CHAPTER IX
CHAUTAUQUA ALL THE YEAR
During those early years the Chautauqua sessions were strenuous weeks to both Miller and Vincent. Mr. Miller brought to Chautauqua for a number of seasons his normal class of young people from the Akron Sunday School, requiring them to attend the Chautauqua normal class and to take its examination. He acted also as Superintendent of the Assembly Sunday School, which was like organizing a new school of fifteen hundred members every Sunday, on account of the constant coming and going of students and teachers. But Mr. Miller's time and thoughts were so constantly taken up with secular details, leasing lots, cutting down trees, and setting up tents, settling disputes with lot holders and ticket holders, and a thousand and one business matters great and small—especially after successive purchases had more than doubled the territory of the Assembly,—that he was able to take part in but few of its exercises. One out of many perplexing situations may be taken as a specimen. In one purchase was included a small tract on the lake-shore outside the original camp ground, where some families from a distance had purchased holdings and built small cottages, being independent both of the camp-meeting and the Assembly. Some members of this colony claimed the right of way to go in and out of the Assembly at all times, Sundays as well as week-days, to attend lectures and classes without purchasing tickets. Others in the older parts of the ground under camp-meeting leases declared themselves beyond the jurisdiction of new rules made by the Assembly trustees. A strong party appeared demanding that the lot owners as a body should elect the trustees,—which meant that the future of a great and growing educational institution should be shaped not by a carefully selected Board under the guidance of two idealists,—one of whom was at the same time a practical businessman, a rare combination,—but by a gathering of lot-holders, not all of them intelligent, and the majority people who were keeping boarding-houses and were more eager for dollars than for culture. I remember a conversation with the proprietor of one of the largest boarding-houses who urged that the grounds be left open, with no gate-fees or tickets; but instead a ticket-booth at the entrance to each lecture-hall, so that people would be required to pay only for such lectures and entertainments as they chose to attend! I could name some Assemblies calling themselves Chautauquas, where this policy was pursued; and almost invariably one season or at most two seasons terminated their history.
Added to these and other perplexities was the ever-present question of finance. The rapid growth of the movement caused a requirement of funds far beyond the revenue of the Association. Its income came mainly from the gate-fees, to which was added a small tax upon each lot, and the concessions to store-keepers; for the prices obtained by the leasing of new lots must be held as a sinking fund to pay off the mortgages incurred in their purchase. There came also an imperative demand for a water-supply through an aqueduct, a sewer-system, and other sanitary arrangements made absolutely necessary by the increase of population. In those years Mr. Miller's purse was constantly opened to meet pressing needs, and his credit enabled the trustees to obtain loans and mortgages. But despite his multitudinous cares and burdens, no one ever saw Mr. Miller harassed or nervous. He was always unruffled, always pleasant, even smiling under the most trying conditions. His head was always clear, his insight into the needs not only of the time but of the future also was always sure, and his spinal column was strong enough to stand firm against the heaviest pressure. He knew instinctively when it was wise to conciliate, and when it was essential to be positive. The present generation of Chautauquans can never realize how great is their debt of gratitude to Lewis Miller. The inventor and manufacturer of harvesting machines at Akron and Canton, Ohio, busy at his desk for eleven months, found the Swiss Cottage beside Chautauqua Lake by no means a place of rest during his brief vacation.
Nor were the burdens upon the other Founder lighter than those of his associate. The two men talked and corresponded during the year regarding the coming program, but the selection, engagement, and arrangement of the speakers was mainly Dr. Vincent's part. At the same hour, often half a dozen meetings would be held, and care must be taken not to have them in conflict in their location and their speakers. Changes in the program must often be made suddenly after a telegram from some lecturer that he could not arrive on the morrow. New features must be introduced as the demand and the opportunity arose,—the Baptists, or Methodists, or Congregationalists, or Disciples desired a meeting, for which an hour and a place must be found. The only one who kept the list of the diversified assemblages was Dr. Vincent. He had no secretary in those days to sit at a desk in an office and represent the Superintendent of Instruction. His tent at the foot of the grounds was a stage whereon entrances and exits were constant. Moreover, the audience was apt to measure the importance of a lecture by the presence of Dr. Vincent as presiding officer or a substitute in his place introducing the speaker. The Vincent temperament was less even and placid than the Miller; and the Assembly of those early years generally closed with its Superintendent in a worn-out physical condition.
And it must not be forgotten that Dr. Vincent like his Associate Founder was a busy working man all the year. He was in charge of the Sunday School work in a great church, supervising Sunday Schools in Buenos Ayres, and Kiu-kiang, and Calcutta, as well as in Bangor and Seattle. At his desk in New York and Plainfield he was the editor of nine periodicals, aided by a small number of assistants. Several months of every year were spent in a visitation of Methodist Conference setting forth the work, and stirring up a greater interest in it. He was lecturing and preaching and taking part in conventions and institutes everywhere in the land. Chautauqua was only one of the many activities occupying his mind, his heart, and his time.
The Assembly of 1878, with the inauguration of the C. L. S. C., had been especially exhausting to Dr. Vincent. Imagine, if you can, his feelings when he found his desks in the office and the home piled high with letters concerning the new movement for Chautauqua readings all the year. He was simply overwhelmed by the demands, for everybody must have an immediate answer. Walking out one day, he met one of the teachers of the High School, told her of his difficulties, and asked her if she could suggest anyone who might relieve him. She thought a moment, and then said:
"I think I know a girl of unusual ability who can help you—Miss Kate Kimball, who was graduated from the High School last June, and I will send her to you."
She came, a tall young lady, only eighteen years old, with a pair of brown eyes peculiarly bright, and a manner retiring though self-possessed. Dr. Vincent mentioned some of the help that he required, but looked doubtfully at her, and said, "I am afraid that you are too young to undertake this work."
She answered, "I would like to try it; but if you find that I am not equal to it, I will not be offended to have it given to some other person. Let me see if I can help you even a little."
That was the introduction of Miss Kate Fisher Kimball to the work and care of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, of which she was the Executive Secretary until her death in 1917. She was born in 1860, at Orange, New Jersey, her father, Dr. Horace F. Kimball, being a dentist with office in New York. Young as she was, she at once showed rare abilities in administration. Under her vigorous and wise efforts, the C. L. S. C. was soon reduced to a system, the members were classified, the course was made orderly, circulars of various sorts were prepared and sent out to answer as many kinds of questions, and the calls from all over the nation, almost all over the world were met. Kate Kimball had a wonderful memory, as well as a systematic mind. Dr. Vincent would tell her in one sentence the answer to be sent to a letter, and twenty sentences in succession for twenty letters. She made no note, but remembered each one; would write to each correspondent a letter framed as it should be, with a clear statement, of just the right length, never getting the wrong answer on her pen. And if six months afterward, or six years, there came a letter requiring the same answer, she did not need to ask for information, but could send the right reply without consulting the letter-file. Thousands of correspondents who may never have met her will remember that signature, "K. F. Kimball," for they have been strengthened and inspired by letters signed with it.
I have heard more than one person say, "I want to go to Chautauqua, if it is only to become acquainted with K. F. Kimball."
Let me transcribe a few sentences written by Mr. Frank Chapin Bray, who as Editor of The Chautauquan Magazine, was for years in close relation with Miss Kimball.
Many will always think of her as a kind of Chautauqua Mother Superior. The details of the work of an Executive Secretary are not transcribable for they were multifarious drudgeries year after year which defy analysis. During thirty-five years she made them the means of transmitting a great idea as a dynamic force vital to hundreds of thousands of men and women the world around.
Next to the originating genius of John H. Vincent, the influence which made the Chautauqua Home Reading Course one of the mightiest educational forces of the nineteenth century was the tireless energy and the executive ability of Kate F. Kimball.
About 1912 she was suddenly taken with an illness, not deemed serious at the time, but later found to have been a slight paralytic shock. She was given a year's vacation from office work and spent most of it in England and on the continent. Some of her friends think that if she had absolutely abstained from work, she might have recovered her health; but while in England she visited nearly all its great cathedrals, and wrote a series of articles for The Chautauquan on "An English Cathedral Journey," afterward embodied in one of the best of the non-technical books on that subject. She returned to her desk, but not in her former vigor. Year by year her powers of thought and action declined, and she died June 17, 1917, in the fifty-seventh year of her age, leaving after her not only a precious memory but an abiding influence; for the plans initiated by her adaptive mind are still those effective in the shaping of the Chautauqua Circle.
Hall of the Christ
Entrance to the Hall of Philosophy
The course of reading for the first year was as follows: Green's Short History of the English People; with it the little hand-book by Dr. Vincent—Chautauqua Text-Book No. 4, Outline of English History; an arrangement by periods, enabling the reader to arrange the events in order; Chautauqua Text-Book No. 5, Outline of Greek History; Professor Mahaffy's Old Greek Life; Stopford Brooke's Primer of English Literature; Chautauqua Text-Book No. 2, Studies of the Stars; Dr. H. W. Warren's Recreations in Astronomy; J. Dorman Steele's Human Psychology; Dr. J. F. Hurst's, Outlines of Bible History, and The Word of God Opened, by Rev. Bradford K. Pierce. This included no less than eleven books, although four of them were the small Chautauqua textbooks, Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 6. All that was definitely required of the members was that they should sign a statement that these books had been read; but through the year a series of sheets was sent to each enrolled member, containing questions for examination, under the title "Outline Memoranda," in order not to alarm the unschooled reader by the terror of an examination. Moreover, the student was at liberty to search his books, consult any other works, and obtain assistance from all quarters in obtaining the answers to the questions. These questions were of two kinds, one requiring thought on the part of the reader, and not susceptible of answer at any given page of the book; such as: "Name the five persons whom you consider the greatest in the history of England, and the reasons for your choice," "Name what you regard as five of the most important events in English history," etc. There were some other questions, of which the answer might or might not be found in any books of the books of the course, but questions to make the reader search and enquire; such as: "What did King John say when he signed Magna Charta?" "With what words did Oliver Cromwell dismiss the Long Parliament?" "What were the last words of Admiral Nelson?" These questions brought difficulty, not only to readers, but to school-teachers, pastors, and librarians, to whom they were propounded by puzzled students. At one time I was reading of a convention of librarians, where one of the subjects discussed was, how to satisfy the hordes of Chautauquans everywhere, asking all sorts of curious questions. The veterans of that premier class of 1882 still remember the sheet of the Outline Memoranda prepared by Dr. Warren, on his book Recreations in Astronomy. There may have been a member or two who succeeded in answering them all, but their names do not appear on any record.
Not all those, who in an hour of enthusiasm under the spell of Dr. Vincent's address on that opening day, wrote their names as members of the C. L. S. C. persevered to the bitter end and won the diploma. Of the 8400 enrolled in the first class, only 1850 were "recognized" as graduates in 1882. Some of the delinquents afterward took heart of grace, and finished with later classes. But even those who fell out by the way gained something, perhaps gained an enduring impulse toward good reading. We frequently received word of those who had dropped the C. L. S. C. in order to obtain a preparation for college. Dr. Edward Everett Hale used to tell of a man whom he met on a railway train, who made a remark leading the doctor to say, "You talk like a Chautauquan—are you a member of the C. L. S. C.?" The man smiled and answered, "Well, I don't know whether I am or not. My wife is: she read the whole course, and has her diploma framed. I read only one book, and then gave up. But any institution that can lead a man to read Green's Short History of the English People, has done considerable for that man!"
As one by one the required books had been read by diligent members, there came urgent requests from many for the names of other books, on history, on sciences, and especially on the Bible. Dr. Vincent and his staff were compelled to look for the best books on special courses, supplementing the required course. By degrees almost a hundred of these courses were arranged, and have been pursued by multitudes. The one who read the regular course through four years was to receive a diploma; if he answered the questions of very simple "Outline Memoranda," his diploma was to bear one seal. If he took the stiffer "Outline Memoranda" described above, his diploma was to receive an additional seal for each year's work. Each special course was to have its own special seal. Any member who read the Bible through while pursuing the course, would have a gold crown seal upon his diploma. There were some elderly people who seemed to have nothing in the world to do, but to read special courses, fill out the memoranda, send for seals, and then demand another course on Crete or Kamchatka, or the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, until Miss Kimball, her helpers, and her literary friends were kept on the jump to find books on these various subjects. Hanging on the walls of C. L. S. C. classrooms at Chautauqua are diplomas illuminated with a hundred seals or more, sent to the class headquarters as memorials of diligent readers who have passed away.
The readers of these seal-courses become members of various "orders" of different rank. Those whose diplomas show four seals belong to the "Order of the White Seal," those who have seven seals, to the "League of the Round Table," and if they have fourteen seals or more, the "Guild of the Seven Seals." Each of these societies holds its annual reunion at Chautauqua, wears its own badge, and marches behind its own banner in the procession.
The reference to seals brings us to another feature of Chautauqua, and especially of the C. L. S. C., which attracted universal attention and led many thousands into the charmed circle,—those touches of poetry and sentiment, which no one but Dr. Vincent could have originated. There were the three mottoes of the C. L. S. C. always made prominent in its prospectus and announcements, "We Study the Word and the Works of God"; "Let Us Keep Our Heavenly Father in the Midst"; and "Never be Discouraged." The second of these sentences was spoken by the venerable Hebraist, Dr. Stephen H. Vail, as with tears upon his face he parted with Dr. Vincent, at the session of 1877, a year before the announcement of the C. L. S. C. There was for each class a name. The first class to take a name was that of '84, established in 1880. They were continually calling for class-meetings until Dr. Vincent in his announcements spoke of them as "those irrepressible eighty-fours!" Whereupon they promptly adopted as their name, "The Irrepressibles," and their example was followed by the other classes. The class of 1882 took the name, "The Pioneers." Classes are known as "The Vincent Class," "The Lewis Miller Class"—others are named after Shakespeare, Tennyson, Sidney Lanier, etc. The class graduating in 1892 commemorated the discovery of America four hundred years before, by the name "Columbia." Then, too, each class has its own flower, which its members seek to wear on the great days of the C. L. S. C.; but only the Pioneer class of 1882 proudly bears before it in procession a hatchet, and its members wear little hatchets as badges. Dr. Hale said that the reason why the Pioneers carry hatchets is that "they axe the way!" Each class has its own officers and trustees, and though all its members are never assembled, and can never meet each other, they maintain a strong bond of union through correspondence. There is the great silk banner of the Chautauqua Circle leading the procession on Recognition Day, followed by the classes from 1882 until the present, each class marching behind its banner. In the early days, until the Chautauqua grounds became crowded, there was an annual "Camp Fire," all the members in a great circle standing around a great bonfire at night singing songs and listening to short speeches. These are only a few of the social influences which make the C. L. S. C. more than merely a list of readers. It is a brotherhood, a family bound together by a common interest.
The opening day of the Chautauqua readings is October first. On that day at noon, the members of the circle living at Chautauqua and others in the adjacent towns meet at the Miller bell tower on the Point. As the clock sounds out the hour of twelve all present grasp a long rope connected with the bells and together pull it, over and over again, sounding forth the signal that the Chautauqua year has begun. It is said that every true Chautauquan the world over, from Mayville to Hong-Kong, can hear the sound of that bell and at the summons open their books for the year's reading.
In one of the earlier years we received at the office a letter from the wife of an army officer stationed among the Indians, and far from any settlement. She wrote that she was a hundred and twenty-five miles from any other white woman, and felt keenly her loneliness. But on the day when her bundle of C. L. S. C. books arrived, she clasped it to her bosom and wept tears of joy over it, for she felt that she was no longer alone, but one in a great company who were reading the same books and thinking the same thoughts and enjoying one fellowship.
In one of the early classes was a young lady who, soon after sending in her name, sailed for South Africa to become a teacher in a girl's boarding-school. One day in the following June, when it was in the depth of winter in South Africa,—for in south latitude our seasons are reversed; they have a saying at the Cape "as hot as Christmas"—she came to her classes arrayed in her very best apparel. The girls looked at her in surprise and asked "Is this your birthday?"
"No," she answered, "but it is the Commencement Day at Chautauqua in America, and everybody dresses up on that day!"
The thousands of readers in the Chautauqua fellowship naturally arranged themselves in two classes. About half of them were reading by themselves, individuals, each by himself or herself,—mostly herself, for at least three-fourths of the members were women, and their average age was about thirty years. The other half were united in groups, "local circles," as they were called. Some of these were community circles, people of one village or town, irrespective of church relations; other circles were connected with the churches. In those days before the Christian Endeavor Society, the Epworth League, and other nation-wide organizations had appropriated the interest of the young people, the Chautauqua Circle was the literary society in many churches.
I recall the testimony of a Methodist minister of those days, given to me when I met him at his conference in the Middle West.
When I was sent to my last church, I learned that there was a reading circle among its members, and I heard the news with some dismay, for in more than one place I had started a literary society and found that it was necessary for me to supply all the thought and labor to keep it in operation, to plan the course, to select people to write papers and persuade them to do it, to be ready to fill vacancies on the program. And as soon as I stopped supplying steam, the society was sure to come to a stand-still. But at this church I found a Chautauqua Circle that was taking care of itself. Its programs were provided, the members were reading a regular course and making their reports; they presided in turn at the meetings, and I was not called upon to take any part unless I desired it. Also in the prayer-meetings, I could soon recognize the members of the Circle by a touch of intelligence in their testimonies.
It is the opinion of the writer that if one could ascertain the history of the woman's clubs that now cover the country, and ascertain their origin, it would be found that nearly all of the older woman's clubs arose out of Chautauqua Circles whose members, after completing the prescribed course, took up civics or politics, or literature. It would be an interesting study to ascertain how far the General Federation of Women's Clubs of America was an outgrowth of the Chautauqua movement.
Congregational House
Fenton Memorial, Deaconess' House