Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-07-14
Programs on Opening Day Begin on
Scheduled Time and This Rule
is to Obtain During
Entire Session.
LOCATION IS AN IDEAL ONE
Large Attendance Both Afternoon
and Evening for the First
Day of Chautauqua.
(From Saturdays Daily.)

Under pleasing and perfect aus
pieces yesterday afternoon the Web
ster City 1914 Chautauqua began it,
week of sessions. The big tent Il
pitched on the park-like high schoo
grounds, and though one misses the
more beautiful site of former years
the convenience of the new location
more than makes up for the loss. The
grounds have been enclosed with q
seven foot canvas wall, and under
the trees a khaki-colored tent is
pitched and is said to be capable OF
seating fifteen hundred people. Some
day Webster City will wake up to
the community-advantag of having
a permanent building like this for
summer assemblages, built of lum-
Der, with open sides, seated with
wooden seats and suited for all sorts
of open weather gatherings. In the
meanwhile the big tent serves we'll
the present neeQ.
Yesterday a really truly miracle
happened at Chautauqua. The pro-
gram began on time? Chautauqua
might have been the Empire State
Express so exactly on the dot did the
program begin. The first applause
this year was occasioned by the an
nouncement from the platform that
everything on the program would be
run exactly on schedule time. A
second miracle occurred yesterday
when the manager kept his word all
through every item of the program.
And it looks as though every day of
Chautauqua week is going to wit
ness the programs beginning on
time to the minute. 1t is wonderful
what a fine tone such business-like
methods give to the Chautauqua in
stitution, and one can hardly help
wishing that the opera house peo-
pie in Webster City would sit up and
take notice. Another very pleasing
and popular item at the commence
ment of yesterdays program was
the managers appeal for coatless
and hatless Chautauqua. The audi
ence promtly fell into the spirit of
the thing, and men will not wear
coats on the grounds, nor will ladies
wear hats.
The central location of the
grounds more even than the attrac-
tive program seemed to be RESPONSE
sible for large audiences yesterday.
The Freeman-Tribune does not re-
member seeing larger audiences at
the opening of Chautauqua. At
night the tent was filled with peo-
pie, and in the afternoon more than
half the seats were occupied at the
commencement of the program. In
the matter of the beginning it looks
as though this year was to be the
best ever The program is very at
tractiye, there are to be no substi-
tutions, and the old Chautauqua
spirit has already appeared under
the Chautauqua canvas.
1t fell to the Dunbar Singing Or
chestra to begin the 1914 Chautau-
qua program. Promptly at half
past two in the afternoon Superin-
tendent Graham announced the or
chestra, and with faces wreathed in
smiles that would not come off the
company promptly put in its appear
ance. Five young ladies constitute
the company. Flute, clarinet, piano,
cornet, two violins and a nest of
traps are the instruments they
regularly play, and one of the ladies
plays solos on the saxophone and
bassoon for extra parts. The after
noon prelude consisted mostly of
lighter music, attractively mixed
with singing and musical recitations.
In the evening prelude time was af-
forded for a more complete concert,
and the group proved itself to be-
first-class entertainers. They typifyI
the Chautauqua spirit, with their
happy smiles, their sparkling music
and the good cheer they scatter
abroad; and their preludes fifty in
troduce a regular uplift program.
The first lecture on the program
this year was of the general upliftI
kind. DR.. Alva M. Reitzel of Tope-
ka, Kansas, lectured on "The Meas
ure of a Man." Dr. Reitzel is al
pleasing baritone personality, good
speaker with musical voice and, oil