MOUNTAIN LAKE PARK, MARYLAND.
Beautiful for situation in one of the many lovely glades of the Alleghenies, nearly 3,000 feet above the sea, in the very midst of grand and imposing mountain scenery, and where the freshness and crispness of the air itself gives inspiration, Mountain Lake Park, Garrett Co., Maryland, although but in the third year of its existence, owing to the facility with which it is reached from the Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic slope, and to its increasing celebrity as a delightful and healthful summer resort, already numbers about eighty cottages and four or five hotels or boarding houses, which in the height of the season are inadequate to accommodate the guests who desire to avail themselves of its many advantages. The Mountain Lake Park Assembly commenced its second annual meeting here on August 14th, under the most favorable auspices. The lecture course was an unusually brilliant one. The names of Revs. D. H. Muller, D.D., of Cleveland, Ohio, Washington Gladden, D.D., of Columbus, Ohio, Jesse Bowman Young, A. M., Philadelphia, Penn., J. B. Van Meter, D.D., Baltimore, Md., Prof. Charles J. Little, Ph.D., State Librarian of Pa., and others are themselves a sufficient assurance of the very high character of the literary feast provided for the deeply interested and discriminating audiences who daily listened to them. The Chautauqua Sunday-school Normal Course was one of the marked features of interest during the Assembly, the instructors being Rev. J. T. Judd, Lewisburg, Pa., president of the Assembly, Prof. J. B. Young, Philadelphia, Rev. Wm. M. Frysinger, Baltimore, and Prof. W. A. Lindsay, Carlisle, Pa. After passing a written examination, diplomas of the C. T. U. were granted to Rev. L. E. Peters, Clarksburg, W. Va., Dr. Robert W. Armstrong and Miss Laura Rice, of Baltimore, Maryland. Thursday, August 28, was C. L. S. C. day. The members of the circle, the officers of the Assembly, and the president and directors of Mountain Lake Park Association assembled at 11 a. m., at a designated place in the grove. The marshal of the day, C. O’Brien Mettee, Esq., of Baltimore, formed the line of procession, which was headed by a number of little girls bearing flowers to strew the path of the graduate, Mrs. A. C. Rodgers, of Baltimore, who followed immediately with her escort of four maids of honor. The officers of the Assembly and of the Association, with the members of the circle, and other Chautauquans present, each wearing a sprig of golden rod as a badge, brought up the rear of the line. While marching from the Grove to the Auditorium the procession united in singing Chautauqua Hymn No. 1, “We gather here a pilgrim band,” after which, while the members and invited guests took the seats reserved for them, Rev. Jesse B. Young, A. M., made the Commencement address, after which all joined in the responsive service appropriate to the second motto, “Let us keep our heavenly Father in the midst,” and in the Chautauqua Hymn of Greeting. The president of the Mountain Lake Park Association, Rev. Dr. J. B. Van Meter, of Baltimore, made the salutatory address, Rev. C. W. Baldwin, of Cumberland, Md., offered a few words, and President Judd then made a brief but eloquent and suggestive address, concluding with the presentation of the Chautauqua diploma to the graduate, Mrs. A. C. Rodgers, of Baltimore. At a meeting of the circle on August 29, a unanimous vote of thanks was tendered to President Judd, “for the able and kindly manner in which he had presided over its sessions and in various ways furthered its interests.” The secretary was instructed to furnish a copy of his report to The Chautauquan for publication. The closing meeting of the Assembly was held at night, followed by a general illumination, camp-fire, corn-roast, stump speeches, and a general hand-shake good-bye. Rev. J. T. Judd was unanimously reëlected as president for the ensuing year, and Dr. Robert W. Armstrong, of Baltimore, was elected secretary, in place of Miss Jennie Jones, resigned. Between twenty and thirty new members were added to the circle.