  We regret exceedingly that a serious illness makes it impossible for Mr. Richard Grant White to furnish his usual paper to the present issue of The Chautauquan. Another month Mr. White will probably be able to continue his articles. The glimpse we are getting, even at this early day, of the Chautauqua program for 1885, is very inviting. The regular School of Science will be under the charge of Prof. Edwards, president of Chamberlain Institute, Randolph, N. Y., and that of Pedagogy, under Dr. Dickinson, secretary of the board of education, Boston. Such people will be present as John B. Gough, Dr. Deems, Miss Willard, Mrs. Livermore, Bishop Foster, Dr. Boardman, of Philadelphia; Dr. G. P. Hays, of Denver, who will organize a school of Christian work; the Schubert Quartette, of Chicago; the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, for two weeks, and Miss Henninges, the noted singer of Cleveland, O. A very superior organist, Prof. Isaac V. Flagler, has been engaged for the entire Chautauqua season. The alarm which the recent terrible earthquake in Spain has caused has led to the compilation of some interesting figures relative to the number of shocks which have occurred in late years. Between 1872 and 1883 no less than 364 earthquakes are recorded as occurring in Canada and the United States, not including Alaska. Of these the Pacific slope had 151, the Atlantic coast 147, and the Mississippi valley 66. Thus it appears that an earthquake occurs about once in every twelve days somewhere in the United States and Canada, and about once a month on the Atlantic coast. These are exclusive of the lighter tremors which do not make an impression on observers, but which would be recorded by a properly constructed seismometer, an instrument designed to detect the slighter shocks. “Just about twenty years ago,” writes Dr. Felix Oswald in a recent letter to The Chautauquan, “when I was stationed at Sidi Belbez, in western Algiers, I had a conversation with a half-civilized Sheik, who had visited our camp and seemed to take a good deal of interest in the portrait of a mitrailleuse (”Gatling gun“) that had been photographed together with a group of Zouave artillerists. After scrutinizing the picture and comparing it with the original, he clutched his head, as if stunned by his emotions. ‘Where do they teach such things?’ he inquired, and then suddenly burst out: ‘What a pity that education and Gatling guns can not be had at home!’ For North America, at least, The Chautauquan seems to have solved one of those problems.” In a yellowish, time-worn volume bearing the title, The Allegheny Magazine, or Repository of Useful Knowledge, issued in Meadville, Pa., on July 4, 1816, we find in a paper on Chautauqua the following: “The tradition among the Seneca Indians is, that when their ancestors first came to the margin of this [Chautauqua] lake and had reclined their weary limbs for the night, they were roused by a tremendous wind which suddenly and unexpectedly brought the waves upon the shore to the jeopardy of their lives. The aboriginal history as handed down from father to son further represents that in the confusion of the scene a child was swept away by the surge beyond the possibility of recovery. Hence the name of the lake Chaud-dauk-wa; the radix from which this is formed signifying a child, or something respecting a child. The word is usually spelled Chautauqua; but, according to the pronunciation of the venerable Cornplanter, whose example is the best authority, it should be written Chaud-dauk-wa, the two first syllables of which are long, and the consonant at the end of each is to be distinctly sounded.” Mr. Francis Murphy, the apostle of temperance, who, by the way, is engaged to speak at Chautauqua next season, is a very useful and popular man in Pittsburgh, Pa. Mr. Murphy has recently been invited to become the pastor of a People’s Church which leading citizens of Pittsburgh propose to establish. He is a powerful man with the masses, and his method of “Gospel-Temperance” is a wise one. By his efforts tens of thousands of drinkers, drunkards and saloon keepers have been led to become better men. We shall watch the new departure in Pittsburgh with a great deal of interest. Bishop Hurst has discovered in Cairo, Egypt, the next largest university to Chautauqua in the world. His rich article on the “Mohammedan University,” in this impression, fixes the number of students in attendance at about 15,000. The C. L. S. C. numbers more than 60,000, and the class of 1888, organized this school year, will reach nearly, if not quite, 20,000 members. The recent terrible explosions in London have set us to counting up the similar outrages which have been perpetrated of late in England. In 1881, attempts were made to blow up the armory at Salford, the Mansion House, London, the Lord Mayor’s private apartment, the barracks at Chester, the Central Police Station at Liverpool, and the Town Hall at Liverpool. The activity of the dynamiteurs was checked about this time by the vigilance of the police, and nothing further was done until March 15, 1883, when the Local Government Board offices in Westminster, near the House of Parliament, were nearly destroyed by an explosion of dynamite. In 1884, attempts were made to shatter three railway stations in London, explosions occurred in Scotland Yard and at St. James Square and under London Bridge. Already, in 1885, there have been an explosion on a London underground railway, and the outrages in Westminster Palace and the Tower. What shall we do? How shall we treat these outrages? We can do nothing. To be sure it is a shameful list of cowardly, ineffectual deeds. Yet they deserve more pity than rage. It is a sad thought, that in rich, cultured, high-bred old England, there can exist a class so weak, cruel, and miserable that it tries to right its wrongs by methods more horrible than those of war. A very suggestive scene took place recently in the Arkansas Assembly. Engrossing and enrolling clerks were to be elected. The members brought up the names of several ladies, discussing their ability, beauty, and claims to recognition, in most eloquent terms. After a long and amusing discussion, both positions were filled by ladies. This move gives to the self-supporting women of Arkansas a new outlook. The possibility of securing such positions will incite hundreds of women to prepare for clerkships, which if not found in the legislature will surely be found elsewhere, as the peculiar ability of women for such work is recognized. The legislature of Georgia, at its past session provided a similar opportunity for the women within its borders. Eight to ten clerks have been regularly employed each session to assist the clerk of the lower house of the legislature. Of its own accord the House directed that women be hereafter employed to fill these positions. This was done, and the bills engrossed by them are said to have been remarkably neat and accurate. This ready sympathy for the women who must earn their bread, and manly effort to make places for them, is very characteristic of the generous southern heart. The Assembly at Lake de Funiak, Florida, will be in session when this number of The Chautauquan is on its way to our subscribers. The opening takes place on February 18. It is the first attempt at planting the Chautauqua Idea so far south, but after its fashion it is sure to take root. The preparations made by Mr. Gillet and his associates give promise of a good program. We expect an account of the meeting for the April number of The Chautauquan. Two big schemes to attract patronage have of late come before the country. At the time the New Orleans Exposition seemed to stagger under its load of expense, and money was absolutely necessary, the Louisiana Lottery tried to get control of the Exposition. General Grant’s embarrassment was seized upon by the incorrigible Barnum, who proposed buying the invaluable curiosities and relics of the General, to display in his summer pilgrimages through the country. It makes a person of taste blush to think of this impudence, to remember that there is a very large class of people who are willing to drag into advertising the most dignified and sacred institutions in the country. The commercial side of Chautauqua Lake does not often reveal itself in the educational work which finds its center there. The beautiful country which forms the setting for the fair lake has, however, more than one most interesting industry. Just now ice cutting is at its height. There is a transit company which packs dressed meats, eggs, butter, and other perishable articles, at Chicago. When these refrigerator cars start from that city, ice is placed in the cars, which is expected and found to keep the stores in fresh condition, as far as Salamanca; here the cars must be replenished, and it is to these storehouses that the ice which is now being cut from the lake is sent. The company employs men and teams near the lake to cut the ice, and the process is a very interesting one. Mr. Edmund Yates, the editor of the London World, has been committed to prison for four months for allowing in his columns a bit of gossip connecting in an injurious statement the name of a young woman with that of a young nobleman. It is a refreshing sign of the times. Popular sentiment has tolerated an immense amount of personality, of curiosity, and of absolute impudence in the social columns of newspapers. Mr. Yates’s punishment will emphasize the fact that the public The Christian revolt of the Jews of Bessarabia, and the establishment of the “National Jewish Society of the New Testament,” was discussed by Bishop Hurst in the January issue of this magazine. The founder of this new sect, Rabinowitz, has been since found dead at his home in Kishenev. It is believed that he was murdered. The Christian authorities believe that it is the work of the orthodox Hebrews, and it is not improbable that such is the case. Apostasy in religion very rarely receives from men Gamaliel’s advised treatment, and unless the law can secure safety for these reformers, there is but little chance that they will escape the fate which all the history of the past teaches us that religious fanaticism believes to be the just and only treatment. It is gratifying to know that in all probability the $250,000 required for the pedestal of the Bartholdi statue will soon be in the hands of the committee. The difficulty in raising the money has revealed a new side of American generosity. The financial agent of the pedestal committee probably explained it, when he said recently: “The American people are peculiar about these matters. You touch their sympathies and sensibilities, and money flows like water. For flood or fire sufferers you can raise a million dollars in forty-eight hours and have a million more advanced for emergencies by bankers who know that it will be promptly replaced by willing givers. But we haven’t got along to the appreciation of art—of great masterpieces like the Bartholdi statue—and so it was hard to raise money for it. In France, under similar conditions, the fund would have been raised in a week.” Apropos of the above a step that is being taken in many cities and towns of late, will undoubtedly do much to cultivate among us the lamented lack of “appreciation of art.” It is the establishment of city and village art museums. Worcester, Mass., has had $25,000 left to her, recently, to invest in an art museum. Smaller sums have been raised in several other towns. A good opportunity to study art thoroughly may be secured to any village by a donation of $1,000. Casts, photographs, engravings, and a few standard works are sufficient to cultivate correct ideas, and lay the foundation of knowledge. It is the only way in which to raise the standard of taste in the villages remote from the few cities of America which boast art museums. The question of the date of the birth of Elizabeth Barrett Browning interested the readers of the C. L. S. C. some time ago. The year alone was ascertained. If any one was troubled that we were unable to answer the query exactly, the answer of Mr. Robert Browning to a lady asking for the date of Mrs. Browning’s birth may be of some consolation: “I know neither the day, month, nor year of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s birth. It is a subject upon which I have never had the slightest curiosity.” One of the most active public men of the last generation has been Schuyler Colfax. He has been prominent, both as a political leader and as a public speaker. Mr. Colfax’s life of a little more than sixty years was immensely busy. He made his career, beginning as errand boy and clerk in his grandfather’s store. After he was eighteen years of age he took up the study of law, then launching out as a journalist, and finally, at twenty-five, entering the world of politics as secretary of the Whig National Convention, to which he had been sent as a delegate. When the new Republican party was started, Mr. Colfax was sent as a representative to Congress, and from that time he was closely identified with his party, serving particularly as Speaker and Vice President. He was of that large class of industrious, quick witted men who make themselves indispensable in whatever relations they are placed. The “Imperial Dictionary” promises to be the rival of all the old standard dictionaries among scholarly people. Its form is four good sized volumes, which signifies that the English language grows and grows, and that words need fuller explanation. Mr. Gilder, editor of The Century, explained to us, when on a recent pleasant visit to the Century offices, that the “Imperial Dictionary” was built on “Webster’s Dictionary” in England, and that scholarly men had devoted ten years to the task. Now the Century Company have more than two hundred scholars engaged in making improvements on the English edition. It will be seven years before the new American edition will be ready for the market. A timely and practical department of the Chautauqua University is the School of Journalism. This school is under the able direction of H. W. Mabie, one of the editors of the Christian Union. The demand for such schools is great, and the fact that all the work between teacher and pupil in this new undertaking will be conducted by correspondence, is an additional argument in its favor. The plan is briefly this: Three courses of study, with supplementary readings for those who have time for them, have been prepared; theses are expected on subjects assigned, and these will be criticised with special reference to vigorous style; constant correspondence will furnish needed help and hints. The plan is a wise one, its director is able, and there is no doubt but there are numerous young men and women to whom it will open the long desired way out of the woods. One of the most romantic spots of American history is that of the Florida Chautauqua. Ponce de Leon’s famous quest for the Fountain of Youth lay through this region, and Lake de Funiak itself is fabled to be one of the springs by which the old knight encamped. Perhaps here he plunged into the clear waters and vainly waited to see himself changed to vigorous youth again. However that may be, the road he laid out is a thoroughfare for Florida travelers to-day, and about the clear lake still hangs the tradition that it is the fabled Fountain of Youth. Ten miles from Lake de Funiak is a second spring which still bears the gallant Spaniard’s name. It will be a rare opportunity for dreaming over those early adventures that visitors to Lake de Funiak will have. The proposed new word, “Thon,” which was suggested in the program in The Chautauquan for January as a suitable subject for an essay, seems to have caused our readers some trouble. A word of explanation may help them. We have no pronoun of the singular number and common gender in English. The absence of such a word leads to many awkward circumlocutions. To obviate this trouble Mr. C. C. Converse, a lawyer, has compounded the word thon, from that and one—declined: nominative thon, possessive thons, objective thon. Its use is evident. In this sentence is an example: If George or Anna will meet me I will go with thon. The word has been much discussed and much amusement is caused by using it—a practice which, however, demonstrates the need we have for such a word. Prof. March, of Lafayette College, writes: “I do not know that any other vocable would have so good a chance for this vacancy.” Prof. Norton, of Harvard, says: “Such a pronoun would undoubtedly be a convenience, did it exist. The difficulty lies in it being yours. All forms of speech have grown, and I do not recall an instance of the use by a civilized race of any word, not a noun or a verb, deliberately invented by a philologer, however ingenious.” |
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