could make his hand or foot excite merriment in the audience, especially among the boys. When he appeared on the platform on an afternoon or evening, his attire was faultless. In full evening dress, his appearance to a stranger, at first view, was that of a well dressed, dignified society man, with a touch of the professor in his makeup; but his manner revealed the humorist the moment he spoke. He was a wag and a wit, and a caricaturist besides. He had studied the ludicrous, and knew that side of a line of thought or sentence as soon as he saw it. It seemed at times as if that was the only side of any question that he did study, because, as a humorist, he found fun lurking in the most unexpected nooks and corners. In the early times, one night in every season was marked by a spectacular street exhibition. It was a procession that marched in two ranks. Each person was clothed in white; a white hood covered head and face, with eye and mouth holes. The tunic was gathered closely about the neck and like a flowing robe extended to the feet, covering arms and hands and concealing the whole person. When such a costume was seen in the grove on a dark night, with streams of electric light and the heavy shadows of dense foliage falling alternately on it, it excited all the imaginations of childhood and brought to the view of scholar ly people the witches, ghosts, and visions of history and ancient mythology. The procession comprised about fifty human beings. The wild man of the forest, on horseback, appeared in front of the van; and a band of musicians making wheezy sounds while trying to play a dismal tune, kept time for the marching column. The devil, monks, hermits, hobgoblins, and bewitching forms of fairy tales were reproduced in these combinations, which made a ghastly and, at times, awful appearance in these somber processions. In their march through the avenues, over the Park of Palestine, in front of the ancient tabernacle itself, they made a most weird exhibition. FRANK BEARD. Chautauqua was a good place for his genius to range. He hovered around every meeting held, and, like a rollicking boy, he was ready to poke fun at the most grave and sedate of his seniors. There were so many new plans and ideas abroad here that he found abundant opportunity to criticise and to find fault with the management. He would bring out the weak points of a lecturer, the defects of a singer, and exhibit the funny side of what they said or did so oddly and with such force, that, while he furnished a great deal of amusement, he proved to be a good critic. His criticism was not caustic, but good humor flavored all his utterances, and withal he showed so much sympathy with the object criticised, that he rendered a valuable service to both the people and the cause; yet the very serious ones styled him "the clown of Chautauqua," and insisted that it was not in accord with the dignity of the place or work in hand to permit such spectacular exhibitions as were made. But his severest critics were always on the front seats in his audience, that is if the boys and girls did not reach there first and crowd them back. For several days previous to the march, a mysterious notice was nailed to a tree : "The Arkites Coming; the White Folks Going to March." That was enough; everybody saw the point, for they read between the words what was to appear. Dr. Vincent never dignified these novel sallies by placing them on the program, nor did he er allow them any room even in point of time, to come in naturally in connection with the round of daily work. But Frank Beard could make a place and he did. HOTEL ATHENÆUM. Night was his time, and it was usually after all other exercises were concluded that the convivial procession appeared. They were not a meaningless set of ghosts marching through the grove, to excite wonder; on the contrary they always gave an exhibition which had a substratum of ideas concerning the Normal Department, Women's Meetings, scientific lectures, or a platform meeting. The recreations of the place often put on other forms, and, while less amusing, they were none the less restful, as they furnished a respite from the labors of the recitation room and the student's sanctum. There were promenades, flower gardens, statuary, and fountains to add to the natural attractions of the grounds; and rustic seats scattered here and there in the grove and on the lake shore invited the pedestrians to rest awhile and enjoy the beauties of the place. Sailing and rowing on the lake became popular just as soon as the camp-meeting came to an end and the Assembly began. Ladies were especially fond of rowing and took pride in handling the oar. The management would put a band in a boat, or send the Jubilee Singers out on the water, and "music on the lake "became an inspiring feature of evening recreation. An illuminated fleet in which the steamers from Jamestown, decorated with Chinese lanterns, would come up the lake in the evening, as things of beauty, while other steamers coming down from Mayville adorned with their lights on every side, doubled the attraction; fireworks sent up from a barge or from the shore lighted up all the sky. For such as did not care for these exhibitions and desired another sort of pleasure, there was fishing for bass, pickerel, and other fish of the deep, and this sport became a very popular recreation and pastime; bathing in these pure spring waters must be added before we complete the round of recreations. These were the days before lawn tennis and base ball became national games, but croquet was an outdoor exercise in which social life and the skill of the player were combined. It is very remarkable that in those early times, some good, but not very wise, people expressed grave doubts as to the propriety of playing croquet, seeing fireworks, fishing, or having an illuminated fleet on the lake. It was their judgment that Chautauqua was degenerating and the evidence of it could be seen in this love of pleasure and the valuable time spent in recreation. Hence, all sorts of predictions were made concerning the evils that would befall Christianity, how its progress would be retarded and the church hindered in her work, and the young people who 'frequented the place have a false taste developed. We have lived to see that excess of church discipline is a dangerous policy, because nothing has worked so much evil in the history of the Christian church during the past twenty years as the condemning of legitimate amusements, the erecting of barriers to prevent young people from indulging in reasonable and harmless recreations and amusements. Chautauqua seized this feature of human life with a firm hand, which was guided by strong convictions and good common sense, and she has demonstrated to the world the wisdom of her course. She discriminated wisely against hurtful amusements and safely in favor of such recreations as were harmless, and thus settled doubts and brought good cheer to both young and old. CHAPTER IV. "THROUGH THE EYE TO THE MIND." TWENTY years ago the Sunday-school was the ward of the Christian church. The method of teaching the Bible to children and young people was of a haphazard sort. There was no school for training teachers and officers; so that those who came to Sunday-school for an education in the Scriptures were not always intelligently and ably instructed. It was a time when the church, with an efficient Sunday-school organization, could have trained a vast army of children and young people in the doctrines and polity of the Christian church, but there was a serious defect in the methods employed for the training of teachers; therefore the Sunday-school was in danger of becoming the weakest place in the churches of the land. There was a lamentable amount of ignorance of the Bible, the church's Book, at that time among Sundayschool teachers. The geography of Bible lands, the chronology of the Bible, its doctrines, and all that pertained to exact information which would qualify men and women to be competent teachers, seemed to be lacking, except in an occasional teacher or officer. No general effort seemed to be made to prepare instructors for teaching the Scriptures, or to furnish them with a knowledge of human nature. Whatever information children who grew up in the Sunday-school obtained, was the amount of preparation they secured in succeeding to the office of teacher. It was the fashion to have a Sunday-school connected with every church. People who could organize a Sunday-school seemed to be numerous; but teachers, intelligent in the Bible, could not be found to man these schools. The common schools were busy teaching the rudiments of education; academies and seminaries, colleges and universities, taught the higher branches that would be needed by young people in the pursuits of life. But the teaching of the Bible was relegated to a class in the Sunday-school, where children and young people were left to the mercies of untutored men and women or boys and girls. Anybody who will study the philosophy of Sunday-school history in those days will reach the conclusion that the progress of the Gospel in every church and in every land was retarded by the ignorance of the people who pretended to teach it. They defeated themselves and prevented the work they tried to do. Every intelligent minister who was educated for his work and knew how to do it, was handicapped by a band of unqualified Sunday-school teachers whom he was obliged to adopt as his co-workers. It was part of the original Chautauqua plan to meet this condition of things in the Sunday-schools of the land and it was a task of great proportions, large enough to begin with, and any thing more at that time would have produced confusion. The people who joined in the movement at Chautauqua were impressed with the necessity as well as the novelty of the work. Investigation proved that teachers in these church schools were, in many instances, poor, or working on small salaries, so that they could not purchase the books or command the time needed to prepare to teach, Often they were young boys and girls who had joined the church, and because they had a membership in the church, that was sufficient recommendation to give them the office of teacher. It was even supposed that a literary education obtained in the high school or the seminary was sufficient preparation for one to explain the Scriptures. This, however, proved to be a fallacy, and it was difficult to reach ; but it VERANDA OF THE HOTEL ATHEN.EUM. was a part of the Chautauqua work to explode these theories and to show that to teach the Scriptures one must have a knowledge of the Bible, the geography of the ancient Bible world, understand the authenticity of the Scriptures, its chronology, the times, habits, and customs of the people of the Bible, know something about the doctrines, and treat the Bible as the most real book in all the world. Chautauqua undertook this task by inviting the Sunday Along the coast are the cities of Gaza, Ashdod, Joppa, and Cæsarea, and along the sea beyond is Carinel; the eye sees successively the city and plain of Akon, Tyre, and Sidon. Nearly parallel with the line of the Mediterranean coast extends a great range of mountains. To the south are the mountains of Judæa, with Bethlehem, Hebron, and Beersheba in sight; to the north are the mountains of Benjamin, of Ephraim, Samaria, Lower and Upper Galilee, with all schools of every church to send one or to the west. the other mountains, great and small, until we see on the eastern verge the villages of Endor, Nain, and Jezreel. There were the Dead Sea and the River Jordan and all the outlines of the Holy Land; miniature towns and cities located here and there, represented faithfully the ancient and holy country. This model, prepared at very great cost, was the general attraction for students, who, with book in hand, were led by a wise instructor from F&V mountain to moun tain, and from the Mediterranean Sea to dred and seventy feet long and it represented the Valley of the Jordan, from Jerusalem to the salient features of the sacred land where Abraham and Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Samuel and Saul, David and Solomon, lived; and, greater than all, where Jesus Christ lived and died and rose from the dead, and thence ascended to heaven. This little Park has been carefully laid out with strictest accuracy in all essential details. If one came in from the south, and traveled toward the north, he would go it once to Jerusalem, the ancient capital of the country, and from that city take a survey of the land. The Park is not lovated geographically right as regards the points of the compass; but the relative positions are all correct, and it was necessary to make Chautauqua Lake serve as the Mediterranean. To make the representation perfect one has only to imagine the Lake as lying Jericho, and, indeed, to all the towns and There is always an amusing side, however, to the most serious task in life, and the Park of Palestine furnished the newspaper correspondents a splendid opportunity to say smart things and in a humorous way to excite merriment. I think it was Bishop Peck who came late one evening to Chautauqua, and as a Bible student was at once attracted to the Holy Land. Not knowing this country, he walked on as the evening shadows gathered, and taking a careless step put his foot on Hebron, one of the oldest cities in the world, and a good part of it was laid in ruins. The city of Damascus suffered at the hands of a group of playful children, who, at an early morning hour, were perambulating the country, and, seeing the little houses and temples arranged in exact order, they seized them. When the superintendent of the land came to look for his city of Damascus, he Iound that the youngsters had carried it away. Jericho suffered a similar fate, while boys and girls made their little ships and sailed them on the Dead Sea and the MOUNT HERMON IN PALESTINE PARK. River Jordan. One can readily understand what a fine opportunity a reporter of a secular or political newspaper would have in the Park of Palestine, when her cities were treated after this fashion by the denizens of the grove. This Park became a very useful method of advertising Chautauqua, and its effect on the public mind was well illustrated by a good old man who said on his arrival, "I came five hundred miles to see the Holy Land, which I am informed has been brought from the far East and set up at Chautau-. qua." When he saw it his righteous soul was vexed, because, as he declared he had been deceived. The country he knew was small but he believed it was much larger than here represented. Another object lesson was the Jewish Tabernacle, which was located on a hill that overlooked the Lake and was presented on a scale one-half the original size. Here was the altar of sacrifice, the holy place with its altar of incense, table of shew bread, and the holy of holies, with the ark of the covenant and cherubim overshadowing the mercy seat. As one entered these precincts, he could well imagine himself with the Jewish people in the wilderness. When I first met Dr. W: W. Wythe, he was in a tent near the pier at Chautauqua, making an angel out of mud and adorning it with gold leaf, that it might serve as a cherC-Aug. ub in the holy place in the Tabernacle. Farther down the hill there was between the Park of Palestine and the Jewish Tabernacle, an Oriental house, the architecture of which was copied from a house in Jerusalem. Here were to be seen, at all times of the day, men and women in the costumes of the Orient, pursuing their various vocations, illustrating the customs and habits of the people in the land of the ancient prophets and patriarchs. An Oriental museum was connected with it. Near by was modern Jerusalem, with its streets and avenues laid out with exactness; many travelers who have visited that city have pointed out upon the model, to their companions, the house where they resided and places of interest they visited.. As one goes back on the hill, he finds the sectional model of the Pyramid of Cheops, which gives at a glance the various passages, vaults, and chambers in this wonderful Cyclopean structure. There was an old building located southeast of the Park of Palestine, near the shore of the Lake, which was of antique design. It was two stories high, with verandas running along both sides and across one end. There was no modern door in the structure, but simply a white curtain hung over the end of each room, which opened on the veranda. There was not an inch of plaster in the building, but good board partitions divided the rooms, and a stairway led from the ground to the second story. This building was "The Ark"; afterwards called "Noah's Ark," and still later was given the suggestive name of "Knowers' Ark." Here were domiciled from year to year, on their visit to Chautauqua, bishops and reformers; philanthropists, and professors of universities, colleges, and seminaries; lecturers and eminent preachers. The old structure and its near location to the shore of the Lake was suggestive of pictures we have |