Birmingham age-herald., 1894-07-28
MORE INTERESTING Grows the Alabama Chautauqua
 Now in Session
AT SHELBY SPRINGS, ALA.
pr. B. F. Meek Delivers an In- tereSting Lecture-Other 2
 Proceedings.

SHELBY SPRINGS, July 26.-[Special Cor respondence. ]-The exercises of the Ala bama Chautsuqua assembly began this morning with concert by the Joseph or chestra.
 Instead of the lessons in speaking the English language correctly Dr. B. F. Meek delivered a highly Interesting and very in- structive lecture upon "Books and Read- ing.''
 The man who reads with purpose will have his conversation favored with his reading, but not about it.
 Dr. Meek said that the seed hiTtation-1. love. 2. love, and so on through 12. He marries-is an analysis of most of the novels of the day and, with Thoreau, he urged us to read not the times, but the eter- mites.
 Reading should be for knowledge and for power, and to accomplish these results Dr. Meek recommended that we read the best dictionaries, such poets and prose writers as Chaucer, Spenser. Shakespeare, Tenny- son, Longfellow, Dickens, Scott, Thack- cray, George Eliot, our own Mrs. Wilson and, above all, the pages of holy writ and and humanity the hero. He paid his re- spects to the fallibility of book makers, especially grammarians, who so often vio- late their principle that "use is the law of language" As an illustration he referred to the grammatical rule against the use of ''had best, ' "had rather, '' "had as lief, y etc., and then cited numerous instances in wbich these expressions are employed by Shakespeare, Marlowc, Tennyson, the Bible, Hawthorne, Goldsmith and other great masters of English.
 At 3:30 the orchestra, assisted by Miss Lucy A. Hobson, the teacher of vocal music, who arrived today from her home in Bristol, Va., gave delightful concert.
 Miss Helen B. Brown surpassed herself in her recitation of "How Christmas Came to Rockett,' and also in very amusing encore.
 Mir. Clifford A. Lanier of Montgomery read an able paper upon the subject of "Hymnody.' After distinguishing be- tween psalm and hymn, he enumerated the greatest of the ancient hymn writers, dwelling at length upon David, "tne widest character upon record. 1" Only the greatest poetry can survive translation, and that undeniable fact is one of the strongest proofs of the greatness of our Bible hymns.
 The antiphonal sin ging of the early Chris tians was described and some ancient and medieval examples of such hymns were quoted. Among the great hymns particu- larly noted were the Dies IrB and the Stabat Mater of the middle ages, Luther's Neuman's 'tLead Kindly Light,'' Charles Wesey's "Jesus, Lover of My Soui,' written in a blacksmth's tool house, and with piece of lead which he had sharpened into lead pencil, after escaping from an infuriated mob.
 The religious exerc cises of the c. l.. s. O. Round Table were conducted by Dr. Jones, and Miss Love, the Chautauqua secretary for the south, read a very appreciative paper upon the life and works of the south's gifted yet neglected son-musician, teacher and poet in one-Sidney Lanier of Georgia.
 At 7:3O Miss Hohson organized her chorus class. The remainder of the evening was spent in the enjoyment of Miss Browns impersonations and character sketches. Her great versatility was we'll shown by the skill with which she represented char acters so varied as 'enfante terrible, the Spanish gypsy girl, Wild Zingarella, Aunty Doleful, jockey, Dutch frau, Black Dinah. and Artemus Ward in his Mormon lecture.
 Among the arrivals today are Rev. J. T. Morris and Hon. Cecil Brown of Talladega and Rev. J. T. Miller of Pratt City.
 Dr. Meek, the learned professor of Eng fish in the University of Alabama, was this afternoon called home by telegram an- nouncing that his father-in-law, the ven- erable MT. Hemphill, was dying at his home in Tuskaloosa.