The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1877-09-06
Concerning the Chautau'
qua Assembly.


Point, on the Chautauqua Lake, and
are reached by the A. & G. W. R. R.,
leaving the road at Lake View, and
taking steamer for Fair Point. The
Lake is a beautiful sheet Of water,
clear and calm, about % miles in
length, and from 2 to, 6 miles in
width not large enough ever to
get very stormy. The hills about it
are pretty, not very high, and slop-
ing gently toward the lake, making a
fine farming region. The gro g
are simply magnificent. Beech, ma
pie and chestnut trees make up the
body of the forest, and are remarka-
bly, tall and straight and clean. At
lIayville, and jamestown, and Be
mas Point, and Lake View, are large
hotels.
This Fair Point is lovely. The
delightful groves, the glinting of the
water, as you look through the trees,
the gentle breeze, the pleasant
temperature, therows of white tents
and cottages, all combine with the
attractions of the Assembly, to make
# a deliohtfnl resort.
Crowds of people are here. The
young and the old, the aristocratic
and the democratic, the wise and the
otherwise; the rich and the poor; the
good, and-I suspect-the bad, are
all, all here. Strangers are jammed
together in cottages, they dwell in
unity in very narrow quarters, and
wait their turn for the wash-boWl,
with the grentest good humor, so it
is apparent that while some things
here are on broad scale, others are
on a narrow one.
There was much IN the exercises
that was very dull and common
place, and there was much of that
Stiffness that attends an effort to say
smart things. Men who think too
highly of themselves are very much
et home in sucb COnventiOns- We
had some very interesting lectures
and papers, but one of the most in
teresting was given to us in the
sign language by deaf mute. It
was a grateful relief, a blessed
change from the everlasting din of
some takers.
But when I think of Chautauqua
ASSEMBLY Joseph Cook is upper
most in my mind, and I have no dis
position to write about anything
else. Yet one hardly knows how
to describe him. He is everything
that is big and overpowering. He
has a very large head and chest, his
voice is somewhat husky, he is un-
graceful in his movements, elephan-
tine and restless, but so immeasur-
ably strong. He spoke for two
hours on New England Skepticism,
and never in my life did I listen
with more self-forgetfulness. He is
entirely natural, says beautiful things
without seeming to know it, is wholly
absorbed in his theme, and nothing
in his manner says-"I am a great
man."
He does not spare himself in brain,
or body, or voice, but drives on ir-
like half a dozen loco
motives combined. He is never bit /
ter, though sometimes terribly severe.
He says things that are very funny,
but a sensible purpose and point
are apparent. To describe him is
simply impossible: as we'll try to de-
scribe Niagara.
This lecture he read from printed
slips, occasionally laying down his
notes when something came to mind !
by the way; as when something sug-
gested the late ''strike, and then he
turned upon the Railway Kings" in
a way that elected the heartiest
cheers of his large audience. In
substance, he spoke of them as bus
mess cut-throats, who gave their en-
ployes no Sabbath, and so trained
them to such disregard of the law Of
God, as must inevitably lead them
to mock at the rights Of property.
Again he laid aside his notes, to
speak of the influence of the secular
press, in the matter of skepticism.
He spoke cOmmendingly of many of
our leading journals, Of both East
and West, then said that they had
some papers in the East that
were not fit to be handled, but he
mentioned as the leading papers, Of
what he called "the leprOus press,
the Chicago Times and the Cinei1-
natj Commercial
Iheard Mr.. Cook twice. The sub
iect of the second lecture was, ''Does
Death End All?" The people be-
gan to assemble two hours before
the time, and long before the hour
the immense auditorium was filed.
The audience was the largest I ever
saw, and listened attentively to q
lecture that occupied an hour and
forty-fve minutes in its delivery.
He used no notes in this lecture,
but he never hesitated for a word,