Chapter I: Preface: Why and Wherefore

AN ancient writer--I forget his name--declared that in one of the city-states of Greece there was the rule that when any citizen proposed a new law or the repeal of an old one, he should come to the popular assembly with a rope around his neck, and if his proposition failed of adoption, he was to be immediately hanged. It is said that amendments to the constitution of that state were rarely presented, and the people managed to live under a few time-honored laws. It is possible that some such drastic treatment may yet be meted out to authors--and perhaps to publishers--as a last resort to check the flood of useless literature. To anticipate this impending constitutional amendment, it is incumbent upon every writer of a book to show that his work is needed by the world, and this I propose to do in these prefatory pages.

Is Chautauqua great enough, original enough, sufficiently beneficial to the world to have its history written? We will not accept the votes of the thousands who beside the lake, in the Hall of Philosophy, or under the roof of the amphitheater, have been inoculated with the Chautauqua spirit. We will seek for the testimony of sane, intelligent, and thoughtful people, and we will be guided in our conclusions by their opinions. Let us listen to the words of the wise and then determine whether a book about Chautauqua should be published. We have the utterances by word of mouth and the written statements of public men, governors, senators, presidents; of educators, professors, and college presidents; of preachers and ecclesiastics in many churches; of speakers upon many platforms; of authors whose works are read everywhere; and we present their testimonials as a sufficient warrant for the preparation and publication of _The Story of Chautauqua_.

The Hon. George W. Atkinson, Governor of West Virginia, visited Chautauqua in 1899, and in his Recognition Day address on "Modern Educational Requirements" spoke as follows:

It (Chautauqua) is the common people's College,
and its courses of instruction are so admirably
arranged that it somehow induces the toiling
millions to voluntarily grapple with all subjects
and with all knowledge.

My Chautauqua courses have taught me that what we
need most is only so much knowledge as we can
assimilate and organize into a basis for action;
for if more be given it may become injurious.

Chautauqua is doing more to nourish the intellects
of the masses than any other system of education
extant; except the public schools of the common
country.

Here is the testimony of ex-Governor Adolph O. Eberhardt of Minnesota:

If I had the choice of being the founder of any
great movement the world has ever known, I would
choose the Chautauqua movement.

The Hon. William Jennings Bryan, from the point of view of a speaker upon many Chautauqua platforms, wrote:

The privilege and opportunity of addressing from
one to seven or eight thousand of his fellow
Americans in the Chautauqua frame of mind, in the
mood which almost as clearly asserts itself under
the tent or amphitheater as does reverence under
the "dim, religious light"--this privilege and
this opportunity is one of the greatest that any
patriotic American could ask. It makes of him, if
he knows it and can rise to its requirements, a
potent human factor in molding the mind of the
nation.

Viscount James Bryce, Ambassador of Great Britain to the United States, and author of _The American Commonwealth_, the most illuminating work ever written on the American system of government, said, while visiting Chautauqua:

I do not think any country in the world but
America could produce such gatherings as
Chautauqua's.

Six presidents of the United States have thought it worth while to visit Chautauqua, either before, or during, or after their term of office. These were Grant, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft. Theodore Roosevelt was at Chautauqua four times. He said on his last visit, in 1905, "Chautauqua is the most American thing in America"; and also:

This Chautauqua has made the name Chautauqua a
name of a multitude of gatherings all over the
Union, and there is probably no other educational
influence in the country quite so fraught with
hope for the future of the nation as this and the
movement of which it is the archtype.

Let us see what some journalists and writers have said about Chautauqua. Here is the opinion of Dr. Lyman Abbott, editor of _The Outlook_, and a leader of thought in our time:

Chautauqua has inspired the habit of reading with
a purpose. It is really not much use to read,
except as an occasional recreation, unless the
reading inspires one to think his own thoughts, or
at least make the writer's thoughts his own.
Reading without reflection, like eating without
digestion, produces dyspepsia. The influence and
guidance of Chautauqua will long be needed in
America.

The religious influence of Chautauqua has been not
less valuable. Chautauqua has met the restless
questioning of the age in the only way in which it
can be successfully met, by converting it into a
serious seeking for rest in truth.

Dr. Edwin E. Slosson, formerly professor in Columbia University, now literary editor of the _Independent_, wrote in that paper:

If I were a cartoonist, I should symbolize
Chautauqua by a tall Greek goddess, a sylvan
goddess with leaves in her hair--not vine leaves,
but oak, and tearing open the bars of a cage
wherein had been confined a bird, say an owl,
labeled "Learning." For that is what Chautauqua
has done for the world--it has let learning loose.

From the American _Review of Reviews_, July, 1914:

The president of a large technical school is
quoted as having said that ten per cent. of the
students in the institution over which he presides
owe their presence to Chautauqua influence. A talk
on civic beauty or sanitation by an expert from
the Chautauqua platform often results in bringing
these matters to local attention for the first
time.

Here is an extract from _The World To-day_:

Old-time politics is dead in the States of the
Middle West. The torchlight parade, the gasoline
lamps, and the street orator draw but little
attention. The "Republican Rally" in the
court-house and the "Democratic Barbecue" in the
grove have lost their potency. People turn to the
Chautauquas to be taught politics along with
domestic science, hygiene, and child-welfare.

Mr. John Graham Brooks, lecturer on historical, political, and social subjects, author of works widely circulated and highly esteemed, has given courses of lectures at Chautauqua, and has expressed his estimate in these words:

After close observation of the work at Chautauqua,
and at other points in the country where its
affiliated work goes on, I can say with confidence
that it is among the most enlightening of our
educational agencies in the United States.

Dr. A. V. V. Raymond, while President of Union College in New York State, gave this testimony:

Chautauqua has its own place in the educational
world, a place as honorable as it is distinctive;
and those of us who are laboring in other fields,
by other methods, have only admiration and praise
for the great work which has made Chautauqua in
the best sense a household word throughout the
land.

Mr. Edward Howard Griggs, who is in greater demand than almost any other lecturer on literary and historical themes, in his Recognition Day address, in 1904, on "Culture Through Vocation," said as follows:

The Chautauqua movement as conceived by its
leaders is a great movement for cultivating an
avocation apart from the main business of life,
not only giving larger vision, better intellectual
training, but giving more earnest desire and
greater ability to serve and grow through the
vocation.

This from Dr. William T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education:

Think of one hundred thousand persons of mature
age following up a well-selected course of reading
for four years in science and literature, kindling
their torches at a central flame! Think of the
millions of friends and neighbors of this hundred
thousand made to hear of the new ideas and of the
inspirations that result to the workers!

It is a part of the great missionary movement that
began with Christianity and moves onward with
Christian civilization.

I congratulate all members of Chautauqua Reading
Circles on their connection with this great
movement which has begun under such favorable
auspices and has spread so widely, is already
world-historical, and is destined to unfold so
many new phases.

Prof. Albert S. Cook, of Yale University, wrote in _The Forum_:

As nearly as I can formulate it, the Chautauqua
Idea is something like this: A fraternal,
enthusiastic, methodical, and sustained attempt to
elevate, enrich, and inspire the individual life
in its entirety, by an appeal to the curiosity,
hopefulness, and ambition of those who would
otherwise be debarred from the greatest
opportunities of culture and spiritual
advancement. To this end, all uplifting and
stimulating forces, whether secular or religious,
are made to conspire in their impact upon the
person whose weal is sought. . . . Can we wonder
that Chautauqua is a sacred and blessed name to
multitudes of Americans?

The late Principal A. M. Fairbairn, of Mansfield College, Oxford, foremost among the thinkers of the last generation, gave many lectures at Chautauqua, and expressed himself thus:

The C. L. S. C. movement seems to me the most
admirable and efficient organization for the
direction of reading, and in the best sense for
popular instruction. To direct the reading for a
period of years for so many thousands is to affect
not only their present culture, but to increase
their intellectual activity for the period of
their natural lives, and thus, among other things,
greatly to add to the range of their enjoyment. It
appears to me that a system which can create such
excellent results merits the most cordial praise
from all lovers of men.

Colonel Francis W. Parker, Superintendent of Schools, first at Quincy, Mass., and later at Chicago, one of the leading educators of the land, gave this testimony, after his visit to Chautauqua:

The New York Chautauqua--father and mother of all
the other Chautauquas in the country--is one of
the great institutions founded in the nineteenth
century. It is essentially a school for the
people.

Prof. Hjalmar H. Boyesen, of Columbia University, wrote:

Nowhere else have I had such a vivid sense of
contact with what is really and truly American.
The national physiognomy was defined to me as
never before; and I saw that it was not only
instinct with intelligence, earnestness, and
indefatigable aspiration, but that it revealed a
strong affinity for all that makes for
righteousness and the elevation of the race. The
confident optimism regarding the future which this
discovery fostered was not the least boon I
carried away with me from Chautauqua.

Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, President of Wellesley College, expressed this opinion in a lecture at Chautauqua:

I could say nothing better than to say over and
over again the great truths Chautauqua has taught
to everyone, that if you have a rounded, completed
education you have put yourselves in relation with
all the past, with all the great life of the
present; you have reached on to the infinite hope
of the future.

I venture to say there is no man or woman
educating himself or herself through Chautauqua
who will not feel more and more the opportunity of
the present moment in a present world.

The character of Chautauqua's training has been
that she has made us wiser than we were about
things that last.

Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, author of _In His Steps_, a story of which three million copies were sold, said:

During the past two years I have met nearly a
million people from the platform, and no audiences
have impressed me as have the Chautauqua people
for earnestness, deep purpose, and an honest
desire to face and work out the great issues of
American life.

This is from the Rev. Robert Stuart MacArthur, the eminent Baptist preacher:

I regard the Chautauqua Idea as one of the most
important ideas of the hour. This idea, when
properly utilized, gives us a "college at home."
It is a genuine inspiration toward culture,
patriotism, and religion. The general adoption of
this course for a generation would give us a new
America in all that is noblest in culture and
character.

Dr. Edward Everett Hale, of Boston, Chaplain of the United States Senate, in his _Tarry At Home Travels_, wrote:

If you have not spent a week at Chautauqua, you do
not know your own country. There, and in no other
place known to me, do you meet Baddeck and
Newfoundland and Florida and Tiajuara at the same
table; and there you are of one heart and one soul
with the forty thousand people who will drift in
and out--people all of them who believe in God and
their country.

More than a generation ago, the name of Joseph Cook was known throughout the continent as a thinker, a writer, and a lecturer. This is what he wrote of Chautauqua:

I keep Chautauqua in a fireside nook of my inmost
affections and prayers. God bless the Literary and
Scientific Circle, which is so marvelously
successful already in spreading itself as a young
vine over the trellis-work of many lands! What
rich clusters may ultimately hang on its
cosmopolitan branches! It is the glory of America
that it believes that all that anybody knows
everybody should know.

Phillips Brooks, perhaps the greatest of American preachers, spoke as follows in a lecture on "Literature and Life":

May we not believe--if the students of Chautauqua
be indeed what we have every right to expect that
they will be, men and women thoroughly and
healthily alive through their perpetual contact
with the facts of life--that when they take the
books which have the knowledge in them, like pure
water in silver urns, though they will not drink
as deeply, they will drink more healthily than
many of those who in the deader and more
artificial life of college halls bring no such
eager vitality to give value to their draught? If
I understand Chautauqua, this is what it means: It
finds its value in the vitality of its
students. . . . It summons those who are alive with
true human hunger to come and learn of that great
world of knowledge of which he who knows the most
knows such a very little, and feels more and more,
with every increase of his knowledge, how very
little it is that he knows.

Julia Ward Howe, author of the song beginning "Mine eyes have seen the glory," and honored throughout the land as one of the greatest among the women of America, wrote as follows:

I am obliged for your kind invitation to be
present at the celebration of the twenty-fifth
anniversary of the founding of Chautauqua
Assembly. As I cannot well allow myself this
pleasure, I send you my hearty congratulations in
view of the honorable record of your association.
May its good work long continue, even until its
leaven shall leaven the whole body of our society.

The following letter was received by Dr. Vincent from one of the most distinguished of the older poets:

April 29, 1882.

J. H. VINCENT, D.D.,

DEAR FRIEND: I have been watching the progress of
the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
inaugurated by thyself, and take some blame to
myself for not sooner expressing my satisfaction
in regard to its objects and working thus far. I
wish it abundant success, and that its circles,
like those from the agitated center of the Lake,
may widen out, until our entire country shall feel
their beneficent influences. I am very truly thy
friend,

JOHN G. WHITTIER.

After these endorsements, we may confidently affirm that a book on Chautauqua, its story, its principles, and its influence in the world, is warranted.

And now, a few words of explanation as to this particular book. The tendency in preparing such a work is to make it documentary, the recital of programs, speakers, and subjects. In order to lighten up the pages, I have sought to tell the story of small things as well as great, the witty as well as the wise words spoken, the record of by-play and repartee upon the platform, in those days when Chautauqua speakers were a fraternity. In fact, the title by which the body of workers was known among its members was "the Gang." Some of these stories are worth preserving, and I have tried to recall and retain them in these pages.

JESSE LYMAN HURLBUT.

Feb. 1, 1921.

CONTENTS

PAGE
PREFACE vii
CHAPTER
I.--THE PLACE 3
II.--THE FOUNDERS 11
III.--SOME PRIMAL PRINCIPLES 27
IV.--THE BEGINNINGS 38
V.--THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT 63
VI.--THE NATIONAL CENTENNIAL YEAR 72
VII.--A NEW NAME AND NEW FACES 93
VIII.--THE CHAUTAUQUA READING CIRCLE 116
IX.--CHAUTAUQUA ALL THE YEAR 141
X.--THE SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES 160
XI.--HOTELS, HEADQUARTERS, AND HANDSHAKING (1880) 172
XII.--DEMOCRACY AND ARISTOCRACY AT CHAUTAUQUA (1881) 187
XIII.--THE FIRST RECOGNITION DAY (1882) 196
XIV.--SOME STORIES OF THE C. L. S. C. (1883, 1884) 209
XV.--THE CHAPLAIN'S LEG AND OTHER TRUE TALES (1885-1888) 224
XVI.--A NEW LEAF IN LUKE'S GOSPEL (1889-1892) 239
XVII.--CLUB LIFE AT CHAUTAUQUA (1893-1896) 253
XVIII.--ROUNDING OUT THE OLD CENTURY (1897-1900) 271
XIX.--OPENING THE NEW CENTURY (1901-1904) 283
XX.--PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT AT CHAUTAUQUA (1905-1908) 295
XXI.--THE PAGEANT OF THE PAST (1909-1912) 308
XXII.--WAR CLOUDS AND WAR DRUMS (1913-1916) 321
XXIII.--WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH (1917-1920) 338
XXIV.--CHAUTAUQUA'S ELDER DAUGHTERS 361
XXV.--YOUNGER DAUGHTERS OF CHAUTAUQUA 385
APPENDIX 395
INDEX 420

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
LEWIS MILLER _Facing title-page_
JOHN H. VINCENT 4
STEAMER IN THE OUTLET 8
OLD BUSINESS BLOCK 16
OLD AMPHITHEATER 24
OLD AUDITORIUM 24
OLD GUEST HOUSE "THE ARK" 32
OLD CHILDREN'S TEMPLE 32
LEWIS MILLER COTTAGE 40
BISHOP VINCENT'S TENT 40
OLD STEAMER "JAMESTOWN" 50
ORIENTAL HOUSE 50
PALESTINE PARK 60
TENT LIFE 60
SPOUTING TREE 70
RUSTIC BRIDGE 76
AMPHITHEATER AUDIENCE 84
OLD PALACE HOTEL, ETC. 92
OLD HALL OF PHILOSOPHY 100
THE GOLDEN GATE 100
FLOWER GIRLS (2 pictures) 116
PIONEER HALL 122
OLD COLLEGE BUILDING 122
C.L.S.C. ALUMNI HALL 130
CHAUTAUQUA BOOK STORE 140
HALL OF THE CHRIST 150
HALL OF PHILOSOPHY, ENTRANCE 150
CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE 160
FENTON MEMORIAL 160
BAPTIST HEADQUARTERS AND MISSION HOUSE 170
PRESBYTERIAN HEADQUARTERS AND MISSION HOUSE 170
METHODIST HEADQUARTERS 180
DISCIPLES HEADQUARTERS 180
UNITARIAN HEADQUARTERS 190
EPISCOPAL CHAPEL 190
LUTHERAN HEADQUARTERS 200
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHAPEL 200
SOUTH RAVINE 220
MUSCALLONGE 220
JACOB BOLIN GYMNASIUM 220
ATHLETIC CLUB 230
BOYS' CLUB HEADED FOR CAMP 230
WOMAN'S CLUB HOUSE 240
RUSTIC BRIDGE 240
POST OFFICE BUILDING 250
BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION 250
GOLF COURSE 260
SHERWOOD MEMORIAL 260
TRACTION STATION 260
ARTS AND CRAFTS BUILDING 270
MILLER BELL TOWER 270
SOUTH GYMNASIUM 280
A CORNER OF THE PLAYGROUND 290

The Story of Chautauqua