s henceforth known
as Miller Park.

The crowning event of the 1882 season was the graduation of the first
class in the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. Taking into
account the fact that it was the first class, for which no advertising
had been given and no announcement made in advance, the number graduated
at the end of the four years was remarkably large, over eighteen
hundred, of which eight hundred received their diplomas at Chautauqua
and a thousand more at their homes, some in distant places. Years
afterward I met a minister in a small town in Texas who had seen the
report of the inauguration of the C. L. S. C., had read Dr. Vincent's
address on that occasion, and joined the Class of 1882, its only member,
as far as he knew, in his State. One member was a teacher in South
Africa, others were missionaries in India and China. Most of the regular
visitors to Chautauqua in those early days were members of this class,
so that even now, after nearly forty years, the Pioneer Class can always
muster at its annual gatherings a larger number of its members than
almost any other of the classes. For many years Mrs. B. T. Vincent was
the President of the Class, and strongly interested in its social and
religious life. She instituted at Chautauqua the "Quiet Hour," held
every Saturday evening during the Assembly season, at Pioneer Hall, by
this class, a meeting for conversation on subjects of culture and the
Christian life. It is a touching sight to look upon that group of old
men and women, at their annual farewell meeting, on the evening before
the Recognition Day, standing in a circle with joined hands, singing
together their class song written for them by Mary A. Lathbury, and
then sounding forth their class yell:

Hear! Hear! Pioneers!
Height to height, fight for right,
Pioneers!
Who are you? Who are you?
We are the class of eighty-two!
Pioneers--Ah!

No college class was ever graduated with half the state and splendor of
ceremony that was observed on that first Recognition Day, in a ritual
prepared by Dr. Vincent, and observed to the letter every year since
1882. He chose to call it not a Commencement, but a Recognition, the
members of the Circle being _recognized_ on that day as having completed
the course and entitled to membership in the Society of the Hall in the
Grove, the Alumni Association of the C. L. S. C.

A procession was fo