Chapter II: The Family Parlor (3)

New Orleans is not the only French city in the United States, but it is the only one which preserves the French quality and language perfectly, and in that respect resembles Montreal and Quebec. St. Louis had a French and Spanish basis, but when that post became American the small Latin element was compelled, in self-defense, to adopt the language and living of the Anglo-Saxons. New Orleans, however, had a sufficient start when the Americans occupied it in 1803, to grow relatively with the American settlers and consequently two cities arose side by side, which still preserve their differences as much as if a quarter of London and a quarter of Paris had been cut out and united. Besides, there was a large rural and planting element in Louisiana, of the French stock, which has assisted to keep up the French infusion, and hence the market at New Orleans is the most characteristic thing in the city, where the _habitants_ and the hucksters, the fishers from the Gulf, and the porters and carters, carry us back to a scene anterior to the France of to-day, or before republican ideas had reached the far French colonies. New Orleans, too, constantly received emigration from neighboring French and Spanish islands and coasts as they were affected by negro insurrections, or by internal revolutions. Naturally the fleeing planters from Hayti and the Lesser Antilles made their way to the nearest large town, and the steam shipping of the Gulf all concentrates at the two centers of the ellipse, New Orleans and Havana. The Mississippi River, which is the only river of the first class on the globe to pass through a cultivated land and an enlightened population, sufficiently marks New Orleans as the eye of its destiny adjacent to its mouth. There are many Americans who have never been to New Orleans, who are unaware that it, like New York, has two distinct harbors or outlets. As New York has Long Island Sound and the Bay of New York, one opening a hundred miles to the east of the other, so New Orleans has a lake system close by which gives her internal communication far to the east, or almost to the bay of Mobile, and saves her two hundred miles of round-about river navigation to reach her own coasts. It may be thought that New Orleans is too far from the mouth of the Mississippi to command that the commerce of the Gulf should come a hundred miles up that river for her benefit, yet Philadelphia and Baltimore are quite as far from the ocean, and these cities have easily commanded a great interior trade through the communications they possessed, and from the products they had to supply. Coal, for example, makes the most effective article of the commerce of both Baltimore and Philadelphia, and coal is more valuable in the Gulf because farther from the mines, than it is on the near east coast. The coal furnished to the shipping at New Orleans has descended the entire line of the river, yet by such easy facilities that at New Orleans it is probably the cheapest coal in the world for the distance it has to come to get a market. Great floats, of which dozens are hauled by a small tug or tow boat, go down the Ohio to its mouth, and pass on to New Orleans and are there so easily discharged that the lumber in them finds a market with the coal.

Besides, the railroad projectors, without other inducement than their own sagacity, have concurred in running all their railroads to New Orleans, for the country at the mouth of the Mississippi is neither so healthy nor so strategical for trade as this old town which was founded by the French under the direction of their government when they picked slowly and carefully the sites of future trade and military empire. These same French located St. Louis, and it has not been found advisable by any succeeding generation to try a better situation.

We may ask whether New Orleans has as great an antiquity as our own English cities? It is not as old as Philadelphia by almost thirty years, and is somewhat younger than Charleston, and is about fifteen years older than Savannah. Of course it does not compare in antiquity with the colonial cities of the northeast, such as New York, Albany, Boston, Montreal and Quebec. But it is nearly a century older than any of our important Anglo-Teuton cities of the West. It is more than half a century older than Cincinnati, and we may almost call it a century older than Chicago. St. Louis was its Albany, or upstream neighbor, and was under the same political domination. Mobile was the parent place the French established on the Gulf, and Governor Bienville made New Orleans his capital as late as 1723, or about nine years before the birth of General Washington.

Soon after this a levee was built in front of the new town, and the early French authors and novelists took pleasure in visiting it, and even at that date they called it “the famous place.” As in Quebec and Montreal, the early French settlement was almost simultaneous with the bringing out of monks and nuns, and soon a cathedral was conceived and nunneries were built. The French, however, had not the vigorous nature of the English in founding new places, and after nearly half a century of occupation there were hardly three thousand persons in it to transfer to the Spanish who took possession of the place in the midst of a revolution, and had some of the best French citizens shot in order to be a terror to what the Spanish governor, O’Reilly, already suspected to exist in French Louisiana, the spirit of independence, which Spain wanted to extirpate in all her colonies, fearing that they would speedily rise to importance and overwhelm the parent power. Spain had been dismembered by a treaty early in the eighteenth century, and was left with enormous American possessions, and with a very small Spain to handle them. The Spanish cabinet then conceived the policy of preventing the growth of the colonies, so as to keep them down, use them merely for trade, and not let that spirit of municipal independence which makes great fermentations in states commence anywhere. Some of the Spanish governors, however, ordered public buildings to be constructed, and the American residents at New Orleans say that the Spanish sway of about forty years has left better monuments than the French.

A Spanish infusion of settlers marks the present population, and the Americans call all the Latin races, no matter whether they come from France and her islands, or Spain and her coasts, by the name of Creoles.

A curious feature of New Orleans is the existence of considerable elements there from states as foreign to ourselves as Yucatan.

At the close of the American Revolution there were less than five thousand persons in New Orleans. During that Revolution a considerable number of respectable British settlers who wanted to avoid the War of Independence, settled in West Florida and about Natchez, and in other spots contiguous to New Orleans. Hence the Revolution was hardly over before the first chapter of manifest destiny was directed from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky upon the opening of the Mississippi River. That physical achievement was so important to the producers on the Ohio and the Tennessee Rivers that schemes of every sort were tried to hasten the opening of commerce to the Gulf. One Senator of the United States was expelled from his place for an intrigue partaking of the nature of treason with the British who still backed up the Spanish on the Gulf; and a Vice President was actually pursued nearly to the Gulf and brought back and tried for treason at Richmond. How long the United States might have had to wait the slow course of diplomacy or the rough chance of war to get New Orleans, is uncertain, but Napoleon, who had acquired Louisiana by his mastery over Spain, believing that he could not hold it against the English fleets, made haste to sell it to the Americans for a sum of money and old commercial claims.

Eighty-two years ago, or about the rounded lifetime of an old man, the Americans occupied New Orleans, and much of the city burnt up the year our forefathers were voting for the first President of the United States. A French newspaper had been issued in New Orleans several years before the American possession. There were perhaps eight thousand persons in the city when it was transferred to us. Twelve years after the transfer, the Americans under General Jackson had to give battle to hold the city, which the English attacked with the best troops they had used in Spain against Napoleon who had already fallen. Napoleon was contemplating his last endeavor to astonish the world at Waterloo, when the English and Americans, unconscious that a treaty of peace had been made between themselves, fought the battle of New Orleans, which resulted in more disaster to the British arms than any battle on land during our second conflict for independence. In St. Paul’s Cathedral stand the monuments and statues of Packenham and Gibbs who lost their lives in the marshes around New Orleans.

In 1862, Farragut with his fleet took New Orleans. His victory drove an entering wedge into the heart of the Confederacy and gave to the navy of the United States a prestige which it had never enjoyed and which in its present enfeebled state it is rapidly losing. New Orleans was the wealthiest and most populous city of the Confederacy; it was four times larger than either Charleston or Richmond, and before the war had the largest export trade of any city in the world. Commanding mid-continental navigation and being the key to the Gulf, its military value was equal to its commercial importance.

The plan for the capture of New Orleans by the navy, and the reduction of the forts which guarded the approach to it from the south, originated in the Navy Department in the fall of 1861. The credit for proposing this plan has been claimed by more persons than one, and it is likely that it was conceived and developed from suggestions and hints received from a variety of sources. It was determined that a naval expedition should be sent against New Orleans. The plan found little favor with army officers, but the President became interested in it and Secretary Welles set about carrying it into effect. The attention of military men was concentrated on a proposed combination of the forces of the army and the navy for the capture of New Orleans, in an expedition which was to descend to the city from the upper waters of the Mississippi River. This scheme seemed more attractive, and the idea of taking New Orleans by means of a fleet advancing from the Gulf had never been entertained in military circles. When Stanton became Secretary of War and was told of the proposed naval expedition, he was astonished at the originality and audacity of the idea and exclaimed: “An attack upon New Orleans by the navy! I never heard of it! It is the best news you could give me.” Secretary Stanton entered cordially into the spirit of the project and increased the number of the troops which General McClelland had promised, from ten thousand to eighteen thousand. Shortly after this, General B. F. Butler was made acquainted with the purpose of Secretary Welles and he was given the command of the military force which was to hold New Orleans after the fleet had taken it. There is no evidence that General Butler suggested any of the important plans or details for the expedition or that he had any definite plans concerning it.

Congress had ordered the blockade of 3,500 miles of coast line. There were scarcely ships enough to maintain it, and the vessels for the New Orleans expedition had to be built or procured from other sources. After the Secretary of the Navy had decided to send a fleet against New Orleans and had given orders for the construction of it, the most serious question which presented itself was the selection of a commander. All of the naval officers of high rank were suggested and considered. It was to be the most powerful and splendid fleet ever gathered under the stars and stripes, and the Department moved cautiously in the matter of choosing a leader for it. Finally the name of David Glasgow Farragut was proposed. The Secretary of the Navy remembered that years before in the war with Mexico, Farragut had offered a daring plan for the capture of the strong fort of San Juan de Ulloa, at Vera Cruz. He proposed that the fort be “boarded” by attaching long ladders to the masts of the attacking ships, which should then be towed up to the walls of the fort. Secretary Welles was impressed at the time with the boldness and dash of the scheme, and though he had not seen Farragut since that day, and really knew very little of him, yet after some consultation he decided to offer him the command of the fleet. Farragut, who had never had a squadron, gladly accepted the honor and the responsibility. He had been trained by a life of study and active service for some great emergency like this, which came late in life, in his sixty-second year, but he was prepared for it and he knew it. Farragut adopted the plans which had been considered by the Navy Department and made them his own. He grasped the work before him with a degree of earnestness and enthusiasm unusual in men of his age. Secretary Welles says of him at that time: “In every particular he came up to all that was expected or required of him. He determined to pass the forts and restore New Orleans. He might not come back, he said, but the city would be ours.” After his arrival at Ship Island on the 25th of March, 1862, Farragut wrote: “I have now attained what I have been looking for all my life—a flag—and having attained it, all that is necessary to complete the scene is a victory. If I die in the attempt it will only be what every officer has to expect. He who dies in doing his duty to his country and at peace with his God, has played out the drama of life to the best advantage.” Here was a genuine pious hero of the old school, determined to do or to die. His task was a herculean one. New Orleans was defended by two forts erected at the lowest favorable point for the location of military works, above the Gulf. Fort St. Philip occupied the left bank of the river, and a short distance below it on the right bank stood Fort Jackson. These forts mounted in all one hundred and fifteen guns. A fort on the site of Jackson in 1815 held the British fleet in check for nine days. The rebel forts were garrisoned by 1,500 men commanded by General J. K. Duncan. A short distance above the forts lay fifteen rebel vessels. This fleet included the iron ram “Manassas” and a great floating battery clad with railroad iron. Below the forts a heavy chain supported by the hulks of eight dismasted ships obstructed the river. Farragut was to break through the chain, fight his way by the forts, destroy or capture the rebel fleet and then steam up to New Orleans and place that city under his guns. The attack was commenced by the mortar fleet. For six days the mortars poured a ceaseless fire of shells into the fort. The shells were flying through the air at all times; nearly six thousand were thrown, but the forts were damaged very little and the Confederate loss was only fourteen killed and thirty-nine wounded. It was determined to pass the forts on April 24th. At sunset on the 23d there were indications of the approaching conflict on every ship in Farragut’s fleet. The attack was to be made under cover of darkness. At eleven o’clock that night an officer signaled that an opening which had been made in the chain was still clear. Five minutes before two o’clock in the morning two red lights were displayed from the peak of the flag ship. It was the signal to steam up the river. In about one hour the fleet of seventeen vessels, in three divisions, was moving. The moon was rising, but its light was lost in the fierce flames from bonfires and fire rafts. Both forts opened fire upon the first ship as she passed through the row of hulks. Five minutes later the little “Cayuga” was pouring grape and canister into Fort St. Philip, and in ten minutes more she had passed from the range of its guns and was in the arms of the rebel fleet. It was a lively moment for the brave little boat. Eleven rebel gunboats tried to demolish her at once. She could not go forward, she would not go backward. There was nothing to do but to close with the enemy. She drove an “eleven inch” shot through one of her antagonists and it ran aground and burned up. Another one was crippled by a well directed shot, and the “Cayuga” was about to grapple with the third when two ships of the Union fleet came to her aid, the “Oneida” and the “Varuna.”

The former ran into one of the rebel ships and almost cut her in twain. The “Varuna” was rammed by the “Manassas” and another ship and went to the bottom in fifteen minutes. While she was going down she fired into one of her adversaries and so damaged her that she had to surrender to the “Oneida,” and she sent a shell into another rebel gunboat which exploded its boiler. All the time the remaining vessels of the first division were steaming by the forts, pouring tremendous volleys into them and receiving tremendous discharges in return. Farragut’s flag ship, the “Hartford,” led the second division of the fleet. She was a noble vessel, splendidly equipped; she steamed into the fight and was followed by the long line of ships in the second and third divisions. By this hour day was dawning, but heavy clouds of smoke hung over the river and no light from the east reached the battling ships. The cannonading which all along had been terrific was now growing sublime. Three hundred heavily shotted guns were flashing and roaring over the dark water. The Union ships advanced to the fray like the famous “Light Brigade,” with cannon to the right of them, to the left of them and before them. Probably it was the most picturesque naval battle in the world’s history. Thirty-four armed vessels and two great forts were struggling in the early morning. The sun seemed to stand still in the heavens. The light of the guns was brighter than the orb of day, and Farragut’s gunners had to aim at the cannon flashes from the rebel forts. The forts themselves were not visible. The vessels of the enemy were not visible. Our ships were striking great blows in the dark and they always struck with deadly effect. From points above the rebels pushed great fire barges loaded with blazing pitch and cotton into the stream. These rafts came floating down and when they did not ignite our ships they illuminated them for the Confederate marksmen. A flaming fire raft was hurled against the “Hartford” and flames ran from the water’s edge to the mast top. The well trained crew extinguished the fire and within five minutes the “Hartford” destroyed a rebel steamer filled with boarding parties. The “Brooklyn,” another Union ship, encountered a fire raft and for a time lay helpless before the merciless guns of Fort Jackson. Disentangling herself, she steamed up to the fort and poured such withering broadsides into it that its guns were silenced for a time, and the gunners were seen by the ship’s crew as they peered through the cannon-lighted portholes, to be fleeing from their guns. At this time the vessels which had passed the forts were doing good work, and the stream was filled with wrecked and burning Confederate gunboats. Fire rafts and wrecks came drifting down side by side, and frequently one of the latter would explode with a loud report. The low, curved iron rams glided about like gigantic serpents of the sea. Boarding parties were overrunning some vessels and being repulsed from others. It was an awful, dazzling and furiously shifting panorama. The last ship to pass the forts on that memorable morning was the “Penola.” In the light of a blazing raft she received the discharge of the forty guns of St. Philip, and passed on to join the victorious fleet above. “And thus,” says Farragut’s son, “was accomplished a feat in naval warfare which had no precedent, and which is still without a parallel except the one furnished by Farragut himself two years later at Mobile.”

On the morning of the next day the fleet moved up to New Orleans. At noon Captain Bailey was sent to demand of the mayor of the city its unconditional surrender, and that the flag of Louisiana be removed from the City Hall. The mayor refused to haul down the flag or to make a formal surrender of the city. While the officers and men of the fleet were attending divine service the next day, they were startled by the discharge of a howitzer from the main mast of the “Pensacola.” The watchman in the rigging had seen four men tear down the flag of the Union from the roof of the mint, and had at once fired the gun which was trained on the flag staff.

On the 28th the forts surrendered to Commander Porter, who had been pounding away at them with his mortars. May 1st, General Butler and his troops entered New Orleans, and Farragut turned the city over to him. His administration was vigorous, but was hateful to the citizens. He hanged Mumford, the leader of the mob which tore the Union flag from the mint; he issued his celebrated woman order which placed every female who insulted a Union soldier on the level of the street walker; he treated with severity a Mrs. Phillips, who jeered at the remains of a Union soldier. He is condemned for all of these things by very many people. Many dishonest things were done during his administration, but repose, vigor and security were the characteristics of it. General Butler was a just, efficient, straightforward tyrant, not cruel, but possessed of an inflexible determination to make his will the law and to make his cause succeed. After General Butler came General Banks. He endeavored to restore loyalty to the state by good treatment, but fell into the error of reposing trust in a type of men who could not understand freedom nor adopt even a business patriotism for the sake of their own prosperity.

By the census of 1880 New Orleans showed for three-quarters of a century of American rule a population of 216,000 people, of whom 175,000 are natives of the United States, and only 58,000 are colored people. New Orleans stood the tenth of American cities, with more than 36,000 houses, and more than 45,000 families. Although the manufactures of New Orleans were in their infancy they had an annual product of nineteen million dollars, and paid nearly four million dollars a year wages. Looking over the list of states to discover the origin of the people of New Orleans, the remarkable fact appears that of her 216,000 people more then 151,000 are natives of Louisiana. The neighboring state of Mississippi has not put thirty-eight hundred souls into New Orleans. Alabama, which is within two or three hours’ ride by cars, has not two thousand native children in New Orleans, but New York has over two thousand of her progeny settled in New Orleans, and Virginia has 4,300. Of the 41,000 foreign population, nearly 7,000 are natives of France, showing that there is a constant immigration, as in the days of Bienville, from old France to new France. Germany has contributed to New Orleans 14,000 emigrants. About the same number have come to New Orleans from Great Britain and Ireland. Spain has contributed about 800 of her natives, Italy about 2,000, Switzerland nearly 500, Mexico only 300, and the West Indies scarcely 400. These are suggestive figures, and show that since the great rebellion those elements go to the far South which have the most original emigrating spirit and the greater variety of self-sustaining trades and pursuits. A man who can do nothing, make nothing, improve nothing, has the least of all motives to emigrate. The debt of New Orleans was about seventeen million dollars at the last advices, considerably less than the debts of Baltimore and Washington, but some four millions more than the debt of Chicago. Railroads and other municipal improvements were responsible for a good deal of this debt.

Since the war New Orleans has been transformed from the likeness of a quiet old French city like Orleans which gave it name, to the appearance of a new French city with pretty relics here and there, and strong cosmopolitan attachments. The great river which sweeps in splendid curves past this city has compelled the streets to conform to some extent to its shores, but the consequence is a charming disposition of streets to both those who hate crooked streets, and those who hate straight ones. The town may be likened to the spokes of a wheel with streets laid out between the spokes in both directions, and conforming to them to some extent. In front of the city stretches the great bank called the levee, at the foot of which ride the majestic steamers which come from all portions of the Mississippi valley and are often like palaces in cardboard, and since the jetties have been made a success by Captain Eads and the United States engineers, you also see at New Orleans, riding cosily, the huge steamships from New York, Liverpool and Cuba. The chief maritime lines from New York to Texas now stop at New Orleans and the journey is continued by rail. This great levee, which is an artificial hill thrown up to keep the river back, is lined with the sugar hogsheads and cotton bales of the South, with coal and iron, plows and stoves, kegs of nails, merchandise assembled from all parts of the globe, and massive presses driven by steam to further compress the bales of cotton and reduce them in bulk for shipment. A canal runs through the city, and its other termination is on Lake Pontchartrain. At the lake is a beautiful new resort built in recent years, nearly as agreeable as Chautauqua Lake, and the peculiar Creole and negro cooking of New Orleans is to be found in perfection there, as well as at the Spanish fort, in the environs of the city. The shops of New Orleans are open to the air all winter long, and art of a local nature is taking root there. Whatever the Gulf produces is to be seen at the Creole capital, and a visit to it for even a few days is the next thing to a trip to Europe.

THE UPPER CHAUTAUQUA.

BY CHANCELLOR J. H. VINCENT, D.D.

There is a Chautauqua further on. First, there is a lake level, and just above it is the level of the “Point,” with its pleasant grass, its winding walks, its old Auditorium, shaded and hallowed with memories that have grown through multiplying years. The old cottages, and many of the old cottagers remain about this Auditorium—reminders of the old times, and the oldest times, of Chautauqua, when the first vesper service announced that “The Day Goeth Away,” and the “Nearer My God to Thee,” rang out under these forest arches. Who that was there can ever forget that hour? The altars were aglow that night, and hearts on fire. It was an experiment, but from the first it was an assured success. The time will come when the remaining sharers in that first feast in the evening light will be very few, and the last of them will receive honor, and the children of Chautauqua will listen to their story as with quivering lips and kindling eye they speak about that first evening under the trees, the words that broke the sacred silence, the songs that bore praise and wonder and joy to the heavens, and the friendships that were formed there never to be broken.

How many who joined in the first Chautauqua service have already “fallen on sleep” and gone out into a world sleepless and without nightfall, where, for vesper chant are substituted the hallelujahs of an eternal morning.

But let us go up higher. Beyond the Point and Auditorium level are the terraces that run along the hillside, one above another, gardens and cottages, with pathways and winding roads, leading up under welcome shadows to a higher Chautauqua—a long stretch of table-land crowned now with Temple and Chapel, Pyramid, Museum and Hall of Philosophy, while beyond, in the open fields toward the north we reach the highest point of our Assembly grounds, one of the highest on the lake. Thus from the landing and the beginning of our journey we ascend from the lowest to the highest, and find beauty, delight, pleasant welcomes and rewards all the way.

This study in the lay of the land which makes the physical Chautauqua is an allegory. There is an upper Chautauqua. And not all who visit the place see it, and not all who become Chautauquans reach it.

The Chautauqua movement is progressive, and its friends and students are expected to make advancement in the line of its conceptions and provisions. It has court beyond court in which it unfolds its progressive aims and introduces its disciples to the higher privileges of culture which it provides. No fences or lines mark these successive stages. They do not correspond with the topographical elevations, although we have found in the one a figure or symbol of the other. But such gradation exists, and I shall point it out.

I. THE ASSEMBLY—Is the first point of approach to the true Chautauqua. It is the outer court open to the whole world. It has no restraints upon those who come, save those which are necessary to guarantee a financial support to the institution, and those rules of ordinary decorum which are essential to the quiet enjoyment and profit of those who pay their tribute and wait for the promised compensation. And this compensation comes in lectures on the widest range of topics, from the “Philosophy of Locke and Berkeley” to the light and cheery discussions about “Fools and their Folly.” Concerts by gifted artists, characterizations by rare impersonators, illustrations of life and manners in remote regions, by the aid of costumer and _tableaux vivants_, stories of travel, with photographic accompaniments colored, magnified, and illuminated; sermons by able ministers, lessons by competent teachers, attractions for lighthearted youth and wearied but rational age, in bonfires, processions, fireworks, illuminated fleets—these are the features of the outer court of Chautauqua for the entertainment, awakening, and broadening of people who come with no far-reaching or serious purpose, but who come to “hear” and “see” and have “a good time.” They are simply recipients. The will-power lies dormant, save as some stirring statement of lecture or sermon, or some unsyllabled passage in music opens the soul to the worlds all about it replete with marvel, beauty and power. So much for the outer Chautauqua. There are those who see this—only this and nothing more. They come and go. They wonder why they and others come, and yet they think they may come again—but are not sure. They do not forget Chautauqua, and they do not “go wild” over it. They smile at other people, whom they call “fanatics,” because they are full of it, and “bound to come again,” and to “come every year,” and always, and “would be willing to live there.” These have seen the Upper Chautauqua—for beyond the “Assembly” is

II. THE CIRCLE.—It is another court—further in, and a little higher up—with a white-pillared hall among the trees—“The Hall in the Grove,” about which a book has been written, and in which songs are sung and weird services held, and where strange inspirations fall on people. For those who belong to the Circle—the “C. L. S. C.” as everybody calls it—are advanced Chautauquans. They know why they come to the place. And they know when to come. They keep a calendar, and they mark the feasts, and they know what to do when they are there. They seem at home. There are hosts of them—all knowing each other, and apparently bound together by some secret association which has a mystic power. They wear badges on certain days, badges of different styles and colors and legends. In all this there is something singular and beautiful.

This “Circle” is a company of pledged readers in wide ranges of literature. The “Assembly” contains people who listen. The “Circle” is made up of people who read. The “Assembly” covers a few weeks. The “Circle” casts its canopy over the year and the years. The “Assembly” is at Chautauqua. The “Circle” carries Chautauqua to the world’s end—to the east and to the west, to Canada, to Florida, to Scotland, to the Sandwich Islands, to India, and Japan, to Cape Colony—everywhere.

The members of the “Circle” stand on a higher plane than the Assembly, because they put will into the work. They read what they ought, for months and years, everywhere, getting larger views of the world, and worthier views of life, and nobler views of the race, and of God the Father of all.

The “Circle” takes a wide sweep in the world of letters. Its themes are those of the college world. It puts the preparatory and college curriculums into good, readable English, and helps people out of college to know what is going on there; what the young people study in history, language, and literature; what authors they read, and what estimate is to be placed on them and their work. It gives glimpses of science, physical and metaphysical—pointing down to the rocks and up to the stars, and about to the fields and seas and the forms of life in plant and animal. Whatever college boys study, the “Circle” provides in some form and degree for parents to read, that home and college may be one in outlook and sympathy, in aim and delight. But there is something beyond.

III. THE INNER CIRCLE.—Beyond the readers are the students—those who have completed the four years’ reading in the “Circle,” and the members of the “Society of the Hall in the Grove;” have filled out the various memoranda; have certain seals on their C. L. S. C. diplomas, testifying to this fact, and to the reading of the additional books. These walk on the higher levels. Their names are enrolled in the “Order of the White Seal.” Their faces are turned toward the Upper Chautauqua.

It is possible that the members of the C. L. S. C. who walk in the inner circle may meet those who rank with them, although they have come hither by other routes—through the “Chautauqua Teachers’ Retreat,” the “Chautauqua Spare Minute Courses,” and the “Chautauqua Assembly Normal Courses.” As students, they all rejoice in the larger places of Chautauqua. But there are heights beyond these heights.

“Hearers,” “readers,” “student-readers,” successively mark the three ascending grades of the Chautauqua movement, as outlined in the “Assembly,” the “Circle,” and the “Inner Circle.” Beyond these three stages, we come to

IV. THE UNIVERSITY CIRCLE.—Here are members of “The League of the Round Table,” whose seven seals on the C. L. S. C. diploma entitle them to this higher honor. Here, too, are advanced students in the “Chautauqua School of Languages;” these walk in the outer courts and among the sacred corridors adjoining the University itself. Chautauqua now means more than ever to them. The towers of the University rise above them. They ask why its doors may not open to them, and why they may not rejoice in work, real work, with after-tests in genuine examinations, and after-honors in diploma and degrees.

Some remain in this goodly place, hearing the songs that float down from the higher halls, enjoying converse with their fellows of the grander degree, and encouraging other and younger and more vigorous companions to go up and possess the land. Others knock at the door by the upper step, and as it opens, they enter the fifth and highest form of the Chautauqua movement—

V. THE UNIVERSITY, with its schools, colleges, and _academiae_; its teachers and professors, its text-books and tasks, its rigid examinations, and its promotions. Concerning the UNIVERSITY, I shall write later on.

OUTLINE OF REQUIRED READINGS.

FEBRUARY, 1885.

_First Week_ (ending February 7).—1. “College Greek Course,” from page 83 to 107.

2. “Chemistry,” chapters I, II and III.

3. “How to Help the Poor,” from page 1 to 32.

4. “How English Differs from other Languages,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

5. Sunday Readings for February 1, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Second Week_ (ending February 14).—1. “College Greek Course,” from page 107 to 133.

2. “Chemistry,” chapters IV and V.

3. “How to Help the Poor,” from page 32 to 66.

4. “Temperance Teachings of Science” and “Home Studies in Chemistry and Physics,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

5. Sunday Readings for February 8, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Third Week_ (ending February 21).—1. “College Greek Course,” from page 133 to 154.

2. “Chemistry,” chapters VI and VII.

3. “How to Help the Poor,” from page 66 to 92.

4. “Kitchen Science and Art,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

5. Sunday Readings for February 15, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

* * * * *

_Fourth Week_ (ending February 28).—1. “College Greek Course,” from page 154 to 187.

2. “Chemistry,” chapter VIII.

3. “How to Help the Poor,” from page 92 to 125.

4. “The Circle of Sciences” and “Huxley on Science,” in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

5. Sunday Readings for February 22, in THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

PROGRAMS FOR LOCAL CIRCLE WORK.

FIRST WEEK IN FEBRUARY.

1. Essay—The Life of Plato.

2. Selection—“Translators of Homer.” From the “Prose Writings of William Cullen Bryant,” vol. ii.

3. Fifteen minutes’ talk on Home Decoration.

4. Select Reading—Extracts from the Life of Pericles, found in “The Young Folks’ Plutarch.”

Music.

5. Essay—Lavoisier and the Phlogiston Theory

[In the “History of the Inductive Sciences,” by Whewell, a good reference will be found.]

6. What we have all seen (mentally, perhaps,) at New Orleans this week. [Reports being made by each one of what he has read, heard or witnessed.]

7. Report of Critic, who is to be appointed at the beginning of the evening, and who is to note and correct all mistakes.

MONTHLY PROGRAM.

1. Roll call—Quotations from Æschylus, taken from the “College Greek Course.”

2. Essay—Socrates.

3. Select Reading—“Valentine’s Day.” By Charles Lamb. [Found in his “Elia.”]

Music.

4. A General Talk on Huxley and his Teachings. [Let each one come prepared to read or tell something about him.]

5. Essay—The Greek Drama.

6. Debate—Resolved, that it is wrong to feed tramps.

FOUNDER’S DAY—FEBRUARY 23.

“He tried the luxury of doing good.”

Music.

1. Roll-call—Quotations on the Companionship of Books.

2. Essay—New Departures in Education.

[Reference can be made to Pestalozzi, Froebel, Col. Parker, and others.]

Music.

3. Recitation—Alone with My Conscience.

[Found in THE CHAUTAUQUAN for October, 1884.]

4. A Paper on the Chautauqua Institutions.

Music.

5. Select Reading—Proper Method of Employing Time. By Addison.

6. A _Conversazione_—Subject: What Chautauqua has done for me. [Entered into informally by all members of the circle.]

Music.

LONGFELLOW’S DAY—FEBRUARY 27.

“High as our hearts he stood.”

1. Roll call—Quotations from Longfellow.

2. Let several members who have been appointed beforehand give brief accounts of different periods of the poet’s life, such as: His early life, his years in college, his life as a college professor, his travels abroad, his literary work, his home in the Craigie House, and his love for children.

Music.

3. Recitation—“The Hanging of the Crane.”

4. Select Reading—Extracts from “Outre-Mer.”

Music.

5. Essay—Longfellow’s Characteristics as a Writer.

6. Recitation—“The Poet and the Children.” By John G. Whittier.

7. A Paper—The Tributes to Longfellow by Eminent Men and Women.

8. An analytical study of the poem “Sandalphon.”

* * * * *

A delightful Longfellow entertainment may be arranged from “Evangeline” or “Miles Standish.” The poem chosen should be carefully cut so as not to require more than an hour for reading. Let a good reader be chosen, and as he reads let the most picturesque and striking passages be represented by tableaux.

Help in preparing programs for Longfellow’s Day may be found in the following articles: _The Century_, June, 1882, “Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,” poem; _The Century_, October, 1883, “Longfellow;” _The Century_, November, 1878, “Henry Wadsworth Longfellow;” Allibone’s “Dictionary of Authors;” Griswold, “Poets and Poetry of America;” Duyckinck, “Cyclopædia of American Literature,” vol. ii.; _North American Review_, January 1840, July 1842, July 1845, and January 1848; _Fraser’s Magazine_, March 1848; _British Quarterly Review_ for January and April 1864; _The Literary World_, vol. xii., No. 5; “Homes of American Authors,” by George William Curtis; “American Classics for Schools,” vol. i; “Longfellow Leaflets”—these convenient little slips have been prepared for schools, but will be found very useful for large circles. They may be had of Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston, Mass.

LOCAL CIRCLES.

C. L. S. C. MOTTOES.

“_We Study the Word and the Works of God._”—“_Let us keep our Heavenly Father in the Midst._”—“_Never be Discouraged._”

C. L. S. C. MEMORIAL DAYS.

1. OPENING DAY—October 1.

2. BRYANT DAY—November 3.

3. SPECIAL SUNDAY—November, second Sunday.

4. MILTON DAY—December 9.

5. COLLEGE DAY—January, last Thursday.

6. SPECIAL SUNDAY—February, second Sunday.

7. FOUNDER’S DAY—February 23.

8. LONGFELLOW DAY—February 27.

9. SHAKSPERE DAY—April 23.

10. ADDISON DAY—May 1.

11. SPECIAL SUNDAY—May, second Sunday.

12. SPECIAL SUNDAY—July, second Sunday.

13. INAUGURATION DAY—August, first Saturday after first
Tuesday; anniversary of C. L. S. C. at Chautauqua.

14. ST. PAUL’S DAY—August, second Saturday after first Tuesday;
anniversary of the dedication of St. Paul’s Grove at Chautauqua.

15. COMMENCEMENT DAY—August, third Tuesday.

16. GARFIELD DAY—September 19.

One of the most profitable half hours of the local circle evening is that spent in general conversation on a particular topic. It furnishes a practice which is of incalculable value. At the same time it is not possible to put a number on a program of which it is more difficult to make a perfect success. Of course many circles have learned the art of talking. At SHILOH, N. Y., the “Atlantic” circle of sixteen members, a busy, prosperous organization, to introduce variety into their programs, often hold a “meeting of informal conversation,” but very many of us can not succeed. At the root of our trouble lies that totally false idea that the ability to converse is the gift of a few. When leaders suggest a _conversazione_ the difficulties presented seem almost insurmountable. The members contend that they can not talk; they will not try; they urge that while history and science make excellent studies, they are too “heavy” for conversation; they fly the subject and intrude a chit-chat which totally destroys serious conversation. Some time ago we saw successfully tried in a circle of about twenty members, the following method for cultivating conversation: The subject was introduced by the leader in a brief and earnest talk. He showed the barrenness of ideas and the lack of fine and exact expression in our social converse. He urged the possibility and the duty of every one becoming an entertaining talker. An interest was thoroughly aroused, and a vote was carried by the society to devote a half hour to talking on subjects suggested by the C. L. S. C. readings. Each member promised to confine himself to the subject, to come prepared to follow the whole subject, and to give particular items on certain points. Members were bound to ask questions, to look up pictures to illustrate, anecdotes to enliven and wise words to enforce the points brought out. They learned to talk, and to talk on worthy subjects. Their experience soon grew to be a little like that which happened to a member of the HOLLISTER, CALIFORNIA, circle. A lady meeting her, remarked: “I am getting jealous of those Chautauquans, for if two of them meet they can talk of nothing but those old Greeks.” Our friends grew to talk so well that a lady, applying for admission, said: “I want to join your society, for it seems to me that a society which inspires so much intelligent conversation must be very valuable.” Every circle of the C. L. S. C. which has had experience in this work should lend to others its ideas and suggestions. But now let us turn to something which is much easier to chat over than are methods for improving ourselves in conversation—our circles.

NOVA SCOTIA gives no hint in its report from the HALIFAX C. L. S. C. of the bleakness which we usually associate with its stormy northern coast. This Halifax circle announces itself in a flourishing condition, with a regular membership of fifteen and with twenty or thirty regular attendants. The growth of the work in Nova Scotia is apparent to them and they look for an addition of many members soon. Already the number of members in Nova Scotia is nearly double that of last year.

At the extreme eastern point of MAINE, in the pretty village of LUBEC, the “Pansies” have taken root. The busy little “Quoddy” circle of eight members forms the nucleus around which, we trust, will collect a future legion of as interested members as are our present friends.——Another Pine-Tree state town, BROWNFIELD, has a circle reading its third year’s course. It would be difficult, they think, to find more enthusiastic workers.——On the southern point of the beautiful Moosehead Lake, in the town of GREENVILLE, a circle of “Plymouth Rocks” was founded in November, 1884. The class express increasing interest in their readings, and are confident of a large growth in numbers during the year. The “North Star” is the pretty name they have chosen for their circle.

NEW HAMPSHIRE sends two year-old circles to our columns this month. One from TILTON reorganized last fall with twenty-four members. They meet fortnightly and remember all the memorial days. May their name, “Winnipisaukee,” prove auspicious, and the “smile of the Great Spirit” be ever with them.——The “St. Paul” circle, which was organized in the fall of 1883, at MANCHESTER, N. H., but not reported to THE CHAUTAUQUAN, was reorganized last fall with a membership of thirty-seven. They have in the circle twenty-one of the class of ’88, while only five are of the class of ’87—a proof that the “Chautauqua Idea” is growing in favor. They prepare interesting programs consisting of essays, readings, talks, etc. Also, they use the “Chautauqua Songs,” and find them a great help.

The circle at PLAINFIELD, VERMONT, consists of fourteen hard working members and is in its first year. They find great enjoyment in their reading. Last November, the loss by death of one of their most active and loved members, Mrs. F. A. Drinell, threw a shadow over their circle, but they have persisted in their work.——To the numbers of pretty programs which have come to our table has been added a neatly painted one from RUTLAND, VT., a souvenir of the Milton Memorial Reception held by the “Alpha” branch of the C. L. S. C. This entertainment was very highly complimented by the local press.

A member of the “Mizpah” circle of NEW BEDFORD, MASS., pays a very high compliment to the character of that circle’s work. He writes that he has learned more of Greek history and literature in the four meetings which their circle had held when he wrote, than in all the time he gave last year to solitary study. Certainly the circle must be accomplishing its design of doing “solid work.” Nor are their numbers, though but six, a drawback. A small circle, if perfectly congenial, has some strong advantages.——Last month EAST WEYMOUTH, MASS., reported the circle which has had such a vigorous growth this year. Now we hear of a new circle in the sister city of SOUTH WEYMOUTH, and very soon we may hope to do something more than formally introduce our new friend.——The “Parker Hill” local circle, of BOSTON, organized in September, 1883, has become so much interested in the circles which month after month send their greetings and their suggestions to THE CHAUTAUQUAN’S columns, that it joins our number. Very glad we are to present it—the only circle, so far as we remember, composed entirely of young men. Thirteen of them form this club, all of them connected with the Highland Congregational Church, of which the Rev. A. E. Dunning, the honored president of the “Plymouth Rocks,” has been pastor. A particularly happy suggestion, it seems to us, is contained in a special feature of their program. They require each member to suggest at each meeting, in writing, some subject for the next meeting’s program. These suggestions being read by the president, the circle selects from them a sufficient number of topics to occupy the allotted time. The subjects are then assigned to the various members.——From two other Massachusetts circles come pleasant letters. One from CAPE COD says: “We call ourselves the ‘Seaside’ circle, and our name is very appropriate, for ‘the sea’ lies both east and south of us. We are located in the ‘elbow’ of the ‘right arm’ of Massachusetts, and scarce an hour in our lives passes that we do not feel the invigorating breezes of the Atlantic Ocean. At present we number fourteen regular and three local members, one ’85, four ’87s, and the rest ’88s. Our enthusiasm is great, and, as is the experience of every local circle, increases with every meeting.”——And another from FALMOUTH: “Our ‘Neptune’ circle is prosperously started this year with twenty-three active members. We are encouraged, as this is more than double our last year’s membership. We try to keep the line of study for each evening separate, one evening being devoted to science, another to Greek. Last week we took up the ‘Iliad,’ different members giving five-minute sketches of its gods and heroes. At other meetings we have had successful experiments in carbon and hydrogen. Our local badges bear the letters C. L. S. C., with the trident, the symbol of our circle.” With this letter the writer sends a bit of experience which is very interesting. “Last summer,” she writes, “while visiting the ‘Morning Star,’ as she lay at the wharf before starting on her noble life work, I found the C. L. S. C. books in the captain’s library. I never before so fully realized the bond of sympathy between Chautauquans. Mrs. Bray, the captain’s wife, told me that she and her husband belonged to the class of ’85. They take the readings together while far out on the deep.”

CONNECTICUT has a goodly array of items for the month. NORWICH sends us several of its capital programs; peculiarly attractive is the one for Milton’s Day.——BRISTOL reports a circle of twenty-four members, organized in October last, and boasts, most justly, of ten school teachers in its ranks. All the regular work arranged for circles they have been performing, and report most pleasant special meetings on Bryant and Milton Days.——WINSTED has sent us a New Year greeting. A happy circle they are, with their enormous membership of sixty-one members, and “not one lazy one in our ranks,” the secretary writes.——At NEW BRITAIN the Milton Day service was very pleasant. The professor of English literature in the State Normal School gave a talk on Milton, and the evening closed with a question match.

The plan of reviewing each work read has been adopted at BRISTOL, R. I. An unusually interesting review was prepared on the “Art of Speech.” The epitome which the writer gives of the opening chapter will not only be interesting, it may serve to disentangle some one’s ideas on the puzzling growth of English:

With Chapter first our toil begins,
’Tis like a penance for our sins
To try to read it over.
We read it once, we read it twice,
With close attention read it thrice,
Its meaning to discover.

We find, at last, that English speech
Through long succeeding years, doth reach
Back to primeval ages.
From Aryan root it sprang at first—
How long ago, tell us who durst—
And grew by easy stages.

Teutonic trunk and German branch
And Saxon twig grew strong and stanch,
And Norman foliage crowned it;
From Latin grafts it gained new strength
And from Greek scions, too, at length
Grew thrifty leaves around it.

The fruits upon the wondrous tree,
If we should test, we soon should see
Have many foreign flavors.
From Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese,
Italian, Indian, and Chinese,
Have they derived their savors.