The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1921-07-27


! situations, together with electloh
, day and the Ziegfield follies, is the
| increasingly popular form OF enter
| tainment known as the Chautauqua'
which has been termed the intel
lectual Circus of America. Chautau-
qua authorities say that last year
approximately one-third OF the pop
ulation of the United States-35,-
449,750 people-attended Cnaueau-
! qua performances 1t mas Deeh "a
dicted that this year the huihoeI
enioying this form of educational
entertainment and its sister type
the lyceum program, VIII reach tne
fifty million mark.
Every state in the union has
communities which patronize the
| Chautauqua, but the Great Chau-
tauqua belt, as the trade term has
it, lies in the middle western states
including especially: Iowa, which
has 436; Illinois, 1852; Ohio, 317 +;
and Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Kan
! sas, Missouri, Wisconsin and Okla
| homa New York state has POI
separate ChautauQuas aside from
| the great organization at Lake
| Chautauqua. Last year 1851 towns
granted their inhabitants and those
! of neighboring communities the
| privilege of ChautauQua programs.
| The movement is growing beyond
| the bounds of this country and at
present two continents including
four countries have Chautauquas in
their midst. In North America the
| United States, Canada and Alaska
/ 20 Of
| these organizations. In Australia,
| Chautauqua programs are given in
! New Zealand. Chinese students il
| this country are said to be eager to
| carry the Chautauqua movement to
their home country and Lloyd
| George, prime minister of England,
has been quoted as giving the
| Chautauqua his heartiest approval.
There seem to be four prime fac
! tors in the psychological basis
| which lies beneath the marvellous
success of this institution. They
are the getting many of the mem
bers of the audience from their
mere community interests; the get
ting together of a large body of
people under the cover of one of
formal discussion of big problems;
! and the decidedly informal atmos-
phere of the place where the pro-
gram is given. These factors when
set down in inf1exible type look ex-
tremely paradoxical, yet they are
not And, above all, one should not
forget, in this connection, what Gill
bert K Chesterton, king of para
doxists Gf such a word may be per-
mitted) has stated, namely, that the
American people have a positively
heroic capacity for giving and re-
ceiying lectures.
Under the Brown Top.
Come inside the big brown tent
for a minute and stand with
others) behind one of the poles
which support the great brown
top" Every folding chair in the
place is filled with solid men, nerV-
Gus women, blinking children. A
young lady in a foulard dress sits
with folded hands before the rented
upright piano. A row of persp1rlng
but earnest speakers and town Of
ticials rest their hands on their
knees as they sit in a semi-circle
on the little platform, the archi-
tecturaI crudeness of which is hid
den beneath gay red, white and blue
draperies. Tiny flies polka-dot the
suffering electric fights The i'm
patient honk of the horn on one of
the flock of automobiles outside is
sounded occasionally. At length
the gentleman standing by the
rickety little cherry-varnished stand
supporting the proVerbial pitcher
of ice water, has ceased speaking.
a swarming buzz of discussion
gradually arises after the first
timidly volunteered questions.
Struggling groups wait to shake the
speakers hand. The string quar-
tet who played Tschaikowsky's
music earlier and the pianist strike
up the Star Spangled Banner.
The subject on the program may
be on any issue of general interest,
New foods, Shakespearian drama,
selections from grand opera, clever
readings by famous authors, Boil
shevism, the League of Nations, the
latest thing in airpianes, national
debts, are all subjects which have
been brought before interested
Chautauqua audiences. The object
of the Chautauqua is the bringing
of knowledge and uplift in all di-
rectiOns to the people
The admission price Is low, the
program full of live interest and
the entire performance as carefully
thought out and planned before
hand as the menu which a skilled
French chef prepares for the most
particular of banquets. The mental
diet qualities of each program are
carefully weighed prior to their Sc
lection. There may be a certain
number of calories of science, a few
of travel, considerable music of
varying kinds, a little politics, and
this year especially, plenty of
good solid Americanism.
The Radcliffe Chautauqua sys-
TEN, one of the largest of the IA
large systems in the United States,
is specializing in American ideals
this season. The three big pro-
grams offered by this system have
as their topics Americas Political
IDEAL" Americas Social Ideal''
and americas Industrial Ideal. -
The other numbers on this Chau-
tauqua's programs for the present
season are equally topics of the
moment including "a Community
Program" The Value of the Indi-
vidual," and Americans All, The
last is detachment of men collect
ed from the recruit educational CEN
tiers of the United States army
;e so;l -