The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-08-10

These travelling or bureau chautau-
quas have simply appropriated q mans
and an idea Naturally. there In q good
deal of variety In their programs. The
talent includes lecturers, musicians. ar
lists, elocutionists and 20 on. Some minor
abuses have crept in. but on the whole.
the work Is excellent and worthy Of sup
rort. The relation Of the bureau to the
permanent chautauQua Is that of having
talent to sell. A chain of chautauquas,
rarity supported by endowment from
Quakers, is conducted by q college pro-
fessor who is giving fourteen weeks Of
entertainments in Pennsylvania thus
summer. He has large tent and several
hundred folding chairs and easily moves
his equipment from town to town. The
University Of Minnesota has sent out a
couble faculty team, supplemented by
dramatic and glee clubs, to give an
original agricultural education play at
twenty-four placeG
chautauqua often becomes q lyceum and
gives winter entertainments, mostly lee
lures. In halls and churches. The ly-
ceum Ii an old American institution and
formerly was made illustrious by such
men as Wendell Phillips, Ralph Waldo
Emerson. Henry Ward Beecher, ard
John B. Cough, who carried slavery arc
temperance messages to the people. The
lyceum was outside the church. Indeed,
1t was not any too popular among
preachers. Chautauqua. however. was
the child OF the church. Though Metho-
0ists created It. the chautauqua move
ment was not denominational. Born of
religious impulse the educational idea
has been Predominant.
Brn.s by Day, Gas Mt Nisht.
The iyceum. as Arthur E. Bestor. d.
rector Of the Chautauqua institution.
says, presents an Individual PERFORM
ance: the audience is fascinated by a
daring dive from a great Intellectual
height or by the juggling of three
thoughts at one time in the mind of a
speaker. The chautauqua. on the con-
trary, may become an Intellectual hippo-
drome. three-rins circus. where many
things are going on at once. Sam Jones
called the chautauqua a cross between
a camp meeting and county fair Some
one else said that lyceum speaker is
a pillar Of brass by day and a column
Of gas by night In addition to its pro-
gram. the permanent chautauqua seeks
to bring people together from different
sections for period of stimulating COM
munity life.
whether Americans pstronize summer
chautauquas or winter lyceums, or both,
they get information and entertainment
Of the best kind for very little money.
And they are taking advantage of all
such bargains when offered. One Of our
field agents saw 100. automobiles at q
Kansas chautauqua last year, and they
all belonged to farmers. Besides. the
people are learning at first hand many
things for themselves They get certain
pictures Of a public man by reading
newspapers and magazines. Maybe the
pictures are erroneous, IL not malicious.
Then the man himself comes along as
. chautauqua attraction and talks to
the people. More than once a farmer has
been heard to say: I was wrong. He is
honest and believes In what he breaches
Chautauquas are causing the people to
think for themselves Villagers and
agriculturists now see that some Of the
things they have read are not true They