And win to wisdom all who will be won!
Still looking upward for the one Sure Light,
True, loyal Pansies, turning to the Sun!
It is a great pleasure to hear from circles who have been steady workers for some time, but have never sent us reports. Such a bit of circle-history comes to us from Rootstown, Ohio. A friend writes: “We organized a circle October, 1882, with a membership of twenty, and surely a good report is due the circle for the two years’ work they have done. The benefit received has been many fold, the discipline obtained by having a certain course of reading to pursue has already been perceptibly felt. A taste for the better class of reading has been cultivated, and a feeling of sociability gained among the young people, brought about by common interests. As we are ready to start in with our third year’s reading, all our former members will not respond at roll-call. During last year, we, as a class, were very much bereaved by the loss of our former president, Mrs. H. O. Reed, who was untiring in her efforts to organize the circle here, and who happily presided over our meeting for the first year, always entertaining the class at her own home. She was the first of our number to pass through the ‘Golden Gate’ at Chautauqua, graduating August 1883. The following December, on Christmas day, her spirit passed through the ‘Golden Gate’ to join the great ‘Circle’ of the redeemed above. We have been so fortunate as to have three clergymen belonging to our order, one, who graduated with the class of ’84. Our regular meetings have been opened with singing, prayer, and scripture reading. The specified memorial meetings have generally been observed. The programs have been arranged by a committee, and have consisted of roll-call, responded to by quotations from authors specified, followed by articles prepared on topics connected with the subjects we were reading, after which a poem was generally read. The last hour we have devoted to miscellaneous topics and the questions in The Chautauquan. During the latter part of ’83 we had a Round-Table which we found very interesting.”
How many stories of wit and wisdom find their center at Chautauqua. One of the most entertaining we have seen comes from a member of the Detroit, Mich., local circle, Mr. G. F. Beasley, a lawyer of that city, and bears the title of “John Scroggin’s First Visit at Chautauqua.” It is a bright and real description of the first visit of a farmer and his sturdy boys and girls to Chautauqua, of their funny mistakes, their gradual appreciation of the “Idea,” and finally their complete metamorphosis into typical Chautauquans; for at last
Farmer Scroggins was delighted
When he saw, in one united,
Sport and culture for the millions such as he,
When he saw his children prying
Into things he rarely scanned;