the Chautauqua grounds became crowded, there was an annual "Camp
Fire," all the members in a great circle standing around a great bonfire
at night singing songs and listening to short speeches. These are only a
few of the social influences which make the C. L. S. C. more than merely
a list of readers. It is a brotherhood, a family bound together by a
common interest.
The opening day of the Chautauqua readings is October first. On that day
at noon, the members of the circle living at Chautauqua and others in
the adjacent towns meet at the Miller bell tower on the Point. As the
clock sounds out the hour of twelve all present grasp a long rope
connected with the bells and together pull it, over and over again,
sounding forth the signal that the Chautauqua year has begun. It is said
that every true Chautauquan the world over, from Mayville to Hong-Kong,
can hear the sound of that bell and at the summons open their books for
the year's reading.
In one of the earlier years we received at the office a letter from the
wife of an army officer stationed among the Indians, and far from any
settlement. She wrote that she was a hundred and twenty-five miles from
any other white woman, and felt keenly her loneliness. But on the day
when her bundle of C. L. S. C. books arrived, she clasped it to her
bosom and wept tears of joy over it, for she felt that she was no longer
alone, but one in a great company who were reading the same books and
thinking the same thoughts and enjoying one fellowship.
In one of the early classes was a young lady who, soon after sending in
her name, sailed for South Africa to become a teacher in a girl's
boarding-school. One day in the following June, when it was in the depth
of winter in South Africa,--for in south latitude our seasons are
reversed; they have a saying at the Cape "as hot as Christmas"--she came
to her classes arrayed in her very best apparel. The girls looked at her
in surprise and asked "Is this your birthday?"
"No," she answered, "but it is the Commencement Day at Chautauqua in
America, and everybody dresses up on that day!"
The thousands of readers in the Chautauqua fellowship naturally arranged
themselves in two classes. About half of them were reading by
themselves, individuals, each by himself or herself,--mostly herself,
for at least three-fourths of the members were women, and their average
age was about thirty years. The other half were united in groups, "local
circles," a
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