Kansas (Osage City).—Our circle was organized last October with twelve members, who were the teachers of the public schools. Soon afterward five more were added, and several local members. We meet every Friday evening at our respective homes. We open the meeting with roll call, which is responded to by a quotation from each member. We then have the different branches, conducted by a leader or teacher, appointed the preceding meeting—a social class, where discussions, expression of opinions, as well as questions are in order. We have enjoyed all the reading and meetings. We have enjoyed all the reading and meetings, and they have proved most profitable and interesting.
Utah (Salt Lake City).—We have organized a Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle in our city, with a membership of twelve.
California (Sacramento).—The only local circle in our city, the beautiful capital of the State, is the Sacramento Circle, numbering thirty-four members, principally ladies. This is our third year, and our interest is still increasing. We meet every Monday evening at the home of some member, and twenty is our average attendance. Contrary to the expectation of some, we all found the “Preparatory Greek Course” wonderfully interesting. Packard’s “Geology,” illustrated by the charts, aroused our enthusiasm on that subject, while Warren’s “Astronomy” has given us fresh zeal in the glorious study of the heavens. Our method for work is as follows: Committees are appointed to arrange questions on each study. These are numbered and distributed at one meeting, and, with their answers, are read at the next, then placed in the hands of another member, who prepares a paper from them, with such additional data as may be obtained from other sources. This third reading is to the students a final review of the subject, and is particularly profitable to the compiler. Sixteen papers have been read before the circle since October last. Oral exercises consist of readings from The Chautauquan, the poetic quotations, and unusually fine passages which frequently occur in our studies. To the text-books we endeavor to give due attention, memorizing as much as possible. A critic appointed for each month, reports all errors in pronunciation at the close of the evening, and there is usually some time for conversational discussion. Our only public entertainment, as yet, this year, was a highly interesting and instructive lecture on “The History of a Dead World,” by Prof. H. B. Norton, of the State Normal School, San Jose, California. The lecture was a study and illustration of those phenomena which seem to teach the nebular hypothesis of creation. All the successive phases of development, including the nebulæ, stars and sun, planets, and finally the moon, the “dead world,” were illustrated and described. The lecturer’s novel description of a “lunar day” was such as to charm the large audience present, and he closed with an appropriate recitation, “A Flight Through Space,” by Jean Paul Richter. Having just completed the astronomy, the illustrations, and explicit information given throughout the lecture, were doubly appreciated. The C. L. S. C. has also been brought into prominence here by two recent lectures by Rev. H. H. Rice, on “Books and Reading,” with special reference to the Chautauqua course.
Sandwich Islands (Honolulu).—We wish to express the very great pleasure and profit with which we have perused the Chautauqua studies during our last missionary voyage. It seems to have been the very thing necessary to fill some of the spare hours at sea with pleasure and profit. We call ourselves “The Floating Circle,” and are often joined by our missionary passengers. We desire to continue these interesting and instructive readings. Miss Jennie Fletcher, at the Island of Ponape, in the Caroline Group, is a missionary of the A. B. C. F. M. She desires to commence the studies for 1883, and to prosecute the four years’ course, promising to give the required hours of study, and expecting to give even more time to it.
Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts; and thus those who, after having made the sketch, still add to it, make a picture instead of a portrait.—Pascal.