A second characteristic is—the program is practical. Every day is full of hints; every exercise is suggestive. As an illustration, no profession is attracting so much attention to-day as is journalism; a successful journalist is to discuss it. Such a subject will be of practical benefit to numbers of young men and women who will be listeners to Mr. Carroll. Practical Christian ethics and Christian work form prominent subjects; as, for example, the three days’ examination of “Parish Work in Cities,” by Edward Everett Hale, and the interesting meetings of the Society of Christian Ethics. The tours abroad, while they are so bright and entertaining, are brimful of suggestions. This summer is to be unusually rich, the time being given largely to Italy. One pleasing variety will be a tour around the world with Philip Phillips.
The special features of the summer will be strong. The Teachers’ Retreat, which begins its sessions in July, is arranged to do for teachers one peculiarly necessary work, to show them how to use the best methods, to lessen the friction which is incident to all school work. It is ably manned to produce this result, Prof. J. W. Dickinson, of the State Board of Education of Massachusetts, being at the head of the department of Pedagogy, and nearly a score of successful specialists assisting in expositions of their peculiar methods. The terms for the C. T. R. are very low.
Persons holding the $5 ticket of the Chautauqua Teachers’ Retreat will be entitled to the following privileges: All general exercises in the Amphitheater, including lectures, concerts, recitals, and entertainments, during the sessions of the Retreat; fourteen lessons in Pedagogy; fourteen lessons in Practical Application of Pedagogical Science; four Tourists’ Conferences; two Expositions of Method in Chemistry; one Exposition of Method in Penmanship; two Expositions of Method in Elocution; one Exposition of Method in Phonography; one Exposition of Method in Stenographic Reporting; two admissions to each of the several classes in the Schools of Language; two lectures on School Methods by Prof. Edw. E. Smith, Superintendent of Schools, Syracuse, N. Y.; ten Half-hour Drills in School Calisthenics. Special classes are arranged as well for those who can find time to take in more than the full program, or who desire special instructions.
Each summer, since the idea of a summer school was conceived, there has been a steady growth in the opportunities given to students. The coming season keeps up the record for improvement. The C. S. L. stands preëminent among Chautauqua institutions. In its departments of Greek, Latin, Hebrew, English, French, German and Spanish, the practical benefit to be derived in six weeks is altogether inconceivable to those persons who are unacquainted with the teachers directing the studies, and with the methods used. To two or three features we would call particular attention—features which serve merely as samples of work being done daily in all classes. In the Anglo-Saxon room there is a class which studies “Hamlet” for four weeks, a series of lessons rich in illustrations and full of facts. A particular beauty of this class is the free discussion and analysis of character which Professor M’Clintock encourages.
Professors Worman and Lalande have many novel devices for fascinating their students. As interesting study as there was at Chautauqua last summer was the children’s hour in German, conducted by Professor Worman; as a lesson to teachers it was unsurpassed, as a drill for children it would teach them German if anything would. As for the French, the weekly lectures, the French receptions, and now this year, the “French table” which Professor Lalande has arranged for, are prominent features.
Not content with reading Latin, Professor Shumway proposes that his students talk it. For many students at Chautauqua last summer a tree became arbor, the forest silva, the shade umbra, the dead alive—a result, by the way, that very often is accomplished at Chautauqua. The successful introduction of a School of Microscopy was accomplished in 1884; 1885 will see the work enlarged. This department is under the direction of an able teacher, Professor Hall. His outfit for observation, and for preparing and mounting objects is most complete.
It is said that when the Egyptians moved the huge rocks which form the pyramids, musicians were stationed among the workmen, and every motion was made in time to music. Chancellor Vincent seems to have profited by this suggestion in preparing the Chautauqua program for 1885, for it is all set to music of the rarest kind. To begin with, the great organ is handled by a skillful master, Mr. I. V. Flagler. His series of recitals contain selections from the greatest masters. The chorus will be led by our old favorites, Professors Case and Sherwin. The Fisk Jubilees, the Meigs-Underhill Combination, a new quartette—the Schubert, of Chicago, vocalists with rare voices, and with a splendid repertoire—and Miss Dora Henninges, of Louisville, a superb mezzo-soprano, will complete the musical program for 1885.
These are but hints of what the six weeks’ session holds in store for visitors to Chautauqua this season. The entire program, with all its specialties, has been prepared with consummate care and with close regard for popular needs. The management has striven honestly to make Chautauqua a perfectly healthy place, with abundant social life, and with opportunities suited to the needs of all classes of people. The verdict of its thousands of visitors is that in the past they have succeeded. The outlook for 1885 declares that this year will be still more abundantly successful.