The Story of Chautauqua Part 15

There is a Press Club, composed of men and women who write books and articles for publication. They hold social receptions for acquaintance among wielders of the quill; perhaps it would be more accurate, though less cla.s.sic, to say, "pounders of the typewriter." Several times each season they have an "Author's Night," when well-known writers, some of them famous, read their own productions.

There is a Lawyers' Club, a Masonic Club, and a Grange Club, the latter having its own building of Greek architecture; also a College Fraternity Club of the wearers of sundry pins and keys.

The Bird and Tree Club has a large and representative membership of those interested in identifying and protecting the fauna, flora, and bird life of Chautauqua and its vicinity. On the Overlook, beyond the Athletic Field, they have established a herbarium for the preservation of the different forms of trees found on the ground.

We must group together, begging pardon of the members, many other organizations, such as the W. C. T. U. All Americans know, some of them to their cost, what those four letters stand for; the Y. W. C. A., which has opened a Hospitality House of Welcome and Rest on Pratt Avenue; the Daughters of the American Revolution, coming from every part of the land for gatherings at Chautauqua; the Order of the Eastern Star, whose secrets none but the initiated know; the College Men's Club, the College Women's Club, the Ministers' Club, and there used to be, perhaps is still, an Octogenarians' Club, whose members must swear to eighty years of life. The King's Daughters and King's Sons meet weekly at the Pier Buildings, and the Chautauqua Education Council, made up of Superintendents, princ.i.p.als and teachers, holds two regular sessions each week. If there are any more clubs, and their t.i.tles are sent to the author of this book, they will appear in the new edition, after the first hundred thousand copies are disposed of.

But we are forgetting the t.i.tle of this chapter and must name some of those who helped to make Chautauqua successful during the quadrennium between '92 and '96. In 1893 Henry Drummond repeated at Chautauqua his Lowell lectures in Boston on "The Ascent of Man." There were still some old-fashioned "kiver to kiver" believers in the verbal inspiration of the Bible who were alarmed to find an eminent Christian leader accept so fully the conclusions of science; but the overwhelming sentiment of Chautauqua was of rejoicing at his harmonizing the most evangelical religion with the most advanced scholarship. Jane Addams gave some lectures on modern problems of family and social life; Edward Eggleston, long before a leader of the Sunday School Army, by turns preacher, story-writer (his _Hoosier School-Master_ marked an epoch in American literature, say the critics) and historian, was with us once more after many years of absence. He said in an introduction, "I am glad to be again among Sunday School workers, real crazy people, for I believe that n.o.body can be a first-cla.s.s Sunday School man unless he has a little crack in his head on that subject." Frank G. Carpenter, who had traveled in almost every land of earth, told us stories of his experiences and observations; Kate Douglas Wiggin read charmingly some of her own stories; Mr. John Temple Graves spoke in his fine rounded periods on some topics of the time; Hon. Roswell G. Horr of Michigan instructed while he entertained us. Dr. A. J. Palmer, who had thrilled the old soldiers with his "Company D," now gave another lecture to them on "Comrades." Besides these we heard on the platform Dr. Philip S. Moxom, Professor George H. Palmer of Harvard, and his wife, Alice Freeman Palmer; President Harper, Dr. Von Hoist; Dr. Conwell, and Dr. Joseph Cook, returning to the platform with restored vigor after some years of nervous breakdown. Miss Willard was with us again, and with her Lady Henry Somerset of England, the head of the W. C. T. U. in that land.

In 1894 the Department of Elocution took a new t.i.tle, "The School of Expression," and enlarged its sphere under Professor S. H. Clark of the University of Chicago, and Mrs. Emily M. Bishop. The program of the years shows the school of Political Science to be remarkably strong, with such teachers as Dr. Herman Von Holst, Herbert B. Adams of Johns Hopkins, and another Dr. Adams of Yale. Professor Graham Taylor of Chicago spoke on social questions, capital and labor. Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, already rising to fame, was again on the platform. General James A. Beaver, ex-governor of Pennsylvania; Professor Richard G.

Moulton; Hon. Carroll D. Wright, United States Commissioner of Labor; Mr. Anthony Comstock, and Dr. E. E. Hale, Chautauqua's strong friend, were some of the speakers. Dr. Hale, always original in his methods, said that he had only thirty minutes to speak on "Poverty and Pauperism." He began by saying, "I will stand on one side of this desk and speak fifteen minutes on poverty." He showed in seven points that every one of us belonged to the cla.s.s named "poverty" and each one should help the others. Then he walked over to the other side and gave seven points on "pauperism," for which there were reasons but no excuses. Poverty was a blessing; most of the world's greatest benefactors have been poor men; but pauperism is an unmitigated evil and should be stamped out of existence. General O. O. Howard, U. S. A., was again on the platform in 1894, also President William H. Crawford of Allegheny College, whose lecture on "Savonarola" made a deep impression.

There was great interest to see and hear Miss Helen Keller, the wonderful girl, blind, deaf, and dumb, who had learned to speak without hearing a voice, and had been graduated from Radcliffe College of Harvard University with the highest honor. Another of the lecturers was Mr. Jahu DeWitt Miller, whose private talk was as good as his public lectures, which is high praise. The Recognition Day address this year was by Dr. E. E. Hale, on "The Education of a Prince," the prince being the poorest child living in America. It is worth remembering that a photograph of the procession on that day shows at the head of the flower-girl division--which now included boys, although the girls were still in the majority--two mites of children, one Paul Vincent Harper, son of President Harper, the other Isabel Vincent, the daughter of Professor George E. Vincent. Those same children are now Mr. and Mrs.

Paul Vincent Harper of Chicago, still walking together.

In 1895, the season extended through fifty-nine days, from June 29th to August 26th. Two new buildings, besides many new cottages, were now upon the ground. One was the Baptist headquarters on Clark Street, the other Higgins Hall on College Hill, built by the gift of Governor Higgins of New York State. In the Schools during this season strong emphasis was laid on the Department of English, with such instructors as Professor C.

T. Winchester of Wesleyan, Professor A. S. Cook of Yale, Professor Sherman of the University of Nebraska, and Professor Lewis of the University of Chicago. The last named gentleman bore a striking resemblance to the portraits of Shakespeare; so that as he walked around (habitually without a hat on his head) everybody was struck with the likeness. I was told that when he sat down at Shakespeare's traditional school-desk in Stratford, a crowd gathered before the windows and the word was pa.s.sed around "Shakespeare has come to life again!"

Other speakers in 1895 were Professor Richard G. Moulton, Dr. Josiah Strong, President G. Stanley Hall, Professor Francis G. Peabody of Harvard, Major J. B. Pond, Dr. John Henry Barrows, Dr. Edward Everett Hale, President Harper, Prof. John Fiske, Princ.i.p.al Fairbairn, and the distinguished General of the Confederate Army, John B. Gordon, Senator from Georgia. His lecture on "The Last Days of the Confederacy," was one of the great occasions of the season, and it was noteworthy that many veterans of the G. A. R. were among the loudest in their applause when their foe of thirty years before came upon the platform. Another event of the summer was the visit of Governor William McKinley of Ohio, a year before his nomination and election to the Presidency. During this season also we were entertained with readings by Professor S. H. Clark, Mr.

Will M. Carleton, and Miss Ida Benfey.

In the year 1895 another movement was begun at Chautauqua, which like the W. C. T. U. has swept over the entire continent and wrought mightily for the public welfare. At a Kindergarten Mothers' Meeting during the session, Mrs. Theodore W. Birney of Georgia, gave an address urging a National Congress of Mothers, and her appeal awakened a prompt response. Many of those who had listened to her carried her message to their own home-towns; Mrs. Birney at women's clubs and gatherings gave her plea over and over; and when the General Federation of Women's clubs held its convention in her native State of Georgia she presented the proposition to the members. From that convention in 1896, a call was issued for a National Congress of Mothers, to be held in the National Capital. Mrs. Birney gave a year of tireless and wise preparation for the meeting, which began on February 17, 1897. She was called to be President of the National Congress, with Miss Mary Louisa Butler as Organizing Secretary. The work was aided by the wide-reaching influence and liberal gifts of Mrs. Phebe A. Hearst, who has been rightly called the Lady Bountiful of the movement. Out of this National Congress grew the holding of State-congresses in every part of the country and the organization of local branches in almost every city. The Congress of Mothers now has its central office in Washington, D. C. It is divided into twenty-five departments of work--such as Americanization, Child Hygiene, Child Labor, Education, Mothers' Circles, Thrift, and many others, each having its chairman and plan of effective work. Out of a meeting at Chautauqua, in 1895, has grown a nation-wide movement in aid of mothers and teachers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Arts and Crafts Building]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Miller Bell Tower]

In 1896 the schools were again reorganized under Dr. Harper's supervision. The School of Fine Arts and the New York Summer Inst.i.tute for Teachers were new departments, the latter under the direction of the Regents of the New York State University. The School of Sacred Literature was increased in its faculty, having among them President Harper, Professor Shailer Mathews, and Professor D. A. McClenahan of the United Presbyterian Theological School. Prominent among the lecturers this year were Dr. George Adam Smith of Scotland, Dr. Gunsaulus, Rev. S.

Parkes Cadman, Dr. Booker T. Washington, Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon, Dr.

Charles F. Aked, then of England, but soon to become an American, Professor F. G. Peabody, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, soon afterward the President of Columbia University, and Dr. Russell H. Conwell. A lady appeared on the platform whose experience had been unlike that of any other woman in the land. This was Mrs. Robert E. Peary, who accompanied her husband on one of his North Pole explorations and had a daughter born within the polar circle--"The snow baby," as she was called. She gave a lecture with stereopticon views descriptive of the life in the frozen North. Another woman gave a lecture this year upon her travels in Equatorial Africa, Miss Jessie T. Ackerman. President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University gave the oration on Recognition Day, his subject being "America's Contribution to Civilization." In looking through the list of the speakers on Recognition Day, I find the names of no less than ten college presidents, and also that of the Hon. William T.

Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, who might be regarded as standing at the head of the nation's educational system. The value of Chautauqua as a force in education has been fully recognized by the highest authorities.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] From the _Handbook of Information_ published by the Chautauqua Inst.i.tution (1918) we give the following extract. "The Chautauqua tradition which taboos card playing and social dancing, and the rule which forbids the sale or importation of alcoholic beverages, disclose the influence which dominated the early life of the a.s.sembly. As to card playing and dancing, the tradition is preserved not because all agree in condemning these things in themselves, but because they are deemed unsuitable to Chautauqua conditions and even hostile to its life. It is believed that they would prove divisive and distracting, and that they suggest a very different type of society from that which Chautauqua seeks to set up for a few summer weeks. Chautauqua, therefore, disapproves these diversions as not only unnecessary, but as involving disintegrating influences. The fact that many who indulge in these amus.e.m.e.nts at home express gratification that they are not permitted at Chautauqua is significant."

CHAPTER XVIII

ROUNDING OUT THE OLD CENTURY (1897-1900)

THE Chautauqua session of 1897 was fifty-nine days long, from June 26th to August 23rd. This year the School of Domestic Science, directed by Mrs. Emma P. Ewing, attracted attention. Almost as many ladies whose cookery was accomplished by servants, as those who broiled their own steaks and baked their own puddings, met in Mrs. Ewing's model kitchen, learning to make bread, to prepare appetizing sauces and dressings, and to learn how to serve tables with refinement. I remember hearing one lady remark that until she had received Mrs. Ewing's instruction she had never really known how to make good bread.

Among those who gave lectures in 1897, we find the names of Anna Howard Shaw, Ballington and Maud Booth, Bishop (better known as Chaplain) McCabe; quite a list of college presidents--Goucher of Baltimore, Hyde of Bowdoin, Harper of Chicago, John Finley of New York, and G. Stanley Hall of Clark; also Professor Graham Taylor, Mr. Percy Alden of England, and Mr. Jacob Riis. A new reader of n.o.ble presence, rich voice, and rare dramatic power, recited on the platform of the Amphitheater and a.s.sisted in the School of Expression--Mrs. Bertha Kunz Baker, who was to entertain us through many years. Professor Clark gave readings; Mr.

George W. Cable rendered a number of his own stories; Mrs. Jessie Eldridge Southwick and Miss Katherine Oliver also gave recitals.

After Dr. Vincent's election as Bishop in 1888, he found it increasingly difficult to supervise the ever-increasing work of Chautauqua. Often during the a.s.sembly season he would be compelled to hold conferences in the far west, and one year in South America. In 1896, his episcopal residence was changed from Buffalo to Topeka, Kansas, and in 1900 he was removed to Zurich, Switzerland, to take charge of Methodist missions in Europe. More and more he delegated the care of Chautauqua to his son, who, one of the most popular of lecturers, was supreme in his ability as administrator. In 1898 Professor George E. Vincent was formally appointed Princ.i.p.al of Instruction, and very soon every department of Chautauqua, both in its lecture platform and its educational work, felt the touch of a master hand. Some of us oldsters who had loved Chautauqua from its earliest years, had felt anxious for its future as we saw one of its Founders called aside into other fields, and the other failing in strength, although we knew not how near was his earthly end. But we all had a sense of relief and confidence that the future of Chautauqua was a.s.sured when we found "George" taking his father's place as executive in the Department of Instruction. The Bishop retained the t.i.tle of Chancellor, however, as long as he lived.

In 1898 a new building was erected on College Hill--The Hall of Pedagogy. The report of the season's work showed that attendance had increased in the schools twenty-five per cent. over the last year, the advance being distributed quite evenly among the departments. By this time nearly all the universities and many of the colleges were holding summer schools, yet Chautauqua, first in the field, was still leading in its membership. This year Chautauqua received a visit from Lord Aberdeen, the Governor-General of the Dominion of Canada, and his wife, the Countess. Americans are apt to look for a freezing dignity on the part of the higher n.o.bility, and some were a little surprised to find the Governor-General and his Lady unreservedly approachable, and unaffectedly democratic in manner.

Some of those who gave lectures in 1898 were Dr. Richard T. Ely of the University of Wisconsin, President Thirkield of Atlanta, afterward Bishop, Dr. Moulton, Miss Jane Addams, Hon. Murat Halstead, General John B. Eaton, Mr. Leon H. Vincent, Bishop Daniel A. Goodsell, Dr. J. H.

Barrows, President of Oberlin, President Faunce of Brown, Dr. Robert McIntyre, also to become a Bishop in due time, Dr. Charles E. Jefferson of New York, Dr. Amory H. Bradford of Montclair, N. J., and Mr. John Kendrick Bangs. Mr. Leland Powers was with us on his biennial visit, and recitals were also rendered by Mr. C. F. Underhill, Mr. John Fox, Miss Isabel Garghill, Mr. Will Carleton, and Miss Ida Benfey. Up to that date, the season of 1898 was one of the most successful in Chautauqua history.

At this time, the _Chautauquan Magazine_, the organ of the C. L. S. C., and the _Daily a.s.sembly Herald_, were taken over by the trustees, and the _Chautauqua Press_ was established as the publishing agency for the periodicals and books of the C. L. S. C. Mr. Frank Chapin Bray was appointed Editor. By birth and education he was a thorough Chautauquan, having, as it were, grown up on the ground from early childhood and gone through all the courses from the Children's Cla.s.s to the C. L. S.

C. As a small boy he had sold the _a.s.sembly Herald_; as a young man had written for its columns, and he is not the only journalist who took these steps upward to a literary career.

The season of 1899 opened with a cloud hanging over Chautauqua, bringing sorrow to one family and deepest sympathy from many.

On February 17, 1899, Lewis Miller died in a hospital in New York where he had been taken to undergo an operation from which he failed to rally.

He was seventy years of age and had given his whole heart and the best of his life to Chautauqua. But for Lewis Miller there would have been no Chautauqua, though there might have been an a.s.sembly under some other name. He had chosen the place, had urged the location, and in its inception had aided in its plans, had supervised its business interests, and had contributed generously to its needs. At the opening of the "Old First Night" service in August, 1899, the white lilies bloomed in his honor, but instead of being waved, were held in solemn stillness for a full minute, and then slowly lowered, and this memorial has been observed on every "Old First Night" since. The names of Lewis Miller and John H. Vincent stand together in equal honor as the two Founders of Chautauqua. Next to these Founders we remember on "Old First Night" two of the Vice-Presidents of the Board of Trustees, the late Francis H.

Root of Buffalo, and Clem. Studebaker of South Bend, Indiana, both wise counsellors and generous givers to Chautauqua.

During the session of 1899, Theodore Roosevelt was for the third time the guest of Chautauqua. The war with Spain had come and gone; he had been Colonel of the Rough Riders, and was now Governor of New York. One of those Rough Riders was young Theodore Miller, the son of the Founder of Chautauqua, and the only Yale student to lay down his life in that campaign. His memory is preserved by the Miller Gate on the University campus. Another Governor was with us that summer, Robert L. Taylor of Tennessee. The two brothers Taylor were the heads respectively of the two political parties in their State, were candidates opposed to each other, stumped the State together, slept together every night, played the violin together at their meetings, and then after the concert, made their speeches against one another. The writer of these pages may claim a humble part in their careers, for both of them as boys, and also an older brother, were students under his teaching in 1864 and '65 in Pennington Seminary, New Jersey. We could tell some stories about those three Taylor boys, but we refrain. I think that the Republican Taylor, Alfred, is even now (1920) the Governor of Tennessee, as his brother was its Democratic Governor in 1899.

Another visitor of about this date, though we are not certain of the precise year, was Mr. Horace Fletcher, whose name is in the dictionary in the word "Fletcherize," which means to count the chewing of each mouthful thirty times before swallowing it. We have tried some steaks in the early Chautauquan days when fifty chews would hardly make an impression. He spoke on the platform, and the few who could hear him said that his talk was not about dietetics, but foreign politics, though the two words are somewhat alike and they may have misunderstood him.

His fiftieth birthday came while he was at Chautauqua, and he celebrated it by doing some amazing stunts, double somersaults, etc., into the lake at the diving place. I sat at the table next to his at the Athenaeum and noticed that he ate very slowly, but I could not count the chews on each mouthful. A lady at the same table told me that Mr. Fletcher eschewed coffee but put seven lumps of sugar in his tea, calmly observing that his "system needed sugar." I know some young people who have the same opinion concerning their own systems, if one may judge by the fate of a box of chocolates in their hands.

In this year the School of Religious Teaching was reorganized, the Department of Sacred Literature being conducted by Chancellor Wallace of Toronto, and that of Religious Pedagogy, by Dr. J. R. Street. We may as well insert here the fact that for many years before, and during the seasons since that year, Sunday School lessons were taught in the morning and a lecture given at the Park of Palestine in the afternoon by the author of this volume. The plan with the lessons has been to give every morning a preview of a coming Sunday School topic, so that by the close of the season all the lessons for six months to come have been taught, and at Palestine Park to treat the geography of the land historically in a series of lectures. Also, it should be remembered that every Sunday of the Chautauqua season, from the first year, a Sunday School has been held in the morning, for all ages from youngest to oldest, the grades being taught in different places on the grounds by specialists in their several departments. For some years, if one strayed on Sunday morning over Palestine Park, he might find a cla.s.s of boys seated on the hills around Nazareth listening to a lesson on the boyhood of Jesus, and a group of girls looking down on the Sea of Galilee, while a teacher was telling stories of the tempest stilled and the five thousand fed.

Prominent upon the lecture platform in 1899 were Prof. C. T. Winchester, Dr. Charles E. Jefferson, Prof. John Fiske, Prof. A. B. Hart, Bishop C.

B. Galloway of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, President Faunce, Dr. George Adam Smith, Dr. E. E. Hale, and Governor G. W. Atkinson of West Virginia. Mr. John Kendrick Bangs was also on the platform with readings.

The year 1900 rounded out a century, and one of its outstanding events at Chautauqua was a course of lectures by Princ.i.p.al Fairbairn of Oxford on "The Nineteenth Century." He a.s.serted that in the ages to come, this hundred years will be looked upon as perhaps the greatest of all the centuries in the world's progress made during that period. He spoke in turn upon the historical, the political, the inventive, the literary, the religious, and the philosophic progress, giving without a written reminder names, dates, facts, processes of thought in the widest range.

Many regarded it as one of the ablest and most enlightening series of addresses that they had ever heard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: South Gymnasium]

Among the new faces on the platform we saw Dr. Lincoln Hulley, the new President of the John B. Stetson University of Florida, an exceedingly interesting speaker and a charming personality. We heard also Mr. Edward Howard Griggs in a series of lectures in the Amphitheater, and an appreciative cla.s.s also met him in the school. From 1900 until the present, Mr. Griggs has given us biennial courses, and on "Old First Night" his tall form rises and sits down as the record is made up for every alternate year. No lecturer on thoughtful subjects has more engagements or brings together larger audiences than Mr. Griggs. Dean Charles D. Williams of Trinity Cathedral, and in a few years Bishop (Protestant Episcopal) of Detroit, an independent thinker and powerful preacher, welcomed both on the platform and in the pulpit many times since that appearance, his first among us. I think also that Professor Bliss Perry of Harvard spoke for the first time this season, also President Benjamin Ide Wheeler. Others who came as old friends were Prof. Moses Coit Tyler, President Henry Churchill King, Dr. Graham Taylor, Dr. Cadman, Mr. Edward Howard Griggs, Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, Miss Susan B. Anthony, and Miss Jane Addams. I must not forget that this summer Mr. Francis Wilson was with us again, and gave a lecture upon Eugene Field and his poetry, an appreciation inspired by friendship as well as literary insight. On a former visit to Chautauqua Francis Wilson not only joined the C. L. S. C., but formed a reading circle in his dramatic company, directing their studies and holding their literary meetings in railroad stations, in hotel parlors, and in the green rooms of theaters, wherever they chanced to be when the meeting day arrived.

On August 7, 1900, the corner stone of the Hall of Christ, "Aula Christi," was laid. The address on that occasion was given by Bishop James M. Thoburn of India. Bishop Vincent was now living overseas in Zurich, Switzerland, and could not be present. The stone was laid by Princ.i.p.al George E. Vincent and a telegram from his father was read.

This Hall was one of the creations of Bishop Vincent's poetic mind. He aimed to make it a building not large, but beautiful, a sort of shrine, a chapel for meditation and prayer, a place of quiet, spiritual fellowship, not of cla.s.s teaching, but of thoughtful addresses on themes directly relating to our Lord. Bishop Vincent did not possess the genius for raising large sums of money for his conceptions; he shrank from pressing them upon rich men. Another projector would have ventured boldly, demanded contributions and obtained them, to build the Hall at once; but Dr. Vincent was delicate in speaking of it, though all knew his ardent desires for this ideal. The building grew slowly as gifts were received. Begun in 1899, it was not dedicated until 1912. Although no thought of his own honor in this building was in the Founder's mind, yet to many it stands as his monument at Chautauqua. Most appropriately it is used as the center for the Department of Religious Work, and daily lectures are given within its walls on Biblical themes.

As Dr. George Vincent was now an a.s.sociate professor in the University of Chicago, it became necessary for him to have some a.s.sistance in the management of the Chautauqua program and platform. Mr. Scott Brown was this year appointed General Director and Vice-Princ.i.p.al of Instruction.

CHAPTER XIX

OPENING THE NEW CENTURY

(1901-1904)

THE season of 1901 was the longest of any thus far, sixty days, from July 1st to August 29th. In the schools Manual Training was introduced under the direction of Mr. Henry J. Baker, also a school of Library Training under the general guidance of Mr. Melvil Dewey, at that time New York State Librarian, and soon after made one of the Chautauqua trustees. The resident director of this school was at first Miss Mary E.

Hazeltine of Jamestown; later, and up to the present time, Miss Mary E.