The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-08-10
THE NEW YORK caAUTAuQUA.
Georgia Woman's Views of the Gel
brated Place.

LAKE CHAUTAUoUA, N. Y, Aug. 4.-The
Chautadqua assembly now in the hight of its
summer work, on the beautiful bangs of
lake Chautauqua, was first organized about
fifteen years ago, principally as a summer
resort of the Methodist Episcopal church,
for the study and PRONUNCIATION of Sunday
school work Each year has seen some lit
erary or scientific work added to it, until it
has become entirely unsectarian, good
desl of pleasure resort, and temple OF
learning where the devotee can pay his de-
votions to his chosen shrine. The organiza-
+ion seems to be the only one of the kind
extant. including in this, Of course, the
numerous branches now established through
the country; and SO markedly successful is
il acknowledged to have become, that the
seat Of English learning, Oxford college,
has decided to organize what is now known
as the "Chautauqua movement" under Its
dignifed auspices.
ITO have attended the Chautauqua as
semblies for number of consecutive years
would be liberal education to receptive
mind. and to the dull plodder on life's dusty
highway, what feast for mind and soul
must be the daily gift of the choicest
thoughts of the foremost intellectual men
and women of our country! There is, too,
the attrition of minds to quicken the dor
mant faculties, the genial social atmosphere
in which the soul expands, and the environ
ment of pure air, shady groves, birds, flow
ers. the tinkling of fountains, and the blue
sparkling waters of very gem of lakes.
There is the most charming manner" at
Chautauqua, a sort OF comradeshlp among
the habitues, and to newcomers an extremely
kind disposition to render assistance.
Feeling the reticence of a stranger, |
plodded along for day or two finding out
things as best / could, until, being SO often
met with friendly remark or voluntary
offer of assistance, grew TO see that good
will to men" was the spirit of the Chautau-
qua assembly. "You are a stranger at
Chautauqua" means let ME help to make
YOU like it, and it bids fair to become the
Mecca of the army of earnest school teach
ers, the Sunday school enthusiast, and any
thoughtful worker in life VINO has holiday
to spend, and the desire to spend it profit
ably.
Let me say, as tribute to the south
have learned TO love, that of all the shining
intellectual lights that have flashed across
the Chautauqua armament, none have been
more brilliant than George w. Balm of
Louisville, KY. That he, soldier in the
confederate army, drew to him the stern
hearts of these brain-fed northern Chautau-
Quans, argues not their charitableness, but
the irresistible, heart-and-soul compelling
strength of an orators manhood that strikes
divnest chords in the human heart, com
pelling them to throw down prejudice and
rise above all littleness of soul. He held
and moved and swayed 5000 souls, as by
one common impulse they rose with him to
nights of unsectional patriotism, sorrowed
over the fallen, wept for the unfortunate
and scOrned all meanneSs and uncharitable-
ness And SO true his courage, SO wise his
tact and so unerring his shafts Of truth, that
he stood Oh his ground as Southerner and
a confederate, and won applause right in
the stronghold of yankee stubbornness.
His the soul grand enough, the mind great
enough and the heart generous enough, to see
the right and the wrong on both sides, and
to declare it; to recognize the force of cir
cumstances and education that leads a ma
ture or a nation to the course it takes, and
the fact that we are, every human creature
created, the storm-tossed children of passion
and selfishness, striving ever from the
germs of nobility in our souls to reach after
the light Surely in the hearts of the few
southerners listening to him in Chautauqua
must have been aroused feelings of inter
est pride and qualification.
Following Mr.. Balm on the lecture stand
of Chautauqua's amphitheater, was 7.
Dewitt Talmage, to whom was given the
"ChautauQua salute,"-no a clapping of
hands, not sound, but the fiuttering in
the air OF thousands of white handker
chiefs His subject was "School of Scan
dial" and that to the eager, glowing 1000
faces, Eupturned to gifted spiritual
teacher for gems Of thought and wisdom,
DR.. Talmage could dwell for more than an
hour on so bslittling theme was, to me,
great disappointment. His hearers were
the brave, patient workers of our country
who have no time for scandal, and yet
DR.. Talmage exhorted them in tones that
shock the vast amphitheater and deafened
his near listeners, to avoid lie, and then,
fastening on to the monster, commonly
called lie," he converted it into roaring
lion, devourlng its prey, into a sea monster
reddening the water with the blood of its
victims, into vampire sucking the life of
our nation, into millions of scorpions sting
ing to death the innocent, and when he had
wrestled with it in every shape and condi-
ton of horror this thing commonly called
lie"-and slung it at every invective and
term of opprobrium, he only seemed to
gain strength and impetus for a fresh at
tack. / mean no disrespect to a popular
divine, when | say that the air seemed to
grow murky and the sun did not shine
50 brightly or the birds sing so merrily at
Chautauqua for the rest of that day Those
Of his listeners who were hearing him for
the first time came away disappointed, and
1t is to be hoped that his sermon on Sunday
will show us a more beautiful side of life.
DR.. j. M. Buckley, the scholarly and well
known editor Of the Christian Advocate,
IN an exceedingly fascinating lecture on
The fatal box and other superstitions,"
startled at least some of his bearers by say
Ing impressively and emphatically that it
was impossible to prove the existence of
Tod by science or logical reasoning, and
he denominated the elaborate effort to es-
tablish religion on a scientific basis as utter
ly absurd While DR.. Buckley is himself
eminently scientific, and no less eminent as
areligious teacher / could only infer that
he worked his science, which he could not
rellnquish, and his religion, which he MOULD
not, on two separate lines, and enjoyed AID
prohted by both. This, of course, is my
inference from his first startling assertion,
and his subsequent talk on faith, and If my
sui further Inference is correct, and we are
70 accept the christian religion or not, ac-
cordlng to our desire for such belief, or
our need for 1t, or the temperament and
education that will make 1t possible to
accept 1t, it is a very comfortable arrange
ment, certainly
=, Another large assemblage greeted the
hey Sam Small, to hear him tell how he
went in one day "From Barroom to Pull
PIT" 1t was to me an evidence of the won
uerlul power of human sympathy that this
eoucourSe of more than ordinarily intellect
ual persons should have paid this reformed
urunkard the tribute of a rapt and sympa-
tletlc attention for over an hour, as he
pictured the debaucheries of his former life,
IN manner that still held IA SAVIOR of bar
room coarseness and while carried along