I perceive this important advantage in the proposed organization, namely, that those who engage in it will mutually encourage each other. It will give the members a common pursuit, which always begets a feeling of brotherhood; they will have a common topic of conversation and discussion, and the consequence will be, that many who, if they stood alone, might soon grow weary of the studies which are recommended to them, will be incited to perseverance by the interest which they see others taking in them. It may happen in rare instances that a person of eminent mental endowments, which otherwise might have remained uncultivated and unknown, will be stimulated in this manner to diligence, and put forth unexpected powers, and, passing rapidly beyond the rest, become greatly distinguished, and take a place among the luminaries of the age.
I shall be interested to watch, during the little space of life that may yet remain to me, the progress and results of the plan which has drawn from me this letter.
I am, Sir,
Very truly yours,
W. C. Bryant.
The distinguished writer of this letter died only a month and four days after writing it, on June 12, 1878, as the result of a sunstroke while he was making an address at the unveiling of a statue in the Central Park. He was in the eighty-fifth year of his age.
After some short addresses by men on the platform, Bishop Foster, Professor Wilkinson, Dr. Strong, and others, Dr. Vincent announced as the first book of the course, Green's Short History of the English People, and invited all desirous of joining the C. L. S. C. to write their names and addresses upon slips of paper and hand them to anyone on the platform. It might have been supposed that a circular would be ready containing a statement of the course for the first year, regulations and requirements of the organization, the fee of membership, etc.; but in the enthusiasm of the time those desirable requisites had been forgotten. Everybody looked around for a slip of paper. Visiting cards were made useful, margins were torn off newspapers, and there was an overwhelming rush toward the platform to join the new circle. On that afternoon seven hundred names were received and the number grew hourly until the close of the Assembly. Nearly all the regular year-by-year visitors to Chautauqua became members of this "Pioneer Class," as it was afterwards named; and to this day its fellowship, after forty-two years, still continues one of the largest at its annual gatherings in Pioneer Hall, the building which it erected as its home.
The book-store was crowded with applicants for Green's History, and the few copies on hand, not more than half a dozen, were instantaneously disposed of. An order was telegraphed to the Harper Brothers in New York for fifty copies, on the next morning for fifty more, then for another hundred, day after day the demand increasing. The Harpers were astounded at the repeated calls, and telegraphed for particulars as to the reason why everybody at an almost unknown place called Chautauqua had gone wild in demand for this book. Their stock on hand was exhausted long before the Assembly was ended, and most of the members of this "Class of 1882" were compelled to wait a month or more for their books. Public libraries were by no means numerous in those days while Andrew Carnegie was making the millions to be spent later in establishing them, but wherever they were, Green's Short History was drawn out, and a waiting list made for it, to the amazement of librarians, who vainly proposed the substitution of other standard English histories. Whoever could buy, borrow, or beg a copy of Green, rejoiced—we hope that no Chautauquan, in his hunger for literature, stole one, but we are not sure. People otherwise honest have been known to retain borrowed umbrellas and books.
In the Class of 1882 eight thousand four hundred names were enrolled, for the members brought home from Chautauqua the good news, and families, neighbors, and friends everywhere sent in their applications. Later we shall learn what proportion of these followed the course through the four years and marched under the arches to their Recognition as graduates.
An addition had been made to the grounds on the west, and here Dr. Vincent chose a square shaded by abundant beech-trees, as the center and home of the C. L. S. C. He named it St. Paul's Grove, choosing the apostle who represented the combination of the fervent heart and the cultured mind, an ideal for all Chautauquans. Besides Dr. Vincent's address at this time, another was given by Governor A. H. Colquitt of Georgia, President of the International Sunday School Convention. The dedicatory prayer was offered by Bishop Foster and an appropriate hymn written by Dr. Hyde of Denver was sung by Professor Sherwin and his choir. St. Paul's Grove, and its pillared temple soon to rise, will appear often in our story as one of the sacred spots at Chautauqua.
We must not overlook the daily program during this epoch-making season of 1878. There were the daily classes studying Greek and Hebrew under Drs. Strong and Vail. There was a class in microscopy, with the Misses Lattimore; there was the normal class with a full number of students ending with the successful examination of more than one hundred and forty new members of the Normal Alumni Association. The annual reunion of the Normal Alumni was celebrated with the usual banners, procession, address, the illuminated fleet and fireworks.
The lecture platform of 1878 stood at as high a level as ever. If any one speaker bore off the honors of that year, it was Bishop Randolph S. Foster of the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose lectures on "Beyond the Grave" drew the largest audiences and aroused the deepest interest. They were afterward published in a volume which attracted wide attention, and brought some criticism from preachers of the conservative school. There were even some who talked of an impeachment and trial, but they did not venture to bring the greatest thinker and theologian in their church to the bar. Other lecturers who made their mark were Dr. Robert M. Hatfield of Chicago, President Charles H. Fowler, Dr. (soon after Bishop) John F. Hurst, Dr. John Lord, the historian-lecturer, Dr. Joseph Cook, Professor William North Rice, Dr. T. DeWitt Talmage, with his entertaining lecture on "Big Blunders," and Dr. Charles F. Deems on "The Superstitions of Science."