Are not such friends of Chautauqua the prophecy of a time when the work shall encircle the earth? Each month brings signs of its growth. Particularly do we notice this month the spread of the work in Canada. The press is particularly friendly to the movement in the Provinces; for example, the Educational Weekly, of Toronto, quotes the Globe of that city as saying: “The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle is now pretty well known. It has been in operation since 1878, and has done a great deal of good. The yearly reunions at Chautauqua have come to be very pleasant and very profitable. We understand that a similar summer resort is to be instituted in Canada, in connection with the reading circles already established in the Dominion. We wish the enterprise all success.” Much of the interest in Toronto is undoubtedly due to the hearty work of Mr. E. Gurney, and Mr. Lewis Peake, president and secretary of the “Central” circle. This circle has recently had the pleasure of hearing a lecture on “Athenian Literature” from Professor Hutton, of the University College. London has also a very flourishing circle, dating from the fall of 1883, when it was organized with a membership of about forty. It is a most healthy sign of growth, when reorganization finds a circle larger than when it disbanded. The “Central” circle had this fortune. They began the present year with a membership of forty eight. Their plans have been most happy; the vesper services in the Chautauqua song books are used at every meeting, and quotations as responses to roll call; chemical experiments are performed for them by a professor of practical chemistry, who is a member of the circle, and their programs are full of variety. So important to them is their circle that they made Christmas the occasion of a special meeting, at which they used the Christmas vesper and praise service which appeared in The Chautauquan for December. The service was followed by an address and several entertaining exercises. This is exactly the work which enhances the value of the circle, both for the members and for the community. It raises a circle to the point where it becomes the medium through which all extra social occasions may be observed. It makes it not only a reading club, but a factor in the social, religious and intellectual life of a community.
At Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, we learn from a local paper, there is also an energetic circle. They have done good work in introducing the C. L. S. C. to the public, securing a notice of a public vesper service, an explanation of the work they are doing, mention of the circles in the vicinity, and following their information by announcing their next meeting with a cordial invitation to the public to be present.
In November last two new circles were formed in Maine. A “Pine Tree” circle, of twenty-seven members, coming from Dover and Foxcroft. These beautiful villages are closely connected by covered bridges—the Piscataquis river flowing between, though it is a hard matter for a stranger to see where one begins or the other ends, so much like one village are they. A friendly way to live, is it not? These classmates have evidently learned what Thackeray found out in London long ago—that “A man ought to like his neighbors, to be popular with his neighbors. It is a friendly heart that has plenty of friends.” But we all learn that in the C. L. S. C. The second is the “Simpson” circle at Auburn, where the Rev. G. D. Lindsay is president. Sixteen enthusiasts make up the circle which, so far, finds the work suggested in The Chautauquan sufficient for its needs.
One of the most interesting and prosperous, though not largest of Chautauqua circles, is the “Baketel” circle, at Greenland, N. H. It is named in honor of its founder and leader, Rev. O. S. Baketel, an old Chautauquan of the class of ’82. The organization is very simple. The leader prepares the program for each evening, and the members come promptly. No inflexible rule is adhered to, but as much variety given as possible. That the plan is most successful we know from a recent letter from a friend, in which he says of the work: “Our members vary in age from eighteen years to fifty-three, and none are more enthusiastic than the oldest ones. It makes one of the most interesting gatherings ever brought together in the community, and is furnishing help to some whose advantages in early life were very limited. Every member feels like exclaiming ‘All hail C. L. S. C.’”——The “Webster” C. L. S. C., of Franklin, N. H., is enjoying its second year of existence. A good interest was maintained throughout last year, and they began this year’s work promptly in October, with twenty-two active members. To them the dining room table has revealed its wonderful power to stimulate sociability and “good talk.” They have discovered its genial ways, how it will always stretch to make room for more and still more, and how it seems to be always saying: “Stretch out your arms; don’t mind just how you sit. I shield your position, I am here to help you all, to bring you close together, to hold your books, to forbid your parting, to compel you to be a circle.” Indeed, we are glad the “Webster” circle has learned the virtues of a dining room for study and for friendliness. Maybe if they but analyzed their devotion to their circle that stout, wooden friend would deserve not a little of the honor, and perhaps, too, it has helped not a little in bringing in the children, which, they write, are crowding into the Chautauqua work until the circle boasts even grandchildren.
The “Clio” club of twenty members at Newport, Vt., kindly remembers The Chautauquan with one of the programs used at a recent public meeting. The dainty, tasseled souvenir they send us bears a list of exercises of unusual richness and variety.
Massachusetts is getting her circles into the press. Scarcely a paper from within her borders comes to our sanctum which does not contain at least one item of Chautauqua import. The Melrose Journal of Melrose reports the organization of a circle of fifteen members in that city.——The Woburn Journal notices the work of the circle there in a very appreciative notice: “The fortnightly meetings of the First Woburn Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle are being well attended and the exercises are very profitable intellectually and the students are doing good work. Two weeks ago the Rev. Charles Anderson gave a very interesting talk on Prof. Schliemann’s recent explorations in Mycenæ, and Hissarlik, the supposed site of ancient Troy. At some meeting in the near future the Rev. A. E. Winship, a true Chautauquan, connected with the ‘New West Education Commission,’ a thorough scholar and a very interesting speaker, will lecture on ‘Literary Clubs’ before the members of the circle.”——The Saturday Union, of Lynn, speaks of the thorough work their circle is doing in chemistry.——The Ipswich Chronicle highly commends the Milton memorial held by the “Masconomo” circle of that city. By the way, the name of this circle brings back an interesting bit of early Massachusetts history. It was the Indian Masconomo, or Masconnomet—from whom the circle is named—who, in 1638, “sold his fee in the soil of Ipswich” for £20, to John Winthrop, Jr. And here was established the town which the Indians called Agawan (“fishing station”), and to which the white men gave the name of Ipswich.——The Salem Gazette, too, gives notices of two branches of the C. L. S. C. in that city. About forty members are in each of these societies.——Several new circles we have the pleasure of adding to our visiting book. At Merrimac a circle of seventeen members has been formed, with the happy title of the “Hale” circle. The first circle, so far as we know, which has honored itself by assuming the name of our esteemed counselor. They should be glad they waited; so good a name does honor to anybody, and ought to be an omen of future prosperity.——The “Eaton” circle, named in honor of the Rev. G. F. Eaton, begins life with seventy members. Its home is Waltham—city of watches. If the spirit of the town is to be the spirit of the circle, wonderful results will certainly be forthcoming.——Last October a few of the many students in the C. L. S. C. in Worcester organized a local circle. By the perseverance of these few, others have been persuaded to take the course, until the circle numbers about sixteen. They have taken the name of the “Warren” local circle, in honor of Bishop Warren.——At Provincetown a company of ten, five ladies and five gentlemen, met on the evening of the sixteenth of December last, to form a local circle. The meetings have occurred every week since; the circle has adopted the name of “Mayflower.” The meetings are full of interest, and the members are busy trying to make up the reading of the past months. All are members of the class of ’88 except one, who belongs to the class of ’85.——South Garden reports a circle organized a year ago, but which has never been noticed in The Chautauquan before. It is a “Pansy” class—all the fifteen members belonging to the class of ’87.——“Not Chautauquans for four years only, but Chautauquans for life,” the friends at Holbrook subscribe themselves. Their motto grew out of the ardor of a lady member of the circle who, when at a recent meeting something was said about a four years’ course, said: “I shall not consider that I have finished the course at the end of four years. I for one am going to be a Chautauquan as long as I live.” A right royal motto, is it not?——The Wakefield circle sends a program of a meeting in which we are glad to notice that present affairs go side by side with discussions of Grecian history and art and literature. The subjects for essays include a “Review of Current Affairs in Massachusetts,” “The Pension Problem,” etc. The history that is making certainly deserves our attention, as well as the history of the past.——North Cambridge also sends the program which they prepared for the January meetings of the “Longfellow” circle. In addition to their regular work, they added the novel feature of a talk on newspaper work, from a practical newspaper man.——The last of this month’s Massachusetts reports contains a most capital hint. Auburndale is the home of a flourishing circle, which among its other good features has a constitution. One of the articles of this constitution is the suggestion which it will please us to have you all ponder. It reads: “A short report of the condition of our society shall be forwarded twice a year to The Chautauquan.” Do you all take the hint? Perhaps one secret of this energetic article is the nearness of Auburndale to Framingham—so near is it that all the members of the circle went to the Assembly last year. To Massachusetts, too, belongs the honor of the following merry Chautauqua feast, of which a friend from Providence, R. I., has written us: “Spending a few days in Rockland, Mass., I was invited to visit the ‘Sherwin’ Chautauqua Circle, and being a true-blue member of the ‘Clio’ C. L. S. C. of Providence, I was joyful in accepting. The exercises were of a most novel and interesting kind, and unusually pleasing to me, as I was an old acquaintance of Prof. Sherwin. Since this society was instituted, some two years ago, but one representative of the posterity of the circle has been born, and the members of this enterprising circle showed their appreciation of Prof. Sherwin’s noble work in the good cause by naming this gift after him. An elegant gold lace pin had been made to order, with the initials C. L. S. C. neatly engraved upon it, and that evening the presentation was made. After Chautauqua greetings had been exchanged, the baby Sherwin was called for, and made his appearance, riding on his mother’s arm, as wise and dignified in behavior as a youthful Solon. One of the frolicsome Chautauqua dames then read the following formal rhyme:
“‘There were some fair dames of Chautauqua,
Their possessions were lovely to see,
Between you and me;
They had jewels of gold,