History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 75

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649

USA > New York > Chautauqua County > History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I > Part 75

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The second stage marked the addition of various activity courses. The first three on the records hap- pened to be music, microscopy, and mineralogy. It would have amounted to the same thing if they had been birds, botany, and bookbinding ; the significance lay in the fact that two new kinds of work were being offered, science courses involving observation, and process courses de- manding proficiency in technique. It was an important step, though merely in keeping with the progress of the times, for it led eventually to the present inodest group of scientific subjects which can be well presented with the simple laboratory equipment available at Chautauqua, and the rich natural resources of the region; and it led further to the present departments of Library Training, Home Economics, Music, Arts and Crafts, Expression, Physical Education, and Practical (business) Arts.

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CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE

The third aspect of Summer Schools and all other educational work is only now developing, and at Chau- tauqua is developing rather slowly. This is the direct attempt to promote a sense of social responsibility. One reason, perhaps, why this has been hitherto neglect- ed in formal class room study at Chautauqua is that the aroma of social service is generally permeative there. It suffuses the headquarters of the Department of Re- ligious Work, it is wafted from the public platform in scores of sermons and addresses, and it is perceptible in the whole atmosphere of the City in the Woods, which is itself a vastly interesting social laboratory.

Thus the Summer School idea, undertaken very early at Chautauqua, has been adopted as widely in the col- leges as the Summer Assembly idea-which has con- verted Chautauqua to a common noun-has been adopted by the local uplifters and the enterprising bureau man- agers. And the evident reason is that both ideas are fundamentally sensible. The colleges recognize now that there are other adults than their own graduates who can get some good out of college courses, that if there is any virtue in the use of the margin, the first of all to be used is the wide expense of summer, that the teacher in particular can gain more literal recreation by spending some of the vacation in the class room than by dedicating it all to the front porch.

Furthermore, the Summer School idea is so practical and sound that nothing but its wide adoption has saved Chautauqua from being utterly overwhelmed by over- patronage. Rapid as have been the establishment of new schools and the growth of the old ones, Chautauqua has grown along with them. Permanent plants, libraries, and laboratories have given the colleges certain ad- vantages that Chautauqua has always recognized; but as their superior equipment has logically confined cer- tain kinds of advanced work to them, Chautauqua's superior flexibility has led to the experiments in new fields which have more than once led to further exten- sion of college enterprise. There is little rivalry; only cooperation and parallel endeavor; and to any one with a bit of experience and some imagination it is perfectly clear that there are more things for the Summer Schools in the next generation than are dreamed of at present. Garfield said at Chautauqua in 1880:

"The American people are gaining leisure; upon their use of this leisure the future of the nation will depend." For the employment of this margin Chau- tauqua proposed a plan-the famous Home Reading Circle. The time was propitious. Thousands felt the need of personal culture; the idea of organized read- ing groups made a strong appeal. There were in those days no books written for such readers; no cheap popular magazines. Chautauqua created a new type of text-book and manual, and founded a periodical which sold for $1.50. Thousands joined the society. Edward Everett Hale and Lyman Abbott were members of the Advisory Board. William Cullen Bryant wrote a let- ter of greeting and good will. A ritual of graduation was devised. Diplomas with spaces for scores of "seals"-records of continued reading-were awarded after a four-years' course. The plan was imitated in Great Britain in the British Home Reading Union; branches were established in Japan and South Africa. Chautauqua preached the gospel of education as a process of personal growth; insisted that all education is self-education and that for ambitious pepole "edu- cation ends only with life."

The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle was organized August 12, 1878, by Bishop John H. Vincent. Its aim was "to promote habits of reading and study in nature, art, science, and in secular and sacred liter- ature, in connection with the routine of daily life, es- pecially among those whose educational advantages have been limited, so as to secure to them the college stu- dent's general outlook upon the world and life, and to develop the habit of close, connected, persistent think-

ing." The course was planned to cover four years, and the methods proposed were "to encourage individual study in lines and by text-books which shall be indi- cated; by local circles for mutual help and encourage- ment in such studies ; by summer courses of lectures and students' sessions at Chautauqua, and by reports and examinations."

Since 1878, forty-four C. L. S. C. classes (1882 to 1925) have enrolled in all over 300,000 members, and it is safe to say that more than three-quarters of a million people have read the Chautauqua course. The class of 1884 had 4,000 graduates. Thousands of these readers have kept up with the studies for many years after finishing their four years' course. The membership has extended to every part of the United States and to nearly every foreign land. It has been the inspiration of similar movements for popular education in England, Australia, Japan, and South Africa.

The four years' course aims to give in a broad sense the "college outlook," languages and the exact labora- tory sciences being of necessity excluded. The subjects of the four years comprise in general an "English Year," an "American Year," a "Continental European Year," and a "Classical Year." The required readings for each year include four books and a news-narrative de- partment in "The Independent." A monthly bulletin, "The Round Table," supplies the "teacher" element as far as seems necessary, giving assignments of reading for those who care to adopt a schedule, supplementary book lists, side-lights on the lessons of the month, pro- grams for circles, hints for individual work, and re- ports from readers. The blank "Memoranda" furnished to each member contains review questions on the year's work. No examinations are required, but written re- views are recognized by seals placed upon the diploma.

Many thousands of C. L. S. C. members read alone. Thousands more form circles and meet periodically with others for mutual help. These circles are of all types, varying in numbers from three to one hundred or more members. Many hold informal meetings with very flex- ible requirements, others effect a simple organization, assign duties to the various members and carry out a carefully prepared program of reviews, readings, reports, debates, etc. Circles meet in private houses, in churches, schools, public libraries, Y. M. C. A.s, hotel parlors, etc., as convenience suggests. The circle often renders ser- vice to the community by public lectures or vesper ser- vices and occasional open meetings, or by helping to build up a local library or other educational enterprise. In many towns, the C. L. S. C. graduates are organized into a "Society of the Hall in the Grove," which en- courages the enrollment of new members. Many of these live in towns and villages, but are prevented by circumstances from joining a circle. Others are to be found in isolated communities, on ranches, in mining camps, at army posts, on the high seas, in foreign lands, etc. The relation of each member to the Central Office is the same, whether the work is done alone or in a Circle. Many members pursue the four years' course and graduate without having seen a fellow Chautauquan.

Every C. L. S. C. member upon graduation becomes a member of the Society of the Hall in the Grove. Dur- ing the four years he may have earned seals for his diploma by supplementary readings, or by filling our re- view papers. Four seals upon the diploma entitle a graduate to membership in the Order of the White Seal, seven to the League of the Round Table, fourteen to the Guild of the Seven Seals. The Inner Circle is the highest order, including those who have forty-nine seals. A graduate may add seals to his diploma by continuing with the regular course, which is never two years alike,

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or by taking special courses. A large number of these are provided by the C. L. S. C. for graduates or other persons wishing to take up the study of particular sub- jects. These courses include travel, history, literature, science, and art. They are given in detail in the C. L. S. C. Special Course Handbook.

The membership of the C. L. S. C. includes persons of a variety of callings. Professional men and women find the four years' course a stimulating review of college topics considered in the light of recent progress ; min- isters and other college-trained men frequently lend their aid as leaders of local Circles. Men and women who have been denied college, and often high-school training, are ahle to gain a broad outlook upon the world of larger ideals, and to bring themselves into sympathy with the young generation of college students. Isolated readers on ranches. at military posts, and in foreign lands are stimulated by the sense of companionship in reading. Club women find the suggestively arranged courses invaluable for study purposes. Young people are enahled to escape from the drifting habit, teachers to enlarge their thinking beyond the routine of school work, and young business men to use the little margins of time at their command in systematic rather than haphazard reading.

The center of the C. L. S. C. is the Hall of Philosophy in St. Paul's Grove at Chautauqua, N. Y. The Grove was dedicated to the C. L. S. C., August 19, 1878, and the Hall erected in 1879. The new Hall, a permanent struc- ture on the same general plan as the earlier building, replaced it in 1906. The C. L. S. C. Round Tables and other exercises, and the ceremonies of Recognition Day when the graduating class is "Recognized" by the Chancellor, have been held here from the first. Other activities of the C. L. S. C. at Chautauqua include Rally Day exercises in the Amphitheater. C. L. S. C. Councils for informal discussions of the work, and class gather- ings. Meetings of C. L. S. C. classes are usually held in Alumni Hall.

Chautauqua asserts that education is not a thing apart from everyday life. Conventional schooling takes up a comparatively small part of the lifetime of most people. In ways of making life out-of-school educational, utiliz- ing the intellectual discipline which the experience of living guarantees to thoughtful people, Chautauqua's unconventional contributions to American educational methods have been unique and permanent.

Chautauqua successfully attacked the superstition that one can be too old to learn, decades before the modern psychologists declared that one of the greatest dangers to the race was mental arrest or stagnation after school age has been past. Research specialists now assure us that the cells of the brain most concerned with mental life keep on growing until at least the age of sixty- three and probably to the very end of life. They tabulate data showing that sixty-four per cent. of the greatest work of 400 of the world's greatest men was done after their sixtieth year. Chautauqua supplies educational facilities. long neglected by conventional systems, for father and mother at home, because the family is still most important among our educational institutions. Pub- lie library service is prepared for by teaching people how to use books to advantage.

Chautauqua circles, in city, town, and country, have had years of experience in so-called social center activi- ties and continuation school work for adults. the re- sults of which are serviceable to conventional school authorities today. Must the school be "a place in which all the people shall bathe. read, dance, bake and vote?" The line is not easy to draw between what may be advantageously incorporated in the school system and

what may be better handled by other educational agencies. Certain it is that an increasing measure of guidance or supervision of adult education from the State university down to the public school is the educa- tional trend of the times, even at the sacrifice of some academic conventionalism.

Chautauqua has been dominated by a religious spirit at the same time that it has avoided sectarian strife and theological narrowness. The Institution has stood for a conception of religion which includes all the essential elements of a well-rounded life, intellectual integrity, moral earnestness, appreciation of beauty and above all a social solidarity and obligation of service. Chau- tauqua has played an important part in breaking down the barriers between churches, in promoting tolerance and good will, and in shifting the emphasis from a per- sonal, individualistic salvation to the concept of "The World the Subject of Redemption," from the idea of the Kingdom of God as a remote society in another world to that of a social order to be realized in this. In proposing the erection of the Hall of Christ, Bishop Vincent said :

"It is in the recognition of this large and noble thought that I have proposed the erection of a new building at Chautauqua, to be called 'The Hall of Christ,' a building of appropriate architecture, devoted exclusively to the study of the Man of Nazareth, in which every day, at all hours, there shall be, under most skilful direction, courses of study in the life, words, deeds, spirit, and results of his life who 'spake In as never man spake,' and 'who went about doing good.' whose 'name is above every name that is named.' this hall it is proposed to collect all engravings of Christ which the art of the ages puts within our reach, and a library of all the lives of Christ which have ever been written. It shall be a memorial hall with his- toric windows following the general design of the ar- tist so that they shall present in chronological order the events of that holiest of all lives, and, at the same time, each window may become a memorial window for families choosing to place at Chautauqua lasting souvenirs of departed friends. In this hall there shall be devotional services of that high quality in which true art and the noblest thought are consecrated to the most spiritual devotion. Thus shall the central building of Chautauqua symbolize to the world the controlling aim and force of all her diverse min- istries."

Chautauqua Institution is chartered by the State of New York as an institution without any element of private profit. There is no stock and consequently there are no dividends. The board of twenty-four trustees serves without compensation. Every cent of profit must by the charter go into the improvement of the plant and the development of the educational resources of the Institution. A permanent community has been built up at Chautauqua. New York, equipped with all modern conveniences and capable of housing under conditions of safety, convenience, and healthfulness, 15,000 to 18,000 people. The Institution owns and operates all the municipal services pertaining to Chautauqua, such as water works, electric light plant, telephone service, sew- age system, dock facilities, and water front privileges. It is the owner of all public buildings, except denomina- tional houses. It owns the fee of 331 acres of land which together with buildings, equipment and personal property are worth on most conservative estimates over $1,250,000.

We are familiar with the college which possesses campus, buildings, and equipment ; we are accustomed to think of a university possessing State lands, a medical school here, an observatory there, a technical plant elsewhere ; we shall not understand the physical Chau- tauqua until we realize that for educational work in its field the analogy to college and university administra- tion must be extended through adaptation, so that Chau-

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tauqua Institution for its purposes shall control the town, conduct the various educational departments, and execute the trust imposed upon it by endowment in vari- ous forms.

Chautauqua is not a commercial enterprise. It is not a stock company. It is an educational institution char- tered by the State of New York "to promote the intel- lectual, social, physical, moral, and religious welfare of the people. To this end it may hold meetings and pro- vide for recreation, instruction, health, and comfort on its grounds at Chautauqua ; conduct schools and classes ; maintain libraries, museums, reading and study clubs, and other agencies for home education; publish books and serials, and do such other things as are needful or proper to further its general purpose." The charter here quoted dates from March, 1902, under which the official name became Chautauqua Institution, and the administration of all departments was organized upon the present efficient basis.

Nobody owns Chautauqua in the commercial sense. It pays only that kind of dividend which school and college pay in the education of individuals. That edu- cational institution would be a marvel whose student fees began to cover running expenses. So at Chau- tauqua your gate-ticket form of tuition fee, for ex- ample, will give you choice of approximately three hun- dred public exercises during a season at an average of five cents each. For special classes, clubs, or the home reading courses you will pay additional fees, but ob- viously revenues for the support of Chautauqua work must come from leases of lots, municipal services, con- cessions, boarding licenses, etc., these in turn being sup- plemented by endowment in the form of individual services, contributed buildings and equipment, special funds, and general endowment.

Chautauqua is a centralized institution. Authority vested in the trustees is delegated through the Execu- tive Board and the President to certain officers who are responsible each for his department. This system secures a unity of administration vital to the success of the whole system. Chautauqua is an educational institution, not a self-governing community. If citizens were free to conduct business, hold meetings, etc., as they saw fit, the unity and stability of the Institution would dis- appear. Only, however, as the administration wins, in general, the support of public opinion, can it do its work effectively. It is an institutional town managed by trustees who provide for the summer session the op- portunity of participating in a community life where persons are exceptionally free to devote their time and energies to the higher planes of living and thinking. To this end you discover that the Institution protects the visitor within the gates by such regulations as ex- perience has shown to be advisable. The place is pre- pared for every member of the family and each is free to associate with his fellows on lines of common social and intellectual interests.

The Institution assumes all the ordinary and some extraordinary services of town administration, imposed upon it by the special purposes of the place; fire and health protection ; road-making and street cleaning ; sewage, light, and water systems; telephone system; telegraph, baggage, express, and freight facilities ; main- tenance of public buildings, building regulations, inspec- tion and regulation of concessions necessary to supply the physical wants of the community. The Institution provides a continuous lyceum, a clearing house of ideas and program of entertainments throughout the season, and this daily program open to all within the gates has been Chautauqua's most spectacular attraction from season to season.

The customs of Chautauqua are the reasonable out- growth of the life and ideals of the summer city. The Institution offers a general scheme of life and welcome all to whom this appeals. Joining the community, therefore, implies an obligation of courteous conformity and co-operation. To those who cannot adapt them- selves cheerfully to this situation as a whole, Chau- tauqua frankly and with all good-will points out hun- dreds of other summer centers with possibly more con- genial ideals and activities.

In all the details of the social and intellectual life of Chautauqua the attempt is consistently made to do away with even the slightest suggestions of a privilege system. The necessary restrictions which are laid upon the com- munity are placed upon all residing within the limits of Chautauqua, from the highest officers and most dis- tinguished visitors to the youngest and least experienced citizens. All persons passing the gates in either direc- tion present credentials. All Chautauquans observe the necessity of quiet at the close of the evening. No Chau- tauquans are treated with personal discrimination in the issuance of Sunday passes. Further than this, in the courtesies of the audience room and street the members of the community have come to regard their mutual rights. No seats are reserved at popular lectures and concerts for late-coming friends. And while the natural deference due to age or physical frailties prevails, the urging of special claims has come to be a matter of rare occurrence. In brief, the spirit of Chautauqua is es- sentially democratic. Moreover the sentiment of the community is distinctly opposed to putting emphasis, by means of elaborate dress or social formalities or ex- pensive entertainments, on distinctions of wealth or position.

Chautauqua has been called a veritable "children's paradise," for nature has provided a never-failing won- derland, and the protected conditions of living within the grounds guarantee unusual safety for a free child life. Children are more than welcome at Chautauqua, they are not liable to harmful companionships, and elaborate provision is made for directing their activi- ties. There are sand piles and wading beaches and playgrounds for the tiny children. Kindergarten classes were established as early as 1885. The nursery kinder- garten will take care of children under four during morning and afternoon periods; ten trained kinder- gartners compose the faculty of the Summer kinder- garten for children up to seven years of age. The Boys' and Girls' Clubs have each buildings of their own with a carefully planned day of recreation and study and out- of-door life. For the boys and girls a little older there are the Junior Athletic Club and Young Woman's Club. Under such guidance both indoor and outdoor experi- ences at Chautauqua educate and delight.

What is true of the children is also true of all of the people upon the grounds. Provision is made for every group large enough to have its own social consciousness. A Woman's Club meets daily under the presidency of Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker, formerly president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, composed of women from every State of the Union and reaching a membership in 1920 of two thousand. The Men's Club has its own club house on the lake front. A mere list of the various organizations which have their own stated times of meeting shows the wide variety of interest rep- resented during a summer season : Choir, Men's Club. Women's Club, Athletic Club, Golf Club, Boys' Club. Girls' Club, Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, Bird and Tree Club, Masonic Club, Order of the East- ern Star, Daughters of the American Revolution, Law- yers' Club, Press Club, Young Woman's Club, Chau-

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Naturally an institution established for so many years and having so many personal relationships has built up a great body of traditions. Many of these are unique. On the first Tuesday in August of each year are held the anniversary services of the founding of the Institution, on an occasion which is known as Old First Night. It is on this one single occasion during the entire summer that gifts are sought.

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History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people, Volume I, Part 75

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc. Number of Pages: 649

Author: Downs, John Phillips, 1853- ed. [from old catalog]; Hedley, Fenwick, Y., joint ed. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1921
Publisher: Boston, New York [etc.] American historical society, inc.
Number of Pages: 649