She answered, "I would like to try it; but if you find that I am not equal to it, I will not be offended to have it given to some other person. Let me see if I can help you even a little."
That was the introduction of Miss Kate Fisher Kimball to the work and care of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, of which she was the Executive Secretary until her death in 1917. She was born in 1860, at Orange, New Jersey, her father, Dr. Horace F. Kimball, being a dentist with office in New York. Young as she was, she at once showed rare abilities in administration. Under her vigorous and wise efforts, the C. L. S. C. was soon reduced to a system, the members were cla.s.sified, the course was made orderly, circulars of various sorts were prepared and sent out to answer as many kinds of questions, and the calls from all over the nation, almost all over the world were met. Kate Kimball had a wonderful memory, as well as a systematic mind. Dr.
Vincent would tell her in one sentence the answer to be sent to a letter, and twenty sentences in succession for twenty letters. She made no note, but remembered each one; would write to each correspondent a letter framed as it should be, with a clear statement, of just the right length, never getting the wrong answer on her pen. And if six months afterward, or six years, there came a letter requiring the same answer, she did not need to ask for information, but could send the right reply without consulting the letter-file. Thousands of correspondents who may never have met her will remember that signature, "K. F. Kimball," for they have been strengthened and inspired by letters signed with it.
I have heard more than one person say, "I want to go to Chautauqua, if it is only to become acquainted with K. F. Kimball."
Let me transcribe a few sentences written by Mr. Frank Chapin Bray, who as Editor of _The Chautauquan Magazine_, was for years in close relation with Miss Kimball.
Many will always think of her as a kind of Chautauqua Mother Superior. The details of the work of an Executive Secretary are not transcribable for they were multifarious drudgeries year after year which defy a.n.a.lysis.
During thirty-five years she made them the means of transmitting a great idea as a dynamic force vital to hundreds of thousands of men and women the world around.
Next to the originating genius of John H. Vincent, the influence which made the Chautauqua Home Reading Course one of the mightiest educational forces of the nineteenth century was the tireless energy and the executive ability of Kate F. Kimball.
About 1912 she was suddenly taken with an illness, not deemed serious at the time, but later found to have been a slight paralytic shock. She was given a year"s vacation from office work and spent most of it in England and on the continent. Some of her friends think that if she had absolutely abstained from work, she might have recovered her health; but while in England she visited nearly all its great cathedrals, and wrote a series of articles for _The Chautauquan_ on "An English Cathedral Journey," afterward embodied in one of the best of the non-technical books on that subject. She returned to her desk, but not in her former vigor. Year by year her powers of thought and action declined, and she died June 17, 1917, in the fifty-seventh year of her age, leaving after her not only a precious memory but an abiding influence; for the plans initiated by her adaptive mind are still those effective in the shaping of the Chautauqua Circle.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Hall of the Christ]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Entrance to the Hall of Philosophy]
The course of reading for the first year was as follows: Green"s _Short History of the English People_; with it the little hand-book by Dr.
Vincent--Chautauqua Text-Book No. 4, _Outline of English History_; an arrangement by periods, enabling the reader to arrange the events in order; Chautauqua Text-Book No. 5, _Outline of Greek History_; Professor Mahaffy"s _Old Greek Life_; Stopford Brooke"s _Primer of English Literature_; Chautauqua Text-Book No. 2, _Studies of the Stars_; Dr. H.
W. Warren"s _Recreations in Astronomy_; J. Dorman Steele"s _Human Psychology_; Dr. J. F. Hurst"s, _Outlines of Bible History_, and _The Word of G.o.d Opened_, by Rev. Bradford K. Pierce. This included no less than eleven books, although four of them were the small Chautauqua textbooks, Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 6. All that was definitely required of the members was that they should sign a statement that these books had been read; but through the year a series of sheets was sent to each enrolled member, containing questions for examination, under the t.i.tle "Outline Memoranda," in order not to alarm the unschooled reader by the terror of an examination. Moreover, the student was at liberty to search his books, consult any other works, and obtain a.s.sistance from all quarters in obtaining the answers to the questions. These questions were of two kinds, one requiring thought on the part of the reader, and not susceptible of answer at any given page of the book; such as: "Name the five persons whom you consider the greatest in the history of England, and the reasons for your choice," "Name what you regard as five of the most important events in English history," etc. There were some other questions, of which the answer might or might not be found in any books of the books of the course, but questions to make the reader search and enquire; such as: "What did King John say when he signed Magna Charta?" "With what words did Oliver Cromwell dismiss the Long Parliament?" "What were the last words of Admiral Nelson?" These questions brought difficulty, not only to readers, but to school-teachers, pastors, and librarians, to whom they were propounded by puzzled students. At one time I was reading of a convention of librarians, where one of the subjects discussed was, how to satisfy the hordes of Chautauquans everywhere, asking all sorts of curious questions. The veterans of that premier cla.s.s of 1882 still remember the sheet of the Outline Memoranda prepared by Dr. Warren, on his book _Recreations in Astronomy_. There may have been a member or two who succeeded in answering them all, but their names do not appear on any record.
Not all those, who in an hour of enthusiasm under the spell of Dr.
Vincent"s address on that opening day, wrote their names as members of the C. L. S. C. persevered to the bitter end and won the diploma. Of the 8400 enrolled in the first cla.s.s, only 1850 were "recognized" as graduates in 1882. Some of the delinquents afterward took heart of grace, and finished with later cla.s.ses. But even those who fell out by the way gained something, perhaps gained an enduring impulse toward good reading. We frequently received word of those who had dropped the C. L.
S. C. in order to obtain a preparation for college. Dr. Edward Everett Hale used to tell of a man whom he met on a railway train, who made a remark leading the doctor to say, "You talk like a Chautauquan--are you a member of the C. L. S. C.?" The man smiled and answered, "Well, I don"t know whether I am or not. My wife is: she read the whole course, and has her diploma framed. I read only one book, and then gave up. But any inst.i.tution that can lead a man to read Green"s _Short History of the English People_, has done considerable for that man!"
As one by one the required books had been read by diligent members, there came urgent requests from many for the names of other books, on history, on sciences, and especially on the Bible. Dr. Vincent and his staff were compelled to look for the best books on special courses, supplementing the required course. By degrees almost a hundred of these courses were arranged, and have been pursued by mult.i.tudes. The one who read the regular course through four years was to receive a diploma; if he answered the questions of very simple "Outline Memoranda," his diploma was to bear one seal. If he took the stiffer "Outline Memoranda"
described above, his diploma was to receive an additional seal for each year"s work. Each special course was to have its own special seal. Any member who read the Bible through while pursuing the course, would have a gold crown seal upon his diploma. There were some elderly people who seemed to have nothing in the world to do, but to read special courses, fill out the memoranda, send for seals, and then demand another course on Crete or Kamchatka, or the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, until Miss Kimball, her helpers, and her literary friends were kept on the jump to find books on these various subjects. Hanging on the walls of C. L. S.
C. cla.s.srooms at Chautauqua are diplomas illuminated with a hundred seals or more, sent to the cla.s.s headquarters as memorials of diligent readers who have pa.s.sed away.
The readers of these seal-courses become members of various "orders" of different rank. Those whose diplomas show four seals belong to the "Order of the White Seal," those who have seven seals, to the "League of the Round Table," and if they have fourteen seals or more, the "Guild of the Seven Seals." Each of these societies holds its annual reunion at Chautauqua, wears its own badge, and marches behind its own banner in the procession.
The reference to seals brings us to another feature of Chautauqua, and especially of the C. L. S. C., which attracted universal attention and led many thousands into the charmed circle,--those touches of poetry and sentiment, which no one but Dr. Vincent could have originated. There were the three mottoes of the C. L. S. C. always made prominent in its prospectus and announcements, "We Study the Word and the Works of G.o.d"; "Let Us Keep Our Heavenly Father in the Midst"; and "Never be Discouraged." The second of these sentences was spoken by the venerable Hebraist, Dr. Stephen H. Vail, as with tears upon his face he parted with Dr. Vincent, at the session of 1877, a year before the announcement of the C. L. S. C. There was for each cla.s.s a name. The first cla.s.s to take a name was that of "84, established in 1880. They were continually calling for cla.s.s-meetings until Dr. Vincent in his announcements spoke of them as "those irrepressible eighty-fours!" Whereupon they promptly adopted as their name, "The Irrepressibles," and their example was followed by the other cla.s.ses. The cla.s.s of 1882 took the name, "The Pioneers." Cla.s.ses are known as "The Vincent Cla.s.s," "The Lewis Miller Cla.s.s"--others are named after Shakespeare, Tennyson, Sidney Lanier, etc. The cla.s.s graduating in 1892 commemorated the discovery of America four hundred years before, by the name "Columbia." Then, too, each cla.s.s has its own flower, which its members seek to wear on the great days of the C. L. S. C.; but only the Pioneer cla.s.s of 1882 proudly bears before it in procession a hatchet, and its members wear little hatchets as badges. Dr. Hale said that the reason why the Pioneers carry hatchets is that "they axe the way!" Each cla.s.s has its own officers and trustees, and though all its members are never a.s.sembled, and can never meet each other, they maintain a strong bond of union through correspondence.
There is the great silk banner of the Chautauqua Circle leading the procession on Recognition Day, followed by the cla.s.ses from 1882 until the present, each cla.s.s marching behind its banner. In the early days, until 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 cla.s.ses 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 lat.i.tude our seasons are reversed; they have a saying at the Cape "as hot as Christmas"--she came to her cla.s.ses 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 cla.s.ses. 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," as they were called. Some of these were community circles, people of one village or town, irrespective of church relations; other circles were connected with the churches. In those days before the Christian Endeavor Society, the Epworth League, and other nation-wide organizations had appropriated the interest of the young people, the Chautauqua Circle was the literary society in many churches.
I recall the testimony of a Methodist minister of those days, given to me when I met him at his conference in the Middle West.
When I was sent to my last church, I learned that there was a reading circle among its members, and I heard the news with some dismay, for in more than one place I had started a literary society and found that it was necessary for me to supply all the thought and labor to keep it in operation, to plan the course, to select people to write papers and persuade them to do it, to be ready to fill vacancies on the program. And as soon as I stopped supplying steam, the society was sure to come to a stand-still. But at this church I found a Chautauqua Circle that was taking care of itself. Its programs were provided, the members were reading a regular course and making their reports; they presided in turn at the meetings, and I was not called upon to take any part unless I desired it. Also in the prayer-meetings, I could soon recognize the members of the Circle by a touch of intelligence in their testimonies.
It is the opinion of the writer that if one could ascertain the history of the woman"s clubs that now cover the country, and ascertain their origin, it would be found that nearly all of the older woman"s clubs arose out of Chautauqua Circles whose members, after completing the prescribed course, took up civics or politics, or literature. It would be an interesting study to ascertain how far the General Federation of Women"s Clubs of America was an outgrowth of the Chautauqua movement.
CHAPTER X
THE SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES
[Ill.u.s.tration: Congregational House]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fenton Memorial, Deaconess" House]
THE year 1879 marked an extension in more than one direction of Chautauqua"s plans and program. The season was lengthened to forty-three days, more than double the length of the earlier sessions. On July 17th began the cla.s.ses in The Chautauqua Normal School of Languages, held in a rough board-walled, white-washed building, which had formerly been used as a lodging-house, but was no longer needed since cottages had opened their doors to guests. This may be regarded as the formal opening of the Chautauqua Summer Schools, although already cla.s.ses had been held, some of them three years, others four years, in Greek, Hebrew, and kindergarten instruction. We will name the faculty of this year. Greek was taught by a native of Greece, Dr. T. T. Timayenis, of New York; Latin by Miss Emma M. Hall, of the Detroit High School, afterward a missionary-teacher in Rome, Italy; Prof. J. H. Worman, of Brooklyn, N.
Y., taught German, never speaking one word of English in his cla.s.ses, although a fluent speaker and author in English. Prof. A. Lalande was the teacher of the French language; Dr. Stephen M. Vail continued his cla.s.ses in Hebrew, and Dr. James Strong in Greek; Prof. Bernhard Maimon of Chicago, taught Oriental languages; and Prof. A. S. Cook, then of Johns Hopkins, but soon afterward of Yale, conducted a cla.s.s in the study of Anglo-Saxon language and literature. These studies were pursued from a fortnight before the formal opening of the a.s.sembly until its close, making courses of six weeks, carried on in an intensive manner.
Each professor pushed his department as though it were the only one in the school, and his students could scarcely find time to rest themselves by rowing on the lake or walking in the woods with their cla.s.smates.
Allied to the School of Languages was the Teachers" Retreat, opening at the same time but closing just before the a.s.sembly proper. This was outside the realm of Sunday School instruction, being intended for secular teachers and presenting the principles and best methods of education. One of its leaders was Prof. J. W. d.i.c.kinson, Secretary of the Ma.s.sachusetts State Board of Education, an enthusiast as well as a master. He had at his command a fund of witticisms and stories, always in the direct line of his teaching, which added not a little to the interest of his lectures. I was with him at the table for a fortnight, and his juicy talk made even a tough steak enjoyable. a.s.sociated with Dr. d.i.c.kinson were Prof. William F. Phelps of Minnesota, Dr. Joseph Alden of the State Normal School, Albany, N. Y., and Dr. John Hanc.o.c.k, President of the National Teachers" a.s.sociation. In the following year, 1880, the School of Languages and Teachers" Retreat were united, and the Summer School program was again enlarged. Year by year new departments were added, until Chautauqua became a summer university, and such it continues to this day, offering more than two hundred courses, taught by nearly one hundred and fifty instructors. Perhaps the most popular courses have always been those in physical culture, pursued by teachers in public and private schools, enabled by Chautauqua to make their work in their home schools more efficient and extensive. One might spend weeks at Chautauqua, attending the lectures and concerts in the Amphitheater and the Hall, and enjoying the bathing and boating opportunities of the Lake, yet never realizing that on College Hill, and down at the Gymnasium, are nearly five thousand young men and young women diligently seeking the higher education.
A third sideline during this season of 1879 was the Foreign Mission Inst.i.tute, held by missionary leaders of the Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist organizations, and addressed by missionaries at home from many lands. Chautauqua was a pioneer in bringing together representatives of different churches for conference upon their work of winning the world to Christ. This series of missionary councils has been continued without the omission of a year through all the history of Chautauqua since 1879.
The Sixth Chautauqua a.s.sembly opened on its regular evening, the first Tuesday in August, 1879. The ravine which had been the seat of the Pavilion and birthplace of the C. L. S. C. had been transformed into a great auditorium of permanent materials and fairly comfortable seats for five thousand people. It was a great advance upon any of the earlier meeting places, and made it no longer necessary to carry one"s umbrella to the lectures. But a heavy rain on the extensive roof would make even the largest-lunged orator inaudible, and the many wooden pillars supporting the roof had a fashion of getting themselves between the speaker and the hearers. Notwithstanding these minor drawbacks, it proved to be one of the best audience-halls in the land for large a.s.semblies, for its acoustic properties were almost perfect. No speaker ever heard his words flung back to him by an echo, and the orator who knew how to use his voice could be heard almost equally well in every corner of the building. When Dr. Buckley stood for the first time upon its platform, and looked at its radiating and ascending seats, he said to Dr. Vincent, "This is a genuine _amphitheater_." The name was adopted, and the Amphitheater became the meeting place for all the popular lectures and the great Sunday services. Many were the distinguished speakers, men and women, who stood upon its platform, and as many singers whose voices enraptured throngs. At a popular concert almost as many seemed to be standing, crowded under the eaves, as were seated beneath the roof.
The old Amphitheater stood until 1897. In that year the building of the Ma.s.sey Memorial Organ made some changes necessary. The old building was taken down, and a new Amphitheater arose in its place, having above it a trussed roof and supported from the sides, and no pillars obstructing the view. It has been said that the Chautauqua Amphitheater will seat ten thousand people, but a careful computation shows that fifty-five hundred, or at the utmost fifty-six hundred are its limit upon the benches, without chairs in the aisles. But another thousand, or even fifteen hundred may sometimes be seen standing back of its seats at a popular lecture or concert.
In the season of 1879, one of the leading speakers was an Englishman, the Rev. W. O. Simpson of the Wesleyan Church, who had been for some years a missionary in India. His graphic pictures of village life in that land were a revelation, for Kipling and his followers had not yet thrown the light of their genius upon the great peninsula and its people. Mr. Simpson was over six feet in height and large in every way, in voice as well as in girth. We all hoped to meet him yet many years at Chautauqua, for he seemed to be abounding in health. But a few months later we learned of his sudden death. In those years it was the Chautauqua custom to hold a memorial service for men prominent in the cla.s.s-room or on the platform, and it fell to my lot to speak in 1880 upon the Rev. W. O. Simpson. I sent to England for printed matter relating to his life, and among the appreciative articles found one story which is worthy of remembrance.
When Mr. Simpson was a student of theology at the Wesleyan Theological School, he chanced one day to read the announcement of a lecture upon the Bible, and went to hear it. To his amazement he found himself at an infidel meeting, listening to a virulent attack upon the Holy Scriptures. In the middle of his lecture, the speaker said:
There are undoubtedly good things in the Bible, but anyone who is familiar with the ancient writers of Greece, and especially those of India, knows well, if he would tell the truth, that all the good things in the Bible were stolen from earlier scholars and sages, and were originally better spoken or written than by the so-called authors of the Bible, who took them at second-hand. If anybody here is prepared to deny that statement, let him stand up and say so!
Instantly this young student of theology stood up, six feet high, and at that time in his life very slim in his figure. That he might be seen readily he stood on the seat, and a fellow-student said that he loomed up apparently ten feet high. He held a little red-covered book, and stretching his long arm toward the speaker, said something like this:
I hold in my hand a copy of the New Testament, and I wish to say that in this little book, only a quarter of the Bible, you will find a clearer light on man"s nature, and character, and destiny than may be read in all the ancient books of the world taken together.
He paused, seized the little volume with both hands, tore it in two parts, flung one part down to the floor, and still holding the rest of it, went on:
I have thrown aside one-half of this book, but this half contains the four gospels of our Lord, which will tell more what man may be here and will be hereafter than can be found in all the books of ancient Rome, or Greece, or Chaldea, or India, or China.
Then he tore out three leaves from the fragment, flung all the rest on the floor, and fluttering the torn pages, said:
These six pages contain Christ"s Sermon on the Mount, setting forth a higher standard of righteousness, a clearer view of G.o.d, and a better knowledge of man"s nature than all the other ancient books on earth. That is my answer to the speaker!
And leaving the torn book on the floor, he walked out of the room.
Other speakers in the new Amphitheater in the summer of 1879 were Dr.
Henry W. Warren, in the next year a Bishop; Frank Beard, with his caricatures and stories; Dr. C. H. Fowler, Dr. Joseph Cook, Bishop Foster, Dr. Alexander A. Hodge, the Princeton theologian, Dr. John Lord, the historian, Hon. J. W. Wendling of Kentucky, who brought brilliant oratory to the service of Christianity in an eloquent lecture on "The Man of Galilee"; Prof. J. W. Churchill, one of the finest readers of his time; Dr. George Dana Boardman of Philadelphia; and Dr. Vincent himself, always greeted by the largest audiences. Let us say, once for all, that Dr. Buckley was a perennial visitor, with new lectures every year, and his ever-popular answers to the question-drawer. If there was a problem which he could not solve, he could always turn the tables on the questioner with a story or a retort.