A new circle called “Washington Heights” is reported from New York City.
At Bethel, N. Y., they started off last October with thirty members, while from Buffalo, same state, a friend writes: “We have a wide awake circle here, the membership of which has increased from six to twenty since October 1st, when the circle was organized.” This circle has found “review evenings” of great service to them. After finishing a subject they devote one evening to a review, securing a leader competent to answer all their questions and settle their disputes; thus for the review of Biology they secured Dr. Kellicott, of the Buffalo Normal School, who kindly answered all questions, and with the aid of his microscopes, explained much that before had been obscure.
From Lisle, N. Y., we have word of a circle of nine.
North East, Pa., has a newly organized circle, among whom are several yearly visitors at Chautauqua; Newville, of the same state, reports a flourishing circle of nine members; from the class of ’87 in Allegheny, Pa., we have received the program of the services held by them on February 10, special Sunday. It is particularly good. This circle is following one plan which deserves more attention from all circles. They are giving a good deal of attention to singing the Chautauqua songs, devoting a portion of each evening to practice.
Plainfield, N. J., the place which enjoys the honor of being “the headquarters of the C. L. S. C.,” was without a local circle for several years, though many individual readers have pursued the course. Last fall the Rev. Dr. J. L. Hurlbut invited those who wished to form a local circle to meet at his residence. The result was a houseful of people, and a circle which has met fortnightly since, and now numbers forty-five members. A friend writes us from there: “We allow no ‘associate members’ (persons not connected with the general C. L. S. C.) and none who will not attend regularly and take active part. For every meeting Dr. Hurlbut prepares a program of fifteen topics selected from the fortnight’s reading, and assigned to the various members. The program is printed by the ‘hectographic process,’ and distributed to all the members at the meeting in advance of its date. We take a recess in the middle of the evening’s exercises for social enjoyment and conversation, and afterward generally listen to a vocal or instrumental solo, and a reading from one of the members. At the close of the evening the critic dispenses his delicate attentions, his motto being ‘with malice toward all, and charity toward none.’ On Sunday evening, February 10, we held the Chautauqua Vesper Service in one of the largest churches, filled with an audience which participated in the responses. We regard our relation to the C. L. S. C. as among the most pleasant, and our circle as one of the best in the land.”
Camden, N. J., has also recently formed the “Bradway Circle” of thirty-two members. This circle has a novel way of managing its session, which may furnish a suggestion to some one wanting a new idea. After their general exercises and transaction of business they separate into two classes for the study of some subject selected at the previous meeting by the members of the class. After devoting about half an hour to the separate classes, they again unite into one general class for the discussion of some topic.
We are very glad to welcome into our midst two new circles from the South, one at Salem, N. C., of thirty-eight members, and another at Atlanta, Ga. At the January meeting of the Salem circle the exercises were on “Germany,” and as most of the members understand the language of that country, part of the exercises were in German. A very pleasant feature of their program was an account of the customs, traits and people of the country as they appeared to one of the members who had lately traveled through that land.
Our space forbids our giving long accounts of the new circles in the West. In Illinois there is a new class of thirteen at Janesville, and another at Jacksonville, a place famous among its neighbors as “the Athens of the West.” It contains no less than five excellent institutions of learning, and yet they find a place for the C. L. S. C. At Litchfield, Mich., is another new circle, and from the college town of Appleton, Wis., the president writes: “It was considered impracticable at first, in view of college and other literary societies in the town, to start a C. L. S. C. These objections soon vanished. We have a most enthusiastic circle of thirty-eight members, including two college professors and wives, a physician, a clergyman and wife, and several graduates of this and other colleges.” Iowa reports three new circles. From Fairchild the secretary writes: “We have a most enthusiastic circle of twenty-five members. At our opening in October we thought one meeting a month sufficient, but as we warmed up we multiplied them by two, and last week we doubled them again, so that now we meet each week. You see this interest compounds more rapidly than that on most other investments.” If one still imagines that the C. L. S. C. is in any sense denominational in its tendency, let him read the experience of one of the members of the new class at Grundy Center, Ia.: “I had a little prejudice once against the course, as I thought that it would naturally run into Methodist channels; but I have outgrown that. As a matter of fact, of our fifteen enrolled members eight are Presbyterians and four Congregationalists; but as members of the C. L. S. C. we are entirely unconscious that we belong to any denomination.” At Belle Plaine, Ia., there is a circle of fifteen ladies; at Clarksville, Mo., one numbering fourteen. Kansas reports two new circles, one at Wyandotte, where in a month they increased from four members to twenty-one; and another of twenty members at Sabetha, including the professor of the high school, and the teachers in the community. York, Neb., has lately organized a circle of fifteen members.
