Upon this point I should be glad to have testimony or suggestions from any person who has had experience in that line. We all feel that this work should be done. We understand the embarrassments which prevent this extension. Yet, by comparing notes one with the other, we may be able to overcome the embarrassments. I should be glad this afternoon to hear from a number in answer to this question: “How can we organize new circles in localities that do not have them now?”
A voice: It seems to me, sir, if we would invite from the locality in which we want to introduce a circle, one or two persons to visit our own circle and see the work we are doing, we might thus incite and be enabled to form a circle, taking the one or two members whom we have invited as the nucleus.
Mr. Gillet: I think this is a very valuable suggestion.
Rev. W. D. Bridge: Make use of C. L. S. C. stationery.
A voice: I suggest this: Write an article for the local paper explaining the objects and operations of the Circle, and appoint a time and a place for all persons who have read the paper to meet and talk it over.
Mr. Gillet: It is surprising to find out how many editors there are who know nothing about the C. L. S. C. It is a good plan to post them, especially local editors. Introduce them to the little green book, and get them to read it through, or ask them to listen while you read it to them. Any other suggestions?
I will say in that connection that a plan was organized or developed last year in what is known as the correspondence committee. I had hoped that I should be able to have a report from the correspondence committee of the Society of the Hall in the Grove. A plan was organized before leaving Chautauqua, concerning the way in which these articles for the papers should be written. The members of the committee wrote articles for the local papers, and corresponded with persons in different parts of the territory which they represented. As a result several new local circles were formed, and a good many were induced to become members of the circle.
A voice: I live in a little town of about one thousand inhabitants. We had already organized a reading circle composed of judges, clerks, merchants, mechanics, business men, and women. We were thinking of taking the course of the C. L. S. C. We shall have no difficulty in getting persons to come for the purpose of organization. I would like to know how we should proceed after we have gotten our people together. How would you organize and conduct a local circle?
Mr. Gillet: The question has been asked several times during the Assembly, and has been answered by numerous testimonies from persons who are managers of local circles. The best way is the simplest, appointing as few officers as possible, having some one who will be responsible as conductor or leader of the circle, and then put as much enthusiasm and life into the organization as possible. The local circle organizations vary almost as widely as the different places in which the circles are organized. The organizations depend on the number, the plans, and the dispositions of the persons who belong to the circle. There are parlor circles, church circles, union circles. Miss Kimball will be able to answer at the office any specific question.
Rev. Mr. Pardoe: I believe that local circles will organize themselves, if the people understand the nature and the methods of our C. L. S. C. work. There is a gentleman in New York City who has a business engagement with about two thousand of the leading weekly papers of this country, and he proposes to insert an advertisement of any kind in the two thousand weekly papers at a very low rate. I think it would be a very wise thing for the parent organization at Plainfield to make a contract with this gentleman, and throw the whole nature, methods, objects and intentions of the C. L. S. C. work over the United States at one bound.