade comes not mainly from the
one-day excursionists, but from those who plan to enter the classes and
remain at least a fortnight. These patrons constitute the backbone of
the institution, and without them the transitory crowds soon lose their
interest and the Assembly declines. Lake Bluff maintained an existence
for ten or twelve years, but never obtained an extensive constituency.

The year 1878 was noteworthy in the establishment of two Assemblies, one
still living after more than forty years, the other one of the largest,
most steadfast in fidelity to the Chautauqua ideal, and most extended in
its influence. The first of these was the Round Lake Assembly, at a camp
ground near Saratoga in New York. We have narrated elsewhere (see page
44) the story of the "praying band leader" who undertook to hold a
little meeting of his own at Chautauqua, and when called to order left
in disgust, but later showed his manly spirit by asking Dr. Vincent to
organize an Assembly on the Chautauqua plan on the grounds at Round
Lake, of which camp meeting he was President. This Assembly began in
1878, and is still maintained both as a summer school, a camp meeting,
and a Sunday School training institution. It was opened according to the
Chautauqua pattern, with an evening of short speeches, of which some at
least were supposed to blend humor with sense. Frank Beard was on the
platform, and was expected to be the wit of the evening. To the blank
perplexity of all, he made a serious speech, without a solitary funny
allusion. The audience did not know whether to laugh or to look solemn,
as he talked on, and at last brought us all "before the great white
throne." The next morning at breakfast--for all the imported workers
took our meals at one table in the Round Lake Hotel--Dr. Vincent freed
his mind to Frank Beard, somewhat after this fashion:

          Now, Frank, I want you to understand that we bring
          you here to brighten up the program with a little
          fun. We don't need you to make serious speeches;
          there are plenty of men to do that; I can do it
          myself, a great deal better than you can. To-night
          I'm going to give you another chance, and I expect
          you to rise to the occasion with something to
          laugh at.

So, before the evening lecture, Dr. Vincent announced that Mr. Beard
wished to say a few words. This was something of what he said:

          Dr. Vincent, he didn't like the speech I made last
          night. He told me this morning before all these
          fellers that it was too eloquent, and he said,
          "Mr. Beard, when you are eloquent you take the
          shine off from me, and these other men, and you
          mustn't do it. If there is any eloquence needed, I
          will do it myself, and you mustn't interfere with
          the regular program."

Then he went on, in his usual way, using some of the dear old jokes that
some of us had heard at Chautauqua, but polished up for a new
constituency. Everybody saw that he was guying the doctor, but there
was a group of us present who knew just how Frank was twisting the
breakfast talk of the Superintendent of Instruction.

On the shore of Round Lake, near the Assembly ground, a copy of
Palestine Park had been constructed, and daily lectures were given
there. It was just a few feet larger than the Park at Chautauqua, as we
were informed by the President. Let me correct the report that a big
Methodist bishop arriving late one night, and enquiring the way to the
hotel, fell into the clutches of the most mischievous small boy in the
region, who told him:

"The gates are all shut and you'll have to climb the fence yonder."

He did so, according to the story, and fell from the top of the fence
into the Dead Sea, which at once swelled its waters and washed away the
city of Jericho. The eminent divine, it is said, drenched with water and
spattered with mud, walked up the Jordan Valley and over the mountains
of Ephraim, destroying the cities and obliterating sundry holy places;
one foot caught in Jacob's Well, and his head bumped on Mount Gerizim.
He reached the hotel at last, but the next morning showed the land of
Palestine in worse ruin than had been wrought by Nebuchadnezzar's army.
All this I, myself, read in a New York newspaper that is said to
contain "All the news that is fit to print"; but I here and now declare
solemnly that there is not a shred of truth in the story, for I saw the
Bishop, and I saw the Park!

The Round Lake meetings are held to this day, courses of lectures are
given, and classes are held. But the Park of Palestine, which was to
surpass Chautauqua's Park, is no more. It was built on swampy ground,
after a few years sank under the encroaching waters of the lake, and was
never restored.

The other institution founded in 1878 was the Kansas Chautauqua
Assembly. It was organized by the Rev. J. E. Gilbert, then a pastor of a
Methodist Church in Topeka, who was an active Sunday School worker and
started other assemblies during his different pastorates in the Middle
West. It was held for three years at Lawrence, then at Topeka for two
years, and finally in 1883 located at Ottawa, about fifty miles
southwest from Kansas City. Most of the Assemblies already named were
held upon camp grounds, but the Ottawa Assembly was unique in its
location upon the large Forest Park just outside the city, leased for
this purpose by the authorities. Being public property, no cottages
could be built upon it, but a city of three hundred tents arose every
summer, and after a fortnight were folded and taken away. For nearly
twenty years this Assembly was under the direction of the writer, and in
every respect followed the lines laid down by its parent Chautauqua.
Buildings were put up for classes, which served as well for the annual
agricultural fair in the fall. In our first year at Ottawa, our normal
class was held out of doors, the members seated upon the unroofed grand
stand of the Park, and I was teaching them with the aid of a blackboard.
Clouds began to gather rapidly and a storm seemed to be in prospect. I
paused in the lesson and said:

"I am somewhat of a stranger here--how long does it take a thunder storm
to arrive?"

"About two minutes!" responded a voice from the seats; and instantly
there came a rush to cover, leaving the history of the Bible to care for
itself. We were just in time, for a minute later it was blowing a
hurricane, bending the great trees and breaking their branches. I had
heard of Kansas cyclones, had been shown a "cyclone cellar," and only
the day before had taken dinner in a house of which one end had been
blown clean off by a cyclone. As we stood in a building which we had
named "Normal Hall," I asked a lady by the window, "Is this a cyclone?"
She glanced without and then calmly said: "No, this is a straight wind."

In ten minutes the tornado was over and we reassembled for the lesson.
Kansas people seemed to accept occurrences like this as all in the day's
work. One weather-story of Kansas reminds of another. On my first visit
to that State in 1882, the last year of the Assembly at Topeka, I was
standing in front of the hotel, thinking of the historic events in
Kansas,--where the Civil War actually began, though unrealized at the
time,--when I saw nearby a rather rough looking, bearded individual.
Thinking that he might be one of the pioneers, with a story to tell of
the early days, I stepped up and began in the conventional way by
remarking:

"I don't think it's going to rain."

He looked me over and responded:

"Wal, strangers from the East think they know when it's goin' to rain
and when it ain't; but us fellers who've lived in Kansas thirty years
never know whether it'll rain in five minutes or whether it won't rain
in three months."

The Ottawa Assembly was one of the best in the Chautauqua system. The
people of the city built for its use a large tabernacle and halls for
classes. Beside the park flows the River Marais du Cygne, "the Swamp of
the Swan," celebrated in one of Whittier's poems; and on a bank
overlooking the river was erected a Hall of Philosophy, copying the old
Hall at Chautauqua, except that its columns were lighter and ornamented,
improving its appearance. We followed the Chautauqua programs as far as
possible, having many of the same speakers on our platform and Professor
Sherwin to lead the music, succeeded later by Dr. H. R. Palmer. The
teacher-training work, then called the Normal Class, was maintained
thoroughly, with adult, intermediate, and children's classes,--all
wearing badges and following banners. The C. L. S. C., with all its
usages of camp fires, Recognition Day, vigil, procession and arches, was
kept prominent. We established a Chautauqua Boys' Club, and Girls' Club
also. We could not conduct a summer school, as the meeting lasted only a
fortnight, but we had lecture courses of high character upon literature.
Kansas contained more old soldiers in its population than any other
State in the Union, and the Grand Army Day at Ottawa was an event of
State-wide interest. Some distinguished veterans spoke on these
occasions, among them General John A. Logan, Major William McKinley, and
General John B. Gordon of the Confederate Army; also Private A. J.
Palmer of New York, whose "Company D, the Die-No-Mores," roused
enthusiasm to its summit. One element in Ottawa's success was the
steadfast loyalty of the city,--a place then of seven or eight thousand
people, which enjoyed a special prohibitory law some years earlier than
the rest of the State. Almost every family had its tent in Forest Park
and lived there day and night during the fortnight of the meetings.
Another cause of its prosperity was its able, broad, and continuous
management. Its President for many years was the Rev. Duncan C. Milner,
a Chautauquan from his boots up to his head, and laboring with untiring
energy in its behalf.

I must tell an amusing story of our camp fire one summer. As the ground
was by this time well occupied, we decided to have the bonfire on a raft
out in the stream, while the crowd sang the songs and listened to the
speeches from the Hall of Philosophy on the shore. But when we met at
night for the services, the raft and the materials ready for lighting
had disappeared! We were told that the janitor had thought it an
improvement to have the fire lighted above, in a bend of the river, and
float down to the Hall. We waited, not exactly pleased with the
janitor's unauthorized action, and after a time we heard a mighty
racket. The raft with the bonfire was floating down the stream, while
around it was a convoy of about a hundred boats, loaded with boys, and
each boy blowing a horn or yelling in the most vociferous manner. That
put an end to any prospect of songs and speeches, for who could command
silence to such a din? But that was not all nor the worst. The janitor
tried in vain to anchor his raft, but it still floated downward. We saw
our camp fire sail majestically down the river, until it approached the
mill dam and the falls, when the boys desperately rowed their boats out
of danger. Raft and contents went over the falls and the bonfire was
quenched in the devouring flood. As we saw it going to its doom, I
distinctly heard the word "dam" spoken, and I fear it was intended to
include a final "n." But that was the last attempt at a camp fire. When
I proposed one at the next season, the entire Round Table burst out with
a roaring laugh.

The success of Ottawa led to the opening of many other Assemblies all
over the State, and by degrees weakened this, the mother Chautauqua of
Kansas. It is still maintained, but in a small way, as one of the chain
Chautauquas.

In 1879, a Sunday School Congress which soon grew into an Assembly was
held at Ocean Grove, on the Atlantic Coast, almost the only place where
the camp meeting, the summer resort, and the Chautauqua idea have lived
together in mutual peace and prosperity. But even at Ocean Grove the
Assembly has been overshadowed, almost out of sight, by the camp meeting
and the summer boarding-house contingent. For several seasons I took
part in the work, and in 1881 conducted the Children's Class. On the
next to the last day I told all the children to meet me at our chapel,
naming the hour when the tide would be at its lowest, every child to
bring a pail and shovel, or a shingle, if his shovel had been lost. We
formed a goodly procession of three hundred, marching down the avenue,
myself at the head. At the beach I had selected a suitable area, and set
the children to constructing out of the damp sand a model two hundred
feet long of Palestine, the land of which we had been studying in the
daily class. It was a sight to see those young nation builders, making
the coastline, piling up the mountains, and digging out the Jordan
valley with its lakes. Some Biblically inclined gentlemen aided in the
supervision, and apparently a thousand people stood above and looked on.
When it was finished I walked up and down the model, asking the children
questions upon it, and was somewhat surprised to find how much they
knew. Some whose conduct in the class gave little promise were among the
promptest to exploit their knowledge. It was my purpose to leave the map
that it might be seen by the multitude until the tide should wash it
away. But the boys shouted, "Can't we stamp it down now?" and I rather
reluctantly consented. Palestine has been overrun, and trodden down, and
destroyed by armies of Assyrians, Babylonians, Turks, Crusaders, and
many other warriors, but the land never suffered such a treading down by
the Gentiles as on that morning at Ocean Grove.

In the year 1879, the wind-wafted seed of Chautauqua was borne to the
Pacific Coast and an Assembly was founded at Pacific Grove in Monterey,
California. I know not whether it remains, but the Grove has been the
place of meeting for the California Methodist Conference year after
year. Another Assembly combined with the summer resort was established
this year at Mountain Lake in Maryland, a charming spot, whose elevation
beside a lovely lake brings coolness to the summer air.

One more Assembly established in 1879 must not be forgotten. In the
early years of Chautauqua we used to see a plainly clad man, who from
his appearance might have been a farmer or a lumberman; in fact, he was
the proprietor of a large saw and planing mill. This man was at every
meeting, listened intently and took full notes, for he was intelligent,
reading good books, and ardent in his devotion to Chautauqua. For years
he was one of my friends, but, alas! I have forgotten his name. He lived
in Northern Indiana, and in 1879 was able to interest enough people to
start an Assembly at Island Park at Rome City, Indiana, not far from the
Michigan line. He became its Secretary, managed its finances, and called
upon the Rev. A. H. Gillet, one of Dr. Vincent's lieutenants, to conduct
it. For many years Island Park was one of the foremost children of
Chautauqua in its program and its attendance. It was situated upon an
island in a lovely lake, with bridges leading to the mainland, where
most of the tents and cottages were placed, and where buildings were
erected for the normal classes and the kindergarten; the Tabernacle,
seating 2500, being upon the island which was bright with flower beds
amid winding paths. For years Island Park was a center of Chautauqua
influence and strong in promoting the C. L. S. C., but like many other
Assemblies, it failed to receive financial support and was abandoned.

Two great Assemblies, both closely following the path of Chautauqua,
were founded in the year 1880. One of these was Monona Lake, near
Madison, Wis. It was established by the State Sunday School Association,
its founder and first president being the Hon. Elihu Colman of Fond du
Lac. Like Ottawa in Kansas, it was an assembly of tents, not of
cottages. The first session, a small gathering, was held in 1880 on the
shores of Green Lake, one of the five hundred lakes of Wisconsin; but in
the following year it was removed to Monona Lake, one of the five
surrounding the capital city, Madison. After Mr. Colman, the Rev. F. S.
Stein, D.D., became President, and for nearly a generation, Mr. Moseley,
a bookseller of Madison, was its efficient secretary, business manager,
and organizer of its programs. The standards of Monona Lake were high
and its work was thorough, but for lack of adequate support, it was
given up after nearly thirty years of usefulness and the point became an
amusement park.

Among those prominent in the early seasons at Monona Lake was the Rev.
O. P. Bestor, who was active in promoting the C. L. S. C. He brought
with him his son, who began as a small boy attending the Assembly, and
formed the assembly-habit so strongly that in the after years he grew
up to be the President of the Chautauqua Institution--Albert E. Bestor,
LL.D.

The other notable Chautauqua started in 1880 was the New England
Assembly at South Framingham, Mass., originally in closer affiliation
with the original Chautauqua than any other Assembly, for it chose Dr.
Vincent as Superintendent of Instruction, and many of its speakers were
also on the Chautauqua program. It drew from all the New England States,
until its success led to the establishment of other Assemblies at
Fryeburg, Maine, at Northampton, Mass., and at Plainville, Conn. One of
Dr. Vincent's assistants at the Framingham Assembly was the Dr. A. E.
Dunning, at first Congregational Secretary of Sunday School work, later
Editor of the Congregationalist. Dr. Vincent, after a few years, gave
the Assembly into the hands of Dr. Dunning and the writer, and sometimes
we conducted it jointly; at other times in successive years. On an
eminence overlooking the grounds and the adjoining lake arose another
Hall of Philosophy, like the one at Chautauqua, and all the Chautauqua
customs were followed--C. L. S. C., Normal Class, Children's Classes,
and the rest. The first President was the Rev. William R. Clark, who was
instrumental in locating the Assembly upon the ground of a camp meeting
which it succeeded. It was continued for more than a generation, but at
last succumbed to changing times. Perhaps it might have continued
longer, if throughout its history it had not been encumbered by the
debts of the former Camp Meeting Association.

Our chapter has already grown beyond bounds. We would like to tell the
stories of Monteagle, Tennessee, of Mount Dora, Florida, of De Funiak
Springs, also in Florida, of the Arkansas and Dakota and Southern
California Assemblies. In fifteen years after Chautauqua began there
were nearly a hundred Assemblies, each independent of all the others,
yet all in friendly relation to the oldest and greatest of them all, the
mother--Chautauqua by the Lake.

CHAPTER XXV

YOUNGER DAUGHTERS OF CHAUTAUQUA

WE have seen how Chautauquas sprung up throughout the land, inspired by
the example of the original Assembly beside the lake. All these were
independent, arranging their own programs and securing their own
speakers. Chautauqua never took a copyright upon the name or a patent
for the idea. It was natural, however, for many of these Assemblies to
combine their interests, for it soon found that half a dozen Chautauquas
in the same section could save expenses by employing the same group of
speakers and passing them on from one gathering to another. There were
already lyceum bureaus offering lecturers and entertainers. At first the
Assemblies secured a few of their speakers from these offices, and after
a few years their entire programs were arranged in conjunction with the
bureaus. Finally the lyceum agencies began to organize and conduct
assemblies directly, and thus the Chautauqua circuit or the system of a
Chautauqua chain was developed. One office in Chicago, the Redpath
Bureau, is said to conduct three thousand Chautauqua assemblies every
year, others have charge of a thousand apiece, while there are lesser
chains of fifty, twenty-five or a dozen assemblies. I have been
officially informed that in the year 1919, ten thousand chain
Chautauquas were held in the United States and Canada. They are to be
found everywhere, but their most popular field is in the Middle West,
where "the Chautauqua" is expected every year by the farming
communities. These bureaus and the "talent" which they employ have been
combined in an organization for mutual interest, to avoid reduplication
in the same locality, to secure their workers and arrange their
programs. This is named the International Lyceum and Chautauqua
Association, holding an annual convention at which the organizers and
the participants upon the programs come face to face and form their
engagements. The circuit system has arisen largely through economic
causes; the saving of expense by efficient organization, the elimination
of long railroad jumps from Assembly to Assembly, guarantee of
continuous engagement to attractive speakers, better publicity, and the
concentration of responsibility. It is found that the most successful
Chautauquas are held, not in cities, nor even in large towns, but in
the smaller places. The town of a thousand, or even one as small as five
hundred inhabitants, during its annual Chautauqua week will rally from
the farms and hamlets two thousand people to hear a popular lecture,
five or seven thousand during the week. In each place an advance agent
appears, interviews the business men, the ministers, and the heads of
any clubs or improvement societies, and obtains pledges of support by
the sale of a definite number of tickets. College boys make up the tent
crews; a Scout Master organizes the Boy Scouts; and trained experts
arrange for the advertising. The "morning-hour men" give lectures in
courses of uplifting nature on civic and national questions; the popular
features of the program are supplied by entertainers, musical troupes,
bands, artists, and dramatic companies. It is a fact of deeper
significance than many recognize that political leaders find here the
greatest forum for their messages. Many of these orators receive more
than fees for their speeches; they come near the heart of the people,
they reach their constituencies and disseminate their views more widely
than through any other agency. Some political reformers have won not
only prominence, but power through these chain Chautauquas.

It may be remembered that while the Hon. William Jennings Bryan was
Secretary of State he received some criticism and even ridicule for
"hitting the Chautauqua trail" and "going off with the yodelers." On
that subject the _Baltimore Sun_ said in an editorial:

          If it could be demonstrated, we would be willing
          to wager that the average Chautauqua student has a
          far better knowledge of public questions than the
          average of those who sneer. And whether he likes
          it or not, no public official of to-day can afford
          to disregard the Chautauqua movement.

Mr. Bryan himself gave this testimony in the _Review of Reviews_:

          The Chautauqua affords one of the best
          opportunities now presented a public speaker for
          the discussion of questions of interest to the
          people. The audience is a select one, always
          composed of the thoughtful element in the
          community, and as they pay admission, they stay to
          hear. I believe that a considerable part of the
          progress that is now being made along the line of
          moral and political reform is traceable to the
          influence of the Chautauqua.

A writer in _The Outlook_ (September 18, 1918) says:

          I have studied the Chautauqua speakers. They
          command the admiration of the honest critic. They
          deal with serious subjects as experts. They carry
          men, women and children on to the conclusion of
          the longest lecture by knowing when to lighten at
          the proper moment with a story or a lilt of humor,
          or sometimes a local reference. Said a village
          woman in my hearing of a fellow-speaker on the
          problems of patriotism, "I thought at first he
          would be hard to follow, but I surely hated when
          he had to stop." The thermometer was reported to
          be 105° in the tent. The speaker held the rapt
          attention of the people for an hour and a half in
          a philosophical presentation of the causes of the
          war and our responsibilities in consequence. It
          was like reading a solid book and condensing it
          with marked success into one hearing. It was
          typical, and twenty millions are reported to be
          listening to such addresses in Chautauqua tents
          the country over.

In the magazine _The World To-Day_ (September, 1911), I read the
following by George L. Flude:

          A few years ago I saw Senator Robert M. La
          Follette address a crowd of eight thousand people
          at Waterloo, Iowa. For two hours and a half he
          jammed insurgent Republicanism into that crowd. He
          was at that time the only insurgent in the party
          and had not been named yet. The crowd took it all
          in. They were there to be instructed, not to hear
          a partisan speech. Hence their attitude,
          regardless of party affiliation, was a receptive
          one. He absolutely converted that crowd into
          insurgents and they did not know it. For five
          years La Follette crammed and jammed
          "non-partisan" talks into Chautauqua crowds
          through Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, Nebraska,
          and Kansas. The average audience was probably
          about four thousand and he met sixty or more
          audiences each summer; 240,000 people inoculated
          with insurgency by one man.

Occasionally an audience finds that the lecture is not what was looked
for. Some years ago a Western Assembly engaged Senator La Follette, and
from the list of his subjects chose "The World's Greatest Tragedy,"
expecting a sensational attack upon the greed of capitalists. A great
crowd assembled to see "Senator Bob jump on the trusts." He gave his
well-known literary lecture on _Hamlet_, a critical appreciation,
without a word on current affairs. The crowd sat, first puzzled, then
baffled, and at last went away dejected.

A newspaper of wide circulation, _The Christian Science Monitor_, said:

          By far the most active and keenly interested
          voters of the country, with their leaders,
          forceful in shaping progressive legislation, have
          come during the last decade from States where this
          Chautauqua method of cultivation of the adult
          population has been most steadily used, and the
          end is not yet, since now the system is being
          organized in a thorough-going way never known
          before. Public men, educators, artists, authors,
          pioneers in discovery of unknown lands or of
          secrets of nature, who get the ear of this huge
          audience season after season, come nearer to the
          heart of the nation and observe its ways of
          living better than by any other method.

The old mother Chautauqua by the Lake would not like to be held
responsible for all the utterances under the tents of her ten thousand
daughters. For that matter, she would not endorse everything spoken upon
her own platform in the Amphitheater, where "free speech" is the motto
and the most contradictory opinions are presented. But she must
recognize that her daughters have wielded a mighty power in forming the
political and moral convictions of the nation.

The bell which rang at Fair Point on August 4, 1874, to open the first
Assembly, might be compared to "The shot heard 'round the world" from
Concord Bridge in 1775, for in answer to its call ten thousand
Chautauquas have arisen on the American Continent. The question might be
asked, Why have none of the ten thousand rivaled the first, the original
Chautauqua?

Many of these opened with a far better outfit of external
accommodations, with more money expended upon their programs, with
greater advertising publicity, with more popular attractions. Yet now at
the period of almost fifty years, not another among the ten thousand,
either of the earlier or the later Assemblies, holds a two months'
program, conducts courses of study of a wide range, or brings together
even one quarter of the assemblage which every year gathers upon the old
Chautauqua ground. All the assemblies which were established with the
highest promise have either been abandoned or are continued as chain
Chautauquas, meeting for a week only. Let us endeavor to answer the
question--Why does the mother-Chautauqua still stand supreme?

In the judgment of this writer, who has known Chautauqua almost from the
beginning, and has taken part in fifty similar gatherings, the reasons
for its supremacy are easily seen and stated. It was established by two
men of vision, one of whom was also a practical man of business, and
both men of high ideals which they never lowered and from which they and
their successors have never swerved. In its plans from first to last,
there was a unique blending of religion, education, and recreation. No
one of these three elements has been permitted to override the two
others, and neither of them has been sacrificed to win popularity,
although on the other side, popular features have been sought for within
just limits. Never has the aim of Chautauqua been to make money; it has
had no dividends and no stockholders. It has opened avenues and leased
lots to hundreds of people, but it has not sought financial gain.
Neither of its Founders nor any of their associates have been enriched
by it, for all profits--when there have been any--have been expended
upon improvements or enlargement of plans. It has shown the progressive
spirit, while firm in its principles, open to new ideas, willing to
listen to both sides of every question. It has sought to attract and to
benefit all classes in the community, not setting the poor against the
rich, nor the rich against the poor, giving a welcome to scholars of
every view and to churches of every doctrine. It has maintained a
continuous, consistent administration, fortunate in finding able and
broad-minded men to carry forward the conceptions of its founders. Few
changes have been made in its management and these have been without a
revolution or a renunciation of principles. Men at the head have
changed, but not the policy of the institution. It has remained unshaken
in its loyalty to the Christian religion and penetrated through and
through with the Christian spirit, without flying the flag or wearing
the badge of any one denomination of Christians. These have been the
principles that placed Chautauqua at the front in its beginning and have
kept it at the front through forty-eight years.

APPENDIX

DISTINGUISHED PREACHERS AT CHAUTAUQUA

          Dr. Lyman Abbott
          Dr. Charles P. Aked
          Rev. Hugh Black
          Bishop C. H. Brent
          Bishop F. S. Bristol
          Bishop Phillips Brooks
          Dean Charles R. Brown
          Prof. Sylvester Burnham
          Bishop William Burt
          Dr. S. Parkes Cadman
          Rev. Francis E. Clark
          Rev. R. H. Conwell
          Bishop R. Cleveland Cox
          Rev. T. L. Cuyler
          Dr. E. W. Donald
          Dr. Daniel Dorchester
          Rev. Samuel A. Eliot
          Bishop Samuel Fallows
          Pres. W. H. P. Faunce
          Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick
          Bishop Cyrus W. Foss
          Bishop Charles H. Fowler
          Dr. James A. Francis
          Dr. Washington Gladden
          Bishop D. A. Goodsell
          Dr. George A. Gordon
          Dr. F. W. Gunsaulus
          Dr. John Hall
          Dr. N. D. Hillis
          Dr. P. S. Henson
          Dean George Hodges
          Bishop E. E. Hoss
          Rev. Lynn Hough
          Bishop Edwin H. Hughes
          Dr. Charles E. Jefferson
          Bishop A. W. Leonard