The Chautauquan has steadily grown in favor with the public from the time it was first issued. Our old subscribers continue with us, and new ones are being added to the list daily. We are now printing thirty-five thousand copies every month. This circulation is evidence in itself of the rapid growth of the C. L. S. C., and of an increasing demand among reading people for substantial literature. The future of The Chautauquan and the whole Chautauqua movement has never been so full of promise to those who are directing the work as it now is, as we enter the year 1884.
Sojourner Truth is dead. For more than half a century she has been a conspicuous figure, a negro woman, firmly advocating abolition and woman suffrage. Her musical bass voice was often used with tremendous effect in assemblies where she spoke for her favorite cause. Redeemed from slavery herself, she saw her children sold into bondage, but she lived to speak on the same platform with Garrison and Wendell Phillips for her cause, and at last to see her race enjoying freedom.
Two great religious celebrations marked the month of November. The anniversary of Martin Luther was observed by church people in all parts of the land, sermons and lectures made the air vocal with the praises of Luther and his deeds in behalf of spiritual Christianity. Our national Thanksgiving day was generally kept by a suspension of business, the holding of religious services, family gatherings and feasting. The observance of these two days indicates how strong a hold Christianity has upon the American people. Though God is not recognized in the Constitution of the United States, he is honored in a more practical way by being worshiped at the altars of his church, and in the hearts of his people.
Miss Frances E. Willard shows a degree of enterprise unequaled, in the naming of objects, when in her article elsewhere in this number she proposes to change the name of the world. She pays a fine compliment to the Pacific coast as a land of many charms, not the least of which are its elegant homes.
Lewis Miller, Esq., president of the Chautauqua Assembly and the C. L. S. C., has rendered an invaluable service to the Assembly by his wise counsel and unceasing labors ever since the death of Mr. A. K. Warren, last summer. It is expected that the trustees will elect a secretary to succeed Mr. Warren at their meeting in January.