Members of the C. L. S. C. class of 1883, read up—read up—fill out your blanks and send them in to Miss Kimball in good season, that your diplomas may be made out and ready on the 18th day of August, which will be C. L. S. C. Commencement Day at Chautauqua.
We are to lose two more old buildings. In Philadelphia, the house where Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence must make room for a new and finer building. In London, “The Cock,” a tavern famous since the times of James I., among litterateurs, is to be destroyed. Our shining, expensive monuments, are fine things for the parks, no doubt; but it does seem that those places made dear to us by the lives and works of the great should be preserved before we strain to build superfine marble statues. These grand memorials, when built at the expense of places which should be sacred to us, are little more than monuments of our worship of finery and show.
May festivals are becoming as common as May flowers. The Handel and Haydn Society, of Boston, closed their sixth triennial festival on the 6th of May. Pittsburgh had hers. Cincinnati showed that she had an eye to business in her immense dramatic festival. However this festival may be criticised, the friends of the legitimate drama have reason to rejoice over the real merit that was displayed. A collection of first-class talent will always raise the standard, and there is a wonderful need of the dramatic standard being raised.
Prof. Lalande writes us that he will be pleased to give any information concerning the French department to any one writing him. After the 15th of June his address will be Indiana Cottage, Chautauqua, N. Y.
A new American Art Union has recently been formed in New York City. It includes men of various schools—the design being to favor no style or method, but to form a union out of the best men of all schools. A feature will be the “rotary” exhibitions, the first of which takes place in Buffalo in June. Besides, there will be a permanent New York gallery established, and an art journal.