The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-17
It Is Distinctly an American Move nent and It's Popularity Has Made It Spread to Every State
 In the Union.
BY FREDERIC J. HAskIN.

l Chautauqua has changed that, and the man of eloquence now has a broader field to work in and more remunerative re l ward for his labor.
 The first meeting of this kind was when Bishop John H. Vincent called a meeting of Sunday school workers to assemble at 1 Lake Chautauqua in the summer of 1SiA 1 The meeting was so successful thaFit was made an annual affair. Four years later Bishop Vincent introduced the four years course of home study and reading. The "circles" which took Yp this course of reading grew so rapidly that there were SiOO members the first year. Meanwhile the attendance at Lake Chautauqua in creased and the course of study there was extended almost to the measure of university. Other assemblies began 10 appear and in ten years there was a score of them. The growth was gradual until about six years ago, when in the middle west particularly the summer assemblies sprang up by the dozen.
 Chautauqua institute the parent assem- bly, located by the lake which has given it's name to the whole movement, Is the largest of them all The summer popula- ton of 25,00O is all drawn by this attrac ton, although many do not follow the works of the course. Others. like Winona Lake, Ind and Monteagle, Tenn. have session extending through the entire sum- mer, and maintain schools attended by thousands The greater number of ss- sembles, however, have short sessions of from eight days to three weeks duration. In these there is no course of instruction beyond the Bible hour In the early fore noon and the Round Table in the after noon, which Is an open discussion free to all. The feature of these assemblies Is the lectures.
 The late Sam Jones said: we haven't enough religion to run camp meeting. and the county fair has played out. so we organize Chautauquas." Indeed. the Chautauqua has taken the place of the camp meeting and the county fair. In Missouri town of a thousand inhabitants a thousand season tickets were sold to the Chautauqua, and on the day William Jennings Bryan spoke there were 900 single tickets sold. Farmers and their families come for many miles and camp
 
 s. D., nearly thousand country people were encamped at the edge of the city on the hot, treeless plains, undergoing great inconveniences. just to be able to obtain the entertainment and instruction offered by the local Chautauqua assem- bly,
 Thus these assemblies have supplanted the camp meeting and the county fair, but they are hs far ahead of those older inc electric lights are superior to tallow dips. A village of a thousand people organizes a Chautauqua assembly. Many of It's most enterprising people, especially the women, have been taking the course of Chautauqua home reading for years and are familiar with the work of the movement. They talk and raise enthusiasm. The country side Is interested and season tickets are sold long in advance to insure against finan- cial disaster Finally. the Chautauqua week comes, the big tent Is erected and the country people arrive and go Into camp What are they offered? The ear nest eloquence of an unedccated camp meeting exhorter? No. The excitement of race between q mule and calf on the fair grounds race track? No.
 They hear Mir. Bryan on "The Value Of an Ideal" or Senator LaFollette on polit- ical reforms, or Governor Folk on cor ruption in office or Tom Lawson on fren- zled finance. Perhaps 1t may be debate tbeween Champ Clark and General Gros- venor on the tariff questlon-a better de- bate than can be heard in the halls or congress. Maybe they will listen to ex- Governor St. John or George P. stuart on temperance reform Sunshine Hawkes. may be there to delight the au- dience old and young, with his quaint optimistic humor, or George R. Vending may thrill his hearers with his eloquent
 lectures. Perhaps Senator Bob Iaytor will exhort to laughter and tears by ms humorous and pathetic pictures Of Ten- nessee life. Maybe Ben Tillman Will hre the people by his passionate exposition Of the race issue. Next day, perhaps, Book CT Washington will tell of the work Of Tuskegee institute. 1nterspersed between these int tellectual treats will be a concert or two by some good orchestra, travel lecture with pictures, or some other light CT form of entertainment
 Such a week Is marked by red letters in the calendars of that little village an its surrounding territory. How could such lecturers as these have been brought to so small a town without the Chautau- qua? It would be impossible. And like wise il would be impossible for the peo- ple there to go to a place where such lectures can be heard Dwellexs In large cities who think these things would be a bore have no notion of the enjoyment which they afford to the people of small CT cities and of the country. The city dweller. satiated with entertainment of every sort, often looks upon the lecture as a refinement of cruelty which his wife has invented through the medium of the Woman's club, to punish him for his sins.
 Yet any thorough student of American life will tell him that if such an fn- tellectual feast as the, Chautauqua at- lords does not appeal to him as it does to his country cousin, the reason Is that he isn't as well prepared to receive it. The man in the country town and on the farm has more time than the city man, and he uses 1t in reading. Pick up any farmer and pit him against any wholesale merchant in a political ar gument, and regardless of the merits or the controversy, the farmer will have him up tree in few minutes The farmer is better informed. He takes one or two daily papers and several weekiles He reads every line in them. and talks 1t all over with his neighbors. That