Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1913-07-12
CHAUTAUQUA BIG SUCCESS.
Good Attendance, Much Enthusiasm, Good
Order, Splendid Talent, $l25
Surplus.
By ID. j. Morgan.

I period, proper, has gone, but the chau-
lauQua spirit il still here, as is mani
tested by the fact that already Custer's
energetic citizens have contracted for
another chautauqua for the summer of
J 1914. Some of the things that have
made the first chautauqua success are:
The optimism OF those who advocated it
iast winter when the advance agent was
/ IN town; the energy and willingness of
many citizens to solicit their friends to
Uuy season tickets, thus insuring little
or no financial deficit; the fact that the
Redpath- Horner Lyceum bureau is the
best known and largest association of its
kind in the country, with main Offices at
| Cedar Rapids, lowaand Kansas City; the
boosting spirit of the Federation editors
of the Custer Chronicle, and the liberality
Vt the Chronicle editor in giving space
for those writings; and last, and prob
ably, chief, the cooperative spirit and
liberality Of Clusters people in patroniz-
ing the first attempt TO place in our little
city the chautauQua-that latest, great
est and most ediiying of new things in
America. OLher fortunate and fayoring
circumstances aided US, but after all, it
was not good luck, although there was
the most fortunate combination of
constitute q vital element in max
ing or marring an enterprise of
this kind. Whenever anything like this
chautaUqua is made a success in small
town like Custer, and for the first time,
too, it is another way of saying that
there are in that town persons who are
willing to do more than merely buy
tickets; persons willing to do even more
than sell tickets, notwithstanding the all
important necessity for the latter pro-
cess. 1t means that there are persons
in that town who can see, through
all the cold water pouring, the sunshine
of success and service to their fellows.
Never was thing like a chautauqua
launched any where but that some one,
either the "odest inhabitant" or some
one else with his characteristics, except
age, has said: at can't be DONE" "You
can't make it pay out here in -" "Its
all right for those who want 1t, but it
looks to me like a money maxi ing scheme
for the company" When the real red
blooded citizen hears remarks like these,
he merely gets busy. He talks, thinks,
dreams of, and boosts chautauQua, with
big Z. That's what great many Gus
ter men and women did, and-well, you
know the rest. The heading of this
article tells you the truth, and if you
can see into the future, you can see the
summer of 1914 already here; you can
see the chautauqua tent again, with its
promise Of things broad and big, bene-
ticent; you can see the farmers around
Custer doing what they did not do en-
| ough this year, and that is, bring the
| family to town for the whole week, and
| you can see group OF many tents
| around the big tent. You can see tired,
| yet happy men, women and children in
these tents, resting, visiting and waiting
| for the afternoon and evening programs.
| In these little tents, in this little canvass
| city of recreation and rest and revival,
| will be people from Hill City and
Pringle, from Hermosa and Buffalo Gap,
and from all the territory intermediate.
That's the way the chautauqua serves
those farther east, where it is an older
institution, and where the idea is more
firmly and deeply implanted in the very
beings of every man, woman, boy and
girl. where 1t is Just as much necessity
they think-as is Christmas, the
Fourth Of July and Thanksgiving. And
that is the way it will be in Custer,
especially in view of our splendid be-
ginning made this year. The chautau
qua as it came to us this summer-to
many Of us for the first time-was a
great and liberalizing thing, but wait
until We can see, not dozens, but hun
dreds of our neighbors and friends en-
Joy it with us. Then is when it becomes
not merely an entertaining and pleasing
thing, not mere recreation alone, but
more; it then becomes that powerful
something that We have named Inspira-
Iion. That's what we of beautiful Gus
ter must build for in 1914, and in the
years to come, for We are not productive
citizens unless we build permanently for
ourselves and our children, for our town,
community, and fellows And we are so
building in providing the chautauqua
for our community, for the chautauqua
offers talent in music, entertainment,
and lectures that is the acme. The usual
chautauQua talent is merely the men
and women who in their respective vo-
cations and spheres of life, have sue
ceeded plus, and who have got to crowd
ing their bounds as preachers, editors,
and lawyers, and who have to put on
larger clothing in the worlds dress
parade of service to mankind, and they
have put on chautauqua garb in accord
ance with their growth and breadth and
efficiency, and the American people
have the opportunity to see and hear
these men and women of brains at a few
cents per head. Is there any wonder
why the chautauqua succeeds? We
think not. And this is not advertising
for the company either. 1t is being
written by an humble citizen of Custer,
at the request of the Chronicle editor,
and embodies what the writer thinks is
the consensus of opinion among the
majority of Clusters populace. When
you have tried something, like we have
| tried the chautauqua, and like it better
after taking than you thought you would
before you tried it, that is what counts
You have eaten of the fruit without
dyspepsia or sorrow, but on the other
hand, with pleasure and nourishment,
and that's why you want more, and
want others to have more.
To describe each program of the chau-
tauqua would be impossible, but brief
mention may be made of the leading
features.
The three biggest things of the chau
tauqua were Bradford, Mrs. Zehner, and
Gordon. Each lectured, and more, too.
Mrs. Zehner in her american Ideals
personifies to the satisfaction of all the
famed oratory Of the South, where she
lives; and she broadens, inspires and
enobles her hearers with her sincerity
and plain wisdom. DR.. F. E. Gordon is
a homely Oklahoma home philosopher.
How's that? Tall, dignified, and seri-
Gus, he captivates his audience at first
sight. His "Six Cylinder Living" is a
platform classic, conceived in a master
mind, and delivered with the vim and
eloQuence that imparts its phosphorus