C. L. S. C. WORK.
By Rev. J. H. VINCENT, D.D., Superintendent of Instruction.
Will local circles please report to Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J., as well as to The Chautauquan? Please attend to this.
Persons desiring graduates’ badges in the C. L. S. C. should address Mrs. Rosie M. Baketel, Methuen, Mass., as she has now entire charge of Mrs. Burroughs’ business.
The Saturday Union, published in Lynn, Mass., contains a C. L. S. C. column. The number for February 2 has an original Chautauqua song, and a column and a half of questions and answers in Political Economy. The questions are by Rev. R. H. Howard, A.M. This is an advance movement, and will undoubtedly help our cause.
Will all members take notice not to send letters, postals or papers to me at Hartford, Connecticut? My personal postoffice address is Drawer 75, New Haven, Conn.; Miss Kimball’s address is Plainfield, N. J. Letters addressed to me at Plainfield are forwarded.
The Alma Mater, the new bi-monthly to be sent to all recorded members of the C. L. S. C. at Plainfield, N. J., will contain original answers by Dr. William M. Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York City; Dr. John Hall, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City; John Wanamaker, Esq., of Philadelphia; Dr. R. M. Hatfield, of Chicago, Ill.; Dr. Joseph T. Duryea, of Boston, and Prof. J. W. Dickinson, of Boston, written expressly for this number of the Alma Mater, to the following question: “What advice do you give to a person who has had but little school opportunity since he or she was fifteen years of age—a person busy in mechanical, commercial or domestic duties much of the time, who complains of a very poor memory, and desires to improve it—how may such person improve the memory?”
The Rev. Dr. A. M. Fairbairn, principal of Airedale College, Bradford, England, who was announced to give a course of lectures on the “History of Philosophy” at Chautauqua last summer, but who was detained at home by business connected with the college, writes to Dr. Vincent under date of January 29, 1884, as follows: “I intend, all well, to be with you in August; the latter part of the month will be most convenient for me. The subjects the same as before stated. Sincerely yours, A. M. Fairbairn.”
Persons desiring copies of the Chautauqua Songs or of the Sunday Vesper Service may procure them of Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J., at the rate of $2.00 per 100 copies each, postage paid.
There are some members of the class of 1887 who have not yet returned the blank form of application. Such blank should be filled at once and forwarded to Miss K. F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.
The badge of the C. L. S. C. furnished by Mr. Henry Hart is not in any sense an official badge, nor does the C. L. S. C. receive any percentage from the sale of the same. This has been offered, but not accepted. The badges furnished by Mr. Hart are very beautiful. This is all that the officers of the C. L. S. C. can say.
Alma Mater is the name of our new bi-monthly communication to be sent from the C. L. S. C. office at Plainfield to all members of the Circle whose annual fees are paid. The first number will contain some valuable hints on “Memory,” “The Laws of Memory,” etc., by prominent educators. The second number of Alma Mater will contain a very ingenious study in English—a series entitled “Where the every-day words come from.” Communications to the members of the Circle which have heretofore been printed separately, as well as the memoranda, will be published in the Alma Mater. All members whose names are recorded at Plainfield, and whose annual fees are paid, will receive Alma Mater.
To all recorded members whose annual fees are paid will be forwarded in March an envelope containing a petite calendar for ’84, a most humorous, brilliant and effective tract on evolution entitled “Saw-mill Science,” a copy of the “Sunday Vesper Service,” specimens of the new and brilliant C. L. S. C. envelopes, and a copy of the little tract entitled “Memorial Days.”
Our Alma Mater.—The contributions to this magazine are copyrighted, and are not designed for publication anywhere else than through this medium.
A correspondent kindly criticises a statement in the “Outlines of Roman History,” on page 68, in which it speaks of Polycarp as being in Rome in 240. Assuming that this is 240 A. D., he says: “Now what Polycarp do you mean? Not the disciple of John, who was afterward Bishop of Smyrna, for, according to Prof. R. W. Hitchcock, the church historian, and other excellent authorities, Polycarp suffered martyrdom between the years 166 and 167 A. D.” We referred the question of our critic to an expert in such matters, and this is the reply: “In all the authorities I find mention of but one Polycarp, the Disciple of John and Bishop of Smyrna, and his death is given as either 168 or 169, but they add that it is uncertain. As to the Polycarp mentioned by your critic, I feel sure that there is a mistake, and Polycarp of Smyrna is meant, who did visit Rome during the controversy about the celebration of Easter, probably about 140 A. D. With dates it is easy to make a slip of a century, and probably this was the trouble in this case; certainly there is no mention of a Polycarp in Rome as late as 240.”
The Chautauqua University is gradually developing its courses of study. The preparatory and college courses in German, French, Latin, Greek and English are already announced. A practical department has also been recognized, and a corresponding class in connection with a technical school for draftsmen and mechanics is now in full working order. The lesson papers prepared by Profs. Gribbon and Houghton are divided into eight series of about twelve lessons each, treating upon the following topics: First series, free-hand drawing; second, mechanical drafting; third, fourth and fifth, geometry applied to carriage construction; sixth, miscellaneous problems in carriage construction; seventh, review tables useful in carriage construction; eighth, miscellaneous lessons. Young men, apprentices, journeymen, and others desiring to take this course, should correspond at once with George W. Houghton, Esq.
There are many persons who are taking up the Chautauqua Spare-minute Course, which is a course of readings, short, practical, simple, attractive, in biography, history, literature, science, and art. This course is printed in twenty-one Home College Series and in two numbers of the Chautauqua Text-Book Series. They cost in one package $1.00, sent by mail. The reading in this course can be carried along steadily, and, after a while, one who has prosecuted the course will find himself well along in the C. L. S. C.
The following pleasant little domestic picture comes from New Hampshire: “I can not thank you enough for what the C. L. S. C. has done for us all. You should see us some evening now. We sit around the table, every one interested in some C. L. S. C. books. Even my little boy of seven years will tease me to read aloud to him, and nearly every evening this month gets his dumb-bells, and wants to go through gymnastics with me.”
Members must not return memoranda to the Plainfield office until all the reading for the year has been completed.
A White Seal will be given all graduates of ’84 who read the following: “The Hall in the Grove,” “Hints for Home Reading,” and the following numbers of the “Home College Series” (price 5 cents each): No. 1, Thomas Carlyle; 2, Wm. Wordsworth; 4, Longfellow; 8, Washington Irving; 13, George Herbert; 17, Joseph Addison; 18, Edmund Spenser; 21, Prescott; 23, Wm. Shakspere; 26, John Milton. Address Phillips & Hunt.
