Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon, Dr.
Charles F. Aked, then of England, but soon to become an American,
Professor F. G. Peabody, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, soon afterward the
President of Columbia University, and Dr. Russell H. Conwell. A lady
appeared on the platform whose experience had been unlike that of any
other woman in the land. This was Mrs. Robert E. Peary, who accompanied
her husband on one of his North Pole explorations and had a daughter
born within the polar circle--"The snow baby," as she was called. She
gave a lecture with stereopticon views descriptive of the life in the
frozen North. Another woman gave a lecture this year upon her travels in
Equatorial Africa, Miss Jessie T. Ackerman. President Charles W. Eliot
of Harvard University gave the oration on Recognition Day, his subject
being "America's Contribution to Civilization." In looking through the
list of the speakers on Recognition Day, I find the names of no less
than ten college presidents, and also that of the Hon. William T.
Harris, United States Commissioner of Education, who might be regarded
as standing at the head of the nation's educational system. The value of
Chautauqua as a force in education has been fully recognized by the
highest authorities.

FOOTNOTE:

[2] From the _Handbook of Information_ published by the Chautauqua
Institution (1918) we give the following extract. "The Chautauqua
tradition which taboos card playing and social dancing, and the rule
which forbids the sale or importation of alcoholic beverages, disclose
the influence which dominated the early life of the Assembly. As to card
playing and dancing, the tradition is preserved not because all agree in
condemning these things in themselves, but because they are deemed
unsuitable to Chautauqua conditions and even hostile to its life. It is
believed that they would prove divisive and distracting, and that they
suggest a very different type of society from that which Chautauqua
seeks to set up for a few summer weeks. Chautauqua, therefore,
disapproves these diversions as not only unnecessary, but as involving
disintegrating influences. The fact that many who indulge in these
amusements at home express gratification that they are not permitted at
Chautauqua is significant."

CHAPTER XVIII

ROUNDING OUT THE OLD CENTURY (1897-1900)

THE Chautauqua session of 1897 was fifty-nine days long, from June 26th
to August 23rd. This year the School of Domestic Science, directed