The Decennial Assembly.

The first note of preparation for the Assembly of 1883 has been sounded. Some of the proprietors of the Gibson House, at Cincinnati, Ohio, being at Chautauqua during the last Assembly, invited the trustees to hold this year’s annual session in their ample and elegantly furnished parlors. The invitation was gratefully accepted, and on January 10, the Chautauqua Board of Trustees met for deliberation. President Lewis Miller was in the chair, and presided with his usual ease and dignity. Nearly all the members were present, full of confidence, and ready to do and to dare. One of its members, Rev. E. J. L. Baker, answered not to roll-call, as he had only a few days previous responded to the summons of death. Appropriate action was taken by the Board in the case, recognizing the high character of the deceased, and the important part he had taken in the affairs of Chautauqua.

C. C. Studebaker, Esq., of South Bend, Indiana, a new and great admirer of the Chautauqua Assembly, was chosen to fill his place.

It appeared from the report of the Treasurer that the business part of the last Assembly, the erection of the hotel not included, amounted to nearly ninety-five thousand dollars. The department of instruction cost nearly sixteen thousand dollars. About two thousand dollars had been expended on music, the cost of the great organ not included.

In August, 1883, will be held the Decennial Assembly, and an attempt will be made to place it a little in advance of any of its predecessors. Joseph Cook will be present to give the public, in three lectures, the concentrated results of two years of travel, observation, and study in oriental lands. Other great lights, some old and some new, will appear upon the platform. Different methods of collegiate education will be thoroughly discussed by the best educators in the land. Among them will be President Cummins, LL. D., of the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Illinois. As yet the program is but partially arranged, nor will it be fixed and given to the public in all its details till sometime in June.

Ten years ago Chautauqua was compared to the groves of Greece in which Plato and Aristotle taught their disciples philosophy. Instinctively the people have watched the growth of the place, expecting that in due time it would develop into university proportions. Such hope, existing then, seems a dream, but coming events often cast their shadows before. Chautauqua can not stand still; its vital nature makes growth a necessity; but it can not advance much further and not embrace in its curriculum a university education. It can do what can be done in no other place, namely, combine a thorough and broad education with the great variety of exercises which characterize the Assembly gatherings.

July of this year will be characterized by the opening of a children’s school, under the instruction of the most accomplished teachers. Families have hesitated to come early to Chautauqua because their children were in school, and they did not like to disturb their studies. As this difficulty is to be obviated, the way will be open for our Southern friends and all others to come early in the season.

Dr. Vincent was present at the meeting of the Trustees, and favored them with his wise counsel. His plans for the coming season are, as usual, original and broad. He has several pleasant surprises in store for the Chautauqua people.

The Board was visited by Messrs. Warren and Morrow, from East Tennessee, as the representatives of the Mount Eagle Sunday-school Assembly. They were welcomed by a neat speech from Dr. Vincent and Mr. Miller, to which they handsomely responded, explaining their work in the South. This is but one of the many echoes of Chautauqua.

[EDITOR’S NOTE-BOOK.]

“Everything which happens has its bent given by the events that have gone before, and is brought into relation with those that come after.”—Forster.

The C. L. S. C. Class of ’86, just organized, will number over 12,000 members.

A very impressive lesson in economy (and who does not need one), may be found in the following: A young lady in Wisconsin, who works in a family for seventy-five cents per week and her boarding, desired to read the C. L. S. C. course. No members living near her, and having no opportunity to borrow the books, she was so anxious to gratify her thirst for knowledge that she bought them, saving enough money from her income of seventy-five cents per week. She is now zealously reading, and expresses herself as delighted with the studies.

On the occasion of the recent visit of German astronomers to Colt’s Armory, a Gatling gun was brought out and fired perpendicularly. The heavy ball mounted into the air a distance of two and a quarter miles. An account says that the ball made the ascent and return, four and one-half miles in fifty-eight seconds.

The journal to be published by the lunatics on Ward’s Island, under the title of The Moon, is not, according to the Buffalo Express, the first periodical printed by the inmates of an insane asylum. Thirty years ago, the Express says, the prisoners in the Utica Insane Asylum published a monthly magazine called The Opal, which contained some of the craziest poetry ever printed. It quotes this couplet as an example:

Canst thou be the mackerel’s queen,

Blighted, plighted Isoline?

According to a reporter of that city, Miss Susan B. Anthony left St. Louis the other day for Leavenworth with two medium-sized trunks for baggage. At first the baggage-master objected to check them both on a single ticket, and demanded pay for extra weight. “But,” said she, “they together weigh less than the ordinary-sized ‘Saratoga.’ I distribute the weight in this way purposely to save the man who does the lifting.” The clerk looked at her incredulously. “And you tell me seriously that you do this simply out of consideration for the baggage-men?” “I do.” “How long have you done it?” “All my life. I never purchased a large trunk, for fear I might add to the over-burdened baggage-man’s afflictions.” The clerk walked off and conferred with the head of the department. Then the two returned together. “Do I understand,” said the chief, “that you, of all women, have been the first to show humanity toward railroad people?” “That is a tenet of my creed.” “Check that baggage,” said the chief with emphasis.

Those of our readers interested in C. L. S. C. work will find in our department for “Local Circles” a great many valuable suggestions concerning methods of study, questioning, conducting the work of the circle, and, in some instances, plans may be found for courses of lectures, concerts, etc. These reports are from members who have seen the practical workings of their plans, and therefore speak knowingly.

London Punch sent a pleasant greeting to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes on his retirement from the professorship at Harvard, in this form:

Your health, dear “Autocrat!” All England owns

Your instrument’s the lyre, and not “the Bones.”

Yet hear our wishes—trust us they’re not cold ones!

That though you give up bones, you may make old ones.

Take care, girls! A professor in Jefferson College, Philadelphia, says that the habitual use of arsenic “for the complexion” causes the clearness of the skin it produces at first to be succeeded by a puffy, dropsical condition.

President Arthur’s New Year reception was interrupted by the sudden death of one of his callers—the Minister from the Hawaiian Islands. The music ceased, but the handshaking went on.

A forcible “temperance” argument from the Queen of England is found in her last speech to Parliament: “The growth of the revenue has been sensibly retarded by a cause which, in itself, is to be contemplated with satisfaction. I refer to the diminution of the receipts of the exchequer from duties on intoxicating liquors.”

Moral reforms move to victory slowly. The Mormons are liable to have a rest because public sentiment, that was focalized against their system a year ago in a law enacted by Congress, is in danger of being inoperative. The friends of the commandment against Mormonism will reap the harvest if they now enforce the law of Congress with as strong a public sentiment as they inspired to enact it; otherwise we shall see the movement a failure.

Girton College, the girls’ college at Cambridge University in England, is about to be enlarged, and the plans for the new buildings have been already drafted and submitted to the proper authorities. The applications for admission have recently been very much in excess of the accommodation at present offered.

The Alcott homestead in Concord—“Orchard Home”—standing next to the “Way-side” home of Hawthorne, is a quaint-looking old mansion, with a peaked roof and gables, high old-fashioned porches, and surrounded by lofty oaks and elms. It was here that Miss Louisa Alcott wrote “Little Women” and most of her other works, and here, too, that her younger sister, Mrs. May Alcott Nericker, executed the beautiful sketches and paintings that still adorn the parlor walls. It is now the home of Professor Harris, of the Concord School of Philosophy, and author of the series of articles on “Education,” now running in “The Chautauquan.”

At the 1880 meeting of the British Association for the Promotion of Science Dr. Günther thus summed up the objects of museums: “1st. To afford rational amusement to the mass of the people. 2d. To assist in the elementary study of the various sciences. 3d. To supply the specialist with as much material as possible for original research. And in the case of local museums we may add a 4th. To illustrate local industries and the scientific features of the district. In starting a local museum we consider the best plan is to form a scientific society (a local circle), whose first concern should be to get a suitable room, well lighted and a good deal larger than there seems to be any actual necessity for, the importance of this step becoming evident anon. The next point should be to obtain as many objects as possible for a start, and from the commencement every member should be required to do his best in collecting objects whenever he has an opportunity.”

Prof. C. A. Leveridge, of Crawford, N. J., makes a very interesting statement below, which we are pleased to transmit to our readers: “I have a number of sets of cabinet specimens, lithological minerals, representing the glacial and eruptive period, each set numbering 103 varieties and 160 altogether. A few of these came from the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876, and some of the foreign are quite scarce. They are interesting either for study or library, and make a fine appearance. They are all catalogued, named, numbered, and located, and each set carefully wrapped and packed in box. I have sold a number and have received many acknowledgments of satisfaction. They are just the thing for study, showing the coolings (crystallization), rubbings and scratchings by the ice period. I have used a number of jaspers instead of the rougher rocks, which I think is better. I sell a working set for five dollars, and a cabinet set for ten dollars. There is to me no profit, but I am an invalid and have these specimens, which have cost me a great deal of money.”

The family of President Garfield have been spending the holidays all at home together. Mrs. Garfield is busy arranging a memorial room, set apart to contain relics and mementos of her illustrious husband. The walls of it are covered with framed resolutions and letters of sympathy, and there will be tables and cabinets loaded with similar tokens. When the arrangement is complete, the room will be one of the most noteworthy spots on earth, containing as it will expressions of love and respect from people in almost every nation of the world.

The London demand for bonds of the late Confederate States of America has recently become stronger than at any other time since the collapse of the Confederate government. A large block was bought a few days ago in Baltimore, on orders from a London banking house, at the rate of nine dollars and seventy-five cents a thousand. The demand has resulted in placing in the market several thousand Confederate dollars’ worth of bonds that have been pasted on fire-boards and screens.

One of the inconsistencies of our civilization may be seen in this item: “A Nevada penitentiary convict says that he was sent to prison for being dishonest, and is there kept at work cutting out pieces of pasteboard to put between the soles of shoes in place of honest leather.”

The people of the oil regions of Pennsylvania were afflicted with the spirit of speculation in oil, near the close of 1882. Professional men, traders of every kind, women who had saved a few hundred dollars, and, indeed, all classes of people, some with large sums of money, and others with small sums, ventured to speculate. Oil went from fifty cents per barrel up to one dollar and thirty-seven cents, and then dropped back to seventy-six cents. The result is that a great many people in moderate circumstances have lost all they owned. To hundreds of men and women it has been as disastrous as if all their property had been consumed by fire. Moral.—It is wrong to speculate. It is dangerous every way, and, besides, it is gambling.

The Rev. Leroy Hooker gives us his comparative view of some of the poets in the Canadian Magazine as follows: “It may not be too much to say that among the English-writing bards of the century, Tennyson’s only near competitor for the first place is Longfellow; and that Longfellow’s title to a place above Lowell is based not so much to his having projected upon the thought and sentiment of the century a more potent and permanent influence, as upon the fact that he has given us, in ‘Hiawatha,’ the nearest approach to a great epic poem that has been produced within the period—not excepting anything that even Tennyson has written.”

The Rev. E. J. L. Baker, a trustee of the Chautauqua Assembly, died suddenly of heart disease at his home in Pleasantville, Pa., on Saturday afternoon, December 30. He had been a preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church for the past fifty years, and died in his field of labor when seventy-three years old. He was at one time presiding elder, and three times a delegate to the General Conference. Once when the conference met in Boston, Massachusetts, he cast his vote for Bishop Simpson and helped to elect him to the Episcopacy. Mr. Baker was a man of dignified bearing, of exceptional strength and force of character, and, while as a preacher he was not among the most brilliant, yet in his sermons he presented the central truths of the Bible in an interesting and powerful manner. Among ministers he made a fine reputation as a debater in a deliberative body. He was a Christian gentleman, a genial companion, and a workman that needed not to be ashamed. He died full of faith in the gospel that saved him, and that he had preached to others so many years.

A gold, open work C. L. S. C. badge by Henry Hart, of Brockport, New York, is one of the latest inventions we have seen for members of the C. L. S. C. It is a beautiful design, makes a handsome pin, and it is sure to please every eye that loves the gold that glitters.

The attempt to injure the reputation of the lamented President Garfield by publishing the letters that passed between him and Mr. Dorsey during the presidential campaign, is a great failure. Mr. Dorsey is on trial for the crimes he is alleged to have committed as one of the Star Route conspirators. Let him be tried on the merits of the case, and if guilty, let him be convicted, and if innocent, acquitted. But any effort like that made recently to palliate the wrongs of the living, at the expense of the dead president, will be resented by the American people. The verdict of the people is that James A. Garfield was one of our purest and best public men, both in his private and public character. He was tried for nearly a score of years in that political cauldron, the House of Representatives, and never found wanting. Let him rest, for

“The death-wind swept him to his soft repose,

As frost, in spring time, blights the early rose.”

The Rev. Dr. Buckley, in the New York Christian Advocate, thus honors a worthy public man: “To the Hon. H. W. Blair, United States Senator from New Hampshire, belongs the special honor of having introduced and eloquently supported to its successful adoption the amendment prohibiting the employment in the United States civil service of persons addicted to the use of intoxicating liquor as a beverage. The citizens of New Hampshire and the friends of temperance throughout the country will not soon forget this great service.”

[EDITOR’S TABLE.]

[We solicit questions of interest to the readers of The Chautauquan to be answered in this department. Our space does not always allow us to answer as rapidly as questions reach us. Any relevant question will receive an answer in its turn.]

Q. Who was Taylor, the author of “Holy Living and Dying?”

A. Jeremy Taylor was an English theologian and bishop, and an author of some eminence. He was born in Cambridge in 1613, and died at Lisburn, Ireland, in 1667. He received his education at Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated about 1633. In 1638 he became rector of Uppingham, in Rutland. He was a decided adherent of Charles I, whom he served as chaplain in the civil wars. “The Liberty of Prophesying,” published in 1647, was, perhaps, his greatest work. He afterwards published his “Holy Living and Dying,” which is now, perhaps, the best known of his works. This was followed by “The Great Exemplar, or The Life of Christ,” and several other works. In 1658 he removed to Lisburn and was appointed Bishop of Down and Connor in 1660.

Q. Where can a copy of the revised Greek text—of the New Testament—used by the revision committee be obtained?

A. Send to Harper & Brothers, New York.

Q. Will The Chautauquan please give me information in regard to the origin of “The Curfew?”

A. The Curfew was a bell rung at nightfall, designed to give notice to the inhabitants to cover their fires, extinguish lights and retire to rest. The practice was instituted by William the Conqueror.

Q. Please give a list of some of the best works on “Mythology.”

A. “Student’s Manual of Mythology” by White, “Ancient Mythology” by Dwight, “Manual of Mythology” by Murray, and “Ancient Mythology” by Keightley.

Q. Who was Tullia, who drove her chariot wheels over the body of her father?

A. Tullia was the daughter of Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, who reigned from about 578 to 534 B. C.

Q. By whom was the Turkish government designated as “the sick man of Europe?”

A. By Nicholas of Russia.

Q. Is the work, “The Treasury of David,” a commentary on the psalms by Mr. Spurgeon?

A. No. It is literally a treasury of all that Spurgeon has been able to collect of value from all authors upon the Book of Psalms. There is no aim at originality, except in conception and method.

Q. Who is the author of the Latin proverb, Qui non vetat peccare, cum possit, jubet, and what is the translation?

A. The author is Seneca, and the translation is, “He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.”

Q. When and where will occur the next General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church?

A. A year from next spring, in the city of Philadelphia.

Q. Which is the older of the two American poets, Whittier or Holmes?

A. Whittier was born in 1808, Holmes in 1809.

Q. Who is the author of “An ill wind that bloweth no man good?”

A. It is from “Idleness” by John Heywood.

Q. Will you please inform a subscriber of The Chautauquan what is date of birth and death of the poet John G. Saxe?

A. Born 1816; living still.

Q. I would like to know something about the Jewish Talmud, and where I could obtain a copy of it. Will The Chautauquan please inform me?

A. Talmud is from the Hebrew word lamed, and signifies to learn. It contains the complete civil and canonical law of the Jews, embracing the Mishna and Gemara. The former is the doctrine, the latter the teaching as the words imply. They reveal much of the customs, practices, and notions about legal, medical, ethical, and astronomical subjects that belonged to the Jewish nation of antiquity. A good copy of the Talmud is that which bears the name of Barclay, and published by John Murray, London.

Q. I frequently see reference made to the “Miserere.” What is meant?

A. The psalm usually selected for acts of a penitential character. It is the 51st psalm. It is also applied to a musical composition adapted to this psalm.

Q. Is spiritualism on the increase or decrease at present?

A. At a meeting of spiritualists in New York, a few days ago, one of the number affirmed, without mentioned contradiction, that the number of good mediums is less than it was twenty years ago, and he bewailed the degeneracy which made it impossible to get satisfactory manifestations now-a-days. He said that manifestations are getting weaker, and he feared that in twenty-five years not even a good rap would be vouchsafed. Spiritualism will increase and decrease and continue as long as a peculiar class of mortals are permitted to live in the world.

Q. Who was Marie de Medici?

A. Marie De Medici was the daughter of Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany. She was born at Florence in 1573, and married in 1600 to Henry IV. of France. On the death of Henry she became regent, for which office she proved herself utterly incompetent. On account of offense given to her subjects by her partiality for unworthy favorites, she was imprisoned, but escaped, and was afterward imprisoned by her son, Louis XIII. After a second escape she died at Cologne in 1642.

Q. What was the “Kit-Cat Club,” and when did it flourish?

A. A club formed in London in 1688 by the leading Whigs of the day; so called after Christopher Cat, a pastry cook, who supplied the mutton pies, and in whose house it was held. Sir Godfrey Kneller painted the portraits of the club members for Jacob Tonson, the secretary, and in order to accommodate them to the room in which they were placed, he was obliged to make them three-quarter lengths; hence, a three-quarter portrait is still called a kit-cat. Steele, Addison, Congreve and Walpole were all members of the club.

Q. What is the origin of the phrase, “To pour oil on troubled waters?”

A. It is said that Prof. Horsford stilled the surface of the sea in a stiff breeze by pouring a vial of oil upon it; and Commodore Wilkes saw the same effect produced during a storm off the Cape of Good Hope, by oil leaking from a whale ship. The phrase probably originated from the old proverb, “A soft answer turneth away wrath.”

Q. Please inform me through The Chautauquan where I can get a good Spanish-English dictionary?

A. Seoane’s Spanish-English and English-Spanish Dictionary, price $6.00; the same abridged, for $2.50, can be obtained from any prominent publishing house.

[GRADUATES OF THE C. L. S. C.]

The following is the list of C. L. S. C. graduates of the Class of 1882. There are seventeen hundred names. Miss Kate F. Kimball has prepared the list with great care. A diploma has been presented to every graduate by the Rev. Dr. Vincent, Superintendent of Instruction.

New York.

Long Island.

Pennsylvania.

Ohio.

Massachusetts.

New Jersey.

Maine.

New Hampshire.

Vermont.

Connecticut.

Rhode Island.

West Virginia.

District of Columbia.

Indiana.

Illinois.

Kansas.

Iowa.

Michigan.

Wisconsin.

Minnesota.

Dakota.

Oregon.

Washington Territory.

Nebraska.

Missouri.

California.

New Mexico.

Texas.

Kentucky.

Maryland.

Tennessee.

North Carolina.

Colorado.

Delaware.

Alabama.

South Carolina.

Georgia.

Arkansas.

Mississippi.

Florida.

Canada.

Mexico.

New Brunswick.

Nova Scotia.

England.

India.

Japan.

[BOOKS.]

Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. publish, among many other works, a good line of literature for children, which, we have no doubt, will meet the hearty commendation of all who purchase books of this kind.

Beautiful covers will often sell a child’s book, while the material contained between the covers is of a very indifferent quality. The books of this house have beautiful binding, but they are not excellent in this regard at the expense of their contents. A careful examination of any one of the works mentioned below will convince any one of their value.

“Wild Animals and Birds” is most handsomely bound and beautifully illustrated. It is just such a work as should be put into the hands of every boy in the land, and it is worthy the study of even a naturalist. The author has selected a number of the most prominent members of the animal kingdom and written their histories with a view to their natural aspects, showing that life among wild animals is not wholly occupied in a struggle for bare existence, and he has so woven into his descriptions their habits that one is highly pleased and instructed.

“Papa’s Little Daughters,” by Mrs. Mary D. Brine, is so copiously supplied with engravings that if it contained nothing more it would be enjoyed by the children. But this is not the case, it is a story well told and pleasing. The binding is elegant and the print clear and perfect.

The frontispiece of “Fred Bradford’s Debt,” by Joanna H. Mathews, would instantly call forth the admiration of children. Bound in handsomely-colored covers it is certainly a charming book.

“Living Pages from Many Ages” contains many historical events, both of war and peace. It is from the pen of Mary Hield, is nicely illustrated and the subjects are well selected. It takes up many of the most noted warriors, giving short accounts of their lives, tells of the struggles of artists, scholars, reformers, of adventures in all continents and of trials of religious sects and oppressed countries.

A child’s book of poetry, gotten up in elaborate style, with picture covers, and pages with colored illustrations, is entitled “Two Tea Parties.” As a publication of its kind it is simply elegant.

A magazine for the young, with the title of “Little Folks” is a perfect gem. It contains much to interest grown people, and everything to entertain children. It is a book of nearly four hundred pages and gives amusements, recreations, stories, illustrated poems, music, Sunday reading, puzzles, descriptions of beasts, birds and fishes, enigmas, questions, etc.

[CAN’T COOK AS MOTHER DID.]

How many a young wife’s heart is saddened and happiness scattered, because she can not “cook as mother did.” It is strange, sadly strange, and yet we all know it is true. How many a time has the tender-hearted reporter felt his soul bursting with grief as he told the harrowing story of some poor suffering woman, whose cheerful sunshine had turned to dismal darkness just because she could not “cook as mother did.” And how it delights the heart of the reporter when he chances to hear of one devoted young wife who is rescued from the gloomy fate of so many, in a manner so simple and easy that the only wonder is that all are not saved. This one to whom he now refers was led a blushing and blooming bride, but a few short weeks ago, to the altar by one of our most promising and prominent young men. He promised to do everything in his power to make her happy, but in an evil hour he made the dangerous discovery that she could not “cook as mother did.” He told her so, and from that hour the life-light of happiness began to die out in her once radiant eyes. The bloom that put to shame the fancied perfection of the rose departed from her cheek, the voice that welcomed him to a happy heart and home grew silent as the grave, and the young husband saw that something must be done soon. He asked the sorrowful wife why she was so sad, and she told him because she could not “cook as his mother did,” but if she had Royal Baking Powder he could say so no longer. Like a sensible fellow, he ordered a dozen boxes at once, and now he says he is afraid that his wife will raise the roof off the house some day, but he don’t care, for she is happy.