University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1911-02-16
Ghautauqud Cham,

Wutu the coming Oi summer, WneL
universities close all but a few ol
their doors and members Of. univer
Isity faculties, the professor folk. shut
|up their books and wander OF to the
mountains and lake retreats, things
Educational would be pretty quiet but
for one thing. the Chautauqua.
There is something delightful about
a Chautauqua. 1t brings such an ar.
ray of new and entertaining things,
and stays so short time you want II
back; you declare 1t has pleased you.
You have heard so much and seen 90
much. that when it goes away and
the town settles back into quiet again,
you wish all the days of the hot, dull
months could be Chautauqua days.
| The Chautauqua may wen enough
be called the summer university of
the people. Its seven or eight or ten
days curriculum is largely education
al; the entertainment has the effect
Iof an educational stimulus, because of
its character. The sort of instruction
| 1t gives is of course not identical to
that of the university. 1t fills a diff
ferent want and is given under con.
ditions vastly different. The Chautau-
qua lecturer must be gifted not only
as teacher, but he must be an en-
|tertaining teacher. He talks to audi.
ences that are cosmopolitan; he is
presenting perhaps but one subject to
the thousand or more hearers who
represent almost as many interests.
He talks to the man whose mind all
year is on hogs and corn, and the
man next to him who has been SELL
ing drugs and beating up compounds.
Their interests are diversified; their
tastes different.
And then it is hot. His audience of
a thousand or two thousand or more
are packed under a big tent upon
which it seems the sun has focused all
its heat.
1t is not all uncomfortable. Not all
of the days are so hot, and sometimes
the big tent is set in a clump of
shady trees. 1t may be a cool resort
But for Chautauqua, everything is
planned for the comfort of hot wealth
er victims. The hours are short; the
programs themselves breezy" Even
the heavyweight" talk in a light
vein. The big man who has been
bossing Congress all winter comes on
the Chaulauqua platform with mes
sage, usually of good cheer, or he
gives his bitter lecture in a CHEEKY
way. He smiles and tells stories that
entertain and amidst the smiles and |
stories, he gives out big thoughts in |
such a way, the man from the farm
and the man from the store hardly |
know he's talking about serious and |
vitality important things that concerns
heir own interests. They carry the
home though and it sticks.
They find that he has dealt with |
problems that touch on their own ex-
stence and that the things he so
happily said, have. after all a part
n each days work.
It is mistake, though, to think
hat all the really big Chautauqua
peakers are men from Congress.
That may once have been the case,
tut it is not now. In fact, it is the
'elief Of good many, that men from
congress are little out of place on
he Chautauqua platform. Some have
sed this means in the promotion of
heir ambitions as public men; and,
( course, they are paid large fees, al K
nough servants of the people, for dis L
ussing the peoples interests. You
ee the argument. 1t seems little
but the Chautauqua, to be
ood, must have heart, not the in {
srests Of this single politician, if 1t
le Chautauqua speaker be a poll t
clan, but it must have as its interest Ia
lis man from the farm and the man t
'om the store who have made the A
great institution.
Chautauqua speakers are sometimes
wyers who have come from the big
ty with message" to the man in L
10 small town. He has been think q
g all year of things that have been 81
ling on in the small city or town, G.
on the farm that seem to him to
,ed little adjusting. He is gifted
ator, and he goes out as Chautau- D.
Ia lecturer and he tells the people M
hat he has been thinking about. &c
ost of this sort of advice from the M
An with good sense, with the city
ans perspective, is good.
1t may be writer who desires to
pplement the ideas his book pre- =
nted, by a direct word. The Chau- m