There is a great deal due to the president of a circle. An energetic president will make a live circle. We do not wonder that at Pendleton, Ind., the membership has increased twenty-five per cent., and that there was never such a manifestation of zeal and determination. Their president, Dr. A. S. Huston, puts life and skill into whatever he does. We hope to receive an extended report from Pendleton in the year.
No more systematic plan of work has come to our notice this year than that which we have received from the Alpha circle of Quincy, Ill. This circle began its fall’s work by celebrating Garfield’s day; again on opening day, October 1, they met, elected officers and received new members. The circle, when reorganized, numbered about twenty-four members. They seem to have all the necessary elements for success—a large and live membership and an energetic president, of whom they write: “He is nothing less than a living library.” Their meetings are held each week. The weekly printed program cards contain the mottoes, the outline of study for each week, and the exercises which are arranged for each evening. We notice that they made the experiments in chemistry, and they write us that they had splendid success with them. The exercises are enlivened by music, and the Chautauqua songs stand prominent. The plan recommended in The Chautauquan for October—a pronouncing match on Greek names—was one of the features of a joint meeting of the Alpha and Beta circles on the last week of October; they write that it was hugely enjoyed. In order to help the participants in this “match” the back of the programs contained a key compiled for the Quincy circles, on how to pronounce classic names, giving rules for accent, syllabication, and sounds of the letters.
A friend who caught her inspiration for the C. L. S. C. work at Chautauqua itself, and who has induced several members to join the ranks, writes us of a new circle of eighteen members at Tonica, Ill. An excellent feature of this circle is that though three of its members are to graduate in ’86, while the remainder are all new members, yet there is a delightful spirit of unity in the work. All doing the same reading irrespective of class distinctions, makes the local circle possible, and promotes a fund of good feeling and coöperative study, otherwise impossible. The circle at Tonica has only just started, and, of course, as yet has no plan of work to report. No doubt, as is generally the case with our Illinois friends, they will soon send us accounts of happy plans and successful work.
The reports which Marshalltown, Iowa, send are frequent and always encouraging. The president writes: “Our circle would like to let the rest of the Chautauqua world know that we are still engaged in the good work. The ‘Alden’ circle, which met last year as two divisions of the same circle, this year adds twenty or more names to the class of ’88, and has organized as two separate circles. The evening circle retains the name of Alden. The new circle (formerly the afternoon division) has adopted the name of ‘Vincent,’ and has twenty-eight names recorded. The old members are glad vacation is over and the new ones take up the work with enthusiasm. October 14 the two circles celebrated the beginning of a new Chautauqua year by a grand banquet, which passed off very pleasantly.”
It is of great value to the C. L. S. C. to have the support of the local press. In no other way can so much and so effective work be done. A circle which lacks the will to extend its boundaries, and which selfishly is content with “our set,” can not reap the full benefit of our work. We need to take in others, to be always open to receive members, and to employ the best means to make ourselves and our hospitality known. The local paper is the best medium for this. Many of our friends have proven this so, among them the Chautauquans of De Soto, Mo., who send newspaper announcements of two meetings recently held, giving their program and entertainments, and cordially inviting others to join them. The effect can not but be good. The program which they offer recommends itself to every reader as meaning serious study and genuine culture, and the hearty summons to come and join them proves a catholicity of spirit even more desirable than culture.
In the neighboring state of Kansas, at Williamsburg, the circle has followed a similar plan. They publish in their local papers a review of the extent of the C. L. S. C. work, describe its methods, and then call attention to their own goodly company of forty members, who are all anxious to receive cordially any one who may desire to undertake the reading. The Williamsburg circle holds monthly public meetings and does the work of the month through the medium of sub-circles, which meet more frequently—a plan which in several large circles we have known to work admirably.
The Invincibles who make up the Longfellow circle of New Orleans, La., entered upon their four years’ work in October. A friend has kindly given us an account of the work the members did during the summer months: “The summer circle was very pleasant; the C. L. S. C. studies not extending through the summer months, they were thrown on their own resources for a program. They read regularly from Emerson and Ruskin, also extracts from Hamerton’s, ‘Intellectual Life,’ Carlyle, and Dr. Holland, with a bit of poetry now and then. You see they are not starving, but eating ‘strong meat.’ In October the circle began the regular readings. Now, when you remember that though our thermometer runs along in the nineties for weeks at a time, and that though floods, epidemics and musquitoes interfere with steady work, these people have gone bravely through three years, and have done thorough work, you will not wonder that I am proud of my children.”
Wyoming Territory sends notice of a new organization of the C. L. S. C. at Evanston, called the “Unita Local Circle.” The circle was started October 7, and officers—two only, president and secretary—were elected. The spirit of the circle they sum up in the following concise and suggestive sentences: “Enthusiastic devotion to the ‘Chautauqua Idea.’ Plain informal meetings for mutual questionings, recitations to each other, map studies, and practical application of new truths taught, as per example, ‘Resolved, to try every method given for cooking the potato.’”