The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1914-06-12
THE CHAUTAUQUA

Many thousands Of Missourians and
other Middle Westerners are talking
or thinking about 1.-THE Chautauqua"
these days, In hundreds Of small
cities and even villages here and there
the people are preparing for the sum-
mer Chautauqua Assembly. Local
newspapers are publishing the home
town program, with half tones cuts of
"hcadliners" and more or less fusome
press notices and biographical sketch
es, telling how great an orator or how
nearly divine II musician is the sub
ject of each sketch. Out of the farm
ing districts the whole family is max
ing the decision that it can't afford
to miss the Chautauqua this year,
even though farm work must be some
what sighted. Maybe. anyhow. the
hired man can be induced to stay at
home and run things.
Great is the Chautauqua. Only
those who keep in touch with small
town aud rural conditions can apprc-
ciate how great is this highly mod
crn movement, how widely it has
spread, how intcnsivcly It's promoter
cdlfying and uplifting and soul-,u,-
isfying il has become. Even to the
prlslnE to find that nowadays the
town OF 1900 TO 1000 population is
regarded as backward" unless il
holds Chautauqua Assembly in the
course of the summer, with four or
five days Of oratory, music, lectures,
humorous entertainments and classes
for instruction along various lines.
This year a considerable number of
the smaller towns in Missouri, to men
ton but one State, are to he initiated
into the Chautauqua order Next
year other towns, catching the hap
py infection, will fall into line.
Until times comparatively recent
the ordinary town relied chiefly for its
public entertainment upon the Fourth
Of July Grafton delivered by some pol
itician of more or less note, who
poured forth spread-eaglc pyrOtech-
MICS from the lofty height of plank
rostrum built for the occasion in the
picnic grove and was heard only by
the graybeards, while the younger
element was popping frccrackers,
drinking pink lemonade, dancing the
pre-tango steps on n rough board
platform under the trees, and ether
wise divcrtng themselves so that
they might miss the agony of hear
ing the Declaration of Independence
read monotonously by the Town Clerk
or the High School principal. The
old time Independence Day grafton
still is heard here and there, but the
Chautauqua has diminished its glory.
The Chautauqua supplies patriotic
pabulum for the multitude. It brings
to town men and women of light and
leading, from far-off places, some Of
whom are wildly noted, with Others
less renowned, but no less interesting
by reason Of the messages they deliv-
err There has grown up in the past
decade an army Of Chautauqua speak
ers and entertainers. There are men
in the professions and in business
| country lawyers, country editors,
country pastors among them-who
have built up for themselves Chautau-
qua regulations which give them n
respectful hearing and fairly lucra-
tive fee for an hours talk in a SHADY
grove or beneath one of those hugh
tents which nowadays are farmed out
TO the Chautauqua towns, moving IL
long with the season.
The Chautauqua entertainer is a
member of new profession that has
developed since the beginning of the
Twentieth Century. He is a new kind
of knigh of the road, an uncommer-
cial traveller who gives more than he
receives, for what he says or sings or
chalk talks" entertains the people liv-
ing far from the so-called centers of
culture. The Chautauqua serves to
sharpen the wits of the average citi-
zen, broaden his intellectual rangs.
lift him out Of the routine and there
by make him a happier and more use
full member of society.
II is gratifying to observe that here
in Missouri the Chautauqua is taking
firmer hold upon the people and be-
coming more and more of an educa-
tive adjunt, while still retaining
enough of the merely amusing ele-
ment in the programme to prevent
the intrOductiop of nm aycaas of tba