The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1891-08-01
Correspondence.
MoNTEAGLE, Tenn, July "a, l9S

MONTEAGLE, lENN., July "a, 1871
Compared with other summer assemblies,
Montague is considered remarkably restful
and easy-going. Instead of crowding each.
day and every hour of the day with meetings.
lessons, etc" said habitue to me, "we take
our food, philosophy and fun in leisurely
tashion-so as not to overtax digestion. Only
in mid-season are three performances day
allowable, and nobody is obliged or expected
to attend all these. We positively decline to
rush, to cram, to do things under pressure.
This popularity often excltes surprise and
sometimes upsets negotiations with lee
ture bureaus. When our platform commit
tee, wishing to secure certain notable for
current season, mentioned the dates desired
instant objection was made. Three days and
four nights was declared ample time for de-
livering of a course of ten scientific lectures
Whilst have myself been q very busy Wo-
man during my sojourn here 1t has been from
choice not necessity. The schools, offering as
they do not only more thorough preparation
for teachers already experienced but contact
with specialists on different lines and valuable
help to those engaged in particular fields OF
research, must engage if not engross the at
tention of an alert educator. But even here
the courses are fuller the terms longer than
usual. Over two hundred enrollments are re-
ported in the twelve departments now IN
operation-the Art School, under Prof.
Longenau, and the School of Physical Culture
having the lead in attendance Chancellor
Paynes lessons and lectures on Pedagogies
do not begin until August, fact very disap-
pointing to teachers whose fall work calls
them home about that date.
The Assembly program progresses smoothly
Prof. De Notes illustrated lectures on Air
Sound, Electricity, ETC., drew large audiences
three nights of past week. Fresh from Europe
and the great laboratories there his scientific
knowledge and equipment for demonstrating
by scientific experiment is abreast with the
very latest discoveries. With two. assistants
i nf irda Ta Inn-
lures were entertaining and instructive in
the highest degree.
The orchestral performances of Lohmans
fine orchestra are another unfailing attraction.
Prof Bores' magic playing of the hthophone
last night at the first purely orchestral con-
cert was pleasure and a novelty that set the
audience wild.
The Iithophone, as the name indicates, is
a musical instrument made of stone and the
marvellous musical sounds evoked from so un-
promising material, under the electric play OF
the performers little hammers was astonish-
ing No pianist could excel in brilliancy of
execution, nor can the piano produce such
waterfall of liquid melody.
On Wednesday evening we enjoyed liter
ary symposium in the amphitheatre, to which
Messrs. Bourland and Fortier and Miss Orr
we're chief contributors with music by Mrs.
Cheney and Prof. O'Connell and a bit of fine
elocution by Prof. Merrill, all of the Schools
faculty. The poet Tennyson received most
attention. Miss Orr's paper was finished
study, analytical and exhaustive, showing
much literary acumen and taste. She is
teacher in the Industrial Institute and Col
lege, Columbus, Miss, and, Judged by that eff
fort a very superior one. She did not read
but pronounced with ease and deliberation,
seldom needing to refer to her manuscript
Among the pretty summer homes that
ornament the Assembly grounds, there is one,
just completed and occupied for first time
this season, by ex-Gov. A. S. Marks and
family, of Winchester, Tenn, which is so set
out of the common as to merit q brief descrip-
ton 1t is known as 8 the log cabin and
such it really is. Standing on hillside
facing south it includes four separate and dis
tinet cabins or pens of unheWn logs, the NOR
tised corners crossing and the cracks between
chinked with mortar in most approved pioneer
style Two of these cabins, those on lower
side, are two-storied and the other two one
story each--the four forming perfect square
which, with twelye-foot veranda enclrcling
the whole and the wide transverse hall con-
Meeting the four rooms on same level, gives
floor area sixty feet square. The cabins are
beautifully ceiled inside and really elegant,
but that wide transverse hall with its lofty
arehed roof rising clear to the rafters, thirty
feet, and its polished floor strewn with bear
aud deer skin rugs, trophies of the chase not
ten miles away, with It's two VIDE chimney
places and logs, all ready for the firing with
its big arm chairs and alluring eouches and
rustic seats, and fine outlook north, south,
east and west, that is the heart of the house,
it's crown and glory.
It is the rusticity and freedom of the Daniel
Boone era invested and informed by the cul-
+ ture and courtesy of this glorious nineteenth
eenturys close, for nowhere, | am told, is
I there a more charming and cultured family
circle than that keeping annual tryst under
- NJ. NJ. H.