John Bright’s sister, Mrs. Margaret B. Lucas, said at a temperance meeting that women are the greatest sufferers by drink, and the hardest to convince as to the necessity of total abstinence.

The business interests of the Hotel AthenÆum, at Chautauqua, will receive special attention among Southern people from Mr. A. K. Warren, who is, with his wife, visiting a number of Southern States during February and March.

The New York Herald speaks of official titles in this way: “Governor Pattison, of Pennsylvania, is reported as requesting that the title ‘His Excellency’ may be discontinued in his instance, it being a mere title of courtesy without legal sanction. The governor is correct. There is but one State in the Union which has established titles by law for its chief executive officers. That is the State of Massachusetts, whose constitution was adopted several years prior to the framing of the Constitution of the United States, and provides that the governor shall be entitled ‘His Excellency,’ and the lieutenant-governor ‘His Honor.’”

Prof. A. Lalande, teacher of French in the Chautauqua School of Languages, is ready to furnish any person by correspondence with any information they desire about the department of French in the Chautauqua School, how to begin French, how to study at home, what books to read, etc. His address is 1014 Second Street, Louisville, Ky.

A friend in Canada writes: “Tell the readers of your magazine that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have formed a part of Canada ever since July 1, 1877, and that they are not separate provinces.”

In this number of The Chautauquan we commence to publish a series of C. L. S. C. songs set to music. They may be used to enliven the sessions of local circles, and in the home their weird strains will carry the lovers of music in memory to the shores of our much-loved Chautauqua Lake.

The required readings in “English Literature,” for March, will be found on pages 317 and 318 of this number of The Chautauquan. “Practice and Habit,” by John Locke; “Thoughts and Aphorisms,” by Jonathan Swift. In the introductory note, the types say “English History”—it should be English Literature. The readings on Astronomy, page 319, “The Comet That Came But Once,” is a very fine article by E. W. Maunder.

The widow of General “Stonewall” Jackson and her daughter, a young lady of nineteen, now reside at Cleveland, O. Mrs. Jackson left the South because she was there compelled to mingle with society, and could not find the retirement and rest that her health demanded.

The Guardian, an English religious journal, publishes the following lines “On Bishop Benson’s Elevation” to the see of Canterbury. They are signed Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrew’s:

The latest attempt to organize a Sunday-school Assembly is in the Southern States. The place is Monteagle, in Grundy county, Tennessee, on the top of Cumberland Mountain. The association own one hundred acres of land which is now being laid out by a competent landscape gardener. The Monteagle Hotel, with accommodations for five hundred guests, adjoins the grounds. The Assembly has been chartered under the laws of the State of Tennessee. The board of management, with R. B. Peppard, Esq., of Georgia, as president, and Rev. J. H. Warren, of Tennessee, as chairman of the executive committee, propose to hold their first assembly about the middle of next July.

Women are to be employed as clerks in the French post-offices, beginning their operations in the Money-order Department.

“Whether we like the fact or not,” says an English journalist, “a very large number of women have now to make their own way in life; and surely it is only fair that if they must compete with men, they shall receive in youth the kind of instruction which will prepare them for their future struggles.”

A Washington correspondent of a New York paper makes this interesting comment on two prominent men: “One of the quaintest friendships in Washington is that between Generals Sherman and Johnston. The two Generals hob-nob most amicably. ‘And when I was pursuing Joe Johnston, sir, through Georgia,’ says Sherman, whacking the table, ‘he made me pursue him on his own tactics, sir!’ General Johnston is a handsome man, with the old campaigner cropping out all over him. He has a trim military figure, and a smart military moustache, and a quick military walk, and a very military comprehension of the necessity of being on time on all occasions.”

The following note explains itself: “Philadelphia, Pa.—I regret to announce that the positive order of my physician to abandon for the present all literary work, forces me reluctantly to discontinue my “Journey Around the World” with my Chautauqua friends. With assurances that I shall miss my monthly visit to your columns, and best wishes for all the good work so nobly forwarded by your magazine, I remain, very cordially yours, Mary Lowe Dickinson.”

Prof. W. F. Sherwin, of Cincinnati, tarried with us an hour recently, when we found him in a very hopeful frame of mind concerning the future of Chautauqua. We gleaned the following from his conversation about the musical part of the Chautauqua program for 1883: Chautauqua College of Music Scheme for 1883: Musical Directors, Prof. W. F. Sherwin, Cincinnati, O.; Prof. C. C. Case, Akron, O. Departments: (1) Grand chorus, (2) Special class in English glees and madrigals, (3) Harmony, (4) Voice culture, (5) Elementary singing-school, (6) Children’s class. Directors in charge: July 14 to 22, W. F. Sherwin; July 22 to August 6, C. C. Case; August 7 to 18, W. F. Sherwin; August 19 to close of Assembly, C. C. Case. There will be occasional lectures and “conversations” upon various topics of practical interest, and the usual number of concerts, matinees, organ recitals, etc. Prof. Davis, of Oberlin College, is engaged as organist, and he will be ably assisted in the instrumental department. There will be a quartette of eminent soloists whose names will be announced in due time. Arrangements are in progress for a Reading Circle which shall be to musical people what the C. L. S. C. is to general literature. The details of this are being arranged by Prof. E. E. Ayres, of Richmond, Va., and will be published when complete. On the whole it looks as if the Musical Directors were determined to make that department superior to what it has ever been in the past, and we hope that musical people will sustain their efforts.

There will be a total eclipse of the sun on the 6th of May. The astronomers are making arrangements to observe it on two little islands in the South Pacific Ocean. An expedition is to be sent from this country to one of these islands, and French and English astronomers will also go there. The principal objects are to obtain further knowledge of the strange surroundings of the sun, which are ordinarily hidden in the overpowering blaze of his central globe, and to search for the planets which are supposed to exist between Mercury and the sun. The total eclipse will last nearly six minutes. Unfortunately, the total phase can be observed only from two little islands in the South Pacific Ocean.

It is reported that Dr. Benson, the elect-Archbishop of Canterbury, recently had a long interview with General Booth, the leader of the Salvation Army, and expressed himself as being in sympathy with that organization. “Go on,” he said; “do all the good you can; get at the people. We rejoice, only we would like it to be done somehow or other in harmony and in unison with the Church of England.”

In the list of C. L. S. C. graduates which appeared in The Chautauquan for February, the name of the Rev. Caleb A. Malmsbury appears among the names from Ohio. It should have been in the New Jersey column. Mary Maddock, of Ohio, whose name did not appear in February, graduated with honor; and the name of Mary E. W. Olmsted was among the honored ones from Colorado. Her name should be in the Ohio column. What a State Ohio is, in education, civil government, etc!

Maria Louise Henry, in a recent number of The Atlantic Monthly, philosophizes on the works of Thackeray and George Eliot in this way: “Thackeray had no real desire to make men permanently dissatisfied with themselves, or the world. He held that the world was not a bad place to be born into, provided one learned what not to expect from it, and could find a way to accommodate one’s self to one’s place in it.” Speaking of George Eliot: “Her creed is a kind of modern stoicism, or stoicism plus certain modern ideas. It must be admitted that such a creed has in it much of truth and nobleness. The only life worth living is the life toward self, of infinite aspiration, and toward others of infinitely active compassion. She will not allow, with Thackeray, that we can strike an average of goodness, and make ourselves content with that.”

For seven hundred years Lambeth Palace has been the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is surrounded by ten acres of beautiful grounds, to which the poor of the neighborhood are admitted in large numbers by free season tickets, good throughout the year.

The four monograms on the C. L. S. C. diploma represent the four grades of the C. L. S. C. First, the S. H. G., the “Society of the Hall in the Grove,” made up of all graduates who, having completed the four years’ course of reading, receive a diploma; second, the O. W. S., the “Order of the White Seal,” to which all belong who have on their diplomas four white seals, or white crystal seals; third, the L. T. R., the “League of the Round Table;” all members who have on their diplomas seven seals, whether white, white crystal, or special, become members of the “League of the Round Table.” All who add to these seven, seven more seals, become members of the G. S. S., the “Guild of the Seven Seals,” which is the highest grade in the C. L. S. C., and which is divided into degrees according to the number of additional seals.

Mr. W. W. Corcoran, of Washington, D. C., has made arrangements to bring the remains of John Howard Payne to America. He died in Tunis, in Northern Africa. How appropriate this kind deed of Mr. Corcoran, when we remember that Mr. Payne was the author of that beautiful song, “Home, Sweet Home.”

The Rev. Dr. Vincent has engaged a number of eminent educators, preachers and lecturers for the Chautauqua program in 1883. Among them are Joseph Cook, A. G. Haygood, D.D., C. N. Sims, D.D., Judge A. Tourgee, Prof. J. T. Edwards, D.D., Lyman Abbott, D.D., President Seelye of Amherst, President Angell of Ann Arbor, President Cummings of Evanston, Ill., President Payne of Delaware, O., President W. F. Warren of Boston, Hon. Will Cumback, Bishop H. W. Warren, Anthony Comstock, Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley, Rev. Dr. W. F. Mallalieu, Prof. Cummock, Prof. W. C. Richards, Dr. J. S. Jewell, Miss Frances E. Willard. There will be a school of cookery in July by Mrs. Emma P. Ewing and Miss Susan G. Blow of St. Louis, Mo.

The members of the Class of ’82, living in the vicinity of Cincinnati, i. e., in Southeastern Indiana, Northern Kentucky, and Southwestern Ohio, who wish to join, or receive information concerning the C. L. S. C. Alumnal Association, lately organized in Cincinnati, will please send their names and addresses to the president of the association, Mr. John G. O’Connell, 503 Eastern Avenue, Cincinnati, or the secretary, Miss Mary Grafing, 215 West Front Street, Cincinnati. The next meeting of the graduates will be held in March, and a very pleasant time is anticipated.

Two eminent men died in February: The Hon. Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut. He had been governor of his State and Postmaster General. The Hon. William E. Dodge (whose son is married to a daughter of Mr. Jewell) died on the 11th of February. At his funeral the venerable Dr. Mark Hopkins paid this tribute to his memory: “I have no statistics at hand showing what are the gifts of the princes of Europe for charitable objects. So far as I know the gifts of our late friend were greater than those of princes, not only in money, but in personal devotion. Judged by the standard of service to God and his fellow man, William E. Dodge was more than a prince among men.”

“The Revival and After the Revival.” This is a timely book. It is designed for people who do not believe in revivals, for ministers and laymen, young and old. The author, Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent, has taken the only tenable ground for the Church to hold on revivals. He discusses revivals on all sides, from all standpoints, in this little volume of seventy-four pages. The Æsthetic, and those who are indifferent to the demands of good taste in revivals should read it. Its circulation will tend to make revivals a more permanent blessing to the Church. Send for a copy to the publishers, Phillips & Hunt, 805 Broadway, New York.

There is a local circle of deaf-mutes in Jacksonville, Ill. The exercises are conducted by spelling on the fingers. Mr. Frank Read, editor of the Deaf Mute Advance, kindly sent us the report of this circle, which will be found among “Local Circles.” If these fellow-Chautauquans conduct their circle and make it interesting and profitable without voice or hearing, should not thousands of others who are reading the same course with them, find the sense of hearing and the use of nature’s language invaluable helps in doing the work? In our sanctum we wave our friends in Jacksonville a genuine Chautauqua salute, and bid them “God speed!”

It was a new role for the Rev. Dr. Talmage to be the chief figure in a theatrical poster on bill-boards last month in Brooklyn, N. Y. It is gratifying that the hand of Justice removed the caricatures, and put an injunction on the managers and prevented the performance. Caricaturing good men and Christian ministers is an old habit of artists. In 1517 Martin Luther was represented by a German caricaturist in a miserable picture, entitled “Luther Inspired by Satan;” and John Calvin was caricatured as being tied with ropes to a pillar and branded with an iron lily on the shoulder; the name of the picture was “Calvin Branded.” This picture was scattered all over France. Dr. Talmage is in good company, even if he is caricatured more than any other clergyman in America. “Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake,” said Jesus Christ.