“I would like very much to Chautauqua to go;
It would certainly give me great joy;
But my duties are such that I linger at home:
I’ve a year-old Chautauqua boy.”
From Elkhorn, Wis.: One who sees through the lenses of the C. L. S. C., the Chautauqua University of the future, writes: “In 1904, A. D., I shall be fifty years old. At that time I hope to graduate at the Chautauqua University. This will give me just twenty-five years from the beginning of my course in 1876 to complete the work, and I intend to work diligently every year.”
From Massachusetts: “Language would be left a beggar if I were to tell you all that the C. L. S. C. has been to me. It has been a song and a poem, when life was beginning to read like prose. It has been sunshine on many a cloudy day. God bless our alma mater, and make her days long in the land.”
From New York: “When the history of the successful men and women of the next generation shall be written, may it be found that the members of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle of 1883 are among the number.”
From Santa Barbara, Cal., comes the greeting of Mrs. M. P. Austin, who prays that “the C. L. S. C. may do as much for others as it has done for me.”
From St. Paul, Minn., a graduate writes: “Although in middle life, I have rejoiced like a child at the prospect of graduating. My studies have been precious to me; and, although I have carried them on alone, the enthusiasm has never grown less. May I boast of the dozen recruits whom I have brought into the work, not for the name of it, but because I want everybody to be benefited as I have been. Saturday will find me in a white dress and blue ribbon, and I shall try to catch the spirit which ascends to our Father, and have something of the blessings which are invoked upon the graduates of that day. May his blessed spirit be with you, and may he be precious not only to them who believe, but to many who never before have called on his name.”
From Massachusetts a member writes: “I have heard this objection to the C. L. S. C., that it leads to neglect of Bible study. My personal experience has been that I never spent more time in Bible study or loved it more than during the past four years.”