The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-02-26
Happy Returns to Cit ronelle of a Patriotic
 Impulse.
By Will n. sheehan.

| Hy VIII ". Sheehan.
 1 The intellectual regeneration of Ala
 Dama in, say, the last ten years, has
 been quite as remarkable as it's indus
 trial regeneration of which so much is being said in these days and SO much i is being written,
 The Alabama man. if he notes what
 Is going on under his very nose, or if
 ne IS any sort of newspaper reader, has an idea that there has been an edu-
 cauonai reform IT, one way or another in Alabama. If he has read carefully and imbibed information as he should, he knows that Alabama has advanced in education more rapidly than any Southern State, and that in the per- centage of increase in funds set aside for education and in the percentage of
 average daily attendance and in the raising of the standard of teachers qualification. the State has perhaps shown more advance than any other State in the Union.
 Beyond doubt Progress and Educa-
 ton go their way hand in hand. They are corelative and dependent one upon the other. From each other they draw
 strength and sustenance; or, they are
 like the cuttings of two fruit trees carefully and skilfuiIy grafted upon
 each other. And the fruit of the tree Is the best that mankind can claim for himself.
 The attempt has been made to reflect
 in these letters at least a portion of
 the rapid development that Alabama
 Tor one cause or another has undergone
 in the past few years in industry. in
 commerce and in prosperity. An effort
 has been made to show that prosperity
 has favored no section and sIighted no
 section in Alabama. The series of let
 ters have fallen short of one purpose
 at least if the letters themselves have Tailed to show that mineral Alabama
 agricultural Alabama, manufacturing
 Alabama and commercial Alabama in every form has felt the impetus of new
 blood and new dollars.
 The task of the letters has been but poorly done if the written letters should have failed to show the infused vital 'tty in intellectual and educational Ala pama. Nor in this is any attempt made to show that there are any greater in- tellectual giants today than there were a quarter, half, or the three-quarters or century. But the assertion may be made without fear of contradiction that there is a. wider distribution of information, that there are more peo- pie of average education, that there are more people able to assimilate infor- nation and draw deductions for them l selves than ever before in the history of the State. It may be boldly asserted that education has more devotees and more supporters than in any previous year in the history of the State.
 Leavening of New Ideas,
 If the letters have failed to show the , leavening of new ideas, the infusion of l new people with different traditions | and different customs, the growth of a | broader and more catholic spirit among l the citizenship of the State. the failure | has not been for lack of purpose, but | from A lack of ability. Some attempts l have been made to portray the moving | of these new ideas. It has been neces- | ssry Co chronicle. when the telling of | the truth was at hand, the benefit that | has redounded to the State the good | which has been brought in the opera ton and development of some of the | things to which the people of the State l were unused and unaccustomed.
 It is a privilege here to chronicle | the success of still another intellectual | advance, the growth of the Chautauqua idea within the State. The Chautauqua | itself Is a modern institution and only in recent years. in fact. it might be | said. only in recent months, has 1t won a place in the intellectual economy of Alabama. There are at present two of these institutions within Alabama, the Chautauqua and the Citron- ellie Chautauqua. and of the two, the Chautauqua Is the younger. But as young as both of them are they have won success and brought profit and honor to their promoters.
 Ii has been mentioned that CitronelIe is largely, in fact almost overwhelm- ingly northern, but in the establish ment of the Chautauqua in that beau tiful town of the pines the ex-north- errer and the southerner struck hands. even as they have done in every Ala oama com nunity when the interest of the common good was at stake When the idea was broached 1t was all for the common good and practically every body in Citronelle had hand in push Ing 1t along towards success.
 Now this unusual and lovely little town has not more than 1000 people and some of them are negroes who make no further contribution to the general prosperity of the place than 10 the negroes oflany other Alabama town. Yet so well have the people }. Cftronelle wrought that they have ! large and handsome Chautauqua crowning the highest point of the city and surrounded by q wide spreading lawn. Moreover this build Ing will seat the entire population of