GLIMPSES OF THE CHAUTAUQUA PROGRAM.
A part of our creed of late has come to be that we need change in summer. If our homes are in cities, we need it because we can not have there the requisites of good health—fresh air, pure water, quiet; if we live in the country, we want and need a change which will give us social advantages; if we are teachers or students, we want opportunities to see, to get new ideas, to observe new people and their customs. This theory of summer living makes the demand for summer resorts. It is rare, however, that any place offers with any degree of completeness health, society and opportunities. It is claimed for Chautauqua that all three may be found there; that it is, in short, an ideal summer resort, open to all classes of people. The outlook for Chautauqua in 1885 confirms this claim, and gives to its admirers most satisfactory glimpses of what is in store for them during the coming season.
Chautauqua is fortunate in having had candid, disinterested men examine its condition and management, and pronounce their verdict as to its healthfulness. One of the most critical examiners of public places in America, Hon. B. G. Northrup, made his visit to Chautauqua last summer a kind of inspection tour. He pried into every corner and cranny, and publicly denounced every abuse he found. With “courage indomitable,” the Chautauqua “powers that be” attacked the enemy, and “they are ours.” This summer there is no pestilential spot, not one vault nor cess-pool nor wet spot to poison the water and breed disease. The determination of the management to have perfect sanitary arrangement at any cost—even if all other improvements are abandoned—is producing a condition unparalleled. This result, and the means taken for its accomplishment, are worthy of close study by every visitor at Chautauqua, particularly by those who are property owners, or are interested in the government of towns.
Chautauqua is a safe resting place. But it is more. It is preëminently a social place. Its social life is as pure and wholesome and natural as the air and water. Simple, unaffected manners, free, kindly intercourse, characterize the daily life of the people. “How very democratic you are here,” said a visitor last year, “and I don’t see a particle of snobbishness.” And it is true. The simple reason, perhaps, is that Chautauqua brings out of every one the best in them. People literally live too high there for snobbishness. They can run out in the morning for their milk or bread or steak; they can carry their bundles or do their own washing, and the high, clear, mental atmosphere of the place forbids them minding who sees them at their duties, forbids any one who sees them feeling that the work is menial. This mental and social air is indeed one of the most exhilarating things about the place. You do live socially above your ordinary level—live so because it is “in the air.” You can not help it.
How wonderfully good health and good company contribute to making a good working place. Above all things else Chautauqua is that. Its pure air stirs your blood until you feel like working; its social life stimulates you; its opportunities are a constant temptation. Of course Chautauqua temptations begin with the platform. There are at least two features of the program for the platform of 1885 which deserve special attention. Of these the first is—it is timely. The questions which are interesting society are the questions it discusses. Note what a prominent place “Mormonism” holds. Miss Kate Field makes it the subject of two lectures: “The Mormon Creed” and the “Political and Social Crimes of Utah,” and Mr. W. L. Marshall takes up “Utah and the Mormon Question” in a third lecture. Temperance, our knottiest social problem, is elucidated by Miss Frances Willard in the “Evolution in the Temperance Reform,” by Mrs. Ellen Foster, by Hon. G. W. Bain, by a National Temperance Society Day, by temperance bands, by conventions, and by every attraction which Chancellor Vincent can devise and valiant Chautauqua temperance workers carry out. Missions, too, have a brave array of talent to plead their claim. The first four days of August are mission days, on which are discussed means of increasing interest and improving methods of evangelizing both foreign and home heathens, of raising funds, and of securing workers. One of the leading mission workers of 1885 will be the Rev. Wm. F. Johnson, of Allahabad, India. Mr. Johnson has been in the field nearly twenty years. He will fill the place this summer that Ram Chandra Bose and the Rev. Mr. Osborne filled in the missionary conferences of last year.
A second characteristic is—the program is practical. Every day is full of hints; every exercise is suggestive. As an illustration, no profession is attracting so much attention to-day as is journalism; a successful journalist is to discuss it. Such a subject will be of practical benefit to numbers of young men and women who will be listeners to Mr. Carroll. Practical Christian ethics and Christian work form prominent subjects; as, for example, the three days’ examination of “Parish Work in Cities,” by Edward Everett Hale, and the interesting meetings of the Society of Christian Ethics. The tours abroad, while they are so bright and entertaining, are brimful of suggestions. This summer is to be unusually rich, the time being given largely to Italy. One pleasing variety will be a tour around the world with Philip Phillips.
The special features of the summer will be strong. The Teachers’ Retreat, which begins its sessions in July, is arranged to do for teachers one peculiarly necessary work, to show them how to use the best methods, to lessen the friction which is incident to all school work. It is ably manned to produce this result, Prof. J. W. Dickinson, of the State Board of Education of Massachusetts, being at the head of the department of Pedagogy, and nearly a score of successful specialists assisting in expositions of their peculiar methods. The terms for the C. T. R. are very low.
Persons holding the $5 ticket of the Chautauqua Teachers’ Retreat will be entitled to the following privileges: All general exercises in the Amphitheater, including lectures, concerts, recitals, and entertainments, during the sessions of the Retreat; fourteen lessons in Pedagogy; fourteen lessons in Practical Application of Pedagogical Science; four Tourists’ Conferences; two Expositions of Method in Chemistry; one Exposition of Method in Penmanship; two Expositions of Method in Elocution; one Exposition of Method in Phonography; one Exposition of Method in Stenographic Reporting; two admissions to each of the several classes in the Schools of Language; two lectures on School Methods by Prof. Edw. E. Smith, Superintendent of Schools, Syracuse, N. Y.; ten Half-hour Drills in School Calisthenics. Special classes are arranged as well for those who can find time to take in more than the full program, or who desire special instructions.
Each summer, since the idea of a summer school was conceived, there has been a steady growth in the opportunities given to students. The coming season keeps up the record for improvement. The C. S. L. stands preëminent among Chautauqua institutions. In its departments of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, English, French, German and Spanish, the practical benefit to be derived in six weeks is altogether inconceivable to those persons who are unacquainted with the teachers directing the studies, and with the methods used. To two or three features we would call particular attention—features which serve merely as samples of work being done daily in all classes. In the Anglo-Saxon room there is a class which studies “Hamlet” for four weeks, a series of lessons rich in illustrations and full of facts. A particular beauty of this class is the free discussion and analysis of character which Professor M’Clintock encourages.
Professors Worman and Lalande have many novel devices for fascinating their students. As interesting study as there was at Chautauqua last summer was the children’s hour in German, conducted by Professor Worman; as a lesson to teachers it was unsurpassed, as a drill for children it would teach them German if anything would. As for the French, the weekly lectures, the French receptions, and now this year, the “French table” which Professor Lalande has arranged for, are prominent features.
Not content with reading Latin, Professor Shumway proposes that his students talk it. For many students at Chautauqua last summer a tree became arbor, the forest silva, the shade umbra, the dead alive—a result, by the way, that very often is accomplished at Chautauqua. The successful introduction of a School of Microscopy was accomplished in 1884; 1885 will see the work enlarged. This department is under the direction of an able teacher, Professor Hall. His outfit for observation, and for preparing and mounting objects is most complete.
It is said that when the Egyptians moved the huge rocks which form the pyramids, musicians were stationed among the workmen, and every motion was made in time to music. Chancellor Vincent seems to have profited by this suggestion in preparing the Chautauqua program for 1885, for it is all set to music of the rarest kind. To begin with, the great organ is handled by a skillful master, Mr. I. V. Flagler. His series of recitals contain selections from the greatest masters. The chorus will be led by our old favorites, Professors Case and Sherwin. The Fisk Jubilees, the Meigs-Underhill Combination, a new quartette—the Schubert, of Chicago, vocalists with rare voices, and with a splendid repertoire—and Miss Dora Henninges, of Louisville, a superb mezzo-soprano, will complete the musical program for 1885.
These are but hints of what the six weeks’ session holds in store for visitors to Chautauqua this season. The entire program, with all its specialties, has been prepared with consummate care and with close regard for popular needs. The management has striven honestly to make Chautauqua a perfectly healthy place, with abundant social life, and with opportunities suited to the needs of all classes of people. The verdict of its thousands of visitors is that in the past they have succeeded. The outlook for 1885 declares that this year will be still more abundantly successful.