f
each year when he spoke in the platform and the subjects of his
addresses, there would be room in our record for few other lecturers. He
was present at the opening session in 1874, and at almost every session
afterward for more than forty years,--aggressive in debate,
instantaneous in repartee, marvelous in memory of faces and facts, and
ready to speak upon the widest range of subjects. Every year, Dr.
Buckley held a question-drawer, and few were the queries that he could
not answer; although in an emergency he might dodge a difficulty by
telling a story. For many years he was the editor of the _Christian
Advocate_ in New York, known among Methodists as the "Great Official";
and he made his paper the champion of conservatism, for he was always
ready to break a lance in behalf of orthodox belief or the Methodist
system. Another speaker this year was Dr. P. S. Henson, a Baptist pastor
successively in Philadelphia, in Chicago, and in Boston, but by no means
limited to one parish in his ministry. He spoke under many titles, but
most popularly on "Fools," and "The Golden Calf," and he knew how to
mingle wisdom and wit in just proportions. Abundant as were his
resources in the pulpit and on the platform, some of us who sat with him
at the table or on a fallen tree in the forest, thought that he was even
richer and more delightful, as well as sagacious in his conversation.
Dr. Charles F. Deems, pastor of the Church of the Stranger in New York,
also came to Chautauqua for the first time this year. He was at home
equally in theology, in science, and on the questions of the day, with a
remarkable power of making truth seemingly abstruse simple to common
people. I recall a lecture on a scientific subject, at which he saw on
the front seat two boys, and he made it his business to address those
boys and simplify his message seemingly for them while in reality for
his entire audience. But we cannot even name the speakers who gave
interest to the program of 1877.

One event of that season, however, must not be omitted, for it became
the origin of one noteworthy Chautauqua custom. Mr. S. L. Greene, from
Ontario, Canada, a deaf-mute, gave an address before a great audience in
the Auditorium under the trees. He spoke in the sign-language, telling
several stories from the gospels; and so striking were his silent
symbols that everyone could see the picture. We were especially struck
with his vivid representation of Christ stilling the te