Massachusetts (Saxonville).—A local circle of the C. L. S. C. was organized in Saxonville, Monday evening, October 16. We have six local members, and we hope to add many more to our list. Our method of conducting our meetings, which we hold once in two weeks, is as follows: Each member is requested to bring in six or more questions covering points of difficulty met with in his or her reading; these questions to constitute a question drawer to be conducted by the Committee of Instruction; by the time these questions are answered the required reading has been pretty thoroughly gone over and picked to pieces.
Rhode Island (Providence).—Wayland Branch of the C. L. S. C. was organized in October, 1882, and has a membership of sixteen, thirteen of whom belong to the general circle and all of the Class of ’86. The president appoints a committee of three to prepare the programme for the succeeding meeting, and the exercises, like those of many other local circles, consist of questions in The Chautauquan, or prepared, short essays, abstracts and readings. We were very much interested in Dr. Vincent’s “How to Conduct Local Circles,” given in the February Chautauquan. Glad to read his approval of small circles. We are few in number, but to express it as he does, we “take to” each other, and spend our time very pleasantly and profitably.
Connecticut (East Lyme).—We, the Pleiades Circle, are enjoying our third year. Are quite few in numbers but great in zeal. We have a membership of twelve, seven of whom are members of the national class. Our practice has been to read and discuss the lesson assigned for the evening, always including a portion of questions and answers from The Chautauquan, but we have now adopted the admirable plan suggested by Dr. Vincent, viz: the reading aloud by one of the members of a page or two of the required reading, the others listening; then each one in turn repeating all he or she remembers of what has been read, and that, we were surprised to find, would be nearly every thing of importance. We think it an excellent discipline for our minds to learn to listen attentively, and when this habit is acquired it is surprising to see how much the mind readily retains. We have tried many plans, but none that pleases and benefits us like this, and we heartily recommend it to all Chautauquans. One of our rules is, for each member to come prepared to state some important fact, either relative to the lesson or not; these are stated the last thing before the meeting closes. We probably shall never be able to report any great increase in numbers, as our village is small and not a growing one, but we are fully conscious that our individual improvement does not depend upon the greatness of numbers, and so we struggle on, realizing a continued improvement of our minds, and a constant pleasure derived from our labors.
New York (Silver Creek).—A local circle was organized here in October, 1882, and we now have twenty-two members. We have a very good attendance each evening. All seem very much interested, and the interest seems to increase at each meeting. Our reading is done at home, and we meet to review, recite, suggest, and encourage each other.
New York (Brooklyn).—The first meeting of this circle was held Thursday evening, October 19, 1882, in the chapel of the New York Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. There were thirty-two persons present. Our circle meets on the first and third Thursday evenings of each month, in the chapel of the church mentioned. The C. L. S. C. is not confined to the New York Avenue Church, but is representative of at least seven different churches. We have now seventy-five members, besides a large transient attendance. Great interest has been expressed throughout. One large addition to our numbers—some ten names—comes from the union of the Bedford local circle with ours.