The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-08-08
THE cHAUTAUQUA.

The Chautauqua season is in fun blast
at present and the ranks of the thriIlers
and spellbinders have been augmented
by the statesmen who have been ma
roOned in Washington all summer. The
Herald is free to confess that it re-
CARDS the Chautauqua lecture platform
with considerable respect, and it re-
grets that there is a disposition on the
part of some Of the leading newspapers
OF the land to discredit the lecturers.
Thus the Chicago Tribune takes Mr..
Horace Fletcher to task for defending
the humble bedbug. 1t is Mr. Fletcher's
opinion that this well known hemip-
ferrous insect is really a friend, instead
OF an enemy. of mankind. and that
when he doth murder sleep he is in
reality comforting a benefit by warning
the victim that his surrounding condi-
tons are unsanitary. Perhaps Mr..
Fletcher's point is far-fetched and that
the Tribune is justified I'm making game
of the bug and its defender. The New
York Time, however, has no such ex-
cuse. Il holds the Chautauquans, one
and ali. up to contumely and scorn, as
follows:
In the summer months the amiable
seekers for knowledge sit at the feet
of wisdom. From the baccalaureate
sermons of June to the last of the Old
Home Week or Chautauqua assembly
meetings of late August the foliies that
beset mankind and .corrode communi-
ties are denounced. The folly Of gov
eminent. taxation. learning, reading,
the folly of war the folly Of peace, the
folly Of all traditions and sacred be-
liefs are so eloquently expounded that
mere man wonders how he may dwell
on the transformed earth of the future.
The country girl OF ancient legend, I'm
a weeks visit to Chicago, heard lee
lures by Robert. Ingersoll. Ignatius
Donnelly, and Nine. Jenness-N Miller.
and lamented the loss of her God. her
Shakespeare. and her most intimate
garments. But those were teachers Of
n primitive and modern era. The
same girl I'm the course OF a single sum
mer's listening and reading now would
be convinced that unless every existing
system can be abolished human society
must perish.
AT Chautauqua this week they have
been learning that education and train
ing for the army and navy are all
wrong. because they create snobs. tt
is perfectly true that the sense Of rank
is always with an army officer. and
there are snobs enough i'm military life,
though. naturally. not as many as in
civil life. Any education may tend TO
make a weak man snobbish. The snob-
berry that exists i'm the artistic and lit
ersry world is as disaEreeable as the
most pernicious kind of snobberv bred
by military life The snobbery of the
simpleton born to wealth. and living
only for his own material comfort and
pleasure. is the worst kind of snobbe-y.
To be a snob is d common human fail
ing but if the worst that can be said
of the sound training and rigid dis
cipline OF West Point and Annapolis is
that some Of the cadets emerge from II
a trife too conscious of their superior
ity. they are nearly as perfect institu-
lions as the imperfect human race can
devise"
OF course, the Times is Cankered and
with prejudice. II doesn't take
any stock in the words of Bryan, LaFOl- !
Iette, Deliver and the other orators who /
are drawing cards on the Chautauqu5 /
circuit But the welkiD viii ring just /