CHAPTER II. "GETTING THE LAY OF THE LAND." THE Winnepesaukee Assembly proved to be a moderate success. At the gathering I presented to Dr. Vincent the program, which he used with skill, as he quietly in troduced the new methods that had made a profound sensation at Chautauqua. There was a lack of esprit de corps among the people; they did not know how to act at such a meeting; they were strange; they looked at the program with some doubt, as though they were making a venture without the full consent of their will. A man of Murray's gifts and of Bishop Janes' type might have fraternized on a platform in a city, in advocating moral reforms, but there seemed to be an incompatibility between them on a Methodist camp-ground. Dr. Vincent himself was new to this particular audience and the people gathered there were mostly strangers to each other. The introduction of fireworks on the lake shore in the evening seemed to be too great an innovation for the audiences. The folks were not of the quiet, confiding sort, who accept every new thing without questioning; further, they had to be educated to adapt themselves to the program, and it was a real question whether they were ready to champion this kind of reform in religious education. There were no positive reasons given for the introduction of new ideas; we simply assumed that the Assembly ought to be held, and on that assumption proceeded to deliver lectures, sing songs, and carry out the program. We were weak because nobody felt safe in saying that this new kind of meeting in the grove would be an exact fit in the church, or that it would fit into our civilization. However, we had to bide our time and ascertain the effect produced by what would be said and done. A great deal was expected of Dr. Vincent, who was the recognized head of this untried movement. Those who knew Mr. Lewis Miller's relations to Dr. Vincent appreciated him at his full worth. He helped to select the ground at Chautauqua Lake, and to present the idea of an Assembly in its original form, and that he was to be of great influence in connection with Dr. Vincent in the development of the plan, was admitted by everybody who knew the men. But in New Hampshire, at Lake Winnepesaukee, Dr. Vincent was giving a practical illustration of his Chautauqua idea and everybody studied him, his addresses, his expressions in social life, and his whole plan for carrying on such a meeting. The impression had been made that here, in the brain of this man, was the beginning of a great movement; hence his personality entered into the program and the occasion in a forcible way. Dr. Vincent was born in Alabama, was at New Jersey, with an editorial office on Broadone time a pastor in Illinois, and now lived in way, New York. He was not familiar with New England character, particularly of the New Hampshire type. These people are notable for frankness and earnestness blended with a quiet firmness, which does not allow them to greet a speaker's utterances with applause. The Doctor simply felt his way at this meeting and did not seem to be sure of his ground; besides, his idea, planted five hundred miles away, was too young to be transplanted, particularly to this kind of soil and under existing circumstances. Altogether, I think it was a premature exhibition of a grand idea that was too tender for such an open air meetvout; they did not act as though they were ing. The people were curious, but not dethere for purely religious exercises; they heard the speakers but did not accept their teachings with promptness. We could not help believing that there was a contest in the mind of the average hearer between the old BISHOP MATTHEW SIMPSON. order of things and the new régime. The old order won, as was evident at the close of the Assembly by the summary manner in which they dropped the plan, the idea, the local beginning, and, in fact, everything belonging to the occasion. Boston, that great and radical city, which was only a few hours' ride away, gave little attention to this gathering; it had been advertised very extensively; some of Boston's star lecturers were honored with places on the program, but Boston people stayed at home and let the Chautauqua idea be aired in the salubrious climate of central New Hampshire, without their presence or support. It was, in a certain sense, the germ of the most wonderful movement for popular education that had been seen in this century, but New England people failed to get their eyes open wide enough to see it. It was left for a later day reception among them, and the time for its adoption and appreciation came in after years. Reserve in stating a cause which requires both confidence and boldness is essential to its acceptance. This reserve marked Dr. Vincent's course in the early stages of Chautauqua history. Not every place could get every thing that he put into Chautauqua; they might get him, but not all the ideas that filled his brain. Whatever was worthy of coming into his plan appeared first at his own Chautauqua; for he loved his own and that, too, with an intensity which he manifested by an enthusiasm that one would scarcely expect in a man of his temperament. I remember, in the early days, that, after an absence of eleven months from Chautauqua, as he and I sat together in a steam yacht gliding over Chautauqua Lake, when we rounded Long Point and Chautauqua appeared to view, he rose in the boat and making action and words agree, exclaimed, Come to my arms, beautiful Chautauqua !" He put his whole energy into the plans he was introducing at that place; soul and body, official position, reputation, every thing he had in life that was dear to him he laid on the Chautauqua altar. John Brown at Harper's Ferry, Napoleon at Waterloo, both gave their all and lost themselves. John H. Vincent gave himself and saved his life, his official position, his reputation. His cause went on to victory. It was a freak of genius to pass by great cities and large towns with spacious halls, to leave great trunk lines of railway and wander over a lake twenty miles long to break ground in a grove which was twenty miles from the nearest city and some fifteen miles from the nearest main line of railway, to begin a movement for popular education which was to spread over all the world; but "wisdom is justified of her children" and men often build better than they know. John H. Vincent and Lewis Miller were dominated by an unseen influence to select the spot which the world has learned to know as Chautauqua. Popular education was the cause to be presented. That is, the literature provided for young people and their teachers in Sundayschools was to receive special attention. But it was a dry subject and had very little in it to attract public attention. Whether the novelty of a summer vacation spent in outdoor study by a beautiful lake and in a charming grove, would satisfy the people as a summer outing, was a question not easy to solve; but people were to be enlisted in the cause, people of every grade of society and all sorts of religious beliefs. They were to come from near and far. No one now looking back upon the early history of Chautauqua can have a moment's doubt but what it required a great deal of faith in the cause itself, besides tact and skill to manage such an enterprise so that people who would come should receive enough of benefit to satisfy them that there was real meaning in the movement, of Jamestown, New York, who rallied in large and that they should be identified with it, and aid in its development as Christians and philanthropists. There was also a financial side to the whole scheme which had to be managed with a sublime faith and a masterly spirit. At this point, as at others, Dr. Vincent never ceased to mention the name of Mr. Miller as the greatest benefactor of Chautauqua. There was no endowment, no bequest of any sort; but at once the gate fees were made the revenue that should pay the enormous bills incurred in order to secure the best talent that could be found on two continents, to present correct ideas of church life, the Sunday-school, and the Bible, and also defray all other expenses incident to carrying forward the enterprise. Financial credit and munificent contributions such as Lewis Miller furnished were a necessity; and talent as varied as that required for the promotion of any cause that ever challenged the support of a human soul must pilot this undertaking. This was to be the center of a circle whose circumference should be the globe. Often it has been said that it was an audacious and venturesome spirit that moved Vincent and Miller to project Chautauqua; but it was a sublime effort worthy of the greatest genius in the nineteenth century and it excited admiration in the minds of all. The stake was driven; the name was put into the air, and there it stays, "Chautauqua." Disappointments come to the brave, but they depart in a day. The people of Cleveland, Ohio, did not come; the denizens of Buffalo, New York, gave no heed. A few enterprising spirits in Pittsburgh were present, but there was no general uprising, no gravitating of the people to Chautauqua in its first or second year. It was, rather, a local institution, conducted by men who came from dis tant localities, but whose spirit was contagious and whose enterprise never permitted them to cease advocating Chautauqua as the most useful modern movement in the Christain church. They made an impression everywhere they went, and particularly did they enlist the sympathies of people in their cause by unselfishly leaving their own homes and going to the shores of Chautauqua Lake for the purpose of discussing great questions and creating new interests on the most advanced ideas of the times. numbers and paid gate fees, pitched their tents, erected cottages, and laid the temporal foundations of this new religious Mecca. In Jamestown, merchants foresaw the coming multitudes passing through their city, stopping at their stores, increasing their trade, and filling their coffers with money; hotel men had dreams of summer visitors who could not be accommodated at Chautauqua, swarming in the rooms and corridors of their hotels, giving a new impetus to their trade; preachers stationed at different points on the Lake were at the focus and they could go at small cost to see eminent men and hear their teachings. Thus they swelled the number of Chautauqua devotees. It was ambition that animated the people; in some instances it was a lofty ambition, in others it was a mercenary ambition; but whatever the character of the impulse that moved them to identify themselves with the new cause, it was done. They were stirred by the efforts of men who came from outside their locality, to put money, and brains, and influence, and organizing ability to work to make an Athens of the beautiful grove that borders the shores of Chautauqua Lake. Another class of people contributed largely to the strength and early growth of this movement. They were found in the oil country, stretching from the borders of Chautauqua County down through the Allegheny valley to Pittsburgh. In this territory there was to be found in those early days a new and growing population, with whom “oil" was the talismanic word. It had been a profitable business to many; an excitement had been created by the discovery of oil in that territory which has been equaled only by the discovery of gold in California. People had come from the Eastern towns and cities in large numbers into the oil territory. They were enterprising, resolute business men who were bent on making their fortunes ; they settled wherever oil was struck; a town of five or ten thousand inhabitants sprang into being in a month's time, and as quickly, perhaps, disappeared, as in the case of Pithole. Railroads were built, telegraph wires were stretched, schools were established, churches were erected, corporations organized; a man would make a fortune in a day; indeed, towns and cities sprang into being as if an Aladdin's lamp had been rubbed by a beIt was the people of Chautauqa County and witched hand, and so made doubly efficacious in the production of wonders. It was new hood and young womanhood. Presently blood flowing with life and energy, coming these energetic young people asked for a from the heart of each little oil center, into summer resort. "Where can we go to escape the veins of every living cause that needed the monotony of home, of our own town?" money and friends. The few old families that Chautauqua appeared at the right time just held older notions of life, who had been set- when it was needed, and it became a charmed tled in this territory for many years, were for- spot for these people. The beauties of the gotten in the great influx of population and place and its work had been put into poetry, the tremendous schemes for speculation that the poetry was set to music by Chautauqua's filled the brains of newcomers, who seemed own poets and musicians. The printing to take charge of town and city govern- press and bookbinder did their work and the ments and political parties, and to be the books were sent abroad. The songs were new power that had suddenly come in to sung in the parlors and by the firesides in make itself known. It was a new country, entered and occupied by new men and new women of progressive spirit, steady nerve, and hopeful heart. Their ambition was on the stretch to make a fortune. It seemed as if a human soul was worthless as compared with a fortune in oil. Very many won brilliant success, while others lost money and heart and lived to curse speculation and the fate which had drawn them into this maelstrom of uncertainty. The winners in the field could point to vast wealth and they built fine dwellings. Others acquired moderate means which gave them a competency. Families grew up around these men; children were to be educated and gradually they reached young man hundreds of homes. Chautauqua was sung into the affections and lives of thousands of human souls. Thus it was in the early dawn of the Chautauqua day that the local population put out its hands and paid the gate fees, thus creating a revenue which soon placed the whole enterprise on a firm financial basis and established the center of this movement in that grove. CHAPTER III. GOOD CHEER FOR THE PEOPLE. THE hunger of young people for amusements manifested itself very early at Chautauqua. It was not to be suppressed by dogma, church custom, or the sacred character of the surroundings. Nature had prepared every thing for the exhilaration of spirit and blood in both young and old. Young people daily arrived in large numbers seeking in this retreat new liberty and congenial company. Not a few young women and young men who have rowed over the Lake and wandered along the shores in the evening shadows of the grand old trees, heard here the first flutterings of Love's silken wing, and are now enjoying married life and a home. The grinding cares of business, of town and city and home life were left behind, while the more delightful outdoor life of the grove and Lake brought health and good cheer. It was good sense which called for the poetic in the daily life of the place and we are happy to say that this desire was met, in its early history, with a candor and frankness which drew and enlisted the sympathies of young people. There was no attempt on the part of Dr. Vincent and Mr. Miller to conceal their distaste for certain amusements that were tabooed by the rules of most of the Christian churches. Games at cards were discouraged; dancing was put under ban; and as no theatrical troupe could enter the grounds to play without the consent of the authorities, we are sure that no such company ever made application. These customs were not proscribed by any published creed, because Chautauqua has never even formulated one. There was no necessity, because people who came to the place were not favorable to this class of amusements and they needed no law in these matters. It was a prime object of Chautauqua to show that legitimate amusements could be used for pastime and recreation and to elevate the taste, without becoming a dissipation. There was painful need of such a lesson to check the tendency of all the churches toward a mode of life that was growing too severe and was repelling young people, while it was weakening the influence of the church over them. Any movement that looked toward breaking this spell in the church was a positive gain to Christianity and a real vantage ground for the churches. Amusements were put into the platform program at once, without any discussion, and it was left with the audiences to accept or reject, stay away or come again, just as they chose. Nobody was consulted but the heads of the institution. Dr. Vincent and Mr. Miller had their ideas; they adopted their plans and the regular program revealed their creed concerning popular amusements for young people. Frank Beard, of New York, was selected to entertain at certain points in each series of meetings. He was an artist by nature and by profession; he was regarded as a “hit” for the new order of things. With wonderful effect he made pictures with crayon on great sheets of brown paper. His caricatures were strong pieces of work and, as was evident, he had carte blanche from the management to use his crayon. Nothing that could be put into ludicrous form escaped his pencil. A pug dog running after a lady coming from the deck of a steamer, or lying in her arms as she sat on a cottage veranda, was a good subject. A pug dog picture was his delight. Frank set all the boys and girls in the audience wild with excitement and laughter as he drew a dog's form in outline and colored him, then put on his head, nose, ears, tail, legs, and feet. In finishing he reached a climax; the crowd roundly applauded the artist. Dogs were banished from Chautauqua by caricature. Their owners could not face the platform and then meet people who looked at the dog and then into the face of its owner and smiled. Everybody seemed to put on an annoying facial expression after seeing one of Frank's pictures, on meeting a lady with a dog. Frank's genius was inventive. He could produce an illusion on the platform equal to Kellar and clothe it with enough of mystery to cause the observers to talk about it for days after the program was over. When the telephone was first introduced into the country and was yet a crude invention, being tried only as an experiment, before it had been introduced into the business world as in any sense a medium of communication in towns and cities, Frank anticipated its use. He erected poles at different points in the Auditorium, stretched wires from pole to pole, and brought them to a main office on the rostrum. Then in his lecture on the telephone he talked into an oyster can, and adjusted his ear to hear, the audience being entertained by his repeating all that was said over the wires. Mr. Beard was an actor and knew the power of gesture in a lecture, and the force of good posing. He |