MONTEAGLE, TENNESSEE.
Monteagle is about midway between the east and the west ends of Tennessee, on the south side. It is about 2,400 feet above the sea. The Assembly grounds are on the top of a plateau, and comprise about three hundred and fifty acres. On one side they are bounded by a precipitous bluff which goes straight down nearly a thousand feet. Monteagle is two years old. They have their Amphitheater, and they have a Hall of Philosophy, the pillars being the natural trunks of trees. There was present there this summer a mass of representatives from the Southern States. Electricity seemed to be in the air, and they gave salutes in a manner never excelled. On C. L. S. C. day Rev. Frank Russell delivered an address showing the design of the great Circle. In Mr. Russell’s report at Chautauqua of the work done there he gives a pleasant description of the decorations, the gate and arches. “The Hall of Philosophy was not quite completed. The arrangement of the arches and the gate was a little crude. I visited the spot some time Saturday morning, and directed the carpenters how to make the gate. I regretted that it was not a golden gate, and that there was no time to gild it. The ladies said they would fix that. They took the ‘golden rod,’ which grows so profusely all around there, and when we went there in the afternoon in the mixed procession for the graduating class of ’84, the gate was upholstered and really quilted in golden rod. It was a golden gate. We had the complete procession, and the children with the flowers. The diplomas were given and the Hall was dedicated.” One thing must be especially interesting to the C. L. S. C. there, and that is that the Assembly at Monteagle was not put to a dollar of expense for the building or any of the lectures before the C. L. S. C. They collected the money themselves, and their treasurer disposed of it. When they completed the Hall of Philosophy there was a little money left in the treasury. In the evening they had a camp-fire at the end of the Hall. It was a beautiful cone of flame which stood until it was all consumed. The speeches were of a high character, without preparation, thoroughly spontaneous.