The distinguished English orator and scientist, George Sexton, M.A., LL.D., will deliver several lectures on scientific subjects.
The full program of the Chautauqua Assembly and the Schools will be ready in a short time. Questions addressed to Dr. J. H. Vincent, Plainfield, N. J., or W. A. Duncan, Esq., Syracuse, N. Y., will receive prompt attention.
THE FLORIDA CHAUTAUQUA.
The Florida Chautauqua is a success. Four months ago we had a dubious feeling that such an undertaking would fail of any real support in a clime which has always been so averse to adopting progressive ideas. Our healthy Chautauqua tree, we feared, would be enervated by tropical sunshine; but it has taken root with surprising readiness. And its growth is assured by the hearty northern support it is receiving. This support is a striking feature of Lake de Funiak. You see it in the pretty cottages that are being built about the grounds. They are generally owned by northerners. Wallace Bruce has a cottage there; Pansy is building one; Mrs. Harper, of Terre Haute, Ind., another; Dr. Hatfield, of Chicago, one, and Mrs. Emily Huntingdon Miller another. One delightful spot has been turned into an “Artist’s Corner” by Joaquin Miller, Mr. Durkin, Harper Brothers’ well known artist, and Mr. Gross, of Covington.
The attraction which Lake de Funiak has for literary and artistic people is easily explained. The country is enveloped in a mist of most fascinating story. Ponce de Leon and his warriors once searched its forest, and, perhaps, who knows, bathed in the lake’s clear waters.
It has an ideal climate. The lake lies on a ridge eighty by thirty miles in extent, and three hundred feet above sea level. “Too cold to raise oranges here,” the natives say, and sure enough it is, though east, at a lower altitude in the same latitude, orange groves are abundant. The beautiful LaConte pear, peaches, apples, and quinces, are the favorite fruits of this ridge. The result is that here in this overheated, indolent land, is formed an oasis with an even temperature, unknown to the mosquito, and unvisited by the cyclone.
No better place could be found for gathering the “material” in which the artist and the writer revel. These mammoth forests of pine, magnolia, cypress, palmetto, and oak, are broken by the settlements of a peculiar people. Northerners find here a fresh field of study for pen and pencil.