scholars
of the age; Dr. A. A. Willetts, with his many times repeated, yet always
welcome lecture on "Sunshine," were among the men whose voices filled
the Amphitheater during the season. The Fisk Jubilee Singers were with
us again and Signor Giuseppe Vitale made the birds sing through his
wonderful violin.

The success of the C. L. S. C., which was widening its area every month,
inspired Dr. Vincent to look for new fields to conquer. He established
this year the C. Y. F. R. U., initials standing for The Chautauqua Young
Folks Reading Union, which proposed to do for the boys and girls what
the Reading Circle was accomplishing for men and women. But it was found
after a few years of trial that the school-age seeks its own reading and
is not responsive to direction in literature on a vast scale, for the C.
Y. F. R. U. was not successful in winning the young readers.

Another scheme launched this year met with the same fate;--The
Chautauqua School of Theology. It was thought that many ministers who
had not received a theological education would avail themselves of an
opportunity to obtain it while in the pastorate. This was to be not a
course of reading, but of close study, under qualified instruction in
each department, with examinations, a diploma, and a degree. But it
required more thorough study and much larger fees than a mere course of
reading, and those who needed it most were often the poorest paid in
their profession. It did not receive the support needful for its
success, it had no endowment, and after an experiment extending through
a number of years, it was reluctantly abandoned. Some of us have
believed that if the Chautauqua Correspondence School of Theology could
have found friends to give it even a moderate endowment, it might have
supplied an education needed by a multitude of ministers.

[Illustration: Unitarian Headquarters]

[Illustration: Episcopal Chapel]

The Hotel Athenaeum was opened in 1881 and speedily filled with guests.
It aided in bringing to Chautauqua a new constituency and also spurred
the cottage boarding-houses to improve their accommodations and their
fare. From the beginning the waiters and other helpers at the Hotel, and
also in the cottages, have been mostly young people seeking to obtain
higher education, and paying their way at Chautauqua by service. I
remember one morning finding a Hebrew book on my breakfast table. One
meets unaccustomed things at Chautauqua, but I was quite