New York (Angola).—A local circle was organized here February 5, 1883, and consists of eighteen members. We usually do the reading in The Chautauquan at our meetings, information being given, and questions asked by all. We have made use of the questions and answers in The Chautauquan, and found them to be of much assistance. Occasionally topics are assigned, upon which we are to read or speak at the next meeting. Criticism upon pronunciation is unsparingly given to all. We intend to continue our meetings, and hope that another year may bring us a larger membership.
Pennsylvania (Allegheny City).—In November, 1882, the Woodlawn segment of the C. L. S. C. was organized and officers elected. The president having drawn up a constitution, it was read and unanimously adopted. Our constitution regulates the manner of conducting the society, prescribes parliamentary rules, etc. During our study of geology, we were favored with an interesting and instructive lecture by A. M. Martin, Esq., General Secretary of the C. L. S. C. Our membership now consists of seventeen persons, six being ladies.
Pennsylvania (Gillmor).—Our circle owes its being to the earnest, persistent efforts of two or three persons who had read one year alone. The first meeting was held October 24, 1882, and the circle organized with fifteen members. We labor under some peculiar difficulties. Our members represent several little villages, and are so scattered that it is some times hard to get together. Then we are in the oil country where people stay rather than live, so they gather around them only such things as are needful for comfortable living. The majority have but few books of reference, or other helps to study. Our meetings were opened with prayer and the singing of a Chautauqua song, and sometimes repeating the Chautauqua mottoes, any items of business being attended to before beginning the regular work of the circle. Before closing members were appointed by the president to conduct the various exercises in the succeeding meeting. In the latter part of the winter the president proposed a course of lectures. It was a decided success. Our lecturers were J. T. Edwards, D.D., Randolph, N. Y.—subject: “Oratory and Eloquence;” D. W. C. Huntington, Bradford, Pa., “Rambles in Europe;” C. W. Winchester, Buffalo, N. Y., “Eight Wonders of the World.” This course closed with a home entertainment, consisting of vocal and instrumental music, readings, essays, etc., mostly by members of the circle. Our number is at present nineteen, and we are happy to have proved those to be false prophets who predicted that three months would be the limit of our existence.
District of Columbia (Washington).—The Parker Circle has been reorganized for the course of 1883-84. Several new members were received, and the circle now numbers about thirty-six. On Tuesday evening, the 18th, Dr. Dobson, our president, will organize a new circle in another part of the city, beginning with a dozen members. Foundry Circle reorganizes the same night, and several new circles will be organized during the fall. There is considerable interest manifested in the course.
Maryland (Baltimore).—The Class of 1887 was organized on Thursday evening, September 20, at the Young Men’s Christian Association Hall. The membership for the coming year will be about thirty. The officers constitute the committee on instruction. The class of the past year, the fourth since its organization, was one of the best; the method adopted was that of the question box; each member placing such questions of interest in the box as he had met with in his reading. The director, Prof. J. Rendell Harris, would read the questions one at a time, and open the discussion upon them, in which all joined. Two meetings each month from October to June were held, and the entire time spent on the three books, the rest of the books being used for home reading only. This plan was considered preferable to the study of two or three at one time. The outlook for the new class is good.